Practice Of Public Administration Research Articles

Концептуальні рамки управління борговим фінансуванням публічних бюджетів

Introduction. Overcoming the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and full-scale Russian aggression against Ukraine caused the destruction of a stable system of managing financial flows not only in our country, but also in many states. Market and regulatory mechanisms for mobilization and the use of financial resources were undermined. Fiscal consolidation measures were changed in favor of expansion. The need to increase the resource base on the basis of state debt has intensified. The use of standardized approaches in the field of fiscal policy did not make it possible to limit risks under new conditions. The task of implementing new conceptual approaches to the management of public budget financing based on the use of debt instruments has arisen. Problem Statement. An increase in debt financing of public budgets helps to expand the volume of resources for the implementation of state plans. At the same time, the pressure on the financial system is growing, which requires making significant changes to the formation of the structure of debt instruments, their placement on domestic and foreign financial markets, attraction of resources on preferential terms from foreign partners, fulfillment of repayment and servicing obligations, refinancing and restructuring of loans. Determining rational management decisions on these issues involves the development of a conceptual framework for public debt financing. The purpose is to study the formation of a conceptual framework for managing debt financing of public budgets and their use in the practice of public administration. Methods. Research methods are used: historical, logical, abstraction, description, generalization, comparison, grouping, analysis and synthesis. Results. The adoption of the debt framework guides the definition of debt strategy, debt management goals, indicators of its volume and structure, debt management tasks, as well as mechanisms and tools for their implementation. The debt strategy reflects the orientation of the debt policy, the goals of public debt management for long and medium-term periods, its indicators, the use of tools and mechanisms for achieving the adopted goals, the formation of the debt portfolio for the specified terms, the classification of risks of government debt management taking into account their impact on the performance of state budget, the application of refinancing and restructuring mechanisms for state liabilities. Conclusions. The conceptual framework for managing debt financing of public budget is an important guiding document aimed at taking into account the conditions for placing debt obligations among investors (state institutions, non-state depositors, non-residents), access to international financial markets, cooperation with international organizations and financial institutions, acceptance of debt portfolio (the structure of state budget financing), built according to types of debt instruments, sources of financing, currencies of loan repayment and servicing, repayment terms, loan servicing rates and debt refinancing. The development and implementation of the conceptual framework for the management of public debt transactions is important for Ukraine. In the conditions of overcoming the consequences of the war and post-war reconstruction, it is necessary to apply a comprehensive approach to the formation, distribution and use of resources raised on the basis of the use of public debt instruments.

Public administration boundary crossing imperatives: A practitioner’s reflections on pathways toward improved relevance for public service contexts

As a practitioner with boundary spanning interests and roles, I take a reflexive posture to ponder the nature and significance of boundary crossing in public administration. Specifically, I consider how boundary crossing could provide pathways toward greater relevance for public service contexts in South Africa. By bricolage, I derive theoretical and methodological associations across social constructionist perspectives that include relational theory, critical theory and reflexivity. Building on how the boundary crossing imperative is expressed in programme purposes and on brief reviews of public administration interdisciplinarity, I reflect on my experiences in practitioner-academic interactions and inter-institutional projects. From this exploration, I draw provisional conclusions about constraints to and opportunities for beneficial boundary crossing. I incorporate examples of critical considerations to guide the furtherance of education outcomes through boundary interactions between academics and practitioners. The limitations of self-reflexivity in qualitative inquiry are mediated through different data sources and the transparency with which subjective experiences are interpreted. The paper’s contribution is in making explicit a critical inside-out perspective and placing this side by side other empirical endeavours. Amid calls for more relevant and reflexive practices in public administration, the paper provides an example of cross boundary reflections that are still underrepresented and are yet to gain sophistication in practitioner-academic engagement and scholarship.

INTELIGÊNCIA ARTIFICIAL, ADMINISTRAÇÃO TRIBUTÁRIA E EFEITOS NA RELAÇÃO ENTRE O FISCO E OS CONTRIBUINTES

The text discusses how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming various areas of society. In the public sphere, AI is used to perform repetitive tasks, improve decision-making, and increase the effectiveness of public policies through the analysis of large volumes of data in real time. In law, AI automates procedural acts and provides statistical analyses for lawyers and parties, aiding in the selection of procedural strategies. AI also brings challenges and requires adaptations in Public Administration and legal practice, such as the need to balance technology application with the protection of individual and collective rights. In the realm of Tax Administration, AI is used to modernize inspection and collection processes, detect fraud, and optimize taxpayer services, contributing to a significant increase in revenue collection. Despite the great opportunities for innovation and efficiency that AI presents, the use of intelligent systems in tax inspection and collection activities requires careful implementation to ensure respect for taxpayers' rights and constitutional limitations on the power to tax.

