In this volume, experience in a number of Western nations and in a variety of policy areas is drawn upon to consider what structural features of the political-administrative system might account for the inability of governments to guide socio-economic processes and developments more effectively. The focus is on the interorganizational characteristics of government problem solving -- that both the formulation and implementation of public policy increasingly involve different governmental levels and agencies, as well as interactions between public authorities and private organizations.
In this new edition of his classic reader, Michael Hill seeks to make the selected extracts reflect a more European outlook on the processess of policy-making and implementation. With reference to the third edition of his popular textbook, The Policy Process in the Modern State, Hill has maintained the thematic approach of the first edition, looking in turn at approaches to policy making in Europe, power, bureaucracy and the State, the rationality/incrememtalism debate, the role of organisational theory in policy implementation, street-level bureaucracy and discretion. Already praised as one of the best readers available in thisfield, Michael Hill's new edition will be even more valued as a reference and teaching resource by students and lecturers alike.
Public Policymaking Reexamined is now recognized as a fundamental treatise for public policy studies. Although it caused much controversy when it was first published for its systematic approach to policy studies, the book is acknowledged as a modern classic of continuing importance for the teaching and research of public policy, planning and policy analysis, and public administration. The paperback includes a new introduction updating and supplementing many of the author's original ideas.Professor Dror combines the approaches of policy analysis, behavioral science, and systems analysis in his examination of the reality of public policymaking and his suggestions for its reform. Actual policymaking is carefully evaluated with the help of explicit criteria and standards based on an optimal model approach, resulting in detailed proposals for improvement. He applies a scientific orientation to the study of social facts and theory.
Energy spurs social and economic development and has multiple effects on the ecological and social environment of societies. Energy access for socially equitable development, energy security for economic growth, and the mitigation of climate change all represent issues of sustainable development. Energy markets, however, fail to set incentives right. Based on research in five sustainable energy-related global policy networks and on conducted expert interviews, this study analyzes the effectiveness of global policy networks and aims to identify instruments of effective global environmental governance. In conclusion, the study will draft a strategy for network governance how to reconcile long-term and short-term interests by creating integrative sustainable business opportunities. This strategy has to foster collaboration in partnerships and self-organizing dynamics among the network partners.
Drawing together key contributions to the field, this innovative Reader provides a broad-ranging overview of both the theory and practice of public service management. The book: outlines the social, political and economic contexts in which management has emerged as a crucial issue in the public sector of modern democratic countries; introduces the major theories, issues and concepts involved in defining and understanding public sector management; analyzes some of the key values underpinning the idea of the public domain; and examines some of the main challenges in terms of particular strategies, techniques and competences which have been proposed to improve management for public services. Public Sector Management is a Course Reader for The Open University course B887 Managing Public Services.
In all spheres of life, relationships among public and private organizations are built in order to deal with complex societal problems and to address economic challenges that cannot be dealt with by single organizations. Because of the interdependencies, interorganizational collaboration is essential, yet working across organizational boundaries is far from simple. It involves a multitude of different organizations, each having its own interests, perspectives, and identities while also varying in power and size. Further, the societal problems that are dealt with are often severe. This volume focuses on the relational complexities of interorganizational collaboration, captured by the term dynamics, referring to: (a) the social and psychological processes that occur when organizations and their representatives interact to engage in cross-boundary or collaborative work (e.g., trust and distrust, intergroup stereotyping and conflict, conflict avoidance, inclusion and exclusion of stakeholders, power dynamics), as well as (b) the development of these processes over time, in view of external and internal events and/or as a consequence of deliberate interventions to enhance collaborative success. The perspective put forward is largely psychological and sociological, both in terms of understanding the group and intergroup processes as well as efforts to intervene to develop collaborative relationships, based on action research and an organizational development approach.
On January 2009, President Obama signed the Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government. The memorandum declares the new Administration’s commitment to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government and establishing a system linking three principles: transparency, public participation and collaboration. Since then, federal agencies in the United States and public administrations around the world have embarked on open government initiatives and have worked to redefine their relationship with citizens and with each other. On September 20th, 2011, eight governments gathered in New York City to launch the Open Government Partnership, a new multilateral initiative to promote open government. The benefits attributed to open government are many and by no means universally shared. They include the claims that open government leads to more effective decision making and services, safeguards against corruption, enables public scrutiny, and promotes citizens’ trust in government. However, the speed of events and pressure to implement has given rise to confusion and ambiguity. Although many of the initiatives have been based on opening data and on promoting open action, governments have followed different directions and interpretations when it has come to implement them and development of open government has become unequal and heterogeneous. This book provides a comprehensive study of recent major developments of open government around the world, and analyzes the importance of open government efforts for public governance, making it of interest to academics and practitioners worldwide.
Maria Grazia Martino and her contributing authors highlight the different solutions found by European countries with different ecclesiastical law systems, different distributions of Christian denominations and different percentages of Muslim immigrants: Germany, Switzerland, France, Sweden, Italy and Greece. Churches and religious communities are actors from civil society. The state sets the framework for their activities, first and foremost by formal legal acts in ecclesiastical law. Besides this field of law, religion policy has increasingly developed into a policy field of its own. Which incentives and steering tools used by the state cause which kind of behavior, which role in society and which self-understanding among churches and religious communities? This edited volume answers these questions.
