Politics, Administration and Performance: A continuing search, but no one best way?

Introduction: I have been tasked with the following question: how do relations between politics and administration shift when performance-improving reforms are introduced? As always, there is more than one way of interpreting the question, and of trying to answer. There are also strong normative aspects – for example, who should lead performance reforms, politicians or administrators? I will address this complexity by offering a number of different perspectives on performance management, and by making copius references to relevant work by scholars in many countries. Thus, for example, I will look at what we know of past performance-oriented reforms; at why a particular reform may work well in one context but not in another; at how relations between politicians and administrators have been shifting over the past few decades, and at what impacts current conditions of austerity may be having on these key relationships. Throughout I will also be emphasizing a paradox – that we have a huge literature on these issues, and yet this mountain of words leaves us without any clear or sure general answer. I attempt to show why generalisations are so difficult, and what kind of answers we may be able to develope once we abandon the perenially seductive idea that there is, if only we can find it, ’one best way’

Back in the OECD...an oblique comment on the World Bank's "Better results from public sector institutions

Most of my thinking and experience has been focused on the developed world, rather than developing countries. Thus I bring an outsider’s perspective to the World Bank’s 2012 document, Better results from public institutions. I am grateful to Nick Manning and Willy McCourt for their invitation to peer over one of the many walls which subdivide the territory of public administration, Since at least the 1950s ‘development administration’ has been a separate academic subfield; one often characterised, tightly or loosely, explicitly or implicitly, with the notion that its mission is to export the good practices of the developed world to replace the bad practices of the underdeveloped one. It is easy to understand why this should appear to be a core mission

The magic of good governance

__Abstract__ Governance is a widely used concept, in both the study and practice of public administration. Particularly in conjunction with the adjective good it serves as a normative standard against which the actual situation in countries across the world is claimed to be measured. In analytical terms, however, the concept shows shortcomings. It is, for instance, broad, and seems to imply or suggest consensus and uniformity. Yet these characteristics hardly seem to hinder an almost universal appeal and a widespread usage. Governance appears to function as a ‘magic concept’. Therefore, before it can be used in theory and research, considerable specification and elaboration are needed. At the same time its ‘magic’ character does make it useful, particularly in a rhetorical sense

NPM Can Work: An optimistic review of the impact of New Public Management reforms in central and eastern Europe

This article reviews the New Public Management (NPM) literature in central and eastern Europe (CEE) with the aim of assessing whether reforms have 'worked'. Increasingly, academics have tended to argue against the suitability of NPM instruments in this region. To understand the impact of this much-debated policy, we first propose a classification of the impacts of NPM geared to the realities of central and eastern European states. Then, we use this classification to carefully review empirical studies across the region over the past 10 years. Unlike much of the recent academic literature, we suggest that NPM can work. NPM policy has not always been successful to the extent expected and promoted, but there is enough evidence to show that some of the central ideas in NPM have led to improvements in public service organization or provision across different organizational settings. An adequate degree of administrative capacity, sustained reform over time and a 'fitting context' are the main factors that can tip the scale for the success of these management instruments. The article provides a fresh and transparent assessment of a major administrative development in a growing region with implications for other parts of the world that experience similar challenges and opportunities

Reformas da gestão pública: a experiência internacional pode ser transferida?

Neste documento, quero me remeter a algumas questões fundamentais ligadas à natureza do conhecimento sobre a reforma da administração pública. Meu argumento principal será o de que, em geral, o conhecimento do que funciona e do que não funciona depende muito do contexto. Isso implica dizer que uma técnica ou estrutura organizacional bem-sucedida em um local pode fracassar em outro. Assim, não existem instrumentos genéricos que possamos transferir de um local para outro, em qualquer lugar do mundo, com a confiança de que eles sempre funcionarão. Isso significa que devemos examinar cuidadosamente os contextos, como também os “termos do intercâmbio”, cada vez que considerarmos tomar emprestada uma boa idéia gerencial de outro lugar.Seminários Internacionais: a nova gestão em debate23 páginasGestão Públic

