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Reading forward from the recently released secret Downing Street Memos, to the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, in this performance text I critique the Bush Administration and its reliance on science, or evidence-based models of inquiry (SBR). SBR raises issues concerning the politics of truth and evidence. These issues intersect with the ways in which a given political regime fixes facts to fit ideology. Three versions of SBR are discussed, as is a model of science as disruptive cultural practice. I conclude by calling for a merger of critical pedagogy with a prophetic, feminist post-pragmatism.

First Public Lecture sponsored by Teaching Public Administration (delivered at the Public Administration Conference, University of Northumbria 12 September 2018). The author provided views on why public administration is needed now more than ever, outlining how current events necessitate the need for research to inform our teaching and learning. She also discussed some of the barriers to this task, and her views of the future.

Purpose -In December 2010, the Ministry of Justice published Breaking the Cycle: Effective Punishment, Rehabilitation and Sentencing of Offenders, the Government's Green Paper on criminal justice reform. This paper seeks to discuss the implications of this Green Paper on housing for offenders.Design/methodology/approach - This paper examines the proposals set out in the Green Paper, and in particular the intention to deliver rehabilitative services on a payment-by-results basis, and discusses its implications for housing for offenders.Findings - The paper argues that the Green Paper is primarily focused on improving rehabilitation and reducing re-offending, and that improved access for offenders to housing is essential if this is to be successful. However, it demonstrates that there are significant barriers to be overcome in achieving this and argues that criminal justice service providers and housing providers will need to work together to ensure that these issues are addressed.Originality/value - The governments proposals to reform the criminal justice system, contained in the Green Paper Breaking the Cycle, are focused primarily on rehabilitation. Improved access for offenders to appropriate and sustainable housing is essential if this is to be successful, as the Green Paper recognises, and a combination of some specific measures and a general move to payment-by-results for rehabilitation services is intended to deliver this. However, there are significant barriers to overcome in achieving this and further challenges are presented by cuts in services and changes to housing and welfare policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on part of an on-going interview-based study of the eight permanent secretaries who served at the Department for Education from 1976 to 2012. Following a discussion of the relevance of biography to the study of public sector administrators, it presents a portrait of Sir Tim Lankester. Based on his own account and that of relevant others it draws on a four-stage career model to describe his life before and during his time as a civil servant. Centering on his career as permanent secretary in three it considers, "inter alia," his working relationship with his Secretaries of State; his view of the role of permanent secretary; his policy contribution; and, his style and achievements. Following an examination of the merits of such research, the paper concludes with a brief discussion of the possible contribution of prosopography and a call for ethnographic studies of public administration.

Social and environmental justice across generations is a fundamental attribute of sustainable development. In this article, which is also a call for papers for a future theme in Public Money & Management (PMM), we develop our case for further research on how governments and public service organizations seek to address sustainable development in their decision-making processes. We believe that accounting for social and environmental aspects is an underdeveloped area of research and practice that is worthy of further critical enquiry. We therefore call on researchers and practitioners to submit their research to a themed issue of PMM on managing and accounting for sustainable development in public services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contrasts the prevailing individualistic approach of financial literacy measurement and financial education with an educational framework that seeks to equip young people to play an active democratic role and to develop a broader understanding of the financial world. In particular, the framework suggests how important dimensions of financial literacy may be addressed in terms of the individual, the financial industry and government.

This article discusses the impact of the British government's White Paper "The Civil Service: Continuity and Change" to the civil service. Generally, the bulk of civil service is good on detail as well as principle. The White Paper also brings out how far ahead the people get in terms of making things actually happen as compared to the rest of the world. For the White Paper really does split into two parts, and it is ironical and perhaps revealing that the much better bit is all about the great bulk of the civil service which is undoubtedly getting better, while the inferior bit that in fact contemplates no change at all is all about the senior open structure which is so letting British citizens down. And for this there is a simple reason. For the great bulk of the civil service there is discussion about what they are there for, or at least provision for such discussion with a sensible underpinning assumption that if there is no job for them to do they should not be there. For the Senior Civil Service the reverse is true that no such discussion and the apparent assumption that whether or not there is a job for them to do they must carry on.