The Reform Dynamics of State Management Practices in the Healthcare Sector of the Republic of Kazakhstan: A Global and Local Perspective

ObjectiveThis study aimed to analyze the changes in public administration practices in this area in the Republic of Kazakhstan and to assess the general state of healthcare in the country. MethodsThe study used various methods, including analysis, historical research, deduction, and forecasting, to assess the current state and prospects for healthcare development in the Republic of Kazakhstan and some post-Soviet countries in Eastern Europe. ResultsThe findings indicate that although these countries have lower qualitative and quantitative healthcare characteristics than more developed nations, they still outperform Kazakhstan. This suggests that Kazakhstan should take a more proactive approach toward developing its healthcare system and prioritizing the well-being of its citizens, their standard of living, and their ability to combat diseases, including financially. ConclusionsThe article contributes new insights into the healthcare systems of developing countries, including post-Soviet nations.

The Need to Reconnect Public Administration Education, Research, and Practice

How relevant is current public administration pedagogy to the discipline and to those working in public service? Public administration education prepared leaders during World War II and the New Deal and once was viewed as a critical subfield of political science. Over the years, and despite various Minnowbrook incarnations, public administration has become a self-standing but narrowly defined body of knowledge characterized as “the business of government,” without any relational emphasis on its historical, legal, and economic context. This diminished intellectual scope poses a serious challenge to its practical relevance.

WASTEFUL GOVERNMENT SPENDING AND MARKET DISTORTION: AN EMPIRICAL ACCOUNT OF MODERN INTERVENTIONISM’S UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES IN PUBLIC PROCUREMENT

Wasteful government spending can be seen in the Misesian tradition as a type of interventionism with unintended consequences, such as market distortion and the creation of privilege. An underlying problem that helps the distortion become a tradition is that of ‘wasteful spending cultures’. The latter reflects a hardly identifiable problem in practice, i.e. the creation of welfare losses through public administration practices that are influenced by bureaucratic inertia. The growing acceptance of the compatibility of the Austrian tradition and public policy studies allows for a better understanding of imperfect policies, their consequences, and ways to improve both the process and its result. Using data from government-driven procurement of armored cars in Colombia, this paper illustrates how the distortion of the market mechanism is affected by narrative-driven practices and how special interest groups derive rents at the expense of citizens. Using a cost-effectiveness analysis, the study identifies how a tradition is built around procuring high-end vehicles, portraying a failed central planner in the modern public administration context of a developing country.

Legal and organizational problems of development and production of innovative medicines in Russia

The article outlines the range of problems facing the Russian pharmaceutical industry as a segment of the real sector of the economy that ensures the health of the population. The necessity of an integrated approach to the formation of a model for the organization of scientific research, innovation and production activities in the designated area is substantiated; an organizational model is proposed that ensures the development and production of innovative medicines; individual legal measures aimed at increasing the effectiveness of state support for the development and production of innovative medicines (normative consolidation of the concept of an innovative drug and a scientific and technological consortium, the inclusion of scientific and educational organizations of higher education among the subjects of industrial clusters). The results of the research can be used in law-making activities and public administration practice.

Corruption in unlikely places

Corruption, defined as the “misuse of public position for private gain”, represents an act of deviance from official duties in the interest of self-enrichment. Denmark is ranked as one of the least corrupt countries in the world. Danish court records, however, show that corruption cases have appeared in the 21st century. Using Luhmann’s systems theory and Foucault’s method of genealogy, this article asks how this has happened. I argue that understanding corruption in Denmark may go back to changes in public administration ideas and practices since the 1990. New Public Management reform has increased the complexity in public administration where meaning horizons of communication related to different functional systems – especially the sub-systems of law and economy – clashes. I theorise and illustrate using court cases how the coexistence of different codes creates an environment for public employees that in some circumstances – however still rare – result in corruption.

