International Public Management Review
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Integrated Steering and Coordination of Local Public Services in Germany – Reasons and Restrictions of an Innovative Governance Approach
Full text linkDue to the institutional differentiation of the public sector, which lead to a hardly comprehensible network of organisations from local administration, public economy and the third sector, the critical question of the importance of the integrated steering and coordination (ISC) of public tasks in municipalities arises in local government research and practice. Following an interdisciplinary approach, the aim of this contribution is (1) to examine the idea of the ISC of local public services from the perspective of policy science, New Public Management and public governance and (2) to identify – based on a qualitative empirical study – reasons and restrictions of its implementation. It is discussed why ISC is at the same time a feasible and guiding approach, but in part also a hardly practicable idea. With regard to this crucial controversy, five perspectives for further local public sector reforms are presented. From the perspective of innovative governance, the paper might help us to stimulate critical thinking about alternative approaches to problem solving and decision making in the public sector
The Role of Sustainability as Ideology in the Collaborative Governance of the European Union
No full textThis paper explores and examines issues and challenges related to sustainability, analysing the concept as a possible new ideology at a local level and worldwide. More specifically, the paper assesses the influence of sustainability in Europe, where the concept is promoted by grassroots organizations such as Local Agenda 21 (LA21) forums; as well as large political institutions such as the European Union (EU). Using in-depth interviews with 27 experts, we have collected information about sustainability and its role in becoming an ideology with the power of forging and shaping the future of the EU. Findings suggest sustainability could be interpreted as a new and inclusive bottom-up ideology, conceptually different from others e.g. the Marxian meaning of ideology as hegemonic set of ideas proposed by the elite. Promoting sustainability is seen as a raison d’êtreof the EU. Drawing on our findings, we illustrate how EU policymakers can further promote sustainability, which may help to strenghten the EU and confronting EU’s internal threats such as Anti-EU, nationalist, and increasingly xenophobic sentiments
Book Review Essay - US Foreign Policy Decision-Making from Kennedy to Obama: Responses to International Challenges
No full textThe Hazelwood Mine Fire 2014 -- Evidence of ‘organisational path dependency’ in public and private management
Full text linkThe state built brown coal (lignite) power generation industry in the Latrobe Valley, Australia started in the 1930’s. The State Electricity Commission Victoria (SECV) managed this industry until its disaggregation, corporatisation, and privatisation, into four privately owned power stations over the 1980s and 1990s. Engie (72%) and Mitsui & Co (28%) privately owned the oldest of these plants, the Hazelwood Power Station and Mine (formerly known as GCF Suez S.A.), when on 9 February 2014, a large out-of-control brown coal fire commenced in the ‘open-cut’ mine adjacent to the Hazelwood Power Station. Although fires are typical in coal sites, this fire became a crisis, burning for 45 days and a cause of considerable stress and dislocation to the local population of 70,000. After the crisis, the Victorian State Government conducted a public inquiry into the disaster, instituted a long-term health study of affected residents, and established the office of Commissioner for Mine Rehabilitation. In 2017, the private owners permanently closed the Hazelwood Power Station due to its advanced age (Engie 2016). This was a huge loss of jobs and a loss of 25% of the state’s available power. The subsequent Hazelwood Mine Fire Inquiry (2014) concluded that, “the Hazelwood mine fire was a foreseeable risk that slipped through the cracks between regulatory agencies” (Hazelwood Mine Fire Inquiry, 2014). This paper examines the public management of the mine fire crisis using the model of ‘organisational path dependency’ developed by Sydow, Schreyogg & Koch, (2005, 2009) adapted to this situation of ‘inter-organisational path dependency’. According to Sydow et al. (2005, 2009), path dependence is a process often initiated by a single event, which over time establishes a path that is self-reinforcing due to the effects of coordination, complementary, learning, and, adaptive expectation factors. These effects cause the path to become irreversible, ‘locked-in’ to inefficiencies, so that managers believe they lack the power to act outside the path. This eventually leads to the death of the organisation (Sydow, Schreyogg & Koch, 2009). This paper refers to Mine-Fire Inquiry transcripts and other publications in order to examine the utility of path dependency theory in explaining events before and after the mine fire crisis. It identifies a watershed and subsequent self-reinforcing factors that led to mismanagement of the fire. Moreover, this catastrophe became the ‘path breaking event’ that changed public management in this sector and from which new paths may emerge
Advice, Money, Results: Rethinking International Support for Managing Public Finance. Discussion Paper by an International Working Group. New York University: Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. 2019. 142 pp.
