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Copyright of Revista Catalana de Dret Públic is the property of Revista Catalana de Dret Public and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper discusses the idea that the evaluation of public policies is witnessing a remarkable enlargement of its domain, in four relevant dimensions- its object, effect, methods, and data.Regarding the objects of evaluation, policy makers are increasingly interested not only in the evaluation of the content of policies (output) or the result (outcome), but also on a broader notion of impact, which includes direct and indirect effects, on the sub-system under analysis and on society at large. Regarding the effects of policies, the paper calls the attention on the rising of the notion of conditionality, requiring more flexible and sophisticated approaches for in itinere evaluation. With respect to new methods, the paper discusses new developments in counterfactual methods, robust nonparametric approaches (robust and conditional), as well as methods to deal with non commensurable indicators. Finally, the implications for evaluation of policies of the availability of microdata from public sources are examined. In all these devekopments new challenges are identified, calling for advanced methodological and quantitative work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of the paper is to address and explore a much-debated issue within the evaluation community: the idea of "democratic evaluation". What exactly is meant by this term? When can an evaluation be said to be democratic? Through the adoption of what behaviours should this ideal translate into concrete working practice? The essay aims to contribute to broadening the community's debate on these questions, which are central at a historical-political moment such as the post-emergence from Covid-19 and in the midst of an international crisis, that between Russia and Ukraine, which calls democratic evaluation into question in our country. On a general level, in fact, the situation of uncertainty due to the unpredictable effects of the pandemic, the social and economic crisis in the country and the consequent growing distrust of the citizens towards the administration seem to have increased the demand for accountability, leading to talk, as in the rest of Europe as well, of a "democratic deficit". On the other hand, recent administrative re-centralization, even assisted by current evaluative practices, only aggravates the inefficiency of public administration. Accountability, freedom and democracy are never given, they need to be defended, always regained: evaluation assumes a strategic role to this end; it can help bring citizens closer to public administration. The crisis between Russia and Ukraine is changing geopolitical balances; the effects of the war economy, inflation, the energy crisis, and the possible escalation of the conflict add to the uncertain situation due to the pandemic. New inequalities and an increase in poverty threaten to generate deep rifts in the country's socioeconomic fabric. Systemic shocks add to chronic problems: a demographic collapse, stagnation, job insecurity, and a lag in digitization. At the same time, the political system fails to represent and stabilize consensus over time. Governments also suffer from this instability, with the inability to design and implement structural reforms for the country, including that of the bureaucracy. Social complexity, chronic problems and systemic shocks, require the ability to apply effective public policies. State intervention and the ability of the bureaucracy to be efficient and responsive to social change are central issues for the health of democracy. Public policies move within a framework of very high complexity, in which the role of evaluation emerges, which should tend to the development of democratic accountability, illuminating decision-making choices through its methodological rigor, analytical capacity and scientific knowledge. The essay thus aims to address the potential of a democratic evaluation that can broaden the number of stakeholders, the field of values that are taken into account, the repertoire of research methods, the field of interest of policies, and the very definition of the objects of evaluations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Eunomia is the property of Eunomia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper reflects on La biblioteca pubblica e la sua reputazione, Maria Stella Rasetti's last book, published by Editrice bibliografica. The reflection starts from the reputation as object of study of different disciplines (such as communication, marketing, economics, sociology) and analyzes the importance of library reputation, closely associated with identity and image. Rasetti identifies four classes to place Italian public libraries and proposes a model to measure library reputation, adapted from business models, which uses personalized questionnaires for each class. The paper analyzes model validity and contextualizes it in the field of user satisfaction, performance and libraries impact. The hope is that measuring reputation can help public libraries to build a new narrative that overcomes public administration stereotypes of which they are victims, and to equip citizens with useful skills for work, everyday and social life, making them active and conscious protagonists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Brasileira de Estudos Politicos is the property of Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (Revista Brasileira de Estudos Politicos) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper focuses on the role of the public sector information, seen as the most relevant form of accountability for a democratic state, crucial for citizens to be able to take informed decisions in their lives. The paper stresses also the role of public administration publications in the complex world of public sector information and describes the evolution of the availability and the access to these resources. The author analyzes the evolving scenario of Italian public sector information of