Public Administration Research Articles

Urban Historiography and Graphic Reconstruction of a Historic Area in Valencia, Spain

The conservation of cultural heritage is a well-established fact recognized by public administrations, the scientific community, and society at large. Understanding this heritage strengthens the historical memory of communities. However, there is a type of heritage that, as it disappears or evolves over time, cannot be physically recovered: the urban fabric of historic cores. This article aims to implement a system for integrating historical urban data into a Geographic Information System (GIS) to enable the graphic recovery of urban evolution within a territory. This system facilitates the storage of alphanumeric and graphic data in a centralized database, providing a holistic view of the transformation process of a historic center’s landscape. This case study focuses on an area in the historic center of Valencia, a territory influenced by multiple cultures since the city was founded by the Romans. Each culture has altered the spatial structures within the area. Georeferenced documents from historical archives, historical cartography, and the scientific literature were utilized for this study. The results have been integrated into the current cartography of Valencia in the GIS, producing plans of successive urban stages through the overlay of historical maps and current cartography.

Justice-centered best practices for accessibility to public buildings in a tier II city: Insights from a Delphi expert consensus

Background Despite beneficial progress in policies, awareness and advocacy, accessibility gaps exist in public buildings in India. Challenges achieving full inclusivity still exist, due to a lack of clear guidance for implementing accessible solutions. Retrofitting older buildings, particularly in developing tier II cities is a major challenge. The authors of this paper aimed to address this issue using a four-round Delphi method to generate a Justice-Centered Best Practices (JCBPs) for accessibility provisions for individuals with mobility disabilities. Methods Conducted in Udupi, the study involved experts including administrators, policy implementers, auditors, advocates, healthcare professionals, individuals with disabilities and their caregivers. In the first round, a 117-item list was generated through triangulation of three methods. In subsequent rounds, experts rated each item using a 5-point Likert scale on feasibility, affordability and priority. Responses were considered valid if the agreement reached ≥80% on the total score. The prioritised list of JCBPs was finalised at a consensus meeting. Results Out of forty-eight experts who began the study, 16 participated in the final meeting. The Wilcoxon signed rank test (p value>0.05) of expert ranking indicated that the scoring of items remained consistent between the two rounds. A machine learning decision tree analysis identified items securing ≥ 80% agreement as the most reliable decision with an accuracy=71.43%. The McNemar’s Test p value=0.79 confirmed consistency of expert scoring on the items with high agreement rates. Conclusion Finally, 33 built and non-built environment items scored highest rank. Stakeholder engagement, use of low-cost technology solutions, coordination between public administrations, funding, good governance practice, awareness, and advocacy were few of the solutions that can help ensure accessibility is in place for individuals with mobility disabilities. The study methodology and findings create a robust foundation for evidence-based JCBPs for accessibility provisions for individuals with mobility disabilities.

Gli spazi di accoglienza multireligiosa nel sistema universitario italiano

Multi-religious Welcoming Spaces in the Italian University System ABSTRACT: The essay deals with the issue of the spaces Italian universities provide for worship and other spiritual activities. Designating public spaces for religious and spiritual needs is an example of the ongoing adaptation process of institutions to social needs that is marked by ever-increasing religious and cultural pluralism. However, Italian universities have been affected by this phenomenon only in a marginal way so far. This paper, which is based on field research, describes the similarities and differences of the solutions adopted in various Italian institutions of higher education. In her concluding remarks, the Author points out the emergence of the “Islamic Question”. Indeed, the attitude towards Muslim communities by Italian universities is very similar to that of other public administrations. SOMMARIO: 1. Introduzione: pluralismo religioso e identità nella comunità studentesca universitaria italiana - 2. Gli spazi universitari di accoglienza della diversità religiosa - 3. Stanze multireligiose nel sistema universitario italiano: unapreliminare e frastagliata mappatura - 4. L’accoglienza multireligiosa nel sistema universitario: uno specchio delle dinamiche italiane fra Stato e confessioni religiose? Brevi conclusioni.

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.

Testing of New Drugs Approved From 2015 Through 2021 Under the US Pediatric Research Equity Act

This study uses public US Food and Drug Administration lists to identify new drugs approved from 2015 through 2021 to examine recent estimates of compliance with and timing of pediatric testing requirements after passage of the Pediatric Research Equity Act.

