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This paper addresses the degree to which new public management (NPM) has continued to be an influential model for central government reform in Australia and New Zealand, two early adopters and exemplars of NPM. We analyse recent reform agendas and their impact on NPM in both countries. Several institutional and other types of explanations are provided for why NPM is retained, modified, or revived. NPM systems may resist or be diluted by new layers, or the incorporation of techniques and approaches from reform menus, producing revival, discontinuity and forms of hybridization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trust in government and its antecedents and development remain leading policy and research concerns. Drawing on a broadly representative online survey of 3100 respondents in Japan, we examine measures of trust in three local government actors. We find political participation is not associated with trust in local government, contrary to our expectations. Civic participation is associated with trust in the mayor, but not councillors or administrators. Satisfaction with services provided by local government, and positive perceptions of policy process, are associated with trust, with interactions suggesting process is the stronger antecedent. To develop greater trust in local government, it is important that public sector actors exhibit respect for rights and follow procedure, laws, and regulations, as well as deliver positive outcomes. Points for practitioners: Building trust in government remains a key concern for policy makers, as it is related to successful adoption of policies. Trust in local government in Japan is related to perceived performance and citizen satisfaction. Civic participation is also related to some forms of trust in government. However, possibly more important are citizen perceptions that policy processes respect rights, procedures, and laws. To increase trust in government, practitioners need to practice, and show that they practice, good processes in developing and delivering policy, and show that policy leads to better perceived outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using an online panel, we surveyed a representative sample of 500 each in Australia and New Zealand during July 2020, in the middle of the Covid‐19 pandemic. We find trust in government has increased dramatically, with around 80% of respondents agreeing government was generally trustworthy. Around three quarters agreed management of the pandemic had increased their trust in government. Over 85% of respondents have confidence that public health scientists work in the public interest. Testing four hypotheses, we find that income and education predict trust in government and confidence in public health scientists, as does voting for the political party in government. Trust in government and confidence in public health scientists strongly predict Covid‐19 phone application use, largely through convincing people the App is beneficial. Trust in government then is both an outcome and antecedent of government effectiveness. Building trust is important for governments implementing difficult policy responses during a crisis. The management of the Covid‐19 pandemic has been associated with a dramatic increase in trust in government in Australia and New Zealand. Confidence in public health scientists is also high. Trust and confidence are associated with greater use of the Covid‐19 phone application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An older body of research claims variously: a world‐wide transformation from new public management (NPM) to new public governance or post new public management (post‐NPM); a 'layering', where new management rhetoric and techniques are layered upon existing ones; or a 'hybridisation' synthesised from competing systems. More recent studies, particularly in central and Eastern Europe, suggest a nuanced and context‐specific degree of transformation. Influenced by a growing research interest in citizen perceptions of public management, this study expands this more nuanced approach by surveying local government public management perceptions of 1,140 New Zealand and 3,100 Japanese citizen online survey respondents. Using principal component analysis, we show both New Zealand and Japan exhibit degrees of hybridisation of public management paradigms, with Japan exhibiting a higher degree of eclecticism. Citizens perceptions of public management change in Japan and New Zealand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Legally protected individual private property rights and a constrained state are doctrines of neoclassical economics-derived development theory. But what about China? It lacks strong rule of law, property rights can be collective, contested and ambiguous, and the state is relatively unconstrained and maintains a central role in the economy; yet it has seen impressive economic growth to take it to the world's second largest economy. I argue that in the absence of legal/rational protections of individual property rights, political and social networks can provide alternative methods of property protection, allowing for economic development - with political protection substituting for legal. The novel claim I make is that ambiguity of property rights can provide opportunities and spaces for development and innovation, with the building of meaning and institutions found in a transitional state, where rules are unclear and contested, and where formal rules can "catch up" if apparent success can be demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

De Soto argues that formally establishing individually titled property rights releases value that can assist the poor in lower income countries. I argue Soto’s treatment of property rights is overly narrow, legalistic and individualistic. Second, effective property rights do not exist outside other formal and informal institutions. Third, there is no necessary conflict between informal, traditional and communal rights and economic development. Fourth, evidence suggests establishing individual property rights can harm the poor in some cases. Fifth, studies suggest establishing title does not increase access to credit for the poor. Finally, de Soto’s notion of ‘dead capital’ is questioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY Statebuilding after conflict often entails liberal peacebuilding measures. The end of the UN mission in post-conflict Timor-Leste in December 2012 provides a unique opportunity to investigate statebuilding in practice. The liberal peacebuilding agenda has met with stiff academic resistance-mainly from the critical theorist camp-and is questioned as an appropriate measure of ...statebuilding success. We deploy instead the good governance (GG) agenda as a hybrid local-liberal guide. Drawing on field work, interviews, and secondary documents, we investigate what we see as four key, intertwined and overlapping aspects of GG: state capacity including the establishment of a state bureaucracy, participation and the engagement of civil society, institution building and rule of law, and corruption control and transparency. We note GG provides a useful policy heuristic, while abstract 'one-size-fits-all' liberal peacebuilding models, which avoid the complexities of machinery of government issues, the time taken to develop institutions, and historical and contextual environments of countries, are likely to face severe problems. New states may be dependent on external forces to maintain monopoly of violence. The reversibility and uncertainty of statebuilding and the decades-long commitment needed by international agencies are noted. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the early 1990s, Victoria reformed its state sector along New Public Management (NPM) lines. Drawing on interviews with key policy-makers of the time, including chief executives, ministers and key officials from both jurisdictions, and using archival material and secondary sources, this article shows that New Zealand developments were a key source for Victoria's reforms - even down to seemingly copying passages of legislation. Policy transfer took place within a supporting framework of an Anglo-American diffusion of NPM rhetoric and neoliberal ideas. But New Zealand's experiences gave content, form and legitimation to Victoria's reforms, while providing a platform and experience for learning and divergence, and a group of transferable experts. We underline the importance of the Australia-New Zealand relationship and trans-Tasman elite networks in understanding the governance of both countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY Although considerable resources and attention have been allocated to recent 'good governance' public management reform in low income and fragile states, there is little evidence as to what degree this agenda has been implemented nor as to whether it has led to improved services and outcomes for populations. To address this lacuna, we conduct a review of the large but almost entirely qualitative literature on good governance reform in the 49 countries classed as low income by the United Nations. We find only a small number of documents that link good governance public sector reform agendas with implementation. Fewer still assess outcome. We conduct an empirical analysis of the relationship between reform agenda (using data from the literature review), implementation, service delivery and outcomes, as measured by performance on Millennium Development Goals indicators. We report that there is little, if any, empirical evidence that reform enhances service delivery. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared to competitive, coercive and learning models, social constructionist theory is particularly well-suited to explaining the diffusion of policy norms across cross-country networks. This paper augments this approach with a myth perspective that is applied to an analysis of the diffusion of the qualitative fiscal norms embedded in New Zealand's innovative Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1994. The 'prime mover', 'innovative discontinuity' and 'unmodified legislative success' components of the agent significance myth surrounding this fiscal responsibility law (FRL) are examined and the scope and limits of its subsequent diffusion are related to mutual identification and interaction across pre-established network linkages between actors who have learnt its usefulness. The relative durability of myths compared to fads lend an unpredictability to the diffusion process, the potential limits of which are shaped by cultural and institutional factors that influence the receptiveness of governments to such norm-based approaches to fiscal discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores state stability using various governance and development indicators. We find stability is associated with state capacity and public goods, the legal--rational state, legitimacy, good governance and corruption, income/capita and democracy and human rights. In particular, we show the importance of democracy, legitimacy, rule of law and secularity. Environmental degradation and debt dependency undermine stability. Revenue collection, corruption, rule of law, independent judiciary and exports can be important to stability even in the face of incomplete democracy and lower GDP per capita. These factors are relatively more important in low-income states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A primary leadership challenge facing central budget agencies is sustaining the respect of finance ministers. Lessons are drawn in this article from the corrosive effect that missed opportunities to take the lead on economic strategy and public service modernization had on the long-term respect commanded by the Irish Department of Finance, and from the strategic re-orientation the New Zealand Treasury undertook to correct its tendency to ‘over-reach’ itself in these areas following a process of capacity-building and cultural transformation in the 1980s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on 240 completed web surveys from six New Zealand core government agencies, and using qualitative and quantitative measures, we investigate public servants' views on three aspects of e-government, situated within an overarching rhetoric of ‘transformation’. First, the degree to which e-government is supporting ‘joined-up’ government is assessed. Second, we canvas views as to what degree e-government measures are promoting new ways of working for public servants such as flexible work. Third, we seek public servant views on whether e-government measures are allowing greater ‘e-participation’ from the public. We find that public servants exhibit considerable nuance in their views on e-government, including some scepticism towards its role in increasing flexible work, in ‘joining-up’ government, and in increasing citizen participation in policy making. The vagueness of transformational rhetoric is highlighted. We suggest the more considered views of public servants on the costs, as well as the benefits, of e-government, provide a useful antidote to much heated rhetoric and ‘dangerous enthusiasms’ exhibited towards e-government across the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term e-government describes the use of information and communications technology, particularly the Internet, for the delivery of public services. As governments invest in e-government, there is only limited knowledge of the extent of public trust in the new electronic modes of delivery; we also know little about whether there is any relationship between trust in government and trust in e-government. This article reports on research designed to probe this issue. Drawing on survey data from Australia and New Zealand, a series of hypotheses are tested pertaining to relationships between public trust in government and e-government, in the use of information and communications technology and trust in e-government, and support for e-government investment and development. Trust in government was found not to be correlated with trust in facets of e-government service provision but was associated with support for e-government investment. More intensive Internet users were more likely to trust e-government services. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines information and communications technologies use, work intensity, technology preference, respondent characteristics, pain and stress in 240 New Zealand public servants across six agencies. In particular, we find that four variables are the most consistent predictors of pain-hours using a cell phone, stress, female gender and one's salary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on public management reform exhibits two intertwined convergence myths. First, a world-wide consensus on a new public management (NPM) reform agenda is seen to exist amongst policy reformers and practitioners. If this agenda is not fully implemented in all cases, this is generally explained by political and reform setbacks rather than disagreement on policy aims. Second, this NPM agenda is now seen as challenged and even abandoned and replaced by an emergent post-NPM or 'public value leadership' agenda and/or policy paradigm. We show the NPM convergence is overstated, with a remarkable resilience of existing institutions, and a diversity of public management systems. On the other hand, even within NPM exemplars that have putatively now adopted a post-NPM agenda, there is debate to what degree NPM has been abandoned, and over the novelty, coherence and resilience of the post-NPM agenda. Divergence and contextual variation prevail. The role of myth in policy reform is further examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on 438 telephone interview surveys in Australia and 500 in New Zealand, we find evidence of a ‘participation divide’ where those participating in politics do so using a range of means, including electronic ones. Those less likely to participate in politics, are less likely to participate across all means measured. Those with higher levels of education and income and of European ethnicity are more likely to participate. We confirm the existence of the so-called ‘digital divide’ with those that use e-government means and those that do not, being stratified by education, ethnicity, income, gender and age. Contrary to our expectations we find that lower levels of trust in government are associated with higher levels of some types of participation, including e-government ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the close relationship between the Australian and New Zealand business communities to ask whether the relationship is best characterized as simply e bi-lateral trading relationship, or whether there is evidence of the formation of a transnational business community. This article also seeks to explore the nature of Australia-New Zealand integration, and specifically the degree to which the relationship is interdependent or asymmetrical. Data are drawn from quantitative sources - including a dataset developed from the IBISWorld's Largest 2000 Enterprises in Australia and New Zealand. Who's Who in Australia, and Who's Who in Business in Australia - and qualitative sources, including interviews with business and policy elites. Our findings are that the relationship between the Australian and New Zealand business communities is much deeper than a bi-lateral trading relationship, but also falls short of forming one transnational community. We also find that the relationship is substantially asymmetrical in nature, raising concerns among a number of New Zealand business executives about New Zealand sovereignty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The New Zealand economy before the election of the Fourth Labour Government in 1984 is often portrayed as something not only highly regulated — but as something uniquely so amongst developed nations, with a stagnant economy declining in the post-war era and nearing collapse by the 1984 election — the Polish shipyard. We show that New Zealand was not overly-regulated by the standards of the time, with many of its policies reflecting development elsewhere; it was generally liberalising in the post-war era and its economic decline and supposed collapse have been considerably overstated. This invented history gave impetus to radical economic reform after 1984 by framing the apparently failed and bizarre past as forcing inevitable solutions. It is an important constraint on policy-making in New Zealand, allowing policy to develop only along certain “appropriate” paths. It provided cohesion for policy makers in the face of less than certain results and harnessed emotional and intellectual energy towards the free-market quest, while legitimating certain policy directions and de-legitimating others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2004, Japan restructured the state-directed public university system to create the national university corporations (NUCs). Proponents of the reforms made explicit mention of agentification in the United Kingdom, changes to university management structures elsewhere, and reforms in the wider Japanese public sector. As such, the NUC reforms are an example of policy transfer. Despite rhetoric to the contrary, however, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) has not surrendered the large degree of control it had manifested over the university system. Rather the means of control have changed from largely direct ones to largely indirect ones. Policy transfer provided a means by which MEXT could legitimate its policy stance by referring to developments elsewhere, show it was responding to pressure for reform by adopting its rhetoric and superficial forms, but use this to capture the policy agenda to its own ends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines article citation rates and productivity of Australasian political science units, from 1995 to 2002. Limitations of citations has direct measure of research quality; Importance of quantitative measures of research productivity and quality in Australasia; Article citations in British-influenced Performance Based Research Fund.

