Government Decision-making Processes Research Articles

Normative and Institutional Framework for the Emerging Law on Participation and the ICTs: Analysis of Experiences in Spanish Regional Governments

One of the leading debates today centers on how citizens can make the most of the possibilities offered by ICTs to take part in governmental decision-making processes. These new forms of relationship linking citizens and public power would seem to promote an evolution from a representative democratic system to a conversational and open democracy that complements and perfects it. The aim of this paper is to analyze the regulations on electronic participation adopted in the Spanish autonomous communities, their application, and the political and social effects. These reflections are on part of the global reality that ICTs are generating. They focus on institutional initiatives, leaving to one side other movements arising from the citizens themselves beyond the scope of the institutional framework. The main conclusion reached in this review is that ICTs are another tool for increasing the right to participation, bearing in mind that e-democracy is, above all else, democracy.

Crossing borders in educational innovation: Framing foreign examples in discussing comprehensive education in the Netherlands, 1969–1979

In the Netherlands, crossing borders to study comprehensive schools was an important strategy in the 1970s, a decisive period for the start and the end of the innovation. According to policy-borrowing theory, actors that engage in debating educational issues are framing foreign examples of comprehensive schooling to convince their audiences. Framing therefore became the leading concept behind our study of the intellectual debate, examined through the leading Dutch scientific journal Pedagogische Studiën (Educational Studies), and the public debate, examined through recordings of television programmes. Assuming that those debates were influential in the political middle school process, our analyses show that foreign examples indeed functioned as a framing device in the form of legitimisation, glorification, sensationalisation and caution. However, the impact of framing differed. In the phase of cross-national attraction, the reform-minded perspective in the scholarly debate had a stimulating effect on the development of the plans, but little influence on the governmental decision-making process. This contrasts with the frames that were brought forward by television programmes. Although the negative frames, such as “a factory-made sausage”, were rejected by the programmes, such frames could linger in people’s minds as a means to interpret ideas about middle schools. At the end of the 1970s, the middle school was reduced to a minor feature of educational policy and, eventually, the middle school experiments were brought to a close. As a result, the foreign solution of introducing comprehensive education was never transferred to the Netherlands.

Study on the Development and Sustainable Utilization of Water Resources in the Western Regions of China

Due to historical reasons,geographic and climate conditions, water ecological environment is fragile and water resources development has badly lagged behind the requirements of social and economic development in western regions of China.The study analyzes natural geographic conditions, climate conditions, water resources distribution, and points out the development endowment of water resources is poor. Then the study deep dives into the problems existing in water resources development from the view of the sustainable utilization of water resources, and indicates that the government should play the leading role and strengthen cooperation with market and public affairs organizations. At last, the study offers some suggestions to realize the sustainable utilization of water resources. It is essential to improve water conservation legal system, and perfect management system which is the combination of valley management with district management, clear water rights, and establish water right transfer system. Public affairs organizations should strengthen the supervision of governments and enterprises, actively influence government decision-making process, and mobilize all social forces to participate in the development and sustainable utilization of water resources.

From blank spaces to flows of life: transforming community engagement in environmental decision-making and its implications for localism

Localism advocates the participation of ‘local’ groups in governmental decision-making processes. While making policy more context/place specific is a progressive goal, this paper suggests that the processes through which this occurs, and underlying conceptual approaches to scale and place, require a careful analysis. Although often side-lined, Indigenous experiences of localism are key to seeing these issues as critical responses to place and politics, rather than relegating them to an ‘Aboriginal’-specific issue. This paper outlines two practical implementations of Aboriginal inclusion in environmental decision-making, in Canada and Australia. These case studies demonstrate both the failings of current framings of localism and ‘environment’ in policy-making and the inadequate responses of governments to the complexities of place making. These challenges are illustrative and symptomatic of wider issues about how environmental policy and place are currently envisaged. This paper suggests a new methodological framing of these issues that positions the current framing as one view among many, offers a non-relativist frame of communication for moving beyond inclusion and outlines the implications of this reframing for localism.

