The Future of the British Post Office

Recent proposals of the U.K. government to privatize the British Post Office are considered in relation to broader European trends and in terms of economic efficiency. The proposals appear to open the possibility of moving away from a geographically uniform tariff that conflicts with proposals from the EU Commission for the EU, as well as reducing the postal monopoly. Uniform postal charges may or may not improve economic welfare, as there are clear-cut conditions under which their welfare effect can be positive or negative. A practical mechanism is suggested to allow the postal monopoly to be challenged by alternative suppliers without encouraging cream skimming.     

The Design and Execution of Performance Management Systems at State Level: A Comparative Analysis of Italy and Malaysia

This comparative study analyses the experience of Italy and Malaysia in the design and execution of performance management systems at the state level. The article investigates how performance management systems have changed over the past decades, the motivations behind their metamorphoses, their common elements across the two countries, and what accounts for the respective progress. It also investigates the role that the institutional framework plays in making performance management systems robust. The study presents policy recommendations on how governments can create more robust performance management systems for enhanced accountability and transparency in an age of resource constraint.     

Portfolio Budgeting in the Australian Portfolios-Principles and Practice

In the mid-eighties Australia implemented a budgeting system that is similar in its principles to the U.S. PAYGO rule and the now defunct Policy and Expenditure Management System of Canada. Termed as portfolio budgeting, it seeks to encourage greater ministerial participation (a ministry comprising a number of related departments) in the portfolio budget process. It obligates portfolio ministers to offer offsetting savings for funding new policies. Ministers have to thereby set new policy priorities so that only the most deserving new policies obtain funding through the savings identified. Additionally, portfolio budgeting requires ministers to prioritize their ongoing programs so that budget allocation to these programs reflects ministerial priorities. The article examines the practice of portfolio budgeting in the Australian portfolios in light of these objectives. The article suggests that portfolio budgeting has caused greater ministerial involvement in budgetary management. However, there has been little significant change in budget decision making at the portfolio level. The state of play of portfolio budgeting at the national budget process (cabinet and the Department of Finance) offered little incentive to portfolios to provide offsetting savings for new policy proposals. And, the appropriation structure and the organizational and political dynamics impeded ministers from allocating and reallocating their budgets (operating expenditure or running costs) for ongoing programs along ministerial priorities.     

Classical Islam and Medieval Europe: A Comparison of Political Philosophies and Cultures

There were fundamental differences in political philosophy and culture between Islamic and westem-Christian or European civilization in the period up to c. 1500, notably concerning the nature of the political community, of religious law and of the mode of political discourse. Europe proved open to Greco-Roman influences and thus developed, as Islam did not, a notion of the legitimate secular state.