The article discusses the interpretation on the concept of "The White Paper on the Nationalized Industries." The Paper declares the governmental policy of the nationalized industries following the investigation into the role of the nationalized industries and the corresponding relationship with government undertaken at the Government's bid. The Paper also provides the Government's response to the recommendation in the report published on November 18, 1976. The discussion includes the drawing of attention towards the important aspects in the Paper, to remark major departures from the last White Paper and to comment upon the probable effectiveness of the new proposal.

This article focuses on the changing methods of government consultation in Great Britain. The method used in the first Green Paper of April 1967 was to invite public discussion on the memorandum which the Green Paper contained and which the Government had previously sent to the National Economic Development Council and the regional planning councils for their comments. In the nine Green Papers published by the Labour Government, five of them followed the pattern of the first Green Paper in inviting public discussion while policy was still in a formative stage. A comparison was made between the two Green Papers on reorganization of the national health service and the Consultative Document with a view to arriving at an understanding of the fundamental differences which exist between these two types of document. But there has been little, if any let-up in the production of Green Papers since the Conservative Government came to power.

Following the dramatic evacuation from Kabul airport in August 2021, the UK government proclaimed its commitment to a 'warm welcome' for Afghans. In this paper we draw on original qualitative research to explore the emerging experiences of evacuees, and other recent arrivals, during their first year in London. Using the narratives of our Afghans participants, as well as insights from key stakeholders, we show how they navigated slow, opaque bureaucratic processes and lack of communication with official agencies. As a result of these lengthy processes, many thousands of evacuees remained in temporary hotel accommodation for protracted periods. Drawing on the concept of 'everyday bordering', we explore the extent to which Afghan resettlement policies are achieving their objectives. We consider how such policies are birthed within a punitive immigration system, which is designed to 'wear down' migrants in the UK, regardless of their reason for migration. Moreover, we argue that the ad hoc response of the Home Office and the Foreign Office has created 'false distinctions' between categories of Afghan refugees, reinforcing notions of 'deserving' versus 'underserving' migrants. This distinction allows the government to present itself as humanitarian, 'rescuing' people from Afghanistan, while simultaneously maintaining its commitment to the 'hostile immigration environment'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article comments on the article of Sandra Dawson and Charlotte Dargie regarding public management. Numerous descriptions and definitions exist of the movement called new public management (NPM). Professor Dawson rightly summarized the wide variety of NPM descriptions into a sort of common denominator by mentioning its three main ingredients. Professor Dawson also quite rightly described NPM as a movement. NPM is not a single coherent theory or model, it contains contradicting underlying theories. Neither is NPM, a single coherent empirical object, in actual practice it consists of a complexity of actors and factors, as illustrated by professor Dawson in the example of the British health sector. NPM had indeed better be called a movement. The main core of her opening address is the examination of the presumed relationships between ideology, actions and outcomes in NPM.

Purpose: This essay was written as a university assignment for an expert dementia practice module as part of the Masters in Applied Professional Practice. This paper aims to provide a critical discussion of the recognition and management of delirium superimposed on dementia. Design/methodology/approach: The findings of this paper showed that the recognition of delirium superimposed of dementia is not well recognized, but early intervention and management can result in preferential outcomes. This requires the use of appropriate recognition tools and for all health-care staff to have specific training within this area. Findings: Education is imperative to improving delirium recognition. Research limitations/implications: Education is imperative to improving awareness. Practical implications: The research implications of this paper demonstrate that appropriate training and education of health-care staff is imperative for the timely recognition of delirium and the improvement of care. Originality/value: This paper was undertaken as an assignment for the University of Highlands and Islands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Judicial review is now the normal route for anyone seeking to challenge an administrative decision, unless there is a separate statutory right of appeal as for example in town planning matters. Grounds for challenge have been variously described by the courts but include (a) that the decision was wrong in law, (b) that it was unreasonable or irrational and (c) that there was procedural unfairness. Those who seek review must understand that the court will not substitute its own view for that of the decision taker. The adequacy of the remedy of judicial review has been challenged by some on the grounds that leave to proceed has to be sought from the court within three months. There is too the difficulty in some cases of establishing that the plaintiff has a sufficient interest to sue. Whilst it is too early to talk of a distinct body of public as opposed to private law, recent decisions have widened the concept of public law and have interpreted the circumstances in which a private right may be pursued against a public authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper places a critical spotlight on the ways in which governance and social responsibility concerning labour standards work in the context of public sector procurement. Supply chains provisioning the public sector, incorporating a vast array of materials used in public services such as education, health, social housing and transportation, have been under‐researched and under‐theorised in the geographical and wider social science literature on Global Production Networks, Global Value Chains and consumption ethics. Against this backdrop, the paper evaluates the emergence of ethical