the last twenty years, the e-government transition and the issues still to be faced. In particular, the author notes a discontinuity in the publication and making available by institutions of this type of documents and analyzes the reasons. Lastly, the article underlines the importance of information literacy and civic information literacy for communities' development and digital well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that, despite a very large volume of management reform in the EU over the past quarter century or more, our knowledge of the impacts of these efforts is patchy and fragile. It calls on a number of key studies which each, in a different way, carries this same basic message. In the second part of the paper the reasons for this state of affairs are analyzed. One set of reasons is concerned with the considerable methodological difficulties of evaluating major reforms, which are commonly complex, evolving and spread out over time. A second set of reasons concerns the limited incentives for politicians and top officials to take a sustained interest in evaluation. A concluding reflection is that, while this basic situation is not likely to change, there are nevertheless ways in which the academic contribution to reform evaluation can be strengthened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since mid-1990s social sciences have re-started to give attention to the role played by the state in promoting economic growth, with important contributions from economists, sociologists and political scientists. This attention further increased after the economic and financial crisis of 2007/08 with a rising strand of research that is focusing on the institutional foundations of different growth models in advanced economies. This paper is related to this wide strand of research and analyses how industrial policies can favor the emerging of institutional conditions that are conducive to economic growth. In particular, the paper analyzes the neglected relationship between public policies and labor productivity in OECD countries. The focus is on four policy arenas that have a direct impact on labor productivity: labor market, human capital, innovation and on the efficiency of public administration. The analysis underlines a strong association between labour productivity and public policies addressed to promote training and activation, tha quality of educational institutions and inter-institutional networks in innovation. Other kind of policies, such as those addressed to flexibilise the labour market or to reduce labour costs or to increase the average number of years of schooling play a minor role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Il Capitale Culturale: Studies on the Value of Cultural Heritage is the property of Il Capitale Culturale Studies on the Value of Cultural Heritage and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The movement for the commons has emerged in the past decade in opposition to neoliberal policies of privatization of resources and services. It claims the right to occupy publicly- and privately-owned spaces and to use them according to the principles of self-government and direct democracy. In the Southern European context, the movement for the commons has focused on the grassroots restructuring of public services otherwise eroded by austerity policies. This paper investigates the trajectory of the movement for the commons in Palermo and highlights how a social mobilization with a critical approach towards private property and socioeconomic inequalities has been partially co-opted by the public administration through an institutional rhetoric promoting legality and participation in public spaces. From the legal point of view, this process translated into the negotiation of a top-down administrative, regulation establishing that the commons should be managed through a public-private partnership. The risk is both the political weakening of the movement for the commons and the social marginalization of vulnerable subjects inhabiting the city centre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents an old but dismissed concept: co-production of public services. The basic definition is very simple: people who use services contribute to the production of services. The application is more complex: a mutual subsidiary relationship between users, staff and communities. The paper offers an overview of the literature on co-production, through the presentation of three semantics: the overlap of regular and consumer producer (Ostrom and colleagues), the user involvement for service quality (Pestoff and colleagues), the core approach to implementing personalisation (Needham and colleagues). After showing some Italian example, the paper proposes integration between the couple personalisation-coproduction for a new service design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a reflection on the policy of cost-cutting and spending review in the Italian public sectors. The thesis is twofold. First of all, the paradigm used by the spending reviews' policies is based on the macro-economic theory that doesn't take into account the complexity of the implementation processes. Secondly, the weakness of the administrative technical bureaucracies in coordinating modernisation processes produces an incoherent diffusion of innovations. The paper discusses, as empirical examples, two relevant national programmes in the field of the judicial sector; these programmes are mobilising an interesting governance network at the territorial (local) level and a vast number of projects in specific territorial areas. The implementation of these interventions shows, however, that many judicial offices of the Nation lack the necessary resources and capabilities to sustain modernisation projects and, at the same time, the difficulty of central bureaucracies to oversee and safeguard a coherent fulfilment of the diffusion objectives, due to the fragility of technical bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Rassegna Italiana di Valutazione is the property of FrancoAngeli srl and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