P6.073 Use of Evidence-Based Results in Governmental Decision-Making Processes in the Brazilian Ministry of Health

BackgroundBrazil invests more in scientific research than any other Latin American country. Its Ministry of Health is a source of funding for research, along with other development agencies, and its...

How the German government responded to the financial, economic and fiscal crises

This paper explains the German government's response to the financial, economic and fiscal crises. It covers the financial crisis in 2008 when banks were supported (SoFFin), the economic crisis in 2009, and the fiscal crisis of increasing state debts and budget deficits which caused the German government to cut spending (Sparpaket) in 2010. The author looks at the contents of the government's responses, but also at the political and administrative aspects of the government's decision-making processes.

Water governance and natural disasters in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo, Brazil

The Metropolitan Region of São Paulo (MRSP), located in southeastern Brazil, is the third largest urban conglomerate in the world, with 39 municipalities and a population of just under 20 million inhabitants. Among its major problems is the occupation of inappropriate and risky areas such as slopes and banks of watercourses, which are subjected to inundation, flooding and landslides. This is a result of chaotic settlement that is due to the absence of collaborative governance and the lack of the authorities' preparedness to deal with complex situations. This article addresses the issue of environmental disasters in the metropolis and its relation to water governance. Despite the progress that has been achieved, discussions on natural disasters should be organised in participatory arenas so that civil society can be involved in the management and decision-making processes. Therefore, it is proposed that solutions be sought by integrating governmental decision-making processes and participative management.

The State of Alaska's early experience with institutionalization of health impact assessment

Background. Many nations routinely include health impact assessments (HIA) in public policy decisions. Institutionalization of HIA formally integrates health considerations into a governmental decision-making process. We describe an example of institutionalization in the United States through Alaska's early experience with institutionalization of HIA.Literature review. HIA arose from a series of health conferences in the 1970s that affirmed the importance of “health for all.” A number of key milestones eventually defined HIA as a unique field of impact assessment. There are several approaches to institutionalization, and one common approach in the United States is through the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). NEPA formed the basis for the earliest HIAs in Alaska.Program description. Early HIAs in Alaska led to conferences, working groups, a state guidance document and the institutionalization of a HIA program within the Department of Health and Social Services in 2010. A medical epidemiologist staffs the program, which utilizes contractors to meet rising demand for HIA. The HIA program has sustainable funding from the state budget and from the state's natural resource permitting process. The HIA document is the main deliverable, but the program performs other tasks, including fieldwork and technical reviews. The HIA program works closely with a host of collaborative partners.Conclusion. Alaska's institutionalized HIA program benefits from sustainable funding that promotes continuous quality improvement and involves the program in the entire life cycle of a development project. The program structure adapts well to variations in workflow and supports a host of quality control activities. Currently, the program focuses on HIAs for natural resource development projects.

Sustainable development goals for global health: facilitating good governance in a complex environment

Increasing complexity is following in the wake of rampant globalization. Thus, the discussion about Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires new thinking that departs from a critique of current policy tools in exploration of a complexity-friendly approach. This article argues that potential SDGs should: treat stakeholders, like states, business and civil society actors, as agents on different aggregate levels of networks; incorporate good governance processes that facilitate early involvement of relevant resources, as well as equitable participation, consultative processes, and regular policy and programme implementation reviews; anchor adoption and enforcement of such rules to democratic processes in accountable organizations; and include comprehensive systems evaluations, including procedural indicators. A global framework convention for health could be a suitable instrument for handling some of the challenges related to the governance of a complex environment. It could structure and legitimize government involvement, engage stakeholders, arrange deliberation and decision-making processes with due participation and regular policy review, and define minimum standards for health services. A monitoring scheme could ensure that agents in networks comply according to whole-systems targets, locally defined outcome indicators, and process indicators, thus resolving the paradox of government control vs. local policy space. A convention could thus exploit the energy created in the encounter between civil society, international organizations and national authorities.