trading programmes involving labour standards in UK public sector sourcing, drawing on examples from the health, higher education, construction and transportation sectors and a methodology combining interviews with participant observation. Findings show that ethical public procurement is shaped, and often constrained, by: the relatively low profile of many materials used in public services, which challenge effective campaigning and advocacy work; the consequent limits to reputational risk for state departments and first‐tier suppliers if labour issues are encountered in their supply chains; and the significant role of EU and UK procurement law, which until 2014 rendered social responsibility in public sector sourcing a legal risk to specify. Through a practice‐orientated approach and adopting the notion of responsibilisation inspired by governmentality perspectives, the paper grasps how these challenges for ethical public procurement are encountered and negotiated by procurement managers and those influencing them in a neoliberal environment. It is shown that ethical sourcing is significantly less advanced in the UK public sector than it is in consumer goods sectors, with implications for social justice in a whole realm of under‐researched global supply chains. This paper places a critical spotlight on the ways in which governance and social responsibility concerning labour standards work in the context of public sector procurement. Through a practice‐orientated approach and adopting the notion of responsibilisation inspired by governmentality perspectives, the paper grasps how challenges of ethical public procurement are encountered and negotiated by procurement managers and those influencing them in a neoliberal environment. It is shown that ethical sourcing is significantly less advanced in the UK public sector than it is in consumer goods sectors, with implications for social justice in a whole realm of under‐researched global supply chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Due to an increasingly elderly population, a higher incidence of chronic diseases and higher expectations regarding public service provision, healthcare services are under increasing strain to cut costs while maintaining quality. The importance of promoting systems of co-produced health between stakeholders has gained considerable traction both in the literature and in public sector policy debates. This study provides a comprehensive map of the extant literature and identifies the main themes and future research needs.Methods: A quantitative bibliometric analysis was carried out consisting of a performance analysis, science mapping, and a scientific collaboration analysis. Web of Science (WoS) was chosen to extract the dataset; the search was refined by language, i.e. English, and type of publication, i.e. journal academic articles and reviews. No time limitation was selected.Results: The dataset is made up of 295 papers ranging from 1994 to May 2019. The analysis highlighted an annual percentage growth rate in the topic of co-production of about 25%. The articles retrieved are split between 1225 authors and 148 sources. This fragmentation was confirmed by the collaboration analysis, which revealed very few long-lasting collaborations. The scientific production is geographically polarised within the EU and Anglo-Saxon countries, with the United Kingdom playing a central role. The intellectual structure consists of three main areas: public administration and management, service management and knowledge translation literature. The co-word analysis confirms the relatively low scientific maturity of co-production applied to health services. It shows few well-developed and central terms, which refer to traditional areas of co-production (e.g. public health, social care), and some emerging themes related to social and health phenomena (e.g. the elderly and chronic diseases), the use of technologies, and the recent patient-centred approach to care (patient involvement/engagement).Conclusions: The field is still far from being mature. Empirical practices, especially regarding co-delivery and co-management as well as the evaluation of their real impacts on providers and on patients are lacking and should be more widely investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, several studies adopted bibliometric methodology to estimate the development of the field of public administration (PA). However, only a small scope of journals was covered in their analyses. Few of those investigated the evolution of the entire field. To make a progress, this paper included a 19-year timespan, 53 journals, and more than 20,000 items for analysis in a bibliometric way. Both the activity and the quality indicators of research results were applied from the bibliometric perspective with 3-year and 5-year citation windows at three aggregation levels including journal, country, and institution by using publications in PA indexed in Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI). "Resident" journal is proposed as a new concept to explore differences between traditional and emerging research forces. The results suggest that resident journals maintain a large advantage over other journals in terms of higher quality journal indicators and citation impact indicators. Moreover, international and national collaboration shows a growth tendency, especially for the international type. The majority of active institutions are from the US and the UK, which indicates their dominant position over others. This study provides more comprehensive comparisons through large-scale data and acknowledged methods to explore the development of PA field research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the implementation of the rule by the Advisory Council on Public Records under the provisions of the Public Records Act of 1967 in Great Britain. Most contemporary historians saw the First World War as a historical watershed from which time onwards the activity and potential role of governments in influencing British economic and social development were much enhanced. As a result, particular areas of historical research, such as diplomatic history and historical studies of social and economic policy, were given enormous stimulus. For all historians access to records is essential. New records are almost always welcome and any restriction on access to information is generally deplored or regretted. In the initial euphoria at the release of so much new material comparatively little attention was paid to the status of the public records as research evidence. In 1970, however, doyen of British interwar historians, the late G. L. Mowat, referred to a part of the new material with characteristic shrewdness.