In future a portion of tertiary education funding in New Zealand will be progressively directed towards rewarding research performance. This will have implications for the management of departments and the reorientation of New Zealand universities. These implications are considered in this article, with special reference to the consequences for political science departments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to enhance the actor perspective on major policy reforms. It builds upon the literature on “policy entrepreneurs” and addresses its explanatory vagueness by specifying five hypotheses outlining the actions that proponents of major policy change need to take in order to be effective in forging departures from existing, path-dependent policies and to overcome entrenched opposition to reforms. These hypotheses on “reformist political leadership” (after Blondel) are applied to the four attempts to reform key aspects of macroeconomic policy in Australia under the first two Labor governments led by Robert J. Hawke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After 1984 New Zealand abandoned an economic policy paradigm based on a broadly social democratic Keynesianism and rapidly and comprehensively liberalised its economy. Drawing on interviews with eighty-seven members of institutional elites thought potentially influential on economic policy and individuals nominated as influential, this paper shows economic policy change was highly derivative of neoclassical and related schools of economics. Key policy entrepreneurs′, sometimes educated in graduate programmes in American economics departments in the late 1970s, were important in convincing their respective institutions and other policy makers to support the new policy directions. Economic theories, sometimes of a controversial nature, were often adopted quite self-consciously and their dominance in decision making and their relative lack of modification in the policy process reflected the simplicity of institutional and policy making structures and the paucity of intellectual debate in New Zealand. Once established, the broadly neoclassical paradigm became highly dominant, extending its reach from macro- and micro-economic policy to gradually taking over public sector management and ownership issues, the labour market and social policy issues such as health and welfare policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on interviews with 93 members of strategically located institutional elites and nominated influentials. It examines the sources of economic ideas in economic policy and studies a select number of key economic policy decisions made during the Labor governments of Hawke and Keating. It will argue that the economic liberalisation carried out during the Labor government reflected the influence of a range of individuals and institutions, depending on the economic decision in question, while a variety of domestic and internationally based institutions and individuals contributed ideas to economic policy-making. It will reject Pusey's (1991) belief that the central agencies (ie Treasury, the Department of Finance and the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet) were necessarily the major influence in economic policy and show that other individuals and institutions, including cabinet and particular ministers, ministerial offices, the ACTU and other government departments, were also important. It will discuss further how economic policy is made in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the mid-1980s and early 1990s the New Zealand economy moved from being one of the most regulated outside the former communist bloc to among the most liberal in the OECD. Largely unheralded and begun by an ostensibly social democratic Labour government, changes included the floating of the exchange rate; extensive liberalization of financial, capital and other markets; lowering of trade protection; fiscal restraint and monetary disinflation; changes to the machinery of government; corporatization and then sale of state assets; and changes to industrial relations frameworks (Castles, Gerritsen and Vowles 1996). Known as Rogernomics after Minister of Finance Roger Douglas, these economic policies were heavily derivative of neoclassical economic theories, such as the New Classical and Chicago schools, public choice and new institutional economics (Boston et al. 1996, ch. 2; Goldfinch 1997). This article explains how such radical economic restructuring occurred through the influence of a select group of strategically located institutional elites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author offers a response to the comment of Claire Donovan in relation to her paper "Measuring Research and Citation Analyses in Australasian Political Science Units." She stresses that Donovan has misrepresented her paper, which she wrote along with Tony Dale, regarding the use of citation analysis. She contests Donovan's statements implying that they opposed to scientific and quantitative articles. In relation to this, she also emphasizes that the study retains its value as a resource on article publication and citation rates of Australasian political science departments despite Donovan's arguments.