English

  This research study on the government decision-making process on the policy level towards Thai State owned enterprises (SOE) offers some ideas that may provide a useful interpretation of the government decision-making process on the policy level of public administration. The researcher aims to propose a better understanding of government policy formulation and implementation towards Thai SOE through two case studies. The findings of the study support the analytical framework that in the stage of agenda setting, the garbage-can model is the decision-making model that helps explain the processes of agenda setting, due to the variety of participants that influence the decision-making processes. However, the incremental model is more explanatory in the following stage. Once the policy is decided and implemented, policies are formulated and the day-to-day operational decisions are made incrementally by the ministry’s high-ranking officials and the SOE management. Moreover, the researcher found that government policies towards these two SOEs were, very often, on and off, and the government took about three to four decades with several governments to push the policies to be implemented and accomplished.   Key words: Organizational decision-making process, State owned enterprises (SOEs), satisfying model, incremental model, garbage-can model, the garbage-can model in political institutions as according to Kingdon’s theory, Thai administrative culture, the politics of despotic paternalism.

State responses to the fiscal crisis: Belgium

This article presents a brief description of how the Belgian government responded to the global financial, economic and fiscal crises. Belgium took various measures to support banks in 2008. Following forecasts of a substantial economic decline in 2009 and zero growth in 2010, and increases in unemployment in 2009 and 2010, the federal and regional governments took successful economic recovery measures. Although it might appear that the fiscal crises of state debt and budget deficits were ignored during this time, there were measures in place to tackle them. This article looks at the contents of the government responses, as well as the political and administrative aspects of the governmental decision-making processes.

How the UK government responded to the fiscal crisis: an outsider's view

This article presents an outsider's view of the UK government's response to recent financial, economic and fiscal crises. The article covers the financial crisis in 2008 when the then New Labour government rescued UK banks; the economic crisis in 2009 which resulted in economic stimulus measures; and the fiscal crisis of increasing national debts and budget deficits which led the newly-elected coalition government in 2010 to take fiscal consolidation measures. The author is an administrative scientist, and unpicks government responses, focusing on the political and administrative aspects of the governmental decision-making processes. The article ends with some lessons and foreign perspectives.

Causal Conditions of Lithuanian Government’s Stability

This article presents the results of qualitative comparative analysis of such causal factors of Lithuanian government’s stability as decision-making model, role of political parties, government ideology and parliamentary majority. The basic source of the research was the interviews with ministers who have served in different cabinets. The cabinets led by Kazimiera Prunskienė, Gediminas Vagnorius, Adolfas Šleţevičius, Laurynas Mindaugas Stankevičius, Rolandas Paksas, Andrius Kubilius, Algirdas Mykolas Brazauskas and Gediminas Kirkilas are analyzed in this article. The research showed that in most cases the governments, where decision-making model is monocratic and party influence in governmental decision-making process is weak; or those in which decision-making model is monocratic and which have support of the parliamentary majority, are stable. It was also revealed that a strong influence of ruling party (or parties) in the governmental decision-making process and the leftist ideology could lead to government stability. The governments might be classified into three homogeneous groups according to decision-making model, role of political parties in decision-making, ideology, size of parliamentary support and cabinet duration.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ppaa.11.1.1403

When Radical Reforms Are on the Agenda

This article describes the politics of decision making in the Norwegian government and Parliament from an insider’s perspective. The purpose is to explore how politicians can gain acceptance for radical reforms by managing politics in two arenas: the external arena where the media, special interest and lobby groups, and voters influence decisions in Parliament and the internal, closed arena where public policies are formulated and accepted in negotiations between ministries, political parties, and influential stakeholder groups. In the external arena, the management of politics consists of influencing Parliament indirectly through creating and sustaining demand for radical reforms among public stakeholders. The problem for political leaders is that the radicalness of reform is often sacrificed in the decision-making process in government before they reach the Parliament. To successfully bring radical reforms to the Parliament, political leaders therefore need to manage influence from multiple stakeholders and overcome non-decision making.

