Mixed Record Of Success Research Articles

Digital government units: what are they, and what do they mean for digital era public management renewal?

From 2011 onward, Digital Government Units (DGUs) have quickly emerged as a preferred solution for tackling the over-cost and under-performing digital services and lagging digital transformation agendas plaguing today’s governments. This article kickstarts a much-needed research agenda on this emerging trend, which has to date largely been ignored by public management scholars. DGUs exist at the center of the state, and adopt a shared orthodoxy, favoring agile, user-centric design, pluralistic procurement, data-driven decision making, horizontal ‘platform’ based solutions and a ‘delivery-first’ ethos. However, DGUs are differentiated in practice by their governance structures and resources, adding notable complexity to this recent machinery of government phenomenon. The article details the similarities and differences across six of the first DGUs introduced and highlights issues that researchers should address when assessing DGUs as an increasingly preferred instrument of digital era public sector renewal. This includes: their mixed record of success thus far; the risks of top-down reform efforts; external threats to DGUs’ sustainability; and accountability dilemmas accompanying digital government reforms.

The Economics of Species Conservation

A quarter of all species around the globe are threatened with extinction; this article reviews research in economics on how best to counter those threats. Normative research has developed useful tools for cost-effectively choosing areas of habitat to protect. Such work has also designed working-lands contracts that can induce efficient quantities and patterns of conservation on private lands. Positive research finds evidence that payments for ecosystem service programs are effective, but legal protections for threatened species have a mixed record of success. Economists have also measured both the nonmarket benefits and the costs of species conservation. Emerging work is tackling the particular challenges to species conservation posed by climate change, the demand for exploiting charismatic megafauna, and global population growth. Future research would do well to build on those three areas and to study distributional issues in the benefits and costs of species conservation.

Security sector reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A case study of the Europeanization of the Western Balkans

Abstract Security sector reform (SSR) has become an important part of the EU’s efforts to transform the Western Balkans from a conflict-ridden area into a stable and democratic part of Europe. This paper studies SSR in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) as an illustration of the multifaceted and complex Europeanization policies employed by the EU in the region. It does not present a study of the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) missions, as there is already a wealth of material available on this subject, but offers instead a broader examination of changes in two sectors of BiH’s security system with the aim of improving understanding of the EU’s impact on the domestic environments of candidate states. Its main argument is that the EU used police and intelligence reforms in Bosnia, both of which were part and parcel of the SSR efforts in the country, as state-building tools. But because domestic competence in Bosnia was lacking and the EU was rather inexperienced in implementing SSR, the reforms have had a mixed record of success and reveal the limitations of the region’s Europeanization.

Good Governance and Human Security in Malaysia: Sarawak's Hydroelectric Conundrum

Good governance is an essentially contested concept. In Asian countries, economic efficiency and macro-economic projects have predominantly been pursued with the aim of promoting national, aggregate measurements of development. Hydroelectric power generation projects have played a central role in the national planning of several regional states as part of an attempt to achieve these goals. Even by their own terms of reference, however, hydroelectric power projects have at most a mixed record of success, and are increasingly criticized with regard to their negative impact on the environment, and upon vulnerable groups. The government of Malaysia has embraced the “developmental state” model, and this is best illustrated by governance initiatives and resource exploitation in the East Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah and their respective “development corridors”. Sarawak’s Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) is the most visible sign of Malaysia’s macro-economic hydroelectric development focus, as Sabah’s corridor focuses on trade, investment, and tourism. This article takes a critical perspective towards good governance, emphasizing that it should function in the interests of all society, but in particular the most vulnerable. It therefore addresses the impact of Malaysian hydroelectric development policies on one of the most vulnerable sections of Malaysian society, the indigenous peoples of Sarawak. The findings cast doubt on the validity of continued prioritization of hydroelectric dam construction as a cornerstone of government energy and development policy.