ПОНЯТТЯ ТА СТРУКТУРА МЕХАНІЗМУ ПУБЛІЧНОГО УПРАВЛІННЯ

The existence of a state without state administration is meaningless and simply impossible without the help of which it broadcasts its will. This is a lever with which regulation can be carried out. The State Administration is designed to activate and actualize the use of all available resources, opening new opportunities, creating stimulating conditions, and maintaining a favorable environment for increasing management efficiency and the population's quality of life. At the same time, a specific dependence is indicated between the full realization of the accumulated potential and the quality of public administration. It is manifested in the following: the higher the professional management level, the better the existing potential is used and multiplied. Thus, the realization of one's potential depends on the level of state administration. The regularity of modern management determines this relationship. The state management system forms a management mechanism and with the help of all the main elements of actions of management bodies, target settings, principles, functions, structures, resources, methods, technologies, and management tools. The control mechanism cannot exist without these system components, and at the same time, without the control mechanism, there is no control system. The paper analyzes the interpretation of the term "mechanism of state management" by researchers. It is emphasized that the structure of the mechanism of state administration includes practical measures, means, levers, and incentives, with the help of which state authorities influence society, production, and any social system to achieve the set goals. The main components of the state administration mechanism were studied, and their classification was considered. It emphasizes the distribution of state management mechanisms depending on state management that apply them. The composition of the complex management mechanism is defined, which may include economic, motivational, organizational, political, and legal mechanisms. The author's vision of defining the term "mechanism of state administration" is given.

Political Economy of Agriculture and Food Policy in Africa

This article reviews the literature on the political economy of agricultural and food policy in sub-Saharan Africa. In doing so, it first presents a conceptual framework highlighting that agricultural and food policy decisions are contingent on the intersection between governance structures, the preferences and pressures from societal interest groups, and international dynamics. The interrelations among these three factors are then examined across several different sets of policy instruments that have been the focus of traditional political economy research in the region: trade, tax, and marketing policies; public investments and regulations; input and food subsidies; and cross-cutting policies for value chain development. Recognizing several broader demographic, technology, and governance transitions in the region, the article also highlights key areas for future analysis that examine the role of cities in food policy, the possibilities presented by expanded mobile phone and Internet access, and the efficacy of new public administration modalities for policy implementation.

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.

Green Infrastructure and Adaptation to Climate Change in Marginal Areas: A Reference Scheme for Implementation Guidelines in Italy

Marginal areas (MAs) can show scarce disaster resilience in the context of climate change. Proactive adaptation to climate change (ACC) based on green infrastructure (GI) has the potential to increase the disaster resilience of the MAs. The scientific literature has scarcely addressed research on methods and guidelines for promoting ACC and GI to increase the resilience of MAs. No previous research has focused on a method to set a reference scheme for implementation guidelines concerning the use of GI as an ACC approach to deal with the effects of a changing climate in Italian MAs. In this regard, this study aims to provide planners and public administrations with an appropriate scheme to foster the mainstreaming of ACC and GI into the planning of MAs. To do so, we proposed and applied a methodological approach consisting of the scrutiny of the scientific and grey literature with the purpose of distilling a set of key elements (KEs) that need to be considered as a reference scheme for implementation guidelines. As main findings, we identified ten KEs relevant to drafting guidelines for integrating ACC and GI into planning tools, e.g., a clear definition of GI, participative approaches, public–private cooperation, and others, that will be tested in ongoing research.

Economic openness, physical infrastructure, marketization, public governance, and MNE location strategy: An institution-based view of state mechanism

Drawing from the institution-based view of Mike W. Peng and related scholarship in economics, international business, and public administration, this study seeks to explore: what formal institutional factors in a host country drive multinational enterprises’ location choice by way of greenfield foreign direct investment? To answer this question, this study offers a state mechanism perspective in an emerging economy context, thus underscoring that the host country’s formal institutions, such as economic openness and good governance, are key determinants. Our proposed model reasons that countries with improved economic regulations, superior physical infrastructure provisions, and transparent and effective public governance systems, combined with the marketization of public goods and services, are very attractive for multinational ventures. In so doing, institutional transformation and economic achievements pertaining to aspirant economies like China are discussed. Finally, this study concludes with several practical implications. The novelty of this study is to design a state mechanism model and hypothesize key national and subnational-level formal institutional factors that strikingly influence multinational firms’ location strategy by explaining the host country’s attractiveness for foreign direct investment.