State Responses to the Fiscal Crisis in Britain, Germany and the Netherlands

How have governments, politics and administrations responded to the fiscal crisis? In this brief article, a first preliminary analysis is made how Great Britain, Germany and The Netherlands managed the crisis. The crisis consisted of three stages: First, the financial crisis causing governments to save and support banks; second, the economic crisis, causing governments to take economic recovery measures and third, the fiscal crisis of state debts and budget deficits, causing governments to take fiscal cut-back measures. Particular attention is paid to the governmental decision-making processes during the three stages of the crisis.

Political Reform in Saudi Arabia: Necessity or Luxury?

Since its founding in 1932, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has never had a written constitution or any form of publicparticipation in the policy process and governmental decision-making process. Since 1992, the rulers have been under increasing pressureto formulate a written constitution and to increase public participation in the policy process. As a response, Saudi rulers have enactedmany laws, which they claimed were a new constitution for the country. This paper argues that the reforms introduced in Saudi Arabiaare empty reforms that put the country’s political stability in jeopardy. In contrast, increasing public participation in the policy process willensure political stability and legitimize rulers’ authority. Thus, without political reform that guarantees citizen participation in the policyand governmental decision-making processes, the country’s political future will continue to be controlled by a small group of people (theroyal family) who often disagree amongst themselves about what is best for the country.

Political Reform in Saudi Arabia: Necessity or Luxury?

Since its founding in 1932, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has never had a written constitution or any form of publicparticipation in the policy process and governmental decision-making process. Since 1992, the rulers have been under increasing pressureto formulate a written constitution and to increase public participation in the policy process. As a response, Saudi rulers have enactedmany laws, which they claimed were a new constitution for the country. This paper argues that the reforms introduced in Saudi Arabiaare empty reforms that put the country’s political stability in jeopardy. In contrast, increasing public participation in the policy process willensure political stability and legitimize rulers’ authority. Thus, without political reform that guarantees citizen participation in the policyand governmental decision-making processes, the country’s political future will continue to be controlled by a small group of people (theroyal family) who often disagree amongst themselves about what is best for the country.

Decision-makers, Expert Witnesses and Advocates: The Roles of Planners in Merits Appeals

The role of planners is commonly examined in the context of local government decision-making processes. However, planners also participate in other institutional contexts. This article examines planners' roles in merits appeals in two jurisdictions in Australia. The author finds that planners carry out numerous functions in development assessment appeals—they participate as advocates, expert witnesses and decision-makers. However, these roles are not static. They tend to vary depending on the procedural model utilised by the tribunal or court. This article examines the different ways that planning expertise is employed in the Land and Environment Court (NSW) and the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Does Fiscal Decentralisation Strengthen Social Capital? Cross-Country Evidence and the Experiences of Brazil and Indonesia

With this paper I test the hypothesis that, by giving people more voice in the government decision-making process, fiscal decentralisation fosters social capital, measured in terms of interpersonal trust. Empirical evidence based on World Values Survey data and seemingly unrelated probit estimations for a cross-section of countries suggests that people living in federal and decentralised countries find it more important to have a voice in government decisions than their counterparts living in unitary and centralised countries. Provoice attitudes are, in turn, associated with greater social capital. The cross-country estimations are complemented by country-specific regressions for Brazil and Indonesia on account of these countries' experiences with fiscal decentralisation. The results show that the cohorts of individuals that have been exposed to decentralisation are in general more provoice (and trustful of strangers in the case of Brazil) than their counterparts that have not been exposed to decentralisation. These findings are not driven by the effects of political liberalisation on people's attitudes towards the importance of having a voice in government decisions and interpersonal trust.

The Impact of the Global Financial Crisis on the City of London: Towards the End of Hegemony?

This paper seeks to understand whether the global financial crisis — and the subsequent, alleged, crisis of the City of London — is likely to modify the relationship between the industrial and the financial components of the British capitalist elite and put an end to British ‘exceptionalism’. I argue that the crisis mostly impacted on the labour force of the British and global financial sector and produced a restructuring that consolidated and enhanced the political economy relevance of the City of London. By no means did the crisis resut in a decrease of the hegemonic power of the City of London. Instead, it confirmed its capacity to influence the decisionmaking process of the British government in favour of its preferences.