State policy of Russia to promote youth employment under the modern challenges

Objective: to systematize and develop ideas about the improvement of the Russian state policy to promote youth employment. Methods: the work is based on the analysis of literature and normative-legal documents using general scientific methods of cognition. Results: the paper reveals the legal bases for the activities of Russian authorities in the field of promoting youth employment and developing labor market. It is shown that, despite the variety of measures, young people still face serious barriers to successful career starting and stable employment in general. The analysis summarizes the priority areas of action to overcome the most pressing problems, including: loose regulation of the status of a young specialist; limited statistics; low awareness of young people about the situation on the labor market; mismatch between the personnel produced and the current needs of the economy, etc. The conclusion emphasizes the importance to summarizing the accumulated experience and practical application of the most beneficial solutions, taking into account the specifics of the Russian labor market. Scientific novelty: the conducted research contributes to the development of theoretical and practical issues of promoting youth employment, including the deepening of ideas about the main barriers to stable employment and measures to overcome them. Practical significance: the study results can be used, first of all, in the practice of public administration at any level to improve the policy to promote youth employment.

Debate: A relational agenda for changing public administration research and practice

Debate: A relational agenda for changing public administration research and practice

Methodological Aspect of Evaluating the Effectiveness of Public Policy in Depressed Regions

The paper considers the practical possibilities of using various methods of qualitative and quantitative assessment of the effectiveness of public policy implementation, detailed in the context of the problem of depressed regions rehabilitation. The aim of the study is to form a holistic and comprehensive model that allows analyzing the effectiveness of the implementation of state projects at the regional level, taking into account the specific features inherent in the economic and administrative spheres of the depressed subjects of the Russian Federation. The relevance of the research topic to these conditions is defined by the dynamic nature of the development of regional depression, as well as the need to improve public administration mechanisms in order to solve urgent problems of socio-economic development of regions and ensure opportunities for sustainable and balanced spatial development of the Russian Federation. The development of this topic includes the use of methods of retrospective statistical analysis, mathematical modeling, as well as abstraction and socio-economic comparison. Based on the results of the study, a theoretical concept has been formed, including a methodological apparatus that allows evaluating the effectiveness of existing models of public administration for the development of depressed regions. The conclusions obtained at the theoretical level are concretized in the context of a practice-oriented analysis of the state and prospects of development of the depressed region — the Ulyanovsk region; the results of the analysis fully prove the validity of the proposed methodological developments. Based on the results of the study, a number of practical conclusions were made, in particular, in the context of analyzing the effectiveness of public policy, the role of integrated non-financial quantitative assessment tools was updated, as well as a number of aspects of their practical application and further improvement were specified. The prospects for further use of the proposed evaluation model are related to the possibility of its implementation into the structure of software and analytical complexes currently used in public administration practice. The results of the study are of practical importance in the context of the possibilities of optimizing the control and evaluation functions of public authorities and, in particular, can be used by subjects of state strategic planning for the formation and subsequent assessment of territorial development plans of the Russian Federation.

Minding the gap between public administration curriculum and practice: The studio of public reasoning

It has always been a crucial question as to what kind of education should be provided to practitioners working at different levels of public administration, starting from the street level onwards, and what kind of interactions should be used to develop their competencies once in office. However, especially in the last 30 years, as we have entered a period of accelerating technological and institutional transformations, this issue has gained a dimension beyond the discussions on higher education and training for service. In addition to how public administration education will relate to practice as seen in traditional debates, new questions have emerged, such as how this engagement with practice can provide a perspective on institutional transformation, how those working in institutions can perceive their transformation processes more accurately, and ultimately, what kind of interaction can be achieved between those receiving public administration education and those working in public institutions. To answer these questions, an innovative model called “studio of public reasoning” was developed in 2009 for a university in public administration education in Turkey to create a platform for interaction with the external stakeholders of the university through an applied course. This Program has been implemented continuously for 15 years at the same university and more than 1000 students, about 100 public institutions of different scales and about 300 public administrators have benefited from the Program. In this paper, based on this experience, the gains of innovative teaching practices in public administration discipline in interacting with external stakeholders are critically evaluated through interviews with students, academics and administrators to assess whether alternatives are possible in establishing non-hierarchical external stakeholder interaction together with formal higher education for public administration.

