Environmental management and street-level regulators: A cultural trap?

It has been argued that environmental management is in an administrative trap. Numerous factors leading to this trapped situation have already been identified in the literature: institutional rigidity, lack of co-ordination, formalization, non-accountability and political interference. This study focusses on the organizational, cultural dimension of the administrative trap and argues that in order to reform administrative structures, the organizational culture must also be reformed. On the basis of several face-to-face interviews with street-level environmental regulators in Hong Kong, the study claims that a role-oriented, hierarchical culture exists. While such an organizational culture is in perfect agreement with existing administrative arrangements, it may, in the end, hamper the effectiveness of environmental management.     

Directed credit and investment in small‐scale industry in India: Evidence from firm‐level data 1965–78

Panel data on 788 modern sector Indian firms during 1965–78 are used to analyse the link between the size of a firm and its financial environment. Exogeneity tests reveal that large firms with improved investment prospects could obtain external finance at the margin, but that small firms could not. The policy of directing bank credit accordingly relaxed a binding constraint on small firms, raising investment. Assuming that all of the rise in the credit‐sales ratio in small firms was policy‐induced then so was about one third of the 170 per cent rise during 1965—78 in their investment—sales ratio.     

NETWORKING TO ACHIEVE ALTERNATIVE REGULATION:

Two national estuary programs in Florida, the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program (SBNEP) and the Tampa Bay National Estuary Program (TBNEP) are used to study the intricacies of implementation networks. Both programs are forms of alternative regulation and share similar attributes: an absence of a regulatory authority, exchange relationships based on equitable partnerships and an expected net aggregate benefit. Yet they arrive at two very different solutions. The results raise questions regarding the nature, scope and functioning of implementation networks. They also indicate that building networks is shaped by members' expectations and perceptions, and the degree of congruency they share with each other and the role of champions.     

The new paradigm: from development administration to sustainable development administration

In light of changing national and international conditions, the field of public administration is going through an exercise of refounding and reinventing. Globalization, technological advancements, and ecological concerns have diluted the importance of development administration. This study traces the demise of development administration and presents a new paradigm in the form of sustainable development administration. The author argues that the paradigm of sustainable development administration (SDA) is markedly different from the traditional paradigm of development administration (DA) in its emphasis, scope, treatment of politics, view of indigenous cultures, goals, operating mode, decision-making system, use of foreign aid, and performance accountability. The study concludes by declaring that SDA has the potential to emerge as a new field of study in public administration.

The discipline of public administration is at a crossroads: the advent of the “global village” philosophy is challenging its parochial tendencies⁽¹⁾;the “refounding of public administration” is nullifying its separation from politics⁽²⁾; and the “reinvention of government” is questioning the very basic reasons for its existence.⁽³⁾ Faced with new and continuing intellectual challenges, the discipline is in search of a new paradigm.⁽⁴⁾ What will this new paradigm be? What will its emphases and priorities be? The answers are less than clear at this point, however, the questions themselves are receiving attention from scholars. This article attempts to examine one of many alleged elements of the emerging paradigm, and that is the shift from development to sustainable development. The arguments presented here trace the demise of “development” focus in public administration and explore the possibility of sustainable development becoming the new thrust.     

Reforming best interests: the road towards supported decision-making

Decisions under the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) may be made in a person’s best interest. This concept is objective, unclear and places discretion in the hands of the decision-maker. Currently, a person’s wishes, feelings, beliefs and values are not accorded primacy status amongst the checklist of factors to be considered under Section 4 MCA. In 2017, the Law Commission (LC) in their report on Mental Capacity and Deprivation of Liberty proposed amending the best interest test under Section 4 of the MCA to require the decision-maker to ascertain wishes and feelings and elevate the status of the ascertained wishes and feelings amongst the other factors under Section 4. These proposals, contained in a Draft Bill, would be of general application under the Act. This paper argues that the trajectory begun by Lady Hale in the Supreme Court in Aintree in asserting the individual at the heart of her destiny and the LC proposals are to be welcomed but do not go far enough to be aligned with the principle of supported decision-making set out in international frameworks, such as the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.     

Local preferences of mung bean qualities for food autonomy in India

The concept of food autonomy draws attention to qualities of local food and food networks that can facilitate connectivity between local food production and consumption. This article reports on a study conducted in Hisar, India, that reveals how rural producer, processor, and consumer preferences of mung bean quality interact with their aim to maintain and develop a territorial mung bean connectivity so as to reinforce food autonomy. The study showed that local mung bean food qualities related to suitability in the local cropping system, processing requirements, and consumption choice. It suggests that local preferences be integrated into a reorientation of research and scientific development agendas, and should become an essential consideration of development and extension efforts, which also carries implications for the food autonomy of local producers, processors, and consumers.     

The role of western media in the environmental agenda setting of Hong Kong

This study focuses on the role of foreign media in agenda setting. It undertakes a comparative content analysis of the Chinese and English daily newspapers in Hong Kong with the objective of assessing the true nature of environmental sensitivity in the territory's “native” and “exposed” populations. The news coverage of the time period directly preceding and during the adoption stage of major environmental ordinances reflects that the pressure to act was as much native as foreign. It came as much from within as from outside. Consequently, the study makes a case for the need to acknowledge the indigenous character of policy problems and to search for intrinsic solutions. The myth of environmentalism as being a western concept may limit the range of possibilities open to policy makers in non‐western countries.