Politico-administrative Relations Research Articles

Policy coordination and integration in local government: perspectives on barriers

The topic of policy integration has become an important component of several distinct lines of policy research. However, the concept of policy integration is notoriously difficult to specify and observe. This article provides valuable insights that explore the subjectivity of responses by political and administrative officials at the local level charged with policy integration. In response to its central question: ‘How do local politicians and civil servants perceive politico-administrative barriers facing policy coordination and integration?’ the study reveals political and managerial perceptions of key politicians and civil servants in local governments about the barriers to achieving policy integration. By contrast with other studies involving politico-administrative relations, it draws on a broader institutional context, inclusive of the complex and dynamic environment and local level environment. Its findings show that significant barriers to coordination and integration continue to limit the policy coordination and integration needed to address complex societal challenges. Using Q methodology, three perspectives emerge which provide crucial insights into the main barriers preventing integration. These findings adeptly depict the complex relationship between vertical, hierarchical relationships between politicians and bureaucrats, and the requirement for a more horizontal, consensual relationship in order to meet crosscutting societal challenges. In this way, the article offers a significant contribution to the scholarship on policy integration.

Changing role of public bureaucracy in India: A federal polity perspective

In a federal polity, the role of bureaucracy is ineluctable to cement the centre-state relations. Being the primary catalyst for social change and nation building, Indian bureaucracy is stitched into the federal fabric. The bureaucratic system as well as its potential for public welfare is greatly influenced by the power dynamics in the centre-state relations. Therefore, the paper examines the role of public bureaucracy from the vantage point of centre-state relations. The study synthesizes the literature on the subject to explore the role of bureaucracy in the various phases of centre-state relations in India. The historical analysis is used to reveal the reasons for political control over bureaucracy in India. The main finding of the study reveals that a change in the power constellations of political authorities at the central and state levels of government also induces a change in the influence or capacity of the bureaucracy to work independently and impartially, thereby weakening the neutrality of bureaucracy. The study can be highly useful for policy analysts in understanding the federal democracy and adds to the canon of academic literature on politico-administrative relations in India.

Designing fit-for-context climate change adaptation tracking: Towards a framework for analyzing the institutional structures of knowledge production and use

The Paris Agreement encourages countries to monitor and regularly report on their progress in responding to the impacts of climate change. So far, discussions on adaptation tracking have focused on the technocratic reasons for limited progress on adaptation tracking, for example, financial, methodological, and technical capacity gaps. Substantial variation exists in the institutional context within which adaptation takes place and is being tracked. Yet, recent discussions overlook the importance of the extent to which new systems of adaptation tracking fit within the prevailing rules and practices of knowledge production and use. Although such a fit-for-context approach has been considered important in other fields, no adequate frameworks exist to operationalize it within adaptation tracking. We develop a six-dimensional framework for analyzing institutional structures as the first step towards alignment in the design and use of adaptation tracking: 1) stakeholder participation, 2) transparency, 3) bureaucratic accountability, 4) engagement with experts, 5) politico-administrative relations, and 6) coordination within the administration. For each dimension, we synthesize academic literature, provide variables for operationalization, and provide examples drawn from various regions. The resulting framework allows the description of the institutional structures of knowledge production and use and supports the context-specific design of new programs, tools, and practices for tracking adaptation progress.

Drivers of reform implementation in local government: a qualitative comparative analysis

ABSTRACT By identifying a configuration of factors that impact the degree of reform implementation, this article offers a more accurate view of a local government’s implementation capacity than earlier studies. Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis in 11 local governments was used to test how organizational factors jointly produced the right context for reform implementation. The results indicate that reform implementation capacity is largely dependent on the following organizational factors: municipal scale, politico–administrative relations and the presence of sufficient properly qualified employees.

