bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Management by Groping Along: The Limits of a Metaphor
Authors: STRAUSSMAN JEFFREY D.
Published: March 2005

The usefulness of a management metaphor derived from the analysis of individual public managers is highly sensitive to the specific environments of the managers. This principle is illustrated by analyzing the descriptive utility of one metaphor ‐ “Management By Groping Along” (MBGA) ‐which has gained some currency in the teaching and the practice of public management in the United States. While management metaphors cannot be subjected to strict scientific tests, their explication in different environ‐ments can display the reach (or the limits) of their explanatory power and, ultimately, their prescriptive value. This argument is developed by describing the metaphor of management by groping along and investigating its usefulness in a specific type of environment ‐ one dominated by remedial law. The article shows that rather restrictive conditions are necessary for MBGA to serve as a useful addition to a manager's repertoire in such an environment.
From Sectoral to Macro Green Governance: The Canadian Department of the Environment as an Aspiring Central Agency
Authors: DOERN G. BRUCE
Published: March 2005

Through a case study of the Canadian Department of the Environment, the article examines three conceptual issues involved as governments seek to institutionalize sustainable development concepts and practices into the center of executive decision‐making. The conceptual issues examined in the dynamics of moving from sectoral to macro green governance are: the dynamics of transforming a latent policy paradigm into an operational one; the organizational and concrete resource base needed for environment departments to become and remain a central agency in executive government; and the importance of viable policy communities to sustain new paradigms and make them workable in a day‐to‐day sense. Five practical constraints are also examined in the Canadian context: the different types of decisions and varying statutory capacities involved; the volume of decisions; the relationships with other departments; the need to mobilize and manage the green policy community and network; and the problems of analytical and scientific competence.
External and Domestic Determinants of Education Expansion: How Germany, Japan, and Switzerland Have Varied
Authors: HEIDENHEIMER ARNOLD J.
Published: March 2005

How do economically successful countries like Germany, Japan and Switzerland differ in their post‐primary education policies? After identifying great variations in the structure and capacity of secondary and higher education sectors, explanations are sought in terms of domestic and inter‐national factors. Switzerland and Japan emerge as polar cases in how political variables ‐ such as centralism‐federalism, parties and bureaucracies ‐ affected choice of vehicles and extent of educational expansion. Party influence is most clearcut in Germany, but varies by sector. Whereas German and Japanese reform agendas changed in the aftermath of occupation experiences, Switzerland went its own way until prospects for European integration induced greater accommodation to the training and credential practices of its neighbors.
Statecraft, Social Policy, and Governance in Latin America
Authors: MALLOY JAMES M.
Published: March 2005

This article develops an analytical framework designed to examine social policy as a strategic approach to issues of state‐society relations and the problem of governance in Latin America. It argues that in Latin America and particularly Brazil social protection policy flowed from initiating capacity concentrated originally in the state, and specifically in a techno‐bureaucratic elite connected to a strong executive. The policy, however, produced structures wherein initiative capacity was dispersed into a multiple of intermediate points at the nexus between the state and civil society. This in turn led to an immobilized dissipation of initiative cizpacity in this specific policy area which was symptomatic of, and reinforcing to, a generalized immobilism or power implosion that periodically has gripped these sociopolitical formations, producing shifts from formally democratic to authoritarian regimes and vice versa.
Purchasing Policy Advice: The Limits to Contracting Out
Authors: BOSTON JONATHAN
Published: March 2005

Throughout the OECD, governments have been contracting out an increasing range of goods and services. Against this background, this article outlines the case for, and assesses the merits of, placing the purchase of governmental policy advice on a more competitive basis. Two options are given particular attention: first, the creation of an internal market for policy advice within the public sector under which departments and other government agencies would tender to supply specific policy outputs; and second, a more radical option under which public and private sector organizations would compete for the contracts to supply governmental policy advice. Drawing on the insights of the new institutional economics, it is argued that neither option is likely to enhance the efficiency or effectiveness with which policy advice is produced, whether under conditions of short‐term or long‐term contracting. This is due to the likelihood of: only partial contestability (due, among other things, to asset specificity in the form of transaction‐specific expertise and trust); a greater risk of opportunistic behavior by the suppliers of advice (and also, under some conditions, by the purchasers); higher agency costs and transaction costs; and greater problems with respect to horizontal and vertical policy coordination. Such considerations suggest that the widespread reliance of governments on relatively permanent advisory institutions and in‐house expertise can be explained and justified on the same theoretical grounds that have prompted the contracting out of other publicly‐funded goods and services.
Anticipating Uncertainty: The Strategy‐Structure Problem in Public Bureaucracy
Authors: DESVEAUX JAMES A.
Published: March 2005