Good Governance and Human Security in Malaysia: Sarawak’s Hydroelectric Conundrum

Good governance is an essentially contested concept. In Asian countries, economic efficiency and macro-economic projects have predominantly been pursued with the aim of promoting national, aggregate measurements of development. Hydroelectric power generation projects have played a central role in the national planning of several regional states as part of an attempt to achieve these goals. Even by their own terms of reference, however, hydroelectric power projects have at most a mixed record of success, and are increasingly criticized with regard to their negative impact on the environment, and upon vulnerable groups. The government of Malaysia has embraced the “developmental state” model, and this is best illustrated by governance initiatives and resource exploitation in the East Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah and their respective “development corridors”. Sarawak’s Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) is the most visible sign of Malaysia’s macro-economic hydroelectric development focus, as Sabah’s corridor focuses on trade, investment, and tourism. This article takes a critical perspective towards good governance, emphasizing that it should function in the interests of all society, but in particular the most vulnerable. It therefore addresses the impact of Malaysian hydroelectric development policies on one of the most vulnerable sections of Malaysian society, the indigenous peoples of Sarawak. The findings cast doubt on the validity of continued prioritization of hydroelectric dam construction as a cornerstone of government energy and development policy.

‘Purpose’ and the Adaptation of Authoritarian Institutions: The Case of China’s State Feminist Organization

This article examines the All China Women’s Federation’s “women’s work” (funv gongzuo) since 1978 and offers a new analytical explanation of its mixed record of success and failure. It is argued that the ACWF has undergone a process of adaptation that is driven by the agency of its cadres, who have succeeded in institutionalizing purposive incentives for pro-women action in the Federation. Cadres have engaged with academic discourses on gender and have socialized with women’s organizations and the international feminist movement. This process has created a space within the ACWF where pro-women work can develop and influence policy-making without challenging the Federation’s dependency to the Party. The resulting duality of the ACWF, as purposeful cadre agency-driven initiatives coexist with the regime’s conservative policy priorities and campaigns, explains the Federation’s successes as well as its many contradictions and important limitations. The case of the ACWF demonstrates that cadre agency is an important, yet frequently overlooked, variable informing the adaptation of authoritarian institutions.

A multi-criteria assessment of the C-111 hydrologic restoration project – A case study

The hydrologic restoration of the Everglades ecosystem is underway within the C-111 basin. Some early projects have been operating for over 10 years and can now be quantitatively assessed. Some recent research presented in Wetlands provides a good beginning. This research article complements those efforts with a broader project assessment by focusing on buffer lands east of Everglades National Park and in the adjacent water control canal system. This article reviews the restoration progress of the C-111 Project over 12 years against its original performance metrics established in 1999–2000 using a multi-criteria assessment methodology. The authors, including members of the original project design team, discuss the original design hypotheses and then organize the assessment into quantity, quality, timing, and distribution (e.g. QQTD) metrics consistent with the overall restoration objectives of the Everglades system. The assessment is unique given that the original designers were afforded a rare opportunity to see how well their restoration plan actually worked. The broad assessment that was completed includes a 28 year water budget of the L-31 N/C-111 Canal located on the boundary of the Everglades; an accounting of undesirable discharges to Barnes Sound/Manatee Bay; an assessment of hydrologic restoration of buffer land wetlands; an assessment of water quality in the study area; and, an assessment of flood impacts. The study results reveal a mixed record of success for the original restoration plan.

Power for Development: A Review of Distributed Generation Projects in the Developing World

The paradigm for providing affordable electricity for the world's poor—power for development—has begun to change. Historically, centralized governments built large consolidated power plants and distribution and transmission lines with the ultimate goal of providing electricity to all of their citizens. It has become increasingly common in recent decades, however, for donors, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), firms, and communities to collaborate with governments to develop small-scale localized energy systems known as distributed generation (DG) either as complements or alternatives to centralized operations. DG programs have been implemented around the world but with a mixed record of success. Based on an analysis of the existing case study literature, we examine DG program goals and outcomes, identifying major factors that affect these outcomes, including appropriately chosen technology, adequate financing and payment arrangements, ongoing end users' involvement, and supportive national policies. We highlight the importance of institutions for collaborative governance in the pursuit of these factors.