In 2023, the UK Government published its long-awaited reform strategy for England's children's social care system. Whilst the strategy set out planned reforms for several aspects of the wider system, an area requiring particular 'priority' was the purported workforce instability seen within child protection social work. However, the strategy has subsequently faced criticism on the basis that the suggested reforms were not satisfactorily informed by the testimonies of practicing social workers. This paper draws from a mixed-method study to report on the lived experiences of a sample of 201 child protection social workers practicing across England, in the context of better understanding the factors which they believed were impacting on workforce stability within England's child protection system. Implications that emerge are the need for an increase in the monetary commitment offered by the UK Government (especially in the context of tackling high caseloads, and improving local authority pay scales to reduce the allure of agency work); a targeted emphasis on challenging local cultures preoccupied with evidencing compliance over time spent with children; and the Government taking a more assertive role in tackling the often-counterproductive commentary perpetuated by politicians and media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy documents are a useful source for understanding the privileging of particular ideological and policy preferences (Scrase and Ockwell, 2010) and how the language and imagery may help to construct society’s assumptions, values and beliefs. This article examines how the UK Coalition government’s 2010 Green Paper, 21st Century Welfare, and the White Paper, Universal Credit: Welfare that Works, assist in constructing a discourse about social security that favours a renewal and deepening of neo-liberalization in the context of threats to its hegemony. The documents marginalize the structural aspects of persistent unemployment and poverty by transforming these into individual pathologies of benefit dependency and worklessness. The consequence is that familiar neo-liberal policy measures favouring the intensification of punitive conditionality and economic rationality can be portrayed as new and innovative solutions to address Britain’s supposedly broken society and restore economic competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper argues that the public sector context in the UK is characterized by a reform that focuses on ‘delivery’ with an unprecedented obsession with measurement. It examines whether the time is right to move from new public management (NPM) to new public leadership (NPL) and supports its argument by reference to literature and a content analysis of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) seminar series papers and the subsequent edited volume (The New Public Leadership Challenge [NPLC]) that set a public leadership challenge. The paper endorses the view that the focus on NPM has resulted in a culture of ‘counting what can be counted rather than what counts’ (McKee, 2004) and proposes a frame of reference that has potential for supporting the development and evaluation of new public leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents debate on the involvement of the government in the decision-making of philanthropic foundations in Great Britain. Topics discussed include the total impact of the government in decision making, effective philanthropy, government transparency, government investments, and proxy interventions.

Purpose – The starting point for the paper is an assessment of the impact of a 1993 special issue of Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, which provided an interdisciplinary analysis of the pursuit of accountable management reforms in the UK public sector. From this assessment, the paper offers a set of reflections on the development over the last two decades of "new" public management practice and research, and also indicates some of the obligations and responsibilities of academic researchers and managers alike in the context of a continuing appetite for such reforms. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is written in a reflective fashion, including assessments of: our role as guest editors of the special issue; the continuing pertinence of key messages emanating from the special issue; and broader considerations drawn from our own working experience in managerial roles in universities and personal reflections on the state of the public management literature. Findings – The paper highlights the long-standing litany of failure attached to such public management reform movements, as well as the limited degree of cross-disciplinary learning within the field. The paper emphasises that we need to rethink the parameters of "public sector" (accounting) research, and avoid the partitioning of (accounting) research into ever smaller and self-referential sub-areas. We need more cross-national studies. We need to know more about which management practices travel readily, and which travel less easily, and what happens when implementation is problematic. We need also to reinforce the importance of historical analyses, if we are to derive the most benefit from studies of the interrelations among accounting and public management reforms and wider transformations in ways of governing economic and social life. Finally, we need to retain or reinstate curiosity at the heart of our concerns, in order to dispel the self-evidence or taken-for-grantedness of so much of our present. Research limitations/implications – Personal reflections, while being beneficially close to the subject under consideration, inevitably suffer from claims of bias and a lack of independence. We have sought to control for such risks by drawing on a variety of sources of information with respect to impact, including (albeit ironically) citation counts and an analysis of the writings of individual authors contributing to the special issue. Originality/value – The paper is novel in that it seeks to combine an analysis of the literature on public sector accounting and management reforms over several decades with our own, multi-faceted, engagement with public management research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Public Money & Management is the property of Routledge 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 