Who are we, what are we doing, where are we going? A Perspective on the Academic Performance Management Community

Már legalább három évtized telt el azóta, hogy elkezdtek megjelenni azok az írások a közszolgálattal foglalkozó, európai és észak-amerikai könyvekben és tudományos folyóiratokban, amelyek a teljesítmény-indikátorokkal és a teljesítmény- menedzsmentel foglalkoztak. A kormányzati teljesítménnyel kapcsolatos gyakorlati problémák legalább olyan régiek, mint a kormányzás maga, de az öntudatos „szakértők” kölcsönösen kommunikáló közössége ebben a tárgykörben legfeljebb egy vagy két generációra tekinthet vissza. Ma a közszolgálati szektor teljesítményével foglalkozó szakirodalom az Atlanti-óceán mindkét partján virágzik. Az érdeklődés mértéke és ideje alapján hasznosnak tűnik az áttekintés, amire ez a tanulmány vállalkozik

New Public Management in Europe

New Public Management (NPM) is the label which many academics have given to a series of reforms from the 1980s onwards, to improve the efficiency and performance of western governments and/or public sector organizations. Examples are the development of performance indicators and benchmarking, personnel reforms aimed at ‘normalising’ public sector employment on private sector models, placing executive bodies at arms’ length from ministries, establishing public private partnerships and introducing new management techniques and instruments. Continental European governments have adapted and re-interpreted many of the Anglo-American ideas underpinning the NPM, to adjust them to their own national politico-administrative contexts. As a consequence, reforms of the public sector may have the same labels in different countries but need not be the same in practice or in meaning; there is both convergence and divergence

Agentschappen en de verzelfstandigingsparadox

Verzelfstandiging van overheidsorganisaties leidt tot een paradox. Enerzijds krijgen de organisaties meer zelfstandi

Toll-like receptor and pro-inflammatory cytokine expression during prolonged hyperinsulinaemia in horses: Implications for laminitis

Equine laminitis, a disease of the lamellar structure of the horse’s hoof, can be incited by numerous factors that include inflammatory and metabolic aetiologies. However, the role of inflammation in hyperinsulinaemic laminitis has not been adequately defined. Tolllike receptor (TLR) activation results in up-regulation of inflammatory pathways and the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines, including interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-�), and may be a pathogenic factor in laminitis. The aim of this study was to determine whether TLR4 expression and subsequent pro-inflammatory cytokine production is increased in lamellae and skeletal muscle during equine hyperinsulinaemia. Standardbred horses were treated with either a prolonged, euglycaemic hyperinsulinaemic clamp (p-EHC) or a prolonged, glucose infusion (p-GI), which induced marked and moderate hyperinsulinaemia, respectively. Age-matched control horses were treated simultaneously with a balanced electrolyte solution. Treated horses developed clinical (p-EHC) or subclinical (p-GI) laminitis, whereas controls did not. Skeletal muscle and lamellar protein extracts were analysed by Western blotting for TLR4, IL-6, TNF-� and suppressor of cytokine signalling 3 (SOCS3) expression. Lamellar protein expression of TLR4 and TNF-�, but not IL-6, was increased by the p-EHC, compared to control horses. A significant positive correlation was found between lamellar TLR4 and SOCS3. Skeletal muscle protein expression of TLR4 signalling parameters did not differ between control and p-EHC-treated horses. Similarly, the p-GI did not result in up-regulation of lamellar protein expression of any parameter. The results suggest that insulin-sensitive tissues may not accurately reflect lamellar pathology during hyperinsulinaemia. While TLR4 is present in the lamellae, its activation appears unlikely to contribute significantly to the developmental pathogenesis of hyperinsulinaemic laminitis. However, inflammation may have a role to play in the later stages (e.g., repair or remodelling) of the disease