Bidding for Sport Mega-Events

Sport mega-events such as the Olympic Games and FIFA World Cup, or on a smaller scale the Commonwealth Games or regional events, attract competing bids from nations or cities. These bids are mostly made at tax-payers expense and spending is often large and non-transparent. Our paper addresses the question of why large sums of public money are spent in an attempt to secure uncertain rights to host events which, according to ex post studies, often yield few gains. The paper analyses the economics of the bidding process, emphasising public choice aspects of mega-event bidding to identify the interaction of potential beneficiaries and policymakers interests. We do not directly enter debates about legacies of hosting mega-events, but ask why public money is spent on a bidding process which is even less likely to realize net social benefits. The empirical part of the paper uses past bids from the state of South Australia, a demonstrated bidder for various sports mega (or not so mega-) events with a mixed record of success, as a case study of the economics of bidding.

Success and failure in the simulation of an Accident and Emergency department

Healthcare simulation has the potential to offer many benefits but the implementation is often problematic. This paper describes the development of a simulation of an Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department in an NHS hospital. The early experience of the client provoked great enthusiasm but ultimately the simulation failed to meet all expectations. The simulation delivered a number of benefits, notably in terms of stimulating constructive debate and helping the stakeholders appreciate the complete A&E system. The project produced a technically proficient tool that was delivered too late to have the desired impact. This mixed record of success appears typical of many simulations. Important lessons were learned, both technically and in the management of client expectations, which have contributed to subsequent successful implementation in other departments of the hospital. The experience suggests that both potential clients and analysts need to establish realistic expectations and appreciate the particular challenges of simulation in a healthcare environment.

Improving HFI within systems acquisition: methods, tools and future directions

Recent years have seen an increased recognition of the role of the human operator in both the development and use of military systems. Human Factors Integration (HFI), the structured management process for ensuring the capture and accommodation of human capabilities and limitations in design has, however, a mixed record of success within military system developments. This paper describes research conducted by the HFI Defence Technology Centre (HFI DTC) to identify and address the barriers to HFI through the development of processes, methods and tools. Future changes in the operational context and military doctrine are also discussed in terms of the likely adaptations to the HFI process.

Between Peace and War: The Proliferation Security Initiative and North Korea

Pressure from the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI)One of the more ambitious programs that could be employed to put pressure on the Kim regime of North Korea is PSI. PSI's interdiction regime lies on a continuum of containment that includes isolation, economic sanctions, interdiction, and blockade. The DPRK has always been relatively isolated from the international community, by circumstance and by choice. The United States and many other countries already impose extensive economic sanctions on the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK).PSI was introduced on May 31, 2003. The first meeting was held in Madrid on June 12, 2003, when eleven charter members met: Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Japan was the only Asian member.Membership is multilateral but restricted. PSI's methods were not spelled out in detail, but they inevitably involved interdiction of transport. Interdiction was initially to be limited to legal interdictions within the territorial waters of member states. However, the possibility of creatively interpreting international law was leftopen for the future. What was never made clear was whether PSI was primarily targeted at certain illicit activities or at certain states.Prospects for PSI's SuccessEconomic sanctions have a mixed record of success. A study by Hufbauer, Schott, and Elliott (i990), with further conclusions by Elliott (2003), found that sanctions were at least partially successful in 34 percent of ii5 examined cases. Surprisingly, success was negatively correlated with international cooperation. Sanctions were most e∂ective when: (i) The goal was relatively modest; (2) The target state was economically weak and politically unstable; (3) The sanctioning state and target state were initially on good terms; (4) The sanctions were imposed quickly and decisively; and (5) The sanctioning state was able to avoid high costs to itself.A collection of papers on sanctions edited by Haass (i998) reached the following conclusions: (i) Sanctions alone rarely achieve their desired result if the aims are large or the time to achieve them is short; (2) Sanctions are more e∂ective when used in conjunction with other policy tools, e.g., threat or military force; (3) Unilateral sanctions are rarely e∂ective; (4) Sanctions often produce unintended and undesirable consequences; (5) Sanctions can be expensive to the sanctioning state; (6) Authoritarian societies are often able to withstand sanctions; (7) Military enforcement can increase the impact of sanctions; (8) Sanctions can increase the pressure to intervene militarily when they are unable to resolve a crisis; (9) Sanctions are easier to introduce than to lift; and (i0) States often tire of imposing sanctions when they fail to achieve their goal.Sanctions may also have unstated goals. For example, they may serve to calm a domestic political audience that demands a quick solution. They may buy time in the absence of a better strategy. They may serve as a first, peaceful, stepping stone toward stronger measures-similar to the idea of hawk engagement (Cha, 2002; Cha and Kang, 2003). They may intentionally or unintentionally provoke the target state to make the first military move, thus justifying the use of force by the sanctioning state.Participation in PSINeither China, Russia, nor the Republic of Korea (ROK) is a PSI member. Yet these are the regional powers with the largest stake in the future of the DPRK. Japan is a PSI member, and played a central role in the PSI exercise o∂ the coast of Australia in September 2003. In the exercise, dubbed Pacific Protector, a coast guard vessel intercepted the target vessel. Because interdiction of a foreign ship would violate law, the exercise designated the target as Japanese (Asahi Shimbun, 2003). Japan, China, the ROK, and Russia say they are opposed to instituting sanctions against the DPRK until other options have been exhausted. …