transformation of public infrastructure and services into vehicles of profit-making through privately financed and operated partnerships (PPPs) has successfully weathered high profile project failures, changes in government, scathing audits, public resistance, financial crises, fiscal austerity, and found a home around the world despite vastly different legal, cultural, and institutional contexts. Public procurement and traditional budgeting practices are now a distant memory in many jurisdictions – not by happenstance but through dogged efforts to transform public sectors from service provider into commodity purchaser. Understanding the political economy of global PPP markets requires knowing the connection to managerialism underpinning the story of public administration as contract management. This paper explores the emergence, sophistication, and normalization of PPP using primary and secondary sources including interviews with those involved in, or keenly aware of, the historical creation of pioneering PPP markets. It identifies three apposite categories of PPP management: models, methods, and mindsets. Models are homogenously portable yet malleable templates for partnering. Methods include accounting treatment and standards, and new budgeting and tendering practices. Mindsets are the ideas and ideals initially spread by enthusiasts like the Big Five consultancy firms and Macquarie Bank, later entrenched through specialized quasi-public agencies such as Partnerships UK and the World Bank's PPIAF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the issues concerning the access to official papers in Great Britain. The Prime Minister stated that there is a reduction in the access to public documents from fifty to thirty years. The author presents several implications of the changes in policy in the conduct of research and teaching in public administration. Since the Prime Minister's statements in 1966, the Civil Service Department has been established and a major development in training under the direction of the new Civil Service College is under way. furthermore, the author presents the limitations to the access of public documents for training and academic purposes.

Public sector commissioning has risen rapidly to prominence as the central mechanism for the ‘purchase’ of services in an increasingly mixed economy of public services in the UK and this has wide-ranging consequences for non-state actors including those in the third sector. Academic consideration of commissioning has been rather fragmented, concerned with particular service fields or sectors. This paper provides an overview, with a focus on the relationship between the state and the third sector. The paper begins by questioning whether commissioning is really ‘new’ or a continuation of existing trends around procurement and contracting and whether it constitutes a genuinely transformative relationship between the state and third sector. It considers some core debates about the likely impact of commissioning on the third sector and its relationship with the state. In doing so, the paper advances two main arguments: that commissioning remains highly fragmented in policy and practice, between different localities and scales of government; and that there is a tension within commissioning policy between the ‘rhetoric’ of the ‘full cycle’ approach based on needs assessment and planning, and what appears to be an emerging reality of resource-constrained, large-scale and Payment by Results-based contracting. These raise real concerns for organizational and service quality outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Regional Studies is the property of Routledge 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.)

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to offer a personal interpretation of the nature and impact of alternative narratives of public management reform evident in the UK since the 1980s. These reforms are examined through the prism of alternative bodies of public management scholarship. They are applied to the specific case of the health care sector as a concrete focus. Design/methodology/approach -- The study is a personal overview of various streams of policy reforms in the UK health care sector and associated public management scholarship. This is an interpretive essay. Findings -- The new of public management remains the dominant reform, narrative and highly embedded, even if dysfunctionally so. Network governance reforms have had some enduring influence. Digital era governance has so far had only weak influence. A reprofessionlisation counter narrative shows variable and oscillating influence. Originality/value -- The study contributes to a developing narrative-based stream in public management scholarship. It also provides a "big picture" assessment of reforming in the UK health care sector since the 1980s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to explain the global, historic context of public administration and the specific British context of teaching and research for public administration. Also, it asks the question, "is twenty-first century public administration still 'fit for purpose?'". Design/methodology/approach -- The paper is a personal reflection on the changes to public administration and management during the twentieth and early part of the twenty-first century, in particular how the UK Learned Society has responded to a number of global, policy and cultural changes. Findings -- The findings demonstrate how the UK Joint University Council (JUC), representing public administration, has responded to changes, in particular to recent forces impacting on HE and training providers. It includes the outcomes of a series of recent UK debates as JUC approaches its 100-year centenary in 2018. It concludes by showing that public administration research, teaching and scholarship are as necessary, if not more so, in 2018. In particular, issues such as accountability, legality, integrity and responsiveness, the overall ethical guidelines are vital for both public and private educational curricula. For either theory building or empirical descriptions, public administration research can still positively contribute to the wider economy. Research limitations/implications -- As a personal reflection, the findings are offered to add to a debate on the future of