Concept of the digital state: concept, nature and ontology

The article is devoted to the study of the phenomenon and concept of the digital state. The general concept and meaning of digitization in public administration is revealed. The problems of relevant interpretation and the limits of applicability of this concept to public administration are explained. The author’s concept and definition are presented, explaining the concept, nature and ontology of the digital state. The author suggests to consider the digital state in 4 interpretive projections: 1) as an ecosystem of operational, multi-service and proactive state digital super-services; 2) as an integrated computer-software meta-platform (platform system); 3) as an organizational and technological approach and corresponding paradigm; 4) as the digital ontology of state-building and functioning, public administration and public policy. According to the author’s interpretation, the concept of the “digital state” structurally includes the concepts: 1) the concept of the “digital government”; 2) the “digital democracy” concept; 3) the concept of the “digital justice”; 4) the concept of the “digital electoral technologies”; 5) the concept of the “digital public control over public administration”. The article details the author’s concept of “digital government”. The article is based on application of research methods of analysis and synthesis, induction, deduction and abduction, classification and formalization; through application of research methods, the essential descriptive characteristics of the phenomenon and the concept of the digital state were revealed.

Economic aspects of error identification in semi-structured publications in the state language

Due to the rapid growth of information on the Internet and social networks, research in the field of computational linguistics has become very relevant. The volume of information that people and machines create in natural language needs to be processed, analyzed and verified. Information retrieval systems, dialog systems, and machine translation tools are used for this. The range of automatic text processing systems is very wide, it covers various tasks. Finding errors in texts and words, identifying and correcting incorrect words is one of the most important tasks of natural language processing (NLP). The article provides an overview of semi-structured data, methods and technologies for identifying incorrect words in natural languages. The paper gives an overview of semi-structured data, methods and techniques for detecting incorrect words in natural languages. The aim of the research is to develop an effective approach for detecting and correcting errors occurring in Kazakh-language texts, especially in the context of limited resources and unstructured data. The research includes the use of machine learning techniques as well as economic analysis of the costs of developing and implementing such solutions. The proposed approach facilitates the automation of text verification, which can significantly reduce the cost of manual data processing and improve the quality of information in various spheres, including business and public administration.

Attitudes and preferences of the Swiss population towards noise abatement measures: Results from a nationwide panel survey

As part of the Swiss Environmental Panel (SEP) survey, conducted jointly by ETH Zurich and the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), we aimed at obtaining a representative picture of the Swiss people's attitudes regarding noise and noise sources as well as their opinions and preferences about the currently implemented institutional noise protection measures. Knowledge of people's attitudes in this domain is very useful for policy makers, the public administration and the wider public. Survey topics included: degree of satisfaction with the current state of noise abatement, annoyance by emerging new sources, the attitudes vis à vis speed reductions and other noise abatement measures at source, the reasons one is in favor or against these measures, the sanctioning of excessively loud car enthusiasts ("posers" as they are also called), or the installment of "noise radars" to catch and punish noise offenders. Stratified analyses consider political and environmental orientation, age group, degree of urbanization, and socioeconomic status. Data gathering was carried out between May and August 2023 and involved more than 7000 respondents across whole Switzerland.

From ignorance to awareness: Quality of collaborative governance enhances public awareness of AMR

In representative democracies, the public administration plays a pivotal role in managing a myriad of public policies. While considerable knowledge exists regarding how public issue awareness influences political competition before policy enactment, its persistence in the administrative aftermath is characterized by much more uncertainty. This study addresses this puzzle within the challenging context of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) governance in Europe, posing the question: How does administrative governance shape public AMR awareness? Drawing on newly collected expert survey data from all EU member states and a recent Eurobarometer survey measuring behavioral aspects related to AMR (N = 26.502), the findings show that different aspects of administrative governance yield mixed results. Notably, there is a strong and positive relationship between the quality of collaborative governance and public awareness. These results underscore the critical role of administrative governance quality in understanding public behavior, particularly in the context of combating AMR.