There are many proved advantages and benefits of Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS): better security and reliability, avoiding lock in effect, control over handling sensitive data etc. That is a reason why EU tries to encourage the FLOSS usage in its administration and FLOSS has become very popular in public sector of EU countries in the last fifteen years. Despite that FLOSS usage in South East Europe is almost nonexistent. The focus of this paper is put on the FLOSS usage in the public administration of Bosnia and Herzegovina and on the FLOSS presence compared to proprietary software in the information system of cities and municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Furthermore, the paper also presents a guideline for possible migration to FLOSS and discusses the major benefits of adopting FLOSS products within the Bosnia and Herzegovina public administration.

The paper discusses the evolution of public performance evaluation from the early nineties to the present, age of the so-called spending review. It is a re-reading of facts with an operational dimension, also to orient future choices and the growth of the country, promoting policies for the development of productive public spending and acknowledging merit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Rassegna Italiana di Valutazione is the property of FrancoAngeli srl and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Rassegna Italiana di Valutazione is the property of FrancoAngeli srl and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Rassegna Italiana di Valutazione is the property of FrancoAngeli srl and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this paper the author tries to show what it means to organize and deliver new subsidiary relational services. Subsidiarity is not only a "political" value or a more efficient (economic) way to provide services. Subsidiarity is a new way to organize relational services, i.e. services that work on relationships. From this point of view, the subsidiarity of a given service is an emergent property generated by a special kind of reciprocal orientations between the actors of the service itself. This special reciprocity is based on practices of (meta)reflexivity. The categorical imperative of subsidiarity is: "act in such a way as to make possible for everyone to act at his/her best, developing his/her personal skills and competences in order to make others act in theirs….". Thus, "subsidiarity" is an eigenvalue, which emerges from these reciprocal orientations. To act in a subsidiary way is to act reflecting about and across the relationships that "make" the service possible. It is not simply to act in the best individual way possible, but to act "for", "with", "from" and "in order to improve" the relationship with "others". Reflections about our ways of acting, and (meta) reflections about the influence everyone's actions have upon the actions of others, are here at stake. So, supplying a subsidiary relational service means leaving the modem system based on the values of "individual competence-bureaucracy-working skills-aggregation of output", to develop a new system based on the values of "relational competence-responsibility-duty-emergence of outcome". In this paper this new vision is illustrated by a case study dedicated to a service named "Giocoamico", provided by the Hospital of Parma. The case study is only conceived to be a euristic device, which is useful to develop new scientific observations on the emergent field of subsidiarity relational services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper starts with reconstructing the political and local government processes that have taken place in Cosenza in the last 15 years. Its purpose is to analyse the main features and the processes of change in the political personnel of Calabria and Southern Italy. The first part of the paper looks at the structural elements of the political personnel in Calabria (e.g. the role of peripheral location; the impact a process of modernisation without industrialisation has on the relation between politics and economy; political patronage and the politicisation of primary relations). The second part presents an analysis of the specific forms taken by political action within contexts that posses the above mentioned structural elements (e.g. the subordination of the political parties to specific and particular interests; the processes of exchange between political and electoral. contexts linked to networks and strategies based on the management of public spending; neopatrimonial trends). The last part identifies a profile of this political personnel using the criteria on which is based its professionalization: development and competences, recruitment, family links, oligarchic trends, duration, status, life stiles, enrichment). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

So called "new economy" seems to have a bearing on "old organisations" too. This paper describes an Italian E-Government Program aimed at implementing Information and Communication Technologies within a typical "old" organisation, the Court, and discusses some of the organisational issues raised by this innovation dynamic. Thus, the concept of "Isomorphic Paradox" and the flexibility/control dialectic are introduced and tested against a body of field data gathered in a set of Italian Civil Courts. The provided insights, it is stated, might prove useful in accounting for the conflicts which often arise from the implementation of E-Government policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interactions between citizens and the public administration are increasingly taking place by electronic means, often referred to as e-government. In Spain, these interactions mostly have to be monolingual, in Spanish, in the case of the central administration, but may be bilingual or even multilingual in autonomous communities that have their own official language. In this paper, we intend to show how state-of-the-art oral and written linguistic technologies for Spain’s coofficial languages could allow speakers of these languages to use them in many of their administrative relations with any Spanish public agency, thereby facilitating the conversion of Spain’s mostly monolingual administration into a multilingual one, enhancing digital language equality and guaranteeing the linguistic rights of speakers of minoritised languages. We will present an overview of the most promising language technologies in terms of their relevance from the point of view of multilingual communication between citizens and the administration. We will also review the existing technologies for Spain’s co-official languages, and present some ideas on how these could be integrated towards the multilingual transformation of Spanish public administrations without neglecting some of the attendant ethical and legal issues. The present work is intended to serve as an introductory and accessible overview for legislators, administrators, or any other person interested in the potential of language technologies to assist in developing a multilingual public administration.