No full textEuropeanisation of civil protection: the cases of Italy and Norway
Full text linkNational civil protection systems have been developed and implemented each time a crisis unfolds with different degrees of success in responding and solving the crisis. However, crises are increasingly not confined by national borders and challenge the states’ capacities to adequately respond and thus calling for a crisis management governance that goes beyond the nation-state. In this respect, the European Union has developed its civil protection policy and through the Civil Protection Mechanism established forms of cooperation among the participating states of the Mechanism. In this paper, through the lenses of Europeanisation, we aim at uncovering the influences the Mechanism exercises on the Norwegian and Italian civil protection systems and, at the same time, we seek to spot out which kind of influences these states have on the Mechanism’s development. Europeanisation has been widely used as an analytical framework to mainly explain how national contexts are shaped by EU developments, but it is equally important to understand, as well, how national context shape European developments. Our data stem from document analysis and semi-structured interviews with civil protection officers at national and EU levels
PUBLIC SECTOR CONTINUITY PLANNING: PREPARING THE BUREUCRACY IN THE AGE OF THE NEW “NORMAL”
Full text linkThis paper is both a theoretical and empirical discourse on the responsiveness of the bureaucratic norms of governmental response system in the aftermath of disasters. It starts by discussing the contemporary context, i.e., the “Age of the New Normal” where unexpected catastrophic disasters in increase frequency and more intensified intensity, which is seemingly becoming a everyday staple of life that mankind must learn to deal with. It then argues that to become responsive, bureaucracies must innovate to be able to restore normalcy immediately. The challenge becomes complicated, however, when the bureaucracy itself becomes a victim. The paper summarizes existing knowledge based on current literature on the challenges and problems that the “Age of the New Normal” pose to Public Administration and how the latter respond to them. Second, it discusses the how the main properties of bureaucracy serve either as facilitating or hindering factor during disaster/crisis situations. Empirical evidence is provided by showcasing four government agencies that prepared for the onslaught of Super Typhoon Haiyan on November 8, 2013 in Tacloban City, Philippines. Third, the paper presents the public service continuity planning that will enable government agencies to provide continuous service in the aftermath of disasters
Supporting Innovative Business Development Through Innovative Governance in Poland
Full text linkPoland turned in an impressive performance since the fall of communism, and even during the global financial crisis beginning in 2008. Highly innovative public policies helped catalyze a vibrant private sector, which in turn enabled high economic growth, low unemployment, increased exports and labor productivity, leading to a much-improved standard of living for many citizens. However, comparatively low wages have led up to 12 percent of the population to live and work in other countries. One of the reasons for this is lower rates of innovation and R&D spending than in peer countries.In the context of these various innovative forces and disruptions, this paper focuses on a set of policy actions supported by the Government to promote innovation and competitiveness in Poland’s private businesses. The paper seeks to answer two main questions: What is the nature of initial innovations in Poland’s public sector that enabled private sector innovation? And, were more recent government programs supported by the World Bank successful in promoting increased business innovation and competitiveness? The paper draws on the author’s recent mission to Poland as part of a World Bank evaluation of the policy operation series (IEG in press
Innovation in Local Government: A Framework for Analysis
Full text linkThis paper focuses on innovation and analyses how the process of innovation takes place in local governments. This level of government is pervasive throughout the world. Typically, it is the closest level of government to communities delivering, primarily, place-based services that impact the daily lives of citizens. However, as a sub-national level of government they are inevitably dependent on either state or provincial governments in federal systems (such as Australia, Italy and Canada) or directly to the national government as with unitary systems (such as the United Kingdom and New Zealand).Local governments’ relationships with local citizens on the one hand and central government on the other create challenges often placing them in a quandary as they manage competing demands. The way in which individual local governments innovate to meet the unique local needs of their communities creates a diverse range of structures and strategies, potentially the source of inspiration to other local governments around the world often struggling to meet local demands with limited resources.The paper suggests that managers wanting to create an innovative local government culture would need to focus on a set of tenets of innovation to create the right context around the vision, goals and objectives of the council of the day