The connection between administrative structure and policy strategy for public agencies is neither well understood, nor widely appreciated in political science. Much more emphasis is placed on the structure of linkages between bureaucracies and other political institutions. In this article, 1 advance an argument explaining the importance of strategy in policymaking for public agencies, and demonstrate how the concept needs to be refined in order for it to have meaning for public sector organizations. Strategy is analyzed in terms of two categories of uncertainty: generalized and contingent. Because of the ubiquitousness of generalized uncertainty in public policymaking, developing a capacity for anticipating uncertainty problems is critical in strategy formation. Whether that capacity exists is a function of administrative structure. 1 further present an argument for why structure deserves consideration as a political and technical matter, and not simply as a consequence of political preferences.
Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice: The Case of Administrative Policy
Authors: EGEBERG MORTEN
Published: March 2005

The discipline of public administration could play a more constructive role in the field of administrative policy if the gap between empirical‐theoretical research and the professional role of political scientists in governments were bridged. This article outlines an instrumental or “action‐oriented” model which provides a theoretical framework through which to focus on formal organizational, demographic and physical structures of institutions as the possible instruments, or “steering factors” in organizational design. The model emphasizes empirical observations of the relationships between the instrumental indendent) variables and actual decision behavior (dependent variables). The author draws on studies conducted in the central governments of several countries.
Executive Power and Republican Principles at the Founding of the Fifth Republic
Authors: ROHR JOHN A.
Published: March 2005

This article examines the understanding of executive power in the debates at the founding of the Fifth Republic in 1958. The examination discovered a concept of executive power quite different from the real executive power revealed in the history of the Fifth Republic. The framers of the constitution intended to place the prime minister at the head of the executive power and to shield him from removal by the President of the Republic. The direct election of the president, brought about by the problematic constitutional amendment of 1962, provided the legitimacy for the de facto dominant role of the president apart from the two cohabitation periods.
The Bureaucratic Approach to the Financial Revolution: Japan's Ministry of Finance and Financial System Reform
Authors: VOGEL STEVEN K.
Published: March 2005

While all industrialized countries have enacted financial reforms over the past decade, Japan's Ministry of Finance (MoF) officials have crafted a distinctive approach to reform. They have managed to pursue their own agenda while at the same time responding to international market pressures and domestic political demands. This article examines Japan's “financial system reform,” the process by which the MoF has recast the regulatory barriers between different types of financial institutions, such as banks and securities houses. Financial system reform represents an extreme case of a common Japanese policy pattern—the bureaucratic‐led bargain—in which Japan's bureaucrats, rather than its politicians, organize the bargains that eventually emerge as policy. Two ministry policy councils deliberated for seven years before the Diet passed comprehensive reform legislation in 1992, and the ministry continues to redefine the reform at the stage of implementation today. While MoF officials have been forced to make concessions to industry groups and to adjust to unforeseen developments along the way, they have maintained overall control of the reform process. In fact, this article suggests that they have been remarkably successful in promoting their own peculiar interpretation of the public interest and in preserving and, in some cases, enhancing their own power.
Economic and Political Integration Between the North and South of Ireland
Authors: TEAGUE PAUL
Published: March 2005

A significant coordination deficit exists between the two economies in Ireland, which, if reduced, could bring mutual economic benefits; however, this does not mean that deeper economic integration can be a conduit to the political unification of Ireland. To the extent that economic integration has a political dimension, it should be about reducing the decades of mistrust and even animosity between the two parts of the island.
The Developmental Roles of the State: Moving Beyond the Developmental State in Conceptualizing Asian Political Economies
Authors: CLARK CAL , CHAN STEVE
Published: March 2005

This article examines the role the state has played in the development of a variety of Asian nations through a series of “paired comparisons” to evaluate the model of the developmental state that has become prevalent in the analysis of East Asian political economy. The cases included in the study indicate that neither the state nor the market (as argued by neoclassical economists) can explain developmental outcomes by itself. Too many strong and interventionist states succeeded to gainsay the idea that economic competitiveness can be manipulated. However, the statist faith in strong and autonomous developmental states does not fare very well either. Strong states failed as well as succeeded. In fact, the strongest and most autonomous states may well be in the greatest danger of degeneration because they can resist pressures for change and can use their powers to become a “predator” over society. In addition, quite a few of these mini case studies directly imply that the nature of society is an important variable in deter‐mining how well a political economy operates. Thus, the case for “bringing society back in” appears to be a strong one.
Privatization Within the Chinese State
Authors: KUO CHENG‐TIAN
Published: March 2005

This article suggests that China's public and collective enterprises have contributed to its economic growth and socio‐political stability. The efficiency of these enterprises has been improved not through the privatization of the state (transferring public ownership to private hands) but privatization within the state (decentralization, appropriation, and marketization). This article first provides statistics to juxtapose the growth of the Chinese economy to the continued expansion of public and collective enter‐prises. I t then explains the causes and benefits of privatization within the Chinese state. A case study of privatization within the state in Shanghai City follows. The article concludes that China's economic reform has been a transformation of socialism, not a transition to capitalism, and that it is a less costly but more effective alternative to the privatization of the state approach. The former communist countries in Europe have painfully followed this latter approach and have suffered from its political, social, and economic consequences.
Beyond the Developmental State: The Cultural Roots of “Guerrilla Capitalism” in Taiwan
Authors: LAM DANNY , CLARK CAL
Published: March 2005

This article seeks to contribute to the emerging literature on moving “beyond the developmental state” by tracing the important role of “guerrilla capitalism” in Taiwan's political economy. The success of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with little linkage to the state in Taiwan strongly suggests that more than state leadership must have been involved in the island's “economic miracle.” The SMEs are quite important for the overall economy, especiaiiy the export sector where they have long accounted for more than half of total exports. Their success has resulted from the practice of “guerrilla capitalism” which includes aggressive and even audacious pursuit of business opportunities, extreme flexibility in rapidly filling even small orders, atten tion to quality and design, audacious bidding, participation in complex networks of subcontracting, and only partial observation at best of government regulations and international laws, such as those regarding intellectual property rights. The emergence of guerrilla capifalism, in turn, can be explained by the long‐sfanding challenge in Chinese history to “official” Confucianism by a “heterodox counterculture” that is quite conducive to entrepreneurship and small‐scale business activities.
Innovative Leadership and Policy Change: Lessons From Thatcher
Authors: MOON JEREMY
Published: March 2005

This article employs the concept of Innovative Leadership to challenge the literature on policy change, particularly its skepticism about executive‐led policy innovation. It examines evidence of innovative leadership under the Thatcher governments in the face of the social, governmental, and economic and secular factors normally believed to structure policy choice in democracies. On the basis of this it considers the opportunities/resources available to executives wishing to pursue innovative leadership. The conclusions are qualified by reference to system‐specific and environmental factors which may circumscribe Innovative Leadership.
When Missions Matter: Professional Priorities and the “Stepchild” of Supervisory Programs
Authors: KHADEMIAN ANNE M.
Published: March 2005

If there is a clear bottom line to the literature on political control of the bureaucracy, it is that control is never complete. Principals can be multiple, priorities diverse, preferences for policy incomplete and not articulated, and intentional choice lost in the muddle. Yet as long as bureaucratic studies remain focused upon outside political actors, or at best, the political appointee at the helm of an agency, we will not make many advances in our understanding of important organizational dynamics that act as an independent force upon the phenomenon of bureaucratic behavior. This article suggests a politically cognizant return to the bureaucracy by examining the distinct management efforts of the Fed, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the FDIC to supervise the consumer and civil rights obligations of banks, known collectively as “compliance” obligations. The same mandates, issued and overseen by the same political principals, and implemented within common professional cultures, have been managed in ways that vary in the context of each agency's organizational mission. It is argued that organizational mission provides an empirical link between the priorities and mandates imposed from a system of “overhead democracy,” and the influential priorities of a common professional group (bank examiners) in each of the agencies.
Policy Adoption and the Redefinition of Operating Procedures: Comparison Cases at UMTA
Authors: HOOTON CORNELL G.
Published: March 2005

Political scientists often consider the place of standard operating procedures (SOPS) in shaping bureaucratic responsiveness to “top‐down” direction, but our writing only infrequently considers the processes and ease by which bureaucratic routines, decision standards, and SOPS adjust to produce nm outputs. This article explores the change of routines, decision standards, and SOPs from a behavioral perspective to portray bureaucratic behavior and policy as something other than a static function of extant SOPs or a fully and fluidly malleable function of internal preferences and external incentives. In particular, the role of two organizationally “bottom‐up” factors — careerists' policy approval and their policy‐relevant working schema — are explored to suggest how readily “top‐down” preferences for policy translate into pragmatic working arrangements. The empirical basis for the article is a structured set of cases in the Urban Mass Transportation Administration through the latter 1970s and early 1980s.
Steering at a Distance: A New Paradigm of Public Governance in Dutch Higher Education
Authors: KICKERT WALTER
Published: March 2005

In the 1980s a new concept of government steering was developed at the Dutch ministry of Education and Sciences, called “steering at a distance.” It is a departure from “classical” government steering by means of legislation, prohibitions and regulations and a move towards more autonomy and self‐responsibility for institutions of higher education. This new paradigm of public governance in Dutch higher education represents a drastic change both in a practical sense — the new steering concept has actually been carried out and implemented resulting in major institutional, legal, financial and planning changes — and in the scientific sense. The new concept departs from hierarchical, direct top‐down control. Government is only one of the influencing actors in a complex network of many interrelated, more or less autonomous actors. The new concept contributes to the scientific body of knowledge on steering in complex interorganizational networks.
Erosion and Variety in Pay for High Public Office
Authors: PETERS B. GUY , HOOD CHRISTOPHER
Published: March 2005

Two elements have characterized the rewards for public officials in the past two decades. One is the erosion of pay and perquisites in many democratic countries. The other is a continuing variety of rewards, especially when compared to those in the private sector. Using data from a variety of OECD countries and the European Union, this article investigates alternative explanations for these two elements. The data is adjusted for purchasing power of the different currencies and then related to the relative wealth of the countries. We find that ideas, interests and institutions all have some explanatory power, but that none is sufficient by itself to explain either variety or erosion in pay across the range of countries. The policy implications of these findings, in terms of both “how” and “how much” public officials should be paid, are also examined.
A Political‐Institutional Framework for the Analysis of Competition Policy Institutions
Authors: DOERN G. BRUCE
Published: March 2005

The article presents an eight‐point analytical framework for the examination of key political‐institutional aspects of the functioning of national competition policy institutions. These are assessed against the competition policy regimes of the EC, UK, Germany, and, to a lesser extent, the US. Each element represents an aspect or institutional arena in which there is potential andlor actual room for the exercise of political influence and power in an increasingly important realm of micro‐economic governance. Such political arenas and channels are woven in and around a set of competition authorities in each county or jurisdiction otherwise primarily attempting to apply economic analysis to numerous specific case decisions. The eight elements of the framework are: 1) the use of explicit non‐competition criteria that can be taken into account by competition authorities; 2) ranges of, and opportunities for, ministerial discretion; 3) intra‐cabinet and intra‐govern‐mental pressures from other ministers and departments and their political clientele interests; 4) direct hearings or avenues for direct representation and pressure by interests; 5) opportunities for private legal action; 6) processes for giving comfort or guidance letters to private parties; 7) vehicles for pressure and political learning through studies, media exposure, and public persuasion; and 8) the extent to which “one‐stop” versus multi‐sector competition institutions exist and can be played off one another.
Privatization in Central Europe: The Case of Housing Policy in Hungary
Authors: FABIAN KATALIN
Published: March 2005

Policymakers in Central and Eastern Europe are encountering difficulties in resolving the clash between market efficiency and distributional equity. A similar tension characterized post‐war Western Europe. However, in Central and Eastern Europe expectations emanating from the previous regime presume that distributional equity will compensate for the lack of market efficiency. The possible resolution of this tension is discussed in the context of the privatization in Hungary.
Lessons for the Study of Policy Implementation: Project Renewal in Israel
Authors: LAZIN FRED A.
Published: March 2005

This article attempts to clarify some of the issues in the debate over the study of policy implementation, in particular the disagreements between proponents of the top‐down versus bottom‐up approaches. It proposes use of a modified top‐down perspective which bridges the assumed dichotomy between policy formulation, enactment, and an implementation process and addresses many of the concerns of the bottom‐up research strategy. This new perspective portrays implementation as part of a single ongoing process in which policy is formulated, enacted and continually readjusted and adapted before and after implementation at the local level.

The article is based on an analysis of the findings of a case study of the implementation of Israel's Project Renewal, a comprehensive community renewal and development program – a hybrid resembling the American Urban Renewal, Model Cities and the War on Poverty programs. Rather than evaluate the success of this Israeli program, the intent here is to ask what the research findings teach about the study of policy implementation.
Development Programs in Bangladesh: Hardware versus Software
Authors: HUQUE AHMED SHAFIQUL
Published: March 2005

Development programs in Bangladesh have been affected in the past by unequal emphasis on infrastructure and people‐building. Some programs emphasize the hardware of development, which provides physical facilities that are supposed to make life more comfortable for rural citizens. The hardware must be supplemented by software, which will enable rural inhabitants to make optimum utilization of physical facilities. This important aspect has been neglected in the past, although some programs made halfhearted attempts to provide education and health‐care training to the rural poor. The recent proliferation of non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) in Bangladesh has been beneficial in the sense that the software component of development is receiving more attention, and programs are now being designed with the assumption that the software of development is the most crucial element for success.
Health Care Reform in Britain and Germany: Recasting the Political Bargain with the Medical Profession
Authors: GIAIMO SUSAN
Published: March 2005

Health care systems in the postwar period have been governed by political bargains between the state and the medical profession that have delinzated their respective powers and jurisdictions. Recent health care cost containment reforms in Britain and Germany are altering these bargains, and thereby challenge the prerogatives and autonomy of the medical profession in health policy formulation and in administration of the health care systems. But these challenges to doctors' power and autonomy vary between the two countries. Britain's 1989 “internal market” reforms attack the corporatist bargain with physicians by introducing market mechanisms into the National Health Service and, at the same time, strengthening central state control of the health care system. In Germany, on the other hand, the government's 1992 reforms only partially breached the corporatist bargain with doctors in order to strengthen rather than destroy this governance arrangement. The government has tried to curb what it views as excessive power of doctors while still allowing them a significant degree of corporatist self‐governance. The reform efforts in both countries highlight some of the problems with different governance arrangements in health care systems and, more specifically, the difficulties associated with a market in health care.
The State as Architect of Political Order: Policy Dynamics in German Health Care
Authors: DÖHLER MARIAN
Published: March 2005

The focus of this article is on the state as an actor that can create, rearrange or even destroy established structures of interest representation. Through small, often almost overlooked, and sometimes even failed interventions, governmental policies create a legacy that can serve as a springboard for further political action. This policy dynamic is triggered by “architectural” activities of the state, aiming at the structure of the interest group system. This kind of policy bears the potential not only to manipulate the structure, but also the preferences and strategies of interest groups so as to overcome their veto‐power. The case of German health care reform policies since the late 1970s is used to illustrate how suck a kind of governmental “design” has exerted a decisive impact on the structure of the policy field, culminating in an unexpected legislative success for the federal government.1
Does Reinvention Need Reinvention? Lessons from Tmncated Managerialism in Britain
Authors: CAMPBELL COLIN
Published: March 2005

Since the 1970s, reformers have pressed innovation in Whitehall management. However, the reinvention efforts by both the Thatcher and Major governments under the banners of public choice and managerialism have led the reform movement to a dead end. Using interviews ranging from 1978 to 1993 and drawing upon the works of public management theorists, this article analyzes the obstacles to reinventing government in the UK. Namely, the politicization of the process coupled with HM Treasuy's stronghold on expenditures has limited managerial discretion and built mistrust of veforms among civil servants. Rather than creating an environment conducive to innovations in public management, the UKs efforts have deepened the divide between policymakers and administrators.
Administrative Accountability in the ‘Westminster’ Democracies: Towards a New Conceptual Framework
Authors: STONE BRUCE
Published: March 2005

Understandings of administrative accountability in the “Westminster” democracies remain too closely linked to the institutional arrangements through which accountability has traditionally been exacted in these countries. This has prevented a full appreciation of the nature and extent of changes which have been under way for some time. The article argues that a refined concept of accountability and five subordinate “conceptions” of accountability, corresponding to distinctive sets of institutional arrangements, are needed to comprehend the relevant changes. The identification of multiple options for administrative accountability, in turn, raises questions about how the different accountability systems are to be chosen and combined to maximize accountability without impairing administrative effectiveness.
Using Non‐Governmental Resources to Foster Regulatory Compliance
Authors: GRABOSKY PETER N.
Published: March 2005

This article explores means by which non‐governmental institutions and resources, both commercial and voluntay, may be enlisted in the interest of regulatory compliance. Following a discussion of non‐governmental social control, it reviews the basic institutional forms of indirect governance through which third‐party “co‐production” of compliance might occur. It then discusses the basic issues which arise when certain public functions are delegated to or devolve upon private interests, and suggests safeguards which might be put in place to enhance the advantages and to minimize the adverse consequences of such devolution. The conclusion seeks to articulate basic principles for the mobilization of third parties in furtherance of compliance, and to encourage the idea of a more participative regulatoy process.
Management Reform: Some Practitioner Perspectives on the Past Ten Years
Authors: HOLMES MALCOLM , SHAND DAVID
Published: March 2005

This article is an analysis and description of public sector management changes in developed economies over the past 10 years as seen from the perspective of two practitioners who regard themselves as general supporters of the new “managerialism” and are strong believers in the need for, and possibility of, well‐performing public institutions and organizations. We aim to describe what we think the changes are, or should have been about, and to suggest where the successes and failures have occurred. In doing so, we draw on the analysis and description of these changes by a number of prominent academics. Not surprisingly, we differ from them in a number of respects. In some of the detail, we have more to say about Australia than other countries. This reflects our involvement in the reform program of that county as well as our view that Australian reform efforts, despite their flaws, are of particular interest because of the attention they paid to the linkages between policymaking at the center, the systems, processes and structures that support strategic policymaking and the translation of strategic policy into efficient and effective implementation, including effective provision of goods and services to the community.
The Decline of the Swedish Model
Authors: LANE JAN‐ERIK
Published: March 2005

The international literature on the Swedish model has failed to realize the severity of its economic crisis. The Swedish malaise is entirely home‐made and started much earlier than international commentators realized. The sharp downturn in the performance of the public and private sectors in Sweden is a result of the overemphasis on the public sector, upsetting the earlier established balance between markets and politics. Since 1975 Sweden has been ruled by a distributional coalition that has not yet provided reforms that can take the country out of its economic difficulties.
Public Interest Groups in France and the United States
Authors: BAUMGARTNER FRANK R.
Published: March 2005

This article compares the strength, history, and characteristics of public interest groups in the United States and France. French and American public interest groups differ dramatically in their resources, popular support, and in their relations with state agencies. French groups, dependent on a more powerful central state bureaucracy, are often able to achieve their goals by having them adopted by state elites. American organizations, faced with a more diffuse public sector, seek broader access and use a greater diversity of means of influence. They are often less influential, but paradoxically are stronger organizationally because they are forced to be independent from the state. The differing relations with the state explain the different tactics and organizational maintenance strategies pursued by public interest groups in the two countries. Tight links bind the development of a nation's interest‐group system with that of its constitutional structures. An explanation of a national interest‐group system must include consideration of the institutional context within which it operates.
Inside Moves and Outside Views: An Australian Case Study of Elite and Public Perceptions of Political Corruption
Authors: JACKSON MICHAEL , SMITH RODNEY
Published: March 2005

The search for a definition of political corruption that adequately captures the nuances of governmental activity has been a long one. This article defends social or attitudinal definitions of corruption against some recent criticisms. It examines the value of Arnold Heidenheimer's widely cited distinctions among “black,”“gray,” and “white” corruption using empirical evidence from an interview study of over 100 Australian politicians and 500 voters. The results show that the broad dimensions of corruption — the official, the donor, the payoff, and the favor — identified by John Peters and Susan Welch affect the views of both politicians and voters alike.

Nonetheless, elites and the public come to judgments from different perspectives, and they judge some acts differently. Put another way, some corruption is gray. Politicians judge actions more subtly than do voters, who are more likely to see corruption in all acts. As Michael Johnston has suggested, the different experiences of political insiders and outsiders explain this disparity in their moral outlooks. Insiders are socialized to see at least some actions as functional and therefore not corrupt. Outsiders, unaware of the insiders' rules, tend to judge political action by moral absolutes. Thus the structure of liberal democratic government contributes to conflicting elite and public views of political right and wrong.
The Public/Private Cleavage in a Welfare State: Attitudes Toward Public Management Reform
Authors: WISE LOIS RECASCINO , SZÜCS STEFAN
Published: March 2005

This study contributes to the growing literature on differences in attitudes between public and private sector employees, particularly with respect to their receptivity or resistance to public management reforms. We begin by asking the question: to what degree does perceived self‐interest play a role in accounting for attitudes toward public management reforms such as downsizing, privatization, and public spending? Using attitudinal data from Sweden, a social welfare state with a large public bureaucracy, a tension is observed both among public employees in different levels of government and between public and private sector employees. In the context of public management reforms, national government employees emerge as more right‐leaning politically and more supportive of public management reforms than those working in local government. The analysis finds, particularly among national government employees, that while interest as measured here is strongly related to attitudes toward reform, status as a public employee and status as a public bureaucrat are not as significant as other components of interest in accounting for attitudes toward public management reform.
Institutional Perspectives on Political Institutions
Authors: MARCH JAMES G. , OLSEN JOHAN P.
Published: March 2005