This article explores the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on welfare policies, focusing on the unconventional case study of the Govern-AI project in Italy. Using the Extended Case Method, the study analyses the evolution of AI applications in public administration and their societal implications. The sociological reflection on AI emphasizes its transformative role in shaping social structures, considering both optimistic views on social rights enhancement and critical concerns such as privacy violations. The research advocates for a sociological understanding of AI as a non-human social actor, focusing on social practices and human-machine interactions. Additionally, the article introduces the concept of Public Policy Sociology for evaluating AI-related public policies, emphasizing transparency and citizen involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contribution is aimed at presenting the state of art related to the records management in the public sector and, more specifically, to the main tools required for managing current records according to the Direction general for Archives and its specific competencies which imply a role for defining and approving classification and preservation plans. The article analyses various projects developed for the public sectors in the last 25 years in connection with the innovation processes for the public administration and the crucial role recognised to the records management. The paper illustrates the work done by working groups for universities, municipalities, regions and provinces but also for health environment, chambers of trade, banks and educational institutions. With reference to the State institutions, a general picture is presented for ministries such as Ministry of Justice and Ministry for cultural heritage. In the last case, the classification system developed and adopted in 2004 in connection with the electronic registry system is discussed in detail. The paper presents also the project supported by the Agenzia dell’Italia digitale (AGID) dedicated to the definition of a common classification plan for administrative functions in the public sector. Even if not complete the picture is able to provide elements to evaluate the tools and their critical aspects, to stress the need for cooperation, to update the present systems and study general methodologies. The contribution is also dedicated to the role of professionals with specific experience in the records management systems for the public sector.

The paper presents an explorative study in respect to the public administrations’ added value to the competitiveness of national economies in the context of the Lisbon Strategy. The main research goal was to explore role of governments and their administration in sustaining competitiveness of national economy and to discuss it from different perspectives. As the research methodology we combined comparative analysis of two consecutive studies on public administrations’ added value to the Lisbon Strategy goals performed in 2008 and 2010, with analysis of Lisbon Strategy evaluation conducted by the European Commission, and practical illustration on the case of Slovenia in the context of the Lisbon Strategy and the Europe 2020. Three main components of the hypothesis: (1) need for incorporation of the public administration modernisation and development into developmental goals of the state, (2) monitoring and adjusting the implementation, and (3) identification of interconnections and complementarities for better use of resources were explored and verified in the contexts of Lisbon Strategy adding value to the national competitiveness. Within the research, the hypothesis was proved, as well as the relevance of all three components, especially in the circumstances of the global economic crisis. The main contribution of this paper is explorative description of how governments may, through their public administrations and by implementing and integrating their various roles and activities, add value to competitiveness of their national economies. In the paper some institutional implications are presented, as well as possible areas for further investigation and research.

In this paper we try to analyze the meaning of the public administration term. In our opinion it is necessary to be able to define exactly what public administration means but at the same time to clearly distinguish it from the other sciences. This is due to the fact that very often confusion is made between public administration and public management, public administration and bureaucracy or public administration and policy. Throughout this paper we hope to clarify some of the aspects related to what exactly distinguishes public administration from the above mentioned sciences and what are its own particularities.