QUALITY OF LIFE: ESSENCE AND MEASUREMENTS

Quality of life remains an important measure of socio-­economic development and the effectiveness of public policy in this area. At the same time, there is still no clear answer to the question of measuring quality of life. Both academic science and the professional expert community that develop various quality of life ratings offer significantly different interpretations. And this, of course, harms the effective use of quality of life as a goal and result of state activities. The purpose of the article is to propose and test for systematization of existing approaches in assessing the quality of life the matrix of “four qualities of life” by R. Veenhoven, which has not previously been considered in Russian economic science. The article analyzes approaches to defining and measuring the quality of life, considers and analyzes R. Veenhoven’s approach itself, and also demonstrates the possibilities of its application to the systematization of quality of life measures proposed by Russian researchers. The results presented in the article will be useful for bringing together existing approaches to assessing quality of life and developing a consensus understanding of the essence and measures of quality of life, for subsequent application in public administration practice.

The Adequacy of Cost-Benefit Analysis in the Assessment of Public Value: A Case Study from the Transportation Sector

The complexity of the public value discussion has hindered the development of consensual measurement guidelines for use in public administration practice. This article explores the use of the cost-benefit analysis (CBA) framework in the transportation sector and considers its relevance in assessing public value. A case study is presented on the reconfiguration of a public transport network in the municipality of Arganil, Portugal. The CBA did not fully capture the effects of the network reconfiguration, demonstrating its limitations in assessing public value.

THE TECHNOLOGY OF THE PROJECT APPROACH IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AT THE LEVEL OF UNITED TERRITORIAL COMMUNITIES OF THE DECENTRALIZED SYSTEM OF TERRITORIAL ORGANIZATION OF POWER

The article is devoted to the issue of project management implementation by public management bodies of the decentralized system of territorial organization of power, in particular the functional features and advantages of implementing project management tools in the activities of united territorial communities of Ukraine. It is determined that the project approach to project management today is one of the most popular ways of management in the modern world. The relevance of the widespread introduction of project management methodology and project approach in the practice of public administration as a new culture of management and effective tools for good governance in a crisis, instability and uncertainty is substantiated, solving industrial, scientific and social problems. It was concluded that the use of project management methodology at the national level of the decentralized system of territorial organization of power is both strategic and tactical in nature. In strategic terms, the project approach makes it possible to focus the efforts of public authorities on solving urgent problems of long-term development of society in its key areas, reducing tensions in the socio-political sphere, by increasing the efficiency of public authorities to strengthen their legitimacy and resilience to internal and external threats establish a stable partnership dialogue with communities and civil society institutions. In terms of tactics, budget savings, reduction of implementation of state programs and national projects, some optimization of government structures and improved coordination of public authorities, cooperation and public-private partnerships with business entities.

DISCIPLINARY MATRIX OF THE SCIENCE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AS A METHODOLOGY TOOL

The article reveals the importance of the disciplinary matrix of the science of public administration as a methodological tool in the relevant field of knowledge in the context of solving the dilemma «state administration – public administration». Arguments are given in favor of the fact that the disciplinary matrix of the science of public administration is important for uniting the community of scientists who unite around the problems of public administration and the formation of its methodology. The components of the latter include values, beliefs, fundamental knowledge organized into a terminological system, principles, methods and approaches of scientific research in the field of public administration science and public administration practice. In this regard, it is claimed that the disciplinary matrix has two structural components: a) a social submatrix, which indicates the affiliation of the community of scientists to a specific science (discipline); b) methodological sub-matrix as a system of certain methodological rules within the given discipline, which are followed by the scientific community. It is shown that the use of the concept of public administration and the terminology derived from it largely ignores the requirements of the already formed disciplinary matrix and the previously outlined prospects for its development. This situation, firstly, erodes the structure of the social submatrix, and secondly, violates the logic (unity) of the already formed methodological submatrix. The mentioned discussion, in the opinion of the author, can be constructive and promising in the event that in its process the existing shortcomings of the already formed methodological submatrix will be revealed, and its terminological apparatus will be supplemented with new concepts that are consistent with the existing realities of state management practice. In this regard, it is emphasized that there is no need to create a new disciplinary matrix based on the concept of «public administration». The disciplinary matrix based on the concept of «public administration» should remain the key starting point for solving the «state administration – public administration» dilemma. This task should be implemented based on the results of fundamental research of the new terminology, its codification and standardization in accordance with the requirements of the methodological submatrix of the science of public administration, coordination with the administrative and legal systems of Ukraine.