Conclusions: TED Dialogue on Politico-Administrative Relations

Conclusions: TED Dialogue on Politico-Administrative Relations

In the Mayor We Trust? Trust as the Micro-Foundation of Complementary Politico-Administrative Relations in Local Governments

This article investigates trust between politicians and public officials in local government. Beginning with Svara’s claim that such relations are characterized by complementarity, we point to the importance of trust as the micro foundation for these relationships. Applying a mixed-methods strategy, we investigate a number of factors we expect to be related to the level of trust between politicians and public officials, as perceived by the latter. We find that the communication climate and a clear distribution of tasks correlate positively with trust, whereas an unstable environment correlates negatively with trust.

Political Context of Public Administration in Korea : An Analysis of Trends and Characteristics of Researches on Politico-Administrative Relations

이 글은 지난 60년간 국내 학계에서 정치와 행정 관계, 좀 더 구체적으로는 정치인과 행정인, 국회와 행정부, 정당과 행정부, 대통령과 장관, 대통령과 관료, 장관과 관료, 국회의원과 장관 간의 상호관계에 관한 연구문헌들을 검토 분석하여 시대별 분야별 연구 경향과 특징을 확인하고 각 분야별로 학문적 성숙도를 평가한 후 향후 학문발전을 위한 방향을 모색해 보려는 시도이다. 검토문헌들의 출처는 행정학과 정치학 분야 주요 학술지, 각 대학의 논문집, 한국의회발전연구회의 연구논문집, 각종 편집서 등이다. 학술지와 각 대학 논문집에 실린 연구논문들은 KISS와 DBpia에서 수집했고, 편집서에 실린 관련 논문들은 국회도서관 소장 서적을 조사하여 수집했다. 이렇게 최종 선정하여 검토한 연구문헌은 총 103편이다. 검토결과, 연구분야는 시간의 흐름에 따라 계속 확대되어 왔음에도 불구하고, 연구가 행정부-국회 관계에 집중되었고 나머지 분야 연구는 이제 진행중이거나 시작단계에 있다. 연구대상도 다양한 측면들이 연구되어 왔으나, 양자간 상대적 영향력과 그 요인분석에 집중되어 있고 아직도 상호작용의 패턴과 유형, 영향력 행사의 전략 등 연구되어야할 대상들이 많이 남아 있다. 연구방법론도 다양화되고 정교해지고 있으나 아직도 기존 문헌과 간단한 통계 및 주관적 판단에 의존하는 전통적 방법론에 크게 의존하고 있다. 현장을 깊이있게 들여다 볼 수 있는 현대적 질적 분석이나 사례분석이 크게 부족하다. 학문적 성숙도를 보면, 현상에 대한 이론화에 있어서, 원인·요인 연구가 상당히 축적되어 있으나 단순히 다수 요인·원인을 지적하거나 통계적 상관관계 분석에 머물고 있을 뿐 다수 원인들과 하나의 결과를 연결하는 이론화 시도가 거의 없다. 제도에 대한 연구에 있어서도 외국에서 도입한 현장제도의 분석과 평가는 많으나, 기존제도들의 일반화, 새로운 제도의 개발 등은 거의 시도되고 있지 않다. 따라서 전반적으로 학문적 발전이 상당한 수준에 이르렀다고 평가하기는 어렵다. 향후 행정학의 궁극적 목적인 개념구축과 이론화, 기존제도(수단)의 일반화와 새로운 제도(수단)의 개발 등을 우회길이 아닌 지름길로 과감하게 시도해 볼 필요가 있다.