The article explores the contradictory relationship between workers' experience of ecology and working-class environmentalism in the case study of Italsider/(ex)Ilva in Taranto (Apulia, Italy), on the methodological basis of social ethnography. The main thesis is that a new - qualitative and historically solid - analysis of such, complex relationship makes it possible on the one hand to deconstruct the seemingly natural opposition between employment and health, and on the other hand to open up unprecedented scenarios for the development of a different labor-based perspective on the ecological crisis. The structure of the article is as follows: the first paragraph situates the research from a theoretical point of view, against the background of an emerging field of investigation: environmental labor studies (§1). The second makes its methodology explicit (§2). The following ones examine two phases of Taranto's industrial, steelbased development - the public management (§3) and the private one, during which the eco-sanitary crisis deflagrates (§4) - in an attempt to articulate the elusive and non-linear relationship between workers' experience of ecology and working-class environmentalism - until the agreement with Arcelor Mittal in September 2018, starting from which a largely different story opens up. Such story is briefly referred to in the conclusions, recalling more recent events and sketching possible lines of future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this contribution, the Author intends to take stock of the situation regarding the main Italian public institutions which have assumed a leading role in the evaluation of public policies, with particular regard to the evaluation of the public administration, the evaluation of the education and training system, the evaluation of universities and research, the analysis and evaluation of labor policies and social policies, the evaluation of development cooperation initiatives, the evaluation of cohesion policies, the evaluation of agricultural policies. For each of these areas the public institutions of reference are identified, the role covered is outlined and the main activities carried out within the framework of the functions assigned to them are described. The purpose of the essay is to provide a general overview: the sources reported can be used for appropriate insights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aquest article descriu el procés d'implantació d'un sistema de gestió de la documentació administrativa al Departament d'Universitats, Recerca i Societat de la Informació de la Generalitat de Catalunya (actualment Departament d'Innovació, Universitats i Empresa). El projecte, anomenat DursiGED, ha inclòs l'anàlisi, el desenvolupament i la implantació dels productes i serveis necessaris per gestionar la documentació electrònica i en paper de manera normalitzada i d'acord amb uns paràmetres de qualitat. L'article inclou la descripció de la planificació del projecte, el procés d'implantació i seguiment, i els productes i serveis que n'han resultat.Este artículo describe el proceso de implantación de un sistema de gestión de la documentación administrativa en el Departament d'Universitats, Recerca i Societat de la Informació de la Generalitat de Catalunya (actualmente Departament d'Innovació, Universitats i Empresa). El proyecto, denominado DursiGED, ha incluido el análisis, el desarrollo y la implantación de los productos y servicios necesarios para gestionar la documentación electrónica y en soporte papel de manera normalizada y de acuerdo con unos parámetros de calidad. El artículo incluye la descripción de la planificación del proyecto, el proceso de implantación y seguimiento, y los productos y servicios que han resultado de todo ello.This article describes the process of implementing a system for managing administrative records at the Department of Universities, Research and Information Society of the Generalitat de Catalonia (currently the Department of Innovation, Universities and Enterprise). The project –DursiGED—has included the analysis, development and implementation of products and services necessary for managing records in both digital format and in paper, in a standardised fashion and in agreement with quality parameters. The article includes a description of the project planning, the process for implementation and follow-up, and the resulting products and services.

In an entity, the efficiency of the use of governance systems is based on a set of principles. The main principles refer to: efficiency and transparency. The need to make citizens aware of public policy issues leads not only to the transparency of decisions taken at the administrative level, but also to the adoption of decisions in favor of the development of that community and thus, to increase public confidence in public entities. The existence of each individual is daily influenced by public services, their development directly affecting the standard living due to the degree of meeting certain needs recognized by the community as being of general interest and not available to private initiative, to ensure fundamental rights and freedoms. This paper defines the public services as a whole, generalities of public institutions as well as the efficiency and transparency concerns regarding the concept of governance, trying in the same way to answer the question 'Efficiency and transparency, model of good governance of public institutions?' The present article is structured in three parts; the first part presents concise conclusions regarding public services as a whole, followed by the second part presenting the efficiency and transparency of governance, while the latter exposes the conclusions of this article.

This paper analyses the diffusion of eGoverment in Italian Public Administrations. In particular, this work proposes statistical indicators able to summarize, on one side, quantity and quality of the eGovernment services provided to citizens ("Front Office indicators") and, on the other side, the informatization degree of Public Administrations ("Back Office indicators"). Results show that the asymmetric geographical diffusion of eGovernment also depends on different characteristics of the administrations and of the local dimension in which they are embedded; this suggests that different local features have to be taken into account when defining strategies for fostering informatization of Public Administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the policy-making process of the Territorial Service Centres as promoted in the Italian national plan for e-government. After a preliminary analysis of the impact of information and communication technologies on e-governance at the local level, Centres are described through a critical analysis both as a typical multi-level governance policy and as a model to be implemented in the Italian Regions. The difficulty of promoting a homogeneous policy throughout the entire national territory is discussed, as well as the risk of an emergence of «regional centralism» due to the key role played by regional administrations in negotiating financial support with the central government and territorial policies and priorities with local authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