public administration scholarship in the UK, and much wider afield. Practical implications -- The contents should be of benefit to academics, policy and practitioners in the field of public administration and management. Social implications -- This study has wider societal implications, as all states are facing growing social problems and a need to seek novel ways of delivering public services. Originality/value -- Though the paper is a personal reflection, and may therefore be challenged, it is based on wider literature to support the claims being made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines initiatives in participatory budgeting (PB) in a city in the United Kingdom, a country which is a slow adopter of PB. While there are UK initiatives on PB, these are developmental. Nevertheless, this study underlines the potential of PB in an Anglo-Saxon context. The finance of local government and cities is notoriously opaque. PB has the potential to enhance both democratic accountability and effective city management through transparency. This study reveals a city which is profitably engaged with democratizing its budgetary activities and seeking to achieve greater transparency for its citizens and managers through the modernization of established practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effects of New Public Management reforms on the information infrastructure underpinning the work of public service professionals. Focussing on the case of the British National Health Service (NHS), the paper argues that hospital accounting reforms played a significant role in the emergence of standardised models of clinical practice. The paper moreover argues that, under the label 'care pathways', such standardised models of clinical practice became embedded in the information infrastructure of the NHS and concludes by discussing their implications for the work of doctors and hospital accountants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2010, local authorities in England have experienced an unprecedented reduction in their resourcing at a time when demands on services have risen substantially through social and demographic changes. Faced with such external challenges, various Councils' internal transformations have sought to change the organisation as a system, but also to alter the relationship with the environment. These have clearly been attempts to create viable systems, but have not been explicitly termed as such. This paper outlines a series of transformation interventions that have used the principles of the viable systems model to improve business governance and make evident the criticality of the effective functioning of Systems 2-5 of the viable systems model. The paper also considers why, when such individual transformations have evidentially supported the viability of local authorities, systemic thinking has not yet been embraced by the sector to improve its governing business systems. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on new institutionalist theories to consider how we might characterise the process and outcomes of change occurring in English local government as a result of the UK’s austerity policies. It uses national and local empirical data to argue that changes are best understood as multi-layer processes, whereby radical ‘punctuated’ shifts in national funding can be mitigated to incremental adjustments in service delivery at a local level. However, the paper also suggests that the incremental appearance of change may be temporary, and that diminishing institutional resilience and emergent discursive shifts potentially prefigure a paradigm change in local governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The professionalization of the Top Management Civil Service (TMS) in the Republic of North Macedonia (MK) is one of the key challenges for depoliticization and professionalization of the public administration and a step towards establishing a clear distinction between the political and professional level of management in the selection and appointment of top management civil servants (TMS). The criteria for selection and appointment of senior management officials in MK are not yet based on a merit system, nor on a serious assessment of the professional and managerial capacities of the candidates who should lead the institutions. Regulating this issue through a coherent system will contribute to the modernization of the public sector, strengthening the principles of good governance and management, and restoring the lost trust of citizens in the institutions and the political system. The subject of this research paper are the models of recruitment and selection of TMS, their roles and competencies in Belgium, Portugal and Great Britain, compared to MK. The findings and recommendations arising from this research should contribute to the process of depoliticization and professionalization of the public administration in MK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes a UK polity that is characterized by fragmentation, differentiation, and decentered governance which is evident at multiple layers of public policy and administration. The development of devolved governments as well as ongoing debates around regional and local governance have created increasingly fragmented places. The intensification of policies associated with the new public management has fragmented the provision of public services. And the absence of a common approach to professional development has led to growing fragmentation of public service workers from different professions and sectors. We argue that these trends reflect many of the aspects of an advanced or late‐stage new public governance. This is ripe territory for further research and demonstrates that UK public administration continues to have much to offer to international scholars. It also raises important questions about what forms of public administration might emerge next. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to examine public spending cuts and welfare reforms to assess winners and losers amongst older people, children, young people and families. It proposes ways in which intergenerational fairness could be achieved through taxing wealthier older people. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews and analyses spending and policy plans from 2010 onwards, and draws conclusions. Findings – The paper concludes that children, young people and families are the relative losers of government spending cuts and reforms; older people have been relatively protected; the focus should be on taxing wealthier older people; intergenerational fairness needs to be addressed. Originality/value – Research tends to focus on one age group, so there have not been many studies which contrast the impact of public policy on different age groups. The concept of intergenerational fairness is only beginning to be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The U.K. Whole of Government Account (WGA) has been conceived by the Treasury as having a macro-fiscal role. This WGA is about fiscal transparency at the aggregate level, rather than at a more disaggregated level with regard to public sector decision makers at tiers of government, each with their own chain of accountability. This paper analyses the U.K. conception of the WGA, examining its theoretical background and evolution since the 1995 decision to convert central government accounting from cash to accruals. The definition of the area of consolidation is governed by statute, the declared intention being to align as far as possible with the national accounts definitions that provide the basis for fiscal aggregates, thereby overriding IAS 27. Net liabilities per WGA is mapped in this paper to macro-fiscal aggregates, including public sector net debt (the U.K. preferred measure), general government gross debt (the EU preferred measure) and public sector net worth (national accounts). Conceptually, the WGA measure is situated between net debt (against which only liquid assets are netted) and the long-term cash projections developed by the Treasury. Insights are provided into the damage inflicted on U.K. public finances by a period of over-optimism about fiscal performance and the economy's heavy exposure to the global financial crisis. Fiscal retrenchment in all countries can have a substantial illusory component, as proposals may reduce some measures of deficit and debt at the expense of the public sector balance sheet, to which the WGA draws attention. These measures may include: privatizing state assets; neglecting existing public sector assets; cutting public sector capital expenditure; substituting public-private partnerships for conventional procurement; and posting bills to the future. The U.K. WGA may also institutionalize some protection against accounting arbitrage that distorts policy choices and fiscal reporting. Well-documented reconciliations between figures derived from national accounts and from IFRS-based financial reporting are therefore imperative for fiscal transparency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the manner and extent to which the media and public opinion influenced the US government's and the UK government's reaction to the Y2K computer bug. The data concerning Y2K come largely from primary and secondary government documents and newspaper articles and public opinion polls from the period as well as semi-structured interviews conducted with civil servants, representatives from the IT sector, and IT journalists. The paper concludes that during the early phases of Y2K planning there was anxiety among a professional elite, which included the media, the legislatures, and private industry, and this anxiety influenced the timing and magnitude of both governments' responses. With respect to public opinion, however, the governments were more concerned about shaping it rather than following it. Both governments raised the profile of Y2K as a strategy to minimize the impact of the bug in a complex and interdependent infrastructure. After having raised awareness and anxiety levels for over a year, however, the US government, in particular, was worried that it had done too good a job, and that public overreaction became a distinct possibility. They therefore embarked on a strategy of bringing public anxiety down. As New Year's Day 2000 approached, the governments' Y2K operations were no longer in line with public perception about the risk, but in light of the potential consequences of a public overreaction, this deviation seemed acceptable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper illuminates the recent stages of e-Government facilitation in the UK local authorities and shows how British local authorities are improving their public service delivery and governing in the digital environment on the other side of the Atlantic. It explores congruence between user and provider perspectives on e-Government. Giddens's (1984) dimensions of the “duality of structure” are used as a “sensitising device” to analyse findings from an extensive literature survey, document analysis and semi-structured interviews with e-Government managers, Heads of IS and IS Project Managers. A rich picture is presented of differences between user and provider views. This paper argues for a greater understanding between the views of the providers and the users of technology in e-Government facilitation in local authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Administrative contracts, as a type of contract concluded by the state, not for the purpose of performing its primary functions, but for the purpose of achieving generally useful goals, both for the society and the state, travel a long way from their origin to eventual final acceptance in all legal systems. In this paper, the author explains the administrative contracts in France-the country where the institute "administrative contract" is established, versus the legal systems of Germany and Austria. Even though in the common law countries, such as Great Britain and United States of America the administrative contract is not present as known as in the French legal system, there is a certain type of contract where different rules apply than those of private law and in which one contractual party is a public authority. These contracts in the common law can be found under the name "public contracts", "government contracts" or "state contracts". It is emphasized that the administrative contract does not have to be regulated and legalized in order to function and be legitimate. Emphasis is placed on the legal nature of these contracts and on the similarities and differences that exist in different legal systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]