The Terrorist Calculus behind 9-11: A Model for Future Terrorism?

Terrorists commit lethal acts of violence in order to realize their goals and advance their causes. They have a mixed record of success. This article explores the question whether the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside of Washington, D.C. were successful from the perspective of bin Laden and the Al Qaeda group. Although stunningly triumphant in exploiting the news media for their publicity goals and partially successful in advancing some of their short-term political objectives, the architects of the kamikaze attacks of 9-11 did not realize, and perhaps not even further, their ultimate desire to provoke a cataclysmic clash between Muslims and what bin Laden calls the "Zionist-Crusader" alliance. The argument here is nevertheless that from the terrorist perspective the suicide terror of 9-11 was successful in many respects and could well become an attractive model for future terrorism.

Evaluating alternatives to make strategic choices

The tactics used by decision makers to evaluate alternatives during strategic decision making were uncovered by examining decisions in 317 organizations. Nine tactics were identified and linked to their frequency of use and record of success. `Analytical' tactics were widely used and most types of analytical tactics were quite successful. `Bargaining' tactics were rarely used but highly successful. `Subjective' tactics were also widely used but had a mixed record of success. Finally, sponsor `judgment' was observed in 14% of the cases and was rarely successful. The motivations and implications of best and worst practices are discussed.

Donor policy on funding livestock research and development

AbstractIn recent years there has been a decline in donor support for livestock research and production in the developing world. Evaluation studies suggest that such activities have a mixed record of success. Failures have been ascribed to institutional weaknesses and an inability to identify farmers’ priorities. In addition, there is an increasing donor concern about the adverse environmental effects of livestock, particularly in fragile ecosystems.Concern has been expressed that, if the decreasing support is not reversed, donor supported activities will underplay the important rôle of livestock in rural development.There are, however, signs that many of the lessons of experience have been learned and that there is an improving understanding of the crucial part played by livestock in sustainable land-use systems and in generating cash income.Donors are increasingly appraising livestock activities within an agro-ecological or land-use systems framework and adopting a ‘demand-led’ approach based on farmer's priorities. Past experience suggests that Government institutions should concentrate on regulatory functions and other activities unsuited to the private sector. There is, therefore, a greater willingness to involve private-sector organizations, co-operatives and non-governmental organizations. Environmental impact assessments are becoming an integral part of donor supported rural development activities.Any increase in the levels of funding for livestock research and development will depend on the socioeconomic and environmental impact of livestock in the developing world being better understood and, wherever possible, quantified.

The Utilization of Information Systems Technology and Its Impact on Organizational Decision Making

Despite the considerable attention which the growth of information systems technology in government has received over the past two decades, research focusing on the development, confirmation, or extension of theories which explain the use of a wide range of technological innovations has had a mixed record of success. In particular, two issues stand out. Divergent and frequently ambiguous definitions of utilization have led to relatively little replication of findings in various public settings. Second, relatively little empirical research has been under taken which explicitly incorporated and tested multiple alternative explanations of potential determinants of utilization, leading to continued fragmentation in the research literature. This analysis, using a national sample of state budgeting offices, draws on theoretical propositions offered over the past decade and more to operationalize utilization as the impact of technology on key organizational deciston-making processes and assess the relative explanatory power offered by three alternative explanations for the successful use of information systems technology. The findings suggest that unique combinations of three types of factors—environmental, managerial-organizational, and technological—will explain and account for the successful uutilization of technology in various settings.

