Promiscuously Partisan? Public Service Impartiality and Responsiveness in Westminster Systems

Public servants in Westminster countries are being drawn into the limelight bydemands from their political masters that they publicly defend policies. Critics suggestthese conditions undermine the capacity and willingness of senior public servants tomanage the enduring Westminster tension between serving elected governments andremaining nonpartisan. Interviews with senior officials from Australia, Canada, andthe United Kingdom challenge this pessimistic view, showing that officials consistentlystress the importance of not “crossing the line” when dealing with their elected masters.Two exploratory case studies are presented—one of an Australian ministerialdepartment (Treasury) and another of a Canadian quasi-autonomous agency (StatisticsCanada)—in which public servants faced pressure to defend controversial governmentpolicies. These cases show how contemporary public servants actively interpret,establish, and defend the line between appropriate responsiveness and inappropriatepartisanship in Westminster systems

Instances and connectors : issues for a second generation process language

This work is supported by UK EPSRC grants GR/L34433 and GR/L32699Over the past decade a variety of process languages have been defined, used and evaluated. It is now possible to consider second generation languages based on this experience. Rather than develop a second generation wish list this position paper explores two issues: instances and connectors. Instances relate to the relationship between a process model as a description and the, possibly multiple, enacting instances which are created from it. Connectors refers to the issue of concurrency control and achieving a higher level of abstraction in how parts of a model interact. We believe that these issues are key to developing systems which can effectively support business processes, and that they have not received sufficient attention within the process modelling community. Through exploring these issues we also illustrate our approach to designing a second generation process language.Postprin

Re-visiting Meltsner: Policy Advice Systems and the Multi-Dimensional Nature of Professional Policy Analysis

10.2139/ssrn.15462511-2

Permanent technological unemployment reconsidered

This thesis consists primarily of a critical review of recent literature on the subject of the employment effects of technological change. The analysis of this literature is derived from a 1942 article by Hans P. Neisser, directed against the orthodox denials of the possibility that technological progress could cause "permanent" or unreabsorbed displacement of labour. Arguments classified under one of the Say's Law, neoclassical, or wage fund schools are examined using the Neisser framework. As a secondary aspect, some elaboration is undertaken of the process by which uncompensated technological unemployment could arise. The main conclusion made is that, in agreement with Neisser's appraisal of the literature of his time, modern economic analysis is not able to refute the theoretical possibility that technological change can lead to the creation of a persistent pool of unemployed labour as outlined a by the Marxian schema

Reform of the global financial architecture and of the role of the international financial institutions

'The recent crises have highlighted the need for a new approach to the governance of the international economic and financial system. Governments must create a broad-based international commission, with a mandate to provide recommendations for establishing an effective international regulatory framework for a new financial order. The international financial institutions must assume the necessary leadership and put forward proposals for a newly regulated international financial system. The IMF and World Bank must make major and concrete steps towards reversing the growing polarisation of wealth and access to resources in the world economy. Social policy guidelines need to be adopted formally as part of IMF/ World Bank policies at all levels. The institutions must include core labour standards, primary education and health-care, social protection systems and gender equality into their strategic approaches: the HIPC Initiative has to be overhauled; debt relief has to be made available to the eligible countries more quickly.' (author's abstract)'Die juengsten Krisen haben die Notwendigkeit eines neuen Steuerungsansatzes im internationalen Wirtschafts- und Finanzsystem offenbart. Die Regierungen muessen eine breit fundierte internationale Kommission berufen, die mit umfassenden Vollmachten ausgestattet einen internationalen Regulierungsrahmen fuer das Finanzsystem erstellt. Die internationalen Finanzinstitutionen muessen nun selbst ihre eigenen Vorstellungen fuer ein reguliertes internationales Finanzsystem entwickeln. Der IWF und die Weltbank sind als Hauptakteure angehalten, die wichtigsten Schritte zur Aufhebung der wachsenden Wohlstandspolarisierung zu unternehmen und zugleich den Zugang zu den wichtigsten Ressourcen in der Weltwirtschaft zu egalisieren. Sozialpolitische Richtlinien als Teil der IMF- und Weltbankpolitik muessen auf allen Ebenen durchgesetzt werden. Arbeitsschutz, Primaerausbildung, Gesundheitsschutz, soziale Sicherungssysteme und die geschlechtliche Gleichstellung sollten in den strategischen Ansaetzen dieser Institutionen integriert werden: die HIPC-Initiative muss sich einer gruendlichen Untersuchung unterziehen; der Schuldenerlass fuer dafuer in Frage kommende Laender muss wesentlich schneller erfolgen.' (Autorenreferat)German title: Die Reform der globalen Finanzarchitektur und die Rolle der internationalen FinanzinstitutionenAvailable from http://library.fes.de/fulltext/iez/00795.htm / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman