bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The “Government Should Run Like a Business” Mantra
Authors: Beckett Julia
Published: July 2003

The common phrase, government should run like a business evokes powerful ideas: It is a mantra. This article considers the layers of connotation contained in this mantra, noting first that comparisons between government and business is a classic and constant theme in public administration. In recent literature, the theme and focus of business-government comparisons has shifted to modeling government after the market ideas of business. This article adds to this discussion by considering formal constitutive factors present in three basic business forms—the sole proprietor, the partnership, and the corporation. The article further asks whether any of these business forms provides useful models for government. A fundamental concern is conceptualizing government within the context of America’s business mythology that echoes in the mantra, “government should run like a business.”
Nonvirtue is Not Apathy
Authors: Patterson Patricia M.
Published: July 2003

The author argues that conditions of subordination limit opportunities for citizen participation and discourse and alter the forms and meanings of each. In her view, open participation in the forms recognized as conventional, virtuous, and authentic is often neither possible nor wise. The author offers James Scott’s work as a potential rejoinder to those who would require virtue of the nonapathetic and as an answer to Fox and Miller’s question, “Why bother attending a discourse where claims are as likely to be counterfeit as authentic?” Using Scott’s analysis of hidden transcripts as a point of theoretical departure, the author explores the impact of Fox and Miller’s warrants for discourse on perceptions of participation and dissent. She suggests that to be more fully inclusive, theorists might reconceptualize the ends of deliberative discourse and reconsider the place of Habermasian warrants in achieving them.
Participative Democracy and the Transformation of the Citizen
Authors: Scott Frank E.
Published: July 2003

When understood as a public act of participation rather than solely as a private act of voting, political activity may be regarded either as an instrumental process in the pursuit of public ends or as a transformative process that fosters citizen development. In seeking to develop a discursive theory of governance, Fox and Miller have built especially on the notions of participative political process developed by Jürgen Habermas but, although they reject Habermas’s grounding in foundational moral principles, they have largely retained his emphases on both rational procedure and instrumental pursuit. Drawing on intersections of feminist, postmodernist, and critical ideas around the nature of the moral experience, this article seeks to envision an alternative notion of public sphere discourse, one grounded less in the rationality of argumentation and more in the nonrationality of human relationship.
Talking Beyond the Rational
Authors: King Cheryl Simrell
Published: July 2003

Although discourse theorists have deconstructed Western rationality and rejected objectivism and analytical means, the critique of the rational in discourse theories often does not go far enough. Discourse theories that remain wedded to instrumental action (good means ensure good ends) and continue to ignore the nonrational (emotions, bias, ideology, money, or power) do not offer a vision of public space that is open and inclusive. An alternative theoretical perspective of associational discursive space is offered here, a perspective grounded in feminist ethics and in a reformulation of Hannah Arendt’s notion of agonistic tension. In associational discursive space, storytelling and narrative theory substitute for rational argumentation and rational theory and allow us to talk with one another beyond the rational.
State Regulatory Principals and Local Bureaucratic Agents
Authors: Rasmussen Thomas H.
Published: July 2003

Regulatory agencies often delegate responsibility for implementing policy to agencies at lower levels of government. This article models strategic bargaining between New York State regulatory principals at the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and county landfill agents as an iterated prisoner’s dilemma game. Data are drawn from regional DEC and county records over a 7-year period. Local regulatory agents balance local political pressures, career aspirations, and the probability of being caught and punished in deciding whether to cooperate or defect with regional DEC regulators. Regional DEC regulatory principals balance their support from governor and legislature, the importance of the regulatory issue, and the constraints of scarce resources in deciding whether to cooperate or defect with local landfill operators.
The Drought Policy Bureaucracy, Decentralization, and Policy Networks in Post-Apartheid Namibia
Authors: Forrest Joshua Bernard
Published: July 2003

In Namibia in 1990, apartheid was ended, and a democratic form of government was installed; 2 years later, the national government established a system of partially decentralized regional governments. At the same time, the government reacted to the severe drought of 1992 by instituting a national drought relief bureaucracy with particular attention to the predominantly Black African communal areas, which incorporated the new regional councils. This, in turn, created the opportunity for those councils to serve as organizational nodes within widening policy and informational networks related to the drought relief process. These networks incorporated village leaders, ministry officials, and the regional councillors and helped to assure the effective implementation of the drought relief program. This suggests a strong (although not determining) link between informational networks and policy outcomes. This article also makes clear that provided sufficient behavioral responsibility, subnational governmental bodies can play crucial roles in drought relief processes in developing-world settings.
Mexican Local Governance in Transition
Authors: Cabrero-Mendoza Enrique
Published: July 2003

Important innovations have recently democratized local government in Mexico and improved its performance. These include changes in mayors’ leadership style, broader citizen participation, and improved intergovernmental relations and public management systems. But these changes have not come easily. This article analyzes obstacles to institutionalizing changes, presents the negative effects of some new public management-based reforms, and analyzes the paradoxes that accompany this transition from autocracy to the current “limited democratization.”
Sustainability and Public Management Reform
Authors: Romero-Lankao Patricia
Published: July 2003

Mexico’s efforts to develop and implement environmental policy face two critical challenges: (a) underlying but predictable difficulties in defining the concept of sustainable development and (b) fundamental organizational difficulties associated with public management reform within the responsible agency, the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources, and Fisheries of Mexico (SEMARNAP). This article examines these difficulties conceptually, traces their operational impact within SEMARNAP, and offers some recommendations intended to increase the effectiveness of Mexican environmental policy.
Challenges for the New Public Management
Authors: Arellano-Gault David
Published: July 2003

In developed countries, new public management (NPM) is typically used to improve existing institutions democratically where the bureaucracy is already controlled through agencies and institutions. However, in Mexico, it is being used as a top-down reform strategy where solid institutional frameworks, rule of law, checks and balances, civil service system, and accountability systems are all absent or ineffective. In the absence of robust institutions for administrative control and oversight, this use of NPM reform strategies faces two basic dangers: (a) overrelying on techniques over substantive reform and (b) underestimating the difficulty of changing the existing bureaucratic culture. Given the current political and institutional situation in Mexico, the most probable outcome of implementing NPM ideas is symbolic rather than actual change. That is, government is most likely to implement reengineering teams but to render them ineffective by retaining the existing vertical and authoritarian structure and culture. A case study evaluating Mexico City’s NPM-based administrative reform program is used to support these conclusions.
Prescriptions for Public-Sector Information Management
Authors: Rocheleau Bruce
Published: July 2003

This article reviews, analyzes, and assesses prescriptions for public-sector management of information technology (IT). It draws on four sources of such prescriptions: (a) the best-practices literature, based primarily on expert opinion and focused on managerial processes; (b) the empirical IT research literature, based primarily on quantitative analyses of the IT function; (c) benchmarks (the attempt to develop objective measures of the success of IT in public-sector organizations); and (d) the problem/disaster literature, based primarily on analyses of problems and disasters that have occurred in public-sector IT systems. The best-practices literature offers guidance, but the prescriptions are too general, and the methods for identifying best practices need expansion. The empirical literature is valuable and can provide prescriptions for specific technological questions, but the body of research is too sparse and offers contradictory prescriptions. Benchmarking has potential, but the approach is very undeveloped and subject to corruption. The problem/disaster literature offers cautionary examples, but its empirical base is unrepresentative of most failures.
Public-Private Partnerships, Professional Sports Teams and the Protection of the Public’s Interests
Authors: Kennedy Sheila S. , Rosentraub Mark S.
Published: July 2003

Across the past 15 years, governments have invested more than $10 billion in the playing facilities used by professional sports teams to produce a set of tangible and intangible benefits. Too often, after making substantial commitments, communities receive new demands for increased subsidies. If these increasing demands are not satisfied, teams frequently move to other cities. Taxpayers and sports fans are then left with unused facilities, debt obligations, and a reduced quality of life. If the public sector devotes tax revenues to generate intangible benefits and increased business activity in certain locations, communities are entitled to adequate safeguards to protect their investment. Various governments have attempted to use different leasehold provisions to protect their stake in the partnerships developed with teams. These tools and their inadequacies are reviewed. It is then argued that the use of the power of eminent domain is needed to protect the public’s interests.
Public Management Innovation
Authors: Borins Sandford
Published: July 2003

Previous research based on a sample of the best applications to the State and Local Government Innovation Awards (1990-1994) identified the most frequently observed characteristics of public management innovations: They are holistic, use new information technology, incorporate process improvements, empower citizens and communities, and involve partnerships with the private sector. This sample also demonstrated the importance of middle managers and front-line staff as initiators, indicated that the innovations were more frequently a response to internal problems or opportunities than crises, and showed that the innovations were more frequently the result of planning than of Behn’s model of “groping along.” This research was replicated with three new samples of innovations: applications to the Institute of Public Administration of Canada’s public management innovation award, the Innovations in American Government awards, and the Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management innovation awards. Preliminary results for all three replications were similar to the original study.
Assessing the Performance of Solid Waste Recycling Programs Over Time
Authors: Feiock Richard C. , Kalan Lesley Graham
Published: July 2003

This article examines variation in the success of solid waste recycling programs in Florida based on the administrative design of recycling programs, state-level incentives and constraints, economic resources, and citizens’ environmental support. After describing trends in solid waste programs and recycling success in Florida counties from 1991 through 1996, the authors estimate a model to explain variation in the success of recycling as indicated by recycling rates. The empirical analysis applies pooled cross-sectional time-series techniques. The results demonstrate that economic resources have greater significance to program success than do either administrative design or environmental support. The authors discuss the implications of this finding for both the study and practice of local solid waste management. In conclusion, they highlight the need for future research to examine interactions among economic resources, citizen attitudes, and administrative factors to identify the contexts in which particular programmatic design factors are likely to be most effective.
Urban-Rural Conflict Over Environmental Policy in the Western United States
Authors: Salka William M.
Published: July 2003

There has been considerable debate within the literature over the degree to which environmental conflict in the Western United States stems from tensions between urban and rural areas. A number of scholars have suggested that such conflict exists throughout the West; others have argued either that this urban-rural conflict does not exist or that conflict over environmental preferences stems from factors other than place of residence. This study uses voting on statewide environmental ballot measures, with counties as the unit of analysis, to investigate whether voters in urban and rural areas express different levels of support for environmental protection. When such differences are found, the study offers explanations. Findings suggest that urban counties do vote in support of environmental protection at significantly higher levels than rural counties but that demographic variables and economic conditions are more influential in determining those levels of support than is the urban or rural nature of the county.
The Waco, Texas, ATF Raid and Challenger Launch Decision
Authors: Garrett Terence M.
Published: July 2003

The author argues that the Challenger space shuttle launch disaster and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) raid on the Branch Davidian compound both offer insights for managers and organization theorists as to how managers make judgments concerning their employees based on conceptions of how the employees ought to do their work. Managers with a knowledge of “management as science” objectify the work of employees under them. Workers know their work as craft based on firsthand experience. The author argues that traditional management practice results in decision making that does not take into account the knowledge of all organizational participants, and this leads to catastrophe. “Worker” knowledge and “management” knowledge, as well as other kinds of knowledge in organizations, are frequently incompatible. This aspect is characteristic of modern organizations but tends to be accentuated during times of organizational crisis. These two cases illustrate well the problems involved in decision making within complex organizations.
Serving the Public Interest?
Authors: Franklin Aimee L.
Published: July 2003

A clause in the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 instructs federal agencies to “consult with stakeholders during strategic plan development.” This requirement is a type of institutional control designed to ensure access to government operations and to keep government responsive to the public interest. Through structured interviews with representatives of the federal, cabinet-level departments, this research examined agency reactions to the Results Act in four areas: What process did agencies use to develop the strategic plan? Who participated? What mechanisms were used for participation? and What were the impacts of including stakeholders? The results suggest that despite minimal impact on the substantive content of federal agency strategic plans, the consultation requirement may have unintended benefits that, if institutionalized, will make government more responsive to the public interest.
Strategic Planning for Municipal Information Systems
Authors: Smith L. Douglas , Campbell James F. , Subramanian Ashok , Bird David A. , Nelson Anthony C.
Published: July 2003

In 1995, the City of St. Louis undertook a major strategic planning effort for its municipal information systems. The project was initiated in the midst of acrimonious debate regarding mainframe bottlenecks, the proliferation of independent computing systems, organizational problems in the delivery of management information systems (MIS) services, and rapidly changing technology. A strategic planning process tailored to this complex environment was developed and executed, engaging individuals at all levels to articulate needs for information, identify problems with existing systems, suggest organizational changes, and define potential MIS projects. As in most governments, organizational issues and managerial processes proved more daunting than technical issues. The implementation of technical recommendations proved much easier than changing the organizational culture to take full advantage of new technologies. To realize fully the benefits of new information technology, more effective ways must be found to facilitate the spanning of formal organizational boundaries.
Information Technology Planning and the Y2K Problem in Local Governments
Authors: Ho Alfred Tat-Kei , Smith James Fielding
Published: July 2003

This article examines local responses to the Year 2000 (Y2K) problem in Iowa to analyze how local governments plan for information technology (IT) operations. Many local governments lacked concrete plans and failed to think strategically about the Y2K problem at the beginning of 1999. A logistic analysis shows that the decision to form a concrete Y2K strategy depended on management attitudes and the technological sensitivity of local decision makers rather than on resource constraints or system characteristics. However, insufficient resources, not management attitudes and system characteristics, were the key determinant of the eventual outcomes of planning. This study concludes that local governments should think more strategically in IT planning and that senior management should take a more active role in the planning process. Local governments, especially counties, may need state assistance to improve IT planning for the information revolution in the new millennium.
Choosing the Rowers
Authors: Becker Fred W. , Dluhy Milan J. , Topinka John P.
Published: July 2003

Determining which functions can best be performed by public or private organizations most efficiently, effectively, or equitably is a fundamental issue in privatization theory. The purpose of this article is to examine this question relative to the privatization of public housing management. The implications of privatization are substantial in terms of public employment patterns and operating procedures and processes related to U.S. public housing. Based on the data from a study of the privatization of public housing management in a major U.S. metropolitan area, it is concluded that the privatization of U.S. public housing management will likely produce substantial cost savings because of rigidities in the purchasing and personnel systems of local housing authorities. These savings can be gained without a decrease in housing quality. The true cost of greater efficiency in this case appears to be in terms of equity to clients, that is, a decrease in the availability of social services.
Business Improvement Districts and the Management of Innovation
Authors: Mitchell Jerry
Published: July 2003

Innovation is a major theme in contemporary American public administration. Innovative structures are assumed to change both service delivery and managerial behavior. This assumption is currently being tested in many policy areas but perhaps nowhere better than in the management of a recent innovation in public administration: the business improvement district (BID). To discover the relationship between the innovative structure of BIDs and the adoption of an entrepreneurial approach to management, a national survey of BID managers was undertaken. As expected, the survey found that almost half of the BID executives emphasized entrepreneurial activities. But, unexpectedly, the other half were less interested in finding new ways of doing things and more focused on either local political problems or day-to-day supervisory tasks. The conclusion is that innovative structures provide managers with the opportunity to adopt an entrepreneurial approach to management but also with the possibility of not following such an approach.
Citizenship Behavior and the Spirit of New Managerialism
Authors: Vigoda Eran , Golembiewski Robert T.
Published: July 2003

This article develops an integrative understanding of the relationship between citizenship behavior in and around organizations and new public management (NPM). The authors argue that recent theory of NPM underestimates the economic, symbolic, and educational contribution of many voluntary actions, here termed citizenship behavior, to public organizations as well as to modern society. Relying on this argument, the authors develop a multidimensional model of citizenship behavior that can be applied in the public sector. The model deals with micro-citizenship, midi-citizenship, macro-citizenship, and metacitizenship. Citizenship is thus advocated as a vital construct for the formation of the new managerial spirit and at the same time as a major coming challenge for governance. Finally, several responsibilities are elaborated for social players in fostering values of voluntarism and spontaneous involvement. These can promote a healthier public service, a more efficient bureaucracy, and richer life in prosperous modern communities.
Women in the Federal Civil Service
Authors: Mani Bonnie G.
Published: July 2003

There is a widely accepted belief that veterans’ preference is a significant barrier to women’s career advancement. This article measures the impact of these policies on the careers of women in the federal civil service. Descriptive statistics, tests for comparisons of means, and logistic regression are used to examine data describing the careers of men and women, veterans and nonveterans. The analysis reveals that the effect of the preference on women’s access to jobs is diminishing and that there are gaps between the salaries of men and women regardless of veteran status. In addition, education seems to be a strong driving force, and veterans’ preference seems to be a weak restraint for women trying to advance to higher levels.
Public Service Motivation and Job Performance
Authors: Alonso Pablo , Lewis Gregory B.
Published: July 2003

Perry and Wise (1990) argued that people with high public service motivation (PSM) are more likely than others to choose government jobs, to perform better on the job, and to respond more to nonutilitarian incentives once in government. Using multiple regression and logit analyses on responses by 35,000 federal, white-collar employees to the 1991 Survey of Federal Employees and the 1996 Merit Principles Survey, this article tests the link between PSM and job performance in the federal service. There is mixed evidence on whether PSM positively affected grades and performance ratings, clearer evidence that employees who expected to receive a material reward for exceptional performance attained higher grades and performance ratings, and no evidence that the link between material rewards and performance mattered any less to those with high PSM.
Mentoring Experiences of Women City Managers
Authors: Fox Richard L. , Schuhmann Robert A.
Published: July 2003

Recent research has explored differences in the experiences of women and men public officials. Overlooked in these examinations is the position of city manager—a significant position in terms of local administration and policy development. Current figures indicate that women are underrepresented in the field of city management when compared with their peers in the private sector and federal and state administration—women hold only 11% of city manager positions. In trying to explain women’s apparent underrepresentation, the authors explore the importance of mentoring in the public sector using data gathered from a nationwide study of women and men city managers. Their data suggest that mentoring in the city management profession is characterized by factors that appear to work against women. These factors, which include a vacuum of professional mentoring opportunities, may help explain the slow inclusion of women into the field of city management.
Providing Refuge
Authors: Chanley Sharon A. , Chanley Jesse J. , Campbell Heather E.
Published: July 2003

This study is a social cost-benefit analysis of domestic violence shelter services. In conducting the analysis, the authors distinguish between short-term and longer-term program costs and benefits. They obtained estimates of several of the short-term costs and benefits and used these figures for their quantitative analysis. They then discuss the potential longer-term costs and benefits of shelter programs but do not monetize these effects. The costs of domestic violence shelter services include operating expenses and public assistance for women and children. The benefits of the domestic violence shelter services include assaults averted and mental health benefits. The authors find that domestic violence shelter services have social benefits that significantly outweigh the social costs. The minimum net social benefit of the domestic violence shelter program is $3,494,934 and the minimum benefit-cost ratio is 4:6.
Public Versus Private Information Systems
Authors: Rocheleau Bruce , Wu Liangfu
Published: July 2003

Bozeman and Bretschneider’s (1986) seminal work posited that there are important differences between public and private information systems and that different principles should be used in the management of these systems. However, little empirical research has been conducted concerning this topic. The authors developed hypotheses based on the argument that competition forces businesses to use information technology (IT) as a weapon to gain competitive advantage that makes it more likely they will view IT as more important and be willing to invest more resources in IT. They test these hypotheses by comparing samples of municipalities and private organizations. The results confirmed that private sector organizations do invest more resources in IT training. However, public organizations, despite the low amounts they invest in training, rate IT as important as does the private sector.
“Polydiffusion” in Intergovernmental Programs
Authors: Mossberger Karen , Hale Kathleen
Published: July 2003

Traditional notions of “point source diffusion” fail to describe the multiple channels of information that states have regarding a federally promoted innovation and the mobilization of groups into intergovernmental, intersectoral information networks. This article tests the concept of “polydiffusion” in school-to-work programs, exploring participation and information in the network, state variation in information search, the role of the Internet, and implications for policy learning in the federal system.
Fiscal Constraints and the Loss of Home Rule
Authors: Saxton Gregory D. , Hoene Christopher W. , Erie Steven P.
Published: July 2003

The passage of Proposition 13 in 1978 was a watershed event that ushered in both a new era and a new fiscal regime for California’s local governments. The authors argue that in the wake of follow-on initiatives, a protracted recessionary period, and the state’s use of newly authorized revenue-transfer powers, this still-evolving regime entered a new phase in the 1990s. This article analyzes the primary impacts of and responses to the changes in California’s post-Proposition 13 fiscal regime in the 1990s in five local jurisdictions. The results reveal that the most significant long-term impacts of this regime have been an altered fiscal structure and an unintended decrease in local home rule. These impacts, in turn, have led to cuts in nonessential services, the expansion of sales tax-generating redevelopment efforts, implementation of new taxes and user service fees, and increased reliance on one-time fiscal measures.
Ensuring Accountability in Human Services Contracting
Authors: Dicke Lisa A.
Published: July 2003

Stewardship theories have been proposed as a basis for the reform of roles and responsibilities of principals and agents in government-contracted service relations and for the development of effective methods for ensuring accountability (and quality) in contracted human services. This article reports on an empirical field study that assessed the utility of external control methods derived from principal-agent theories and used to ensure accountability in contracted services. Assessments were based on evaluations provided by government case managers and caregiver employees in service-providing organizations. The article considers whether methods derived from stewardship theory could replace or supplement external control methods when they fail to uphold accountability or when accountability gaps exist. The author argues that methods derived from stewardship theories could fill some accountability gaps, but systemic problems in contracted human services must also be addressed. Additional research on stewardship theory and methods derived from it is also needed.
Equity Versus Excellence in Organizations
Authors: Meier Kenneth J. , Wrinkle Robert D. , Polinard J. L.
Published: July 2003

All public organizations face conflicting goals that in theory require trade-offs. Using data from school systems, this article argues that good organizations may be able to attain more than one goal simultaneously. The research uses a substantively weighted analytical technique1 to determine how organizations concerned with equity also meet demands for effectiveness. The best organizations do this through a more efficient translation of inputs into outputs.
Running Government Like a Business
Authors: Box Richard C.
Published: July 2003

The public sector faces increasing demands to run government like a business, importing privatesector concepts such as entrepreneurism, privatization, treating the citizen like a “customer,” and management techniques derived from the production process. The idea that government should mimic the market is not new in American public administration, but the current situation is particularly intense. The new public management seeks to emphasize efficient, instrumental implementation of policies, removing substantive policy questions from the administrative realm. This revival of the politics-administration dichotomy threatens core public-sector values of citizen selfgovernance and the administrator as servant of the public interest. The article examines the political culture that encourages expansion of market-like practices in the American public sector, explores the issues of the purpose and scope of government and the role of the public-service practitioner, and offers a framework for the study and practice of public administration based on citizenship and public service.
Burning the Midnight Oil
Authors: Lewis Gregory B.
Published: July 2003

The Merit Systems Protection Board’s glass ceiling report worried that the inability of women with young children to work overtime may be unfairly hindering their career advancement. I investigated this possibility, using a large survey of federal employees. Overall, women were only 60% as likely as men to work overtime. Gender differences in both child care responsibilities and educational levels helped explain this pattern, as did differences in job demands. Among college-educated professionals and administrators, men’s and women’s overtime rates were quite similar, especially among employees at the same grade levels. Working overtime does appear to speed career advancement, especially for women, but overtime appeared to play a trivial role in gender inequality in pay, especially among the employees most likely to reach the top.
The Role of City Managers
Authors: Selden Sally Coleman , Brewer Gene A. , Brudney Jeffrey L.
Published: July 2003

This study uses a survey of 1,135 city managers to evaluate the contemporary city manager role and to evaluate its consistency with principal-agent theory. The findings are mixed. It appears that city councils can control city managers as principal-agent theory suggests, but that most city councils opt for less complex solutions involving trust and role sharing with the city manager. In other words, principal-agent theory does not fully explain the council-manager relationship. In an effort to understand this relationship more thoroughly, this study develops a typology of city manager roles based on the extent of their involvement in policy and the degree of autonomy exercised.
Professionalism among Public and Nonprofit Managers
Authors: Berman Evan M.
Published: July 2003

In recent years, considerable attention has focused on professional orientations of managers in public and nonprofit organizations, especially with regard to ethics. This article reports on a comparative survey among top managers in local government, social service organizations, and museums. Knowledge of comparative, professional orientations is also relevant to many public administration programs that increasingly offer nonprofit management “tracks” or electives to students. This study finds that whereas levels of professionalism among public and nonprofit managers are similar, public and nonprofit organizations experience different conditions that affect it. This article also reports on the use of management of change strategies in public and nonprofit organizations. On balance, many similarities are found between public and nonprofit organizations.
Hazardous Materials Transportation in an Age of Devolution
Authors: Thrower Alex W. , Martinez J. Michael
Published: July 2003

The United States has entered an age of devolution. As political responsibility has begun to shift from the federal government back to the states, many questions concerning an appropriate intergovernmental relationship remain unclear. In the area of environmental law, for example, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decided a case, Massachusetts v. U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) (1996), that restricted DOT’s authority to preempt state bonding requirements for hazardous materials transporters. The court’s ruling ignored many precedents indicating that Congress intended to provide broad preemption authority to DOT under the Hazardous Materials Transportation Uniform Safety Act and arguably undermined standards articulated by the U.S. Supreme Court in Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council (1984). This article explores the court’s opinion and asks whether the Massachusetts case represents a deliberate change in federalism principles or whether the holding is an example of a de facto devolution of power.
The Political Economy of Results-Oriented Management in the “Neoadministrative State”
Authors: Durant Robert F.
Published: July 2003

To comply with the precepts of today’s neoadministrative state, public managers are routinely pressed by elected officials to become results-oriented, customer-focused, and partnership-seeking service deliverers. The magnitude of the cultural change involved has frequently proved daunting at all levels of government in the United States. Although much remains unclear about the prudence and prospects of such cultural-reform efforts, researchers are gradually discerning the political economy of the efforts and challenges they pose to effectiveness and to public accountability. In the process, they are finding how critical the approaches taken in the early stages of cultural reform are to their ultimate success or failure. To advance practice and research on this topic, this article chronicles and analyzes the first 3 years of a critical case study of results-driven, customer-focused, and partnership-oriented cultural change in the Department of Health and Human Services in Montgomery County, Maryland. Identified are nine critical choices made during those years that sorely complicated progress, the flaws in underlying causal theories that spawned these problems, and the challenges to, and opportunities for advancing, accountability that reformers can expect and that researchers can profitably pursue.
Artificial Intelligence and Administrative Discretion
Authors: Barth Thomas J. , Arnold Eddy
Published: July 2003

Advances in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) are leading to a new level of computing in which systems will have the capability to act as autonomous agents and learn to learn independently, assess their environment, and think with values, motives, and emotions. Reflection on the dialogue in the AI literature and implications for public administration raises issues concerning a number of classic dilemmas relevant to administrative discretion, including responsiveness, judgement, and accountability. After a brief overview of the AI field to provide context, this article addresses each of these themes in turn and concludes with a summary discussion on the potential benefits and dangers of AI for the field of public administration.
Expanding Intergovernmental Management’s Hidden Dimensions
Authors: Agranoff Robert , McGuire Michael
Published: July 2003

The practice of intergovernmental management is widespread in application but poorly understood. The empirical study of economic policy making and administration reported here suggests that the role of the intergovernmental manager has expanded considerably beyond the familiar tasks of seeking funds from other governments, coping with an expanding regulatory burden, or developing interlocal cooperative agreements. Linking data from two different surveys, the authors offer a preliminary classification of intergovernmental management activities and report the use of each formal activity. Such a classification is useful not only for identifying specific managerial functions that are conducted through multiple actors, but also for the terminology that can be applied to actions that heretofore have been heaped together under a generic intergovernmental management label. The increasingly more prevalent intergovernmental management activity is thus viewed as a routine aspect of public administration and, as such, requires a more complete understanding of its practice.
Missing
Authors: Aufrecht Steven E.
Published: July 2003

Native American tribes have a unique status in American law, and Native organizations increasingly assert their rights in a variety of areas from adoption to fishing to gambling. State, local, and federal officials must work with these groups to resolve the conflicts that inevitably arise. Yet the public administration literature almost completely ignores the topic of Native American governance. This article begins by documenting that absence, speculates on why the topic is missing, then goes on to identify five reasons the topic should be included: to assist U.S. public administrators, to serve Native American constituents, to assist Native American administrators, to ensure that research on Natives is done ethically, and to enrich public administration theory. Finally, the author argues for adopting a culturally sensitive approach using examples from education and public administration of how this might be done.
The Influence of Legislative Oversight on Discretionary Authority
Authors: Duffin Diane L.
Published: July 2003

Theories suggest that administrators may use their discretion to advance their agency’s version of the public interest, court political support, or both. The author hypothesizes that administrators courting political support use their discretion to reward legislators who monitor their programs more closely than do other legislators. The author measures the degree of scrutiny a program receives by quantifying members’participation in oversight hearings. In analyzing the allocation of Urban Development Action Grants (UDAGs), the author finds that administrators in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Community Planning and Development were guided by both the agency’s perception of the public interest and by political considerations. Members of the House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs who participated more extensively in hearings overseeing HUD programs received larger UDAG allocations in their home districts, and more oversight led to more grant money.
Unlocking the Puzzle of Public Participation
Authors: Webler Thomas , Tuler Seth
Published: July 2003

Public participation is well known for its practitioner insights and wealth of case reports. This knowledge is essential and has been well employed. Likewise, the theoretical literature on public participation is growing rapidly. The need for better conceptual and theoretical understandings of public participation has become clear. Public participation theories have not received great attention, and few have been proposed or tested. Yet theory offers much to practitioners of various interventions. The authors summarize work toward developing a public participation theory and propose a way to conceptualize its skeletal components. The authors recognize that any theory must acknowledge that different people have different beliefs about what public participation should accomplish. Further, contextual variables affect a process’s character and outcomes. The authors begin with a discussion of theory’s importance to scholars, practitioners, and participants and provide an overview of existing approaches. The authors present findings from two empirical case studies used to further develop their theory of fair and competent public participation. They conclude with some observations about challenges and ways forward.
Democratizing Science Through Social Science Research Partnerships
Authors: Schensul Jean J.
Published: July 2003

Science and technology, as rational approaches to problem solving, are driving forces in the promotion of democracy at home and abroad. Science based decision-making is increasingly global as countries share technology, research results, and engage in joint studies on common problems. The widening rift between global wealth and poverty diminishes for many the opportunity for exposure to science, technology and social science based decision-making on issues that directly affect them. This paper outlines a model for democratizing science by utilizing the interactive tools of the social sciences in a process that enables information-marginalized people to engage with the language, methods and results of social science for purposes of community empowerment and voice in science policy. The paper offers examples of approaches to implementation, citing various forms of research partnerships with communities, and discusses challenges including ethical considerations, the conflict between “local” and science-based knowledges and power differentials in practice.
The Precautionary Principle Puts Values First
Authors: Myers Nancy
Published: July 2003

The precautionary principle is an emerging principle of international law but has only recently been proposed in North America as a new basis for environmental policy. On the surface it is a simple, common-sense proposition: in the face of possible harm, exercise precaution. But the enthusiasm the principle has stirred among public advocates suggests it has a deeper appeal. It is, in fact, based on values related to “forecaring for life” and the natural world. The principle cannot effectively be invoked without stating these values up front. The principle makes it clear that decisions and developments in science and technology are based first of all on values and only secondarily on scientific and technological fact and process. Moreover, a precautionary approach is best carried out in the context of goals that embody the values of communities and societies.
Politics, Administration, and Markets
Authors: Klingner Donald E. , Nalbandian John , Romzek Barbara S.
Published: July 2003

Politics can be viewed as the search for consensus on underlying values to foster a sense of community. This search challenges contemporary political and administrative leadership because the policy process increasingly involves interactions among amorphous and unstable issue-oriented coalitions rather than a smaller number of actors with more stable and predictable roles. This article discusses politics, administration, and markets as separate ways of thinking—as decision-making perspectives—that produce a variety of expectations of accountability, often at odds. It presents a case study involving the contracting out of foster care services in Kansas to illustrate these competing perspectives and examines how market-based challenges to traditional political and administrative perspectives complicate expectations of accountability. The result is a situation in which the challenge of accommodating three crosscutting expectations of accountability (derived from the three competing perspectives of politics, administration, and markets) makes the already complex job of public management even more difficult.
Municipal Commercial Recycling
Authors: Bacot Hunter , McCoy Bill , Plagman-Galvin Jennifer
Published: July 2003

As recycling programs achieve success and gain popularity throughout U.S. communities, local governments are confronted with “doing more” in the environmental arena; yet with mounting state and federal government pressure, local governments must increase municipal waste diversion rates. Although commercial, industrial, and institutional sectors generate the largest percentage of the waste stream, they are generally not part of municipal recycling programs at rates of nearly 40% and 60%. Consequently, local governments are turning to these sectors for relief. Using an evaluation of the promises and pitfalls of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg commercial recycling experience and a survey of area businesses about recycling practices, the authors explore challenges confronting municipal commercial recycling and discern associated difficulties. Crucial to program establishment and commercial-sector participation are the time required for participation and its convenience. The authors find that local governments are best suited to manage commercial recycling programs because of the increased public-private collaboration and cooperation required for success.
Northern Ireland Public Administration in Transition
Authors: Carmichael Paul
Published: July 2003

Traditionally, studies of British government have rested on the “Westminster model” in which the United Kingdom is a unitary state. Increasingly, however, the model’s explanatory power has been queried. An alternative conception, the “differentiated polity model,” has been developed and seeks to reflect the longstanding diversity that has characterized the institutions of British governance. One area of public administration that illustrates this variation is the civil service. The recent process of political devolution in the United Kingdom is already encouraging pressure for even greater distinctiveness and possibly separate civil service arrangements in Scotland and Wales. With particularly distinct governmental arrangements but still within the British mold, Northern Ireland offers both a vivid illustration of the differentiated polity model and a valuable indicator of how separate civil services might unfold elsewhere in the United Kingdom.