Public Administration in an Information Age
Public Administration in an Information Age

Author: I.Th.M. Snellen

Publisher: IOS Press

Published: 1998-12-31

Total Pages: 600

ISBN-13: 1607509520

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This book is a joint effort of researchers who have been involved in research-projects and programmes that have been trying to chart and reflect upon the implications of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for Public Administration. Since the 1950s, computers had largely facilitated and the transformation of the minimal 'Night-Watch-state' into the modern 'Welfare-state', through their contribution to their effectivity, productivity and efficiency. In most Handbooks of Public Administration, computers are seen as neutral instruments and, most of the time, the role of computer technologies in the transformation of public administration is completely neglected. This 'deafening silence' is a great contrast with the way ICT's are actually changing public administration. The faster the developments in a field of study are, the more difficult it is to let the theories, related to that field of study, mature. In such circumstances, most statements will remain provisial and context-dependent. 25 years of research in Irvine (California) and Kassel (Germany) and more than 10 years of research in Tilburg/Rotterdam (The Netherlands) and about seven years of research in Glasgow/Nottingham (the United Kingdom) nonetheless enables the presentation of a modest image of public administration as it is entering the information age. Researchers in each of these groups have, nevertheless, not stopped trying to phrase theories about the implications of informatization for public administration with a more or less larges scope, that are robust in different contexts and over longer periods of time. These results and theories, covering a broad set of elements of the body of knowledge of public administration, are presented in this volume. As the authors try to demonstrate in this book, informatization developments in public administration do not only challenge the existing body of knowledge of the public administration discipline, but they are also opening up new perspectives and paradigms for the study of public administration.

Governing Scotland
Governing Scotland

Author: James Mitchell

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2003-11-25

Total Pages: 271

ISBN-13: 0230800041

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Governing Scotland explores the origins and development of the Scottish Office in an attempt to understand Scotland's position within the UK union state in the twentieth century. Two competing views were encapsulated in debates on how Scotland should be governed in the early twentieth century: a Whitehall view that emphasised a professional bureaucracy with power centred on London and a Scottish view that emphasised the importance of Scottish national sentiment. These views were ultimately reconciled in 'administrative devolution'.

A History of the Highland Clearances
A History of the Highland Clearances

Author: Eric Richards

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-08-05

Total Pages: 455

ISBN-13: 1000081613

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First published in 1982, A History of the Highland Clearances looks at the forcible clearance of tenants from land they had farmed for centuries by landlords in the Highlands of Scotland in the early nineteenth century. It examines the general context of historical change, provides a full narrative of the clearances and offers a critical evaluation of the documentary sources upon which the entire story depends. By placing his subject in its historical perspective and into the context of the rest of Britain and Europe, Eric Richards vividly illustrates the realities of the Highland experience in the age of the clearances.

The Scottish Question
The Scottish Question

Author: James Mitchell

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2014-06-12

Total Pages: 502

ISBN-13: 0191002372

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Over half a century ago, a leading commentator suggested that Scotland was very unusual in being a country which was, in some sense at least, a nation but in no sense a state. He asked whether something 'so anomalous' could continue to exist in the modern world. The Scottish Question considers how Scotland has retained its sense of self, and how the country has changed against a backdrop of fundamental changes in society, economy, and the role of the state over the course of the union. The Scottish Question has been a shifting mix of linked issues and concerns including national identity; Scotland's constitutional status and structures of government; Scotland's distinctive party politics; and everyday public policy. In this volume, James Mitchell explores how these issues have interacted against a backdrop of these changes. He concludes that while the independence referendum may prove an important event, there can be no definitive answer to the Scottish Question. The Scottish Question offers a fresh interpretation of what has made Scotland distinctive and how this changed over time, drawing on an array of primary and secondary sources. It challenges a number of myths, including how radical Scottish politics has been, and suggests that an oppositional political culture was one of the most distinguishing features of Scottish politics in the twentieth century. A Scottish lobby, consisting of public and private bodies, became adept in making the case for more resources from the Treasury without facing up to some of Scotland's most deep-rooted problems.