However decisive the role of regional governments in local development policies has tended to become in recent times, it is still quite conditioned by the central government. Yet, regional governments have considerably extended their influence in overlooking the Territorial Pacts - a major local development measure. This marks a return to a "strategic" thinking in planning regional local development. Based on the results of a field research, the paper highlights a number of key factors influencing the future development of regional development polices. At the present, many pacts and other relevant initiatives related to local development are characterized by a lack of coordination: very little coordination exists between European and national funding; a large number of organizations operating at the regional level have little or no contact with each other; it is not at all clear how to accompany the transition from the phase of the so-called `concertation' to the constitution of a 'local agency' in charge of coordinating and implementing the pacts. Finally, whether - and how - the regional governments will be able to undertake cohesive actions within commonly shared development plans and policies remains an open question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article has two objectives. First of all, the article outlines the structural changes that have reconfigured the features of the public administration in the last decades in Italy and in the South in particular, and the related effects on the middle class. Second, it analyses the impact of these transformations on the citizenship gaps in Italy, between North and South. Overall, the reforms of the public administration, and the contextual cuts in employment and public spending, have increased the social vulnerability of the middle classes, leading to a decisive decline in status, especially in the South of Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives The aim of the paper is to identify possible ways of applying the Lean Management concept in the everyday functioning of public administration, still underestimated and uncovered. Information related to the current trend will be discussed, which in the future will change the image of the public administration, indicating it as economical and modern. Material and methods The analysis will be based on the assessment of available literature along with possible ways of implementing Lean Management in the public administration. Qualitative research methods have been used in the study, which have assumed the idiographic character. In this case, the author's close contact with some public entities was open to any new ideas related to the implementation of the Lean Management concept. Results With the Lean Management concept, new opportunities are emerging for the implementation of lean management in the operation of the entire public sector. Referring to the possibilities of implementing this concept, proposals for the application of new tools for public administration management will be presented. Conclusions The discussed Lean Management concept can be a starting point for discussing the potential for more active implementation of its ideas to the public sector. However, the theoretical reflections provided in the text, however, provide a possibility for their practical application in the future to improve public administration, protect its resources and implement a sound policy of savings, involving all employees in this process.

Copyright of Il Capitale Culturale: Studies on the Value of Cultural Heritage is the property of Il Capitale Culturale Studies on the Value of Cultural Heritage and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

L'ús de llengües minoritàries a l'Administració pública té un alt valor simbòlic i, per tant, això pot facilitar que l'estatus dels idiomes afectats millori. Aquest article se centra en l'anàlisi de l'ús de les llengües minoritàries a l'Administració pública d'Irlanda del Nord. Inclou una breu història del paper que han exercit aquests idiomes al país i un examen de la seva situació demogràfica (els censos de 2001 i 2011), abans d'abordar els compromisos i la legislació internacionals, la posada en marxa de la legislació (determinada principalment pels informes estatals sobre les obligacions internacionals pertinents) i les propostes d'una futura legislació respecte de la protecció de l'irlandès i de l'escocès de l'Ulster a Irlanda del Nord. L'idioma irlandès és una llengua celta que històricament s'ha parlat a Irlanda. Moltes persones a Irlanda del Nord la consideren una part molt important del seu patrimoni cultural. Segons el cens de 2001, l'irlandès el parla el 10,4% de la població d'Irlanda del Nord i es va calcular (al cens de 2001 no hi havia preguntes sobre l'escocès de l'Ulster, que van ser introduïdes per primera vegada al cens de 2011) que l'escocès de l'Ulster, l'altre idioma parlat a Irlanda del Nord, a part de l'anglès i de l'irlandès, el parlava un 2% de la població. De fet, segons el cens de 2011, el nombre de persones amb algun coneixement d'irlandès i d'escocès de l'Ulster és semblant. Un 8,08% de la població d'Irlanda del Nord es pot comunicar en l’escocès de l'Ulster i el 10,65% té coneixements d'irlandès. És sorprenent que no hi hagi una enorme diferència entre els dos percentatges. La Llei d'Irlanda del Nord de 1998 va atorgar a l'Assemblea d'Irlanda del Nord unes competències legislatives per a la majoria de les polítiques que són pertinents per a la protecció de l'irlandès i de l'escocès de l'Ulster. No obstant això, parlant a grans trets, aquestes competències no s'han fet valer, per culpa, en gran part, de la naturalesa altament discutida de la llengua a Irlanda del Nord, i al punt mort al qual s'ha arribat entre els partits nacionalistes, que dispensen un ampli suport a les accions legislatives encaminades a protegir l'irlandès, i als partits unionistes, que s'oposen a aquestes mesures i invoquen la protecció de l'escocès de l'Ulster. La societat nord-irlandesa està dividida. I hi ha estereotips que no han permès gaudir de l'herència lingüística d'Irlanda del Nord. Aquest article se centra, doncs, especialment, en l'ús de l'irlandès i de l'escocès de l'Ulster a l'Administració pública d'Irlanda del Nord.