Perceived Ethical Leadership and Follower Outcomes in the Public Sector: The Moderating Effect of Followers' Need for Autonomy

Ethical leadership is of growing interest and concern in public administration research and practice. Although both scholarship and practical wisdom suggest that the outcomes of leadership are contingent on followers' characteristics, knowledge about what individual preferences matter for the leadership–outcome relationship and how they moderate it is still scant. This study expands on extant scholarship by focusing on the moderating role of followers' need for autonomy in the association between perceived ethical leadership and two important follower outcomes, i.e., job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment. Building on self-determination theory, we test rivaling hypotheses on the moderating effect of follower's need for autonomy in a sample of public sector employees in Germany (n = 462). The results support the enhancement hypothesis, according to which the association between ethical leadership and follower outcomes increases at higher levels of need for autonomy. However, we find this effect only for job satisfaction, while no such moderation occurs in the case of affective organizational commitment. Future research is challenged to further explore the multiple contingencies of ethical leadership in the public sector by examining other configurations of outcomes and moderators at various levels of analysis.

Interdisciplinary knowledge integration in public affairs scholarship: An empirical analysis of the contributions of public administration, policy sciences, and nonprofit studies

ABSTRACT The multidisciplinary fields of public administration (PA), public policy sciences (PP), and nonprofit studies (Nonprofit) contribute in different ways to interdisciplinary knowledge integration in public affairs. At the field and topic level, we examine the variety and coherence of the disciplinary knowledge that each field draws upon when conducting research. Our analyses focus on citations from articles published between 2009–2020 in PA, PP, and Nonprofit journals indexed in Web of Science (n = 991,627). The contributions of each field are shaped by their distinct disciplinary origins. PA is more insular than PP and Nonprofit, in part due to its need to adopt new paradigms because of rapid, substantial shifts in public administration practice. Although Nonprofit achieves relatively more interdisciplinary knowledge integration, public affairs is heavily influenced by knowledge integration in PP. We identify variation in interdisciplinary knowledge integration across research topics and discuss possible explanations for the observed patterns.

The significance of the Council of Europe’s governance tool “Territorial and cross-border cooperation” for regional development: Literature review

Pursuing the best European standards and practices of public administration and good governance of territorial and cross-border cooperation to strengthen the potential and institutional capacity of communities and regions of Ukraine is among the priority tasks of Ukraine’s regional policy and European integration course. Therefore, the purpose of the present article is to determine directions for improving the public management mechanism of regional development of territorial communities and regions of Ukraine by applying good governance standards and tools of the Centre of Expertise for Good Governance of the Council of Europe based on the expertise of the Association of European Border Regions. The following scientific methods have been applied in the course of the research: historical, logical and generalization, enabling us to investigate the state and expertise of developing scientific and theoretical provisions, as well as actions taken by subjects and participants of regional policy when developing good governance of territorial and cross-border cooperation. It has been discovered that one of the ways to improve the public management mechanism of the regional development of communities and regions is the introduction of the cyclical mechanism of good governance of the Council of Europe, which consists of: development of standards; creation of tools, recommendations, reports, manuals; research of best practices (golden triangle of good governance “standards – tools – practice”). The necessity of further formulation of directions for improving the public management mechanism of regional development of communities and regions of Ukraine through interaction and partnership with the Association of European Border Regions has been substantiated. Conducting a scientific and theoretical study of the standard and toolkit of good governance “Territorial and cross-border cooperation” of the Council of Europe, as well as the study of the Association of European Border Regions practices have made it possible to focus on the implementation of the standard and toolkit of good governance “Territorial and cross-border cooperation” at the local and regional levels. The results of the research can have practical value for representatives of public authorities and the public sector to update local and regional development strategies based on the implementation of good governance standards and tools

The relevance of CRT to public administrative practice: The role of leaders

Public administration is poised to recognize that race is constitutive of bureaucratic hierarchies, processes, and outcomes and, as such, to ground our work in a more critical and progressive conceptual framework. In this exploratory analysis, we center Critical Race Theory (CRT) around practice, or praxis, a process that is self-reflexive and race-conscious to address root causes of racism, on the role of public sector leaders. This paper applies leadership research to demonstrate how public leaders, particularly career bureaucrats, can help to eliminate institutional racism. We specifically explore how critical race praxis (CRP) can apply to environmental justice and the movement against environmental racism.