The Politics of Reform and Nonreform in French Education

Educational reforms have a mixed record of success in getting beyond paper on which they have been conceived and designed. For a variety of reasons, educational systems and political fabric that surrounds, supports, and constrains them tend to be remarkably impervious to major change and seem to have a striking capacity to bounce back into their original shape after each attempt to revamp them. Exceptions, such as Swedish school reform in 1960s and partial success of going comprehensive in Britain, would seem to confirm rule for which developments in Federal Republic of Germany, Austria, Belgium, and a good many Third World countries provide ample evidence. There are few places, however, where this resistance to change is more striking than in contemporary France, where, over a period of now almost 30 years, an enormous proliferation of reform proposals has more or less peacefully coexisted with an extremely limited degree of actual change in educational system. Beginning with reforms proposed by Berthoin in 1959 (for which groundwork had been laid in immediate postwar years), a series of more or less fundamental proposals for reforming some part or other of French educational system has ranged clear across history of Fifth Republic: Fouchet in 1963, Fontanet in 1973, Haby in 1975, Savary in 1981, Chevenement in 1984, and (memories of a stormy November on streets of Paris!) Monory and Devaquet in 1986-they all, with varying degrees of rigor mortis, have joined what a commentator in Le Monde has called the cemetery of reform projects, dead even before they were handed down to posterity with name of their author attached.9

Women's Cooperatives in Cameroon: The Cooperative Experiences of the Northwest and Southwest Provinces

In the history of the cooperative movement in anglophone Cameroon, women's cooperatives have played a particularly small role. Although the first cooperatives opened in the anglophone portion of the country in the 1920s and a small-scale women's project was attempted in the 1950s, the currently existing cooperatives for women began only in 1970. Today, in terms of number of members, amount of capitalization, scale of economic transactions, number of viable (or even operating) organizations, or any other measure, the women's cooperatives account for only a small portion of the total cooperative movement. In early 1970, beginning in the southern, coastal portions of the then West Cameroon state (the anglophone state in the bilingual Federal Republic of Cameroon) several governmental bodies and the women's wing of the Cameroon National Union (WCNU) began to organize women in urban areas in palm oil cooperatives. A number of societies came into being in a short period of time and the idea soon spread from its original site in the Southwest Province to the Northwest Province. Most of the original structures established in the coastal area have failed, but those in the Northwest Province continue to exist, though with a mixed record of success. Although in many respects the experiments in the Southwest and Northwest were similar, there are differences in purpose, governmental involvement, and social situation that may be related to the differences in success. Interviews with Cameroon officials and foreign assistance workers, archival and documentary material, and personal observations during two periods of research in Cameroon (1975-76 and 1980-81) have provided the data upon which to compare and analyze these two experiences.

Why has Regge pole theory survived?

In spite of a very mixed record of success and failure, Regge theory, in which the notion of complex angular momentum is introduced into quantum mechanics still lives on. What has dissuaded physicists from discarding it, and what is our present assessment of the theory?

Ethnicity in American Political Life-The Italian-American Experience

The history of ethnic societies in America has been a mixed record of success when it comes to fostering scholarship concerning national ethnic groups. Italian-Americans have been among the least eminent in this regard. Indeed, one student of immigrant historical societies dis? missed the typical Italian American Historical Society as a stillborn brainchild of history-minded journalists or ambitious politicians. Often a letterhead, a statement of aims and a name in a directory are their only bequests to posterity. One or two have sponsored books that add little to the sum total of historical knowledge.1 In order to correct this serious shortcoming in Italian-American scholarship the American Italian Historical Association came into ex? istence in December, 1966, promoted by scholars in history, sociology and education who are dedicated to an objective appraisal of the history of the Italians in be it favorable or unfavorable. Moreover, the dedication was quickly turned into action. Two years after its founding the Association organized a conference held at Casa Italiana, Columbia University, on October 26, 1968, on a significant aspect of Italian-American history. The topic selected was Ethnicity in American Political Life: The Italian-American Experience. By co? incidence the conference occurred four months after the First National Consultation on Ethnic America, which concluded that America's mul? tiple social probelms will not be resolved unless we all better understand the antipathies which exist between ethnic groups and the general ways