This article examines some basic assumptions about the nature of political institutions, the ways in which practices and rules that comprise institutions are established, sustained, and transformed, and the ways in which those practices and rules are converted into political behavior through the mediation of interpretation and capability. We discuss an institutional approach to political life that emphasizes the endogenous nature and social construction of political institutions, identities, accounts, and capabilities.
Regulatory Competition and the Politics of Financial Market Reform in Britain and Japan
Authors: LAURENCE HENRY
Published: March 2005

This article examines the impact that the internationalization of jnance has had on the regulation of domestic securities markets in Japan and Britain. In particular, it seeks to explain the apparent incompatibility of two distinct trends: deregulation (and state retreat) on the one hand, and increased regulation and state involvement in markets on the other.

Much of the literature about the efects of internationalization on domestic policymaking has drfjculty explaining these two distinct regulatory frends. First, there has been no uniform “competition in regulatory laxity.” Second, the United States does not appear to have exerted hegemonic influence over outcomes. Finally, domestic‐level explanations which deny the importance of systemic‐level influences on domestic policy choices are unable to explain the similarity of policy choices undertaken by governments with very different regulatory traditions.

I argue instead that regulatory reforms have been undertaken primarily for the benefit of a particular set of private economic actors—mobile consumers of financial services, including both holders of liquid investment capital and large multinational borrowers. Internationalization has systematically strengthened their influence over the policymaking process by making “exit” from one political marketplace to another a more realistic and more potent bargaining strategy than the alternative of exercising “voice.”
French Center‐Periphery Relations and Science Park Development: Local Policy Initiatives and Intergovernmental Policymaking
Authors: EBERLEIN BURKARD
Published: March 2005

This article focuses on new patterns of territorial governance in the aftermath of the 1982 decentralization reforms in France. The traditional “cross regulation” model developed by the Crozier school is wrong to assume culturally grounded stalemate and to suggest that local political power is nothing more than the informal access of local elites to national policymaking. Analyzing the policy of technopoles or science park development, both nationally and by way of detailed local case studies of Montpellier and Rennes, we demonstrate that, on the contray, French local and regional authorities have risen progressively to independent loci of governmental power and policymaking. Local policy initiatives are, however, embedded in a multi‐level institutional fabric ranging from the local to the European level. These developments in center‐periphery relations need to be placed into the context of the general decline of the traditional French public policy model, which has been stiffly challenged by the norms of market, Europe and subsidiarity. In conclusion, a comparative and interorganizational perspective suggests that France is moving toward a territorial system increasingly characterized by the dynamics of intergovernmental conflict and cooperation and best described as “quasi‐federalism in unitary disguise.”
The Decline of Traditional State Dirigisme in France: The Transformation of Political Economic Policies and Policymaking Processes
Authors: SCHMIDT VMEN A.
Published: March 2005

During the Mitterrand years, successive governments' policies of deregulation and privatization have progressively deprived the state of many of its traditional interventionist instruments. As a result of this, as well as of the internationalization of world trade and the economic integration of Europe, French business has become more independent of the state as well as more interdependent. With these changes in both business and government have come a concomitant transformation in French policymaking processes, such that the traditionally heroic government policies formulated absent business input have been succeeded by more everyday ones, where business for the most part leads and government follows.
The New Institutionalism and EC Governance: The Promise and Limits of Institutional Analysis
Authors: POLLACK MARK A.
Published: March 2005

The “new” institutionalisms” in rational choice and historical analysis are being applied with increasing sophistication and accuracy to the study of European Community governance. The basic premise of such institutional approaches is that EC institutions, once created, “take on a life of their own,” acting as independent or intervening variables between the preferences and power of the member governments on the one hand, and the ultimate policy outputs of EC governance on the other. The challenge for institutionalist theory consists in constructing a precise analytical tool‐box that will allow us to make specific predictions about the ways in which, and the conditions under which, EC institutions may exert such an independent causal influence. EC institutions matter, I suggest, insofar as they: lend stability to an existing institutional structure; shape any subsequent amendment of those institutions; allow individual member governments to be outvoted by qualified majority; cause member states to lose control of events through lock‐ins; and subject member governments to the actions of supranational agents whose behavior they can control only imperfectly.
The information needs of perioperative staff: a preparatory study for a proposed specialist library for theatres (NeLH)
Authors: Nicholas David , Williams Peter , Smith Andrew , Longbottom Paul
Published: March 2005

Aims/objectives:  To undertake an information‐needs analysis of operating theatre staff in order to inform the development of a specialist library of the National Electronic Library of Health (NeLH).