Politico-Administrative Relations in Tanzanian Local Government Authorities

Over decades, many countries have committed to create local governments in order to bring the government closer to the citizens. As entities, local government authorities are created to consolidate and give powers to the local people to participate in planning and implementing development programmes (Burns, 1994; Litvack et al., 1998). The local governments operate under the leadership of councillors who are politically elected and bureaucrats, the professionals, who are appointed to implement the policies. The theories on politico administrative relations suggest that the councillors and bureaucrats do interact and their interaction influence the formal structure. This influence can either strengthen or weaken the relationship (Jacobsen, 2006).Although the councillors and administrators need to cooperate in serving the communities, they do not always do as expected. There are incidences which seem to indicate that the bureaucrats undermine the councillors. In principle the councillors have a role to approve the plans or agenda and the bureaucrats, on the other hand, prepare the plan or agenda and if the councillors disapprove or change the agenda, the bureaucrats will not support the implementation. Also the bureaucrats depend on councillors in case the implementation of plan solely depends on community contribution. The main thesis of this research was therefore to describe the nature of relationships that exists between bureaucrats and councillors in local government authorities in the context of decentralisation by devolution in Tanzania. In doing this, the case study design was viewed as appropriate. The findings from the two cases suggest that the relations between politicians and administrators vary from one context to another. The two cases portray a mixture of relations between the two politicians and administrators. Such relations seem to incline within the three models (classical, village and adversarial) and Mvomero case, in this research, seems to have more adversarial relations compared to Kinondoni one. The explanation which may be used to support such a situation is the diverse background in terms of education qualifications between the politicians and administrators in Mvomero District Council rather than their political orientation.

Navigating the Borderlines of Politics and Administration: Reflections on the Role of Ministerial Advisers

Ministerial advisers are actors serving democratically appointed ministers, and they occupy a position in the borderlines of politics and administration. Throughout history, rulers have relied on advisers for counsel and support, and there is increasing interest in interpreting this role in its contemporary context. This article reflects on the existing empirical work on the Irish case which offered a classification of adviser types and seeks to outline links with the wider literature on politico-administrative relations and core executive studies to illustrate ministerial advisers’ activities.

He Who Appoints the Piper: Understanding Reasons and Implications of Agency Management “Politicisation” in Slovakia

Summary / Abstract Discussion of politico-administrative relations as well as the research on agencies generally treats the “politicisation” of agency management as a single, “black-box” concept, according to which agency managements (and other senior civil servants) are either political or not. Our paper shows that, using a strict, but widely applied definition of what constitutes a political appointment, agency heads in Slovakia are overwhelmingly “political”, but that the implications of politicisation vary, depending on the type of politicisation. In particular, we distinguish personal nominations of the responsible minister and contrast them with party nominations based on coalition agreements. Based on a series of interviews with senior policy-makers on both sides of the politico-administrative divide, we show that the selection mechanism, incentive structure and robustness of actual accountability mechanisms differs more between these two types of politicisations than between the ministerial and formally “non-political” appointment.

Serving the Nation: Devolution and the Civil Service in Wales

The article captures the evolution of the moving object of Welsh devolution over its first decade through a case study of the civil service in Wales. Three positions are proposed as heuristics for understanding politico-administrative relations in devolved Wales: these are administrative persistence, capacity-building and bureaucratic capture. Rather than set these dynamics against each other, the case study of the civil service in Wales demonstrates the value of reasoning in terms of a mix of administrative, political and managerial pressures, requiring the development of hybrid responses and skills. Although the institutional capacity-building dynamic clearly had the ascendancy during the first decade, as the post-devolution Welsh polity gradually becomes more settled, there is likely to be a revival of more generic administrative and/or managerial concerns.

The changing Public Service Bargain in the federal administration in Belgium

Successive waves of reforms in government have caused radical changes in the relations between top civil servants and politicians. This article examines the extent to which politico—administrative relations have changed in the Belgian federal administration, as a result of the Copernicus reform. Using the concept of Public Service Bargain (PSB), we look at changes in reward, competency and loyalty/responsibility. Research is conducted among the highest ranking officials by means of a questionnaire and interviews. The main research findings reveal the emergence of a ‘hybrid’ public service bargain, instead of the expected ‘managerial’ bargain. The article concludes with some theoretical explanations for these findings.

Comparative observations on tensions between professional policy advice and political control in the Low Countries

In politico-administrative relations, there is an always-existing tension between professional policy advice and political control. In this article, we would like to focus on this tension from a comparative perspective. The Netherlands and Belgium have broadly similar state institutions; they vary considerably as to the way in which professional policy advice is combined with political control. The Dutch case is traditionally characterized by a strong involvement of the civil service in the production of policy advice, whereas the Belgian civil service is traditionally marginalized in the policy formulation process. In this article, we shall argue that despite increased pressures towards convergence between both countries the actual balancing of professional policy advice and political control remains path dependent.