Copyright of Sociologia Italiana is the property of EGEA S.p.A and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

After almost fifteen years of social policies, extreme poverty has become an enduring problem in Mexico. Even in those years when nation-wide economic conditions have been particularly good, an important segment of the Mexican population faces the problem of poverty and the lack of social opportunities and this segment grows heavily with economic turndowns. The purpose of this paper is twofold: on one hand, it compares the objectives against the efficacy of social policy aimed to alleviate and reduce poverty in Mexico in the period after the great 1982 economic and social crisis; on the other hand, it points out the expectations and the problems of a new social policy that may be more effective in overcoming poverty and social deprivation in modern Mexico.

A partir de les ponències de la II Jornada sobre la reutilización de la información del sector público, organitzada per les universitats Carlos III i Complutense de Madrid el febrer del 2012, s'analitza el marc legislatiu de la reutilització a Espanya. Alhora s'estudien les implicacions del Reial decret 1495/2011 que estableix una nova regulació per al sector públic estatal, i es defineix la situació actual de la reutilització. Finalment, es destaquen alguns dels reptes als quals s'enfronten les institucions públiques de cara a fer pública la informació que generen en el desenvolupament de les seves activitats, i es presta una atenció especial a la importància d'establir un marc comú que sigui aplicable a les administracions locals i autonòmiques pel que fa a reutilització de la informació.This paper examines the legislative framework for reuse in Spain. We draw on presentations given at the

The current economic and social crisis calls for new practices within the public administration: an increase in its productivity could be obtained by the mobilization of social energies and the diffusion of leadership capacities. Spending review, performance management and evaluation of public policies are separate activities that converge in view of reaching the objective of "doing more and better with less". For each of these activities it is necessary to decide which method to apply. If the democratic alternative prevailed in each of them, it would be possible to overcome those conditions (centralism, legalism, compliance) that are at the origin of the present crisis, and that would be reinforced were those activities conducted according to the traditional way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sociologia del Lavoro is the property of FrancoAngeli srl and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Sociologia del Lavoro is the property of FrancoAngeli srl and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses certain issues concerning sustainable governance of territories. The capacities of encountering the dilemmas of the globalized post-industrial processes and the global climatic and environmental crises have changed. The state of territories and the governance of the local system are examined.The association between positive liberty of the citizens as inhabitants of territories and the capacities of the territorial auto-governance in rapport with the actual challenges are discussed. The territories and the citizens are stated to be positioned towards a long transition.

The article discusses certain issues concerning local economic development in Italy. For in-depth analyses of the dynamics of local development, determination of the role played by local institutions, political action, and the culture of territorial governance is stated to be necessary. The politics of the policies for local development in Italy has been transformed by the institutional reforms of the 1990s and by the process of becoming part of the European Union. Analysis of cultures and local political institutions is stated to provide adequate understanding of diversities, bringing together the quality of development with the quality of governance and of democracy.

The article offers information on the importance of a comparative study of the effect of new policies on territorial governance. Several reasons contributing to the importance of the comparative study have been cited. Adequate understanding of differentiations and territorial disparities have been cited as one of the reasons. A comparative study is predicted to provide an important compliment for the theories on the development of the capitalistic systems. A comparative study is stated to throw more light on the new governance of the local development, highlighting the similarities and differences that are present in various national cases.

In this article the authors examine the impact of local development policies and their implementation in Calabria. Analyzing the literature on this subject that claims a sort of dualism between government and governance, the researchers try to explore the possible connections between both approaches. Using case studies the researchers support the thesis that local development policies have to necessarily take into account the specific nature and vocations of territories and they must succeed in activating several partners on specific projects according to a logic of multilevel governance.

The aims of this article are twofold. In the first part it elaborates on the different uses of the concept of governance to be found in public policy analysis and design. An effort is made to distinguish from an analytical perspective between descriptive, explicatory and prescriptive points of view. Governance has been understood as (a way to bring together and analyse) the core questions in the building of a description of society as complex and plural and the demands for its guidance (i.e. the expression of the need for social representations of contemporary society and for strategic devices to drive it). The second part is devoted to the "multilevel governance" perspective, discussed as a theoretical and operative figure to understand and represent the complex reality of the European Union's political system, which is introduced to compete with and/or complement other understandings and representations (e.g. European integration). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]