Setting:  Three hospitals in an NHS Trust in a rural county in the north of England.

Methods:  In‐depth interviews, during which staff were questioned in regard to their job roles and information needs, information‐seeking behaviour, access to computers, use and perceptions of the NeLH, and what they would like from a specialist library.

Results:  Information needs were found to concern direct care, professional and academic development, medical devices knowledge and administration. Currency and speed of delivery were the key information requirements. Poor communication appeared to be a major problem for many staff and inhibited efficient information exchange. When using the Web, both clinical and non‐clinical staff searched in a similar fashion to health consumers generally, despite their need for highly specialist information. Most respondents reacted warmly to the idea of the proposed National Electronic Library for Theatre Staff (NeLTS) and made several practical suggestions for suitable material. However, access was problematic for nurses and might prove to be an obstacle to take‐up of the Specialist Library.

Conclusions:  Communication difficulties, the fragmentation of data in the field and the consequent difficulties of finding information point to the need for an NeLTS. However, for this library to embrace and succeed with all the various groups that constitute the operating theatre staff, issues of access and digital literacy need to be addressed.
The value and impact of information provided through library services for patient care: a systematic review
Authors: Weightman Alison L. , Williamson Jane
Published: March 2005

Objective:  An updated systematic review was carried out of research studies looking at the value and impact of library services on health outcomes for patients and time saved by health professionals.

Methods:  A comprehensive systematic search was undertaken of the published literature to September 2003 in eric, lisa, medline, premedline, embase, the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register and Google. Some handsearching was carried out, reference lists were scanned and experts in the field were contacted. Twenty‐eight research studies of professionally led libraries for health‐care staff, including clinical librarian projects, met the inclusion criterion of at least one health or ‘time saved’ outcome. Papers were critically appraised using internationally accepted criteria. Data were extracted and results were summarised using a narrative format as the studies were heterogeneous and precluded a statistical analysis.

Results:  There is evidence of impact from both traditional and clinical librarian services. The higher quality studies of traditional services measured impacts of 37–97% on general patient care, 10–31% on diagnosis, 20–51% on choice of tests, 27–45% on choice of therapy and 10–19% on reduced length of stay. Four studies of clinical librarian projects suggested that professionals saved time as a result of clinical librarian input, and two of these studies showed evidence of cost‐effectiveness. However, the clinical librarian studies were generally smaller, with poorer quality standards.

Conclusions:  Research studies suggest that professionally led library services have an impact on health outcomes for patients and may lead to time savings for health‐care professionals. The available studies vary greatly in quality but the better quality studies also suggest positive impacts. Good practice can be gathered from these studies to guide the development of a pragmatic survey for library services that includes the direct effects for patients among the outcome measures.
Rhetoric, ethics and reading in the Renaissance1
Authors: Mack Peter
Published: March 2005

In the Renaissance, and particularly in Renaissance practices of reading, ethics and rhetoric worked together. Rhetorical techniques practised in the grammar school enabled Erasmus, Montaigne and Shakespeare to question moral commonplaces and develop new ethical perspectives.
The gossiping tongue: oral networks, public life and political culture in early modern Venice*
Authors: Horodowich Elizabeth
Published: March 2005

Despite the fact that historians regularly acknowledge the persistence of oral culture in the early modern world, few studies have actually examined how orality, language, and popular speech functioned on a daily basis. This article considers gossip in sixteenth‐century Venice. While prescriptive literature from the period unanimously suggested that women were the main practitioners of the disruptive speech of gossip, a close look at trials from the court of the Holy Office reveal that the gender com‐ponent of gossip was inherently unstable. Gossip was undoubtedly a weapon of the weak ‐ especially the underclasses and women ‐ who employed its words to gain a level of power not so easily available in the larger city space or through traditional political or legal channels. However, men also gossiped to patrol their neighbour‐hoods and workplaces and to direct the outcome of civil politics themselves. Venetian court cases, chronicles broglio legislation, and legal texts all demonstrate that while gossip at times threatened civic peace, it also potentially contributed to Venetian civic stability.