The pathways of political elites in the modern information and communication reality

The article is devoted to the socio-political understanding of the functioning of the political and administrative elite in the modern information and communication space. The relevance of the research topic is based on the need to redefine, in current political and social reality, the concepts of political elite and administrative elite, as well as to identify its distinctive features. The authors lead theoretical foundations for defining the concepts of political elite and administrative elite from the point of view of linguistics and political science, analyse the approaches and models of western and domestic researchers on the problem of relations between the political and administrative elites, and put forward the thesis about the relative independence of the administrative elite as a category of political science analysis and the validity of studying public administration outside the framework of the concept of the dichotomy of political and administrative elites. The final part of provides the authors’ assessment of the role and the pathways of Western political elites in the context of modern geopolitical reality.

DIGITAL PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: REVISITING IDENTITY CRISIS FOR THE ADAPTATION OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES

Recent technological advancements have undoubtedly made significant contributions to ensuring the efficiency and effectiveness of public services and preventing red tape. However, as has been examined through artificial intelligence in this study, it has also brought along some questions in the discipline of public administration, especially within the framework of legitimacy and values. Nonetheless, in order to adapt these new technological techniques to public administration in a sustainable way, perhaps paradoxically, previous dichotomies and crises in the discipline may be illuminative. Therefore, the study analyzes the direction of the digital transformation of public administration through politics-administration, fact-value dichotomies and identity crisis. In the study, along with the benefits of digital transformation and especially artificial intelligence applications, their risks for public administration are also discussed in detail. Afterward, the approaches of two leading figures of public administration, Herbert Simon and Dwight Waldo, were revisited in order to provide a framework for a correct approach to identity crises that today's public administration may face with digital transformation. For this reason, the arguments of both names have been put forward through the literature in the study. Then, the question of how to properly adapt professions for artificial intelligence to public administration was answered.

Административное право в системе публично-правовых наук

In the context of modern realities of the development of russian science, interdisciplinary research is relevant, located at the intersection of public law sciences and constituting more than 30 areas of scientific research. According to the author, studies related to digital transformation and the introduction of artificial intelligence are especially significant. In conclusion, it is summarized that within the framework of the scientific specialty 5.1.2. “Public legal (state legal) sciences”, the predetermining place belongs to constitutional law, because The Basic Law of the Russian Federation lays the fundamental foundations for a decent future for the country and the well-being of citizens, while administrative law occupies one of the leading places in the system of public law because regulates legal relations in the field of public administration for the implementation of state policy in all spheres of life of russian society.

Public administration's identity crisis: Why decolonizing theory, methods, and instruction is necessary

Public administration's identity crisis: Why decolonizing theory, methods, and instruction is necessary

Employee Performance in Population Services Quality Timeliness and Technology Use

General Background: Employee performance in public administration is crucial for service quality. Specific Background: This study examines employee performance in population administration services at Kupang Village, Jabon District, Sidoarjo Regency, focusing on community needs and technological adaptation. Knowledge Gap: While prior research has addressed public service performance, gaps exist regarding specific performance indicators in local contexts. Aims: This study aims to analyze performance using five indicators: Work Quality, Timeliness, Initiative, Ability, and Communication. Results: Findings show optimal work quality and initiative, yet timeliness and ability are partially lacking due to attendance issues and varying technological skills. Novelty: This research highlights the interplay between employee competencies and community demographics. Implications: Enhancing training in technology and establishing clear protocols could significantly improve service delivery and community satisfaction, fostering better governance and public trust. Highlights: Optimal Work Quality: Employees demonstrate high-quality service through detailed work and effective communication with the community. Need for Timeliness: Issues with employee punctuality impact overall service delivery and community satisfaction. Technological Competency: Varying levels of technology use among employees highlight the need for targeted training and support. Keywords: Employee Performance, Service Quality, Community Needs, Population Administration

User Satisfaction and Challenges in Plavon Dukcapil Online Services

General Background: The effectiveness of public administration services in Indonesia is crucial as the country transitions to digital platforms. Specific Background: This study examines the online services of Plavon Dukcapil in Rangkah Kidul Village, Sidoarjo Subdistrict, highlighting challenges faced by elderly users in navigating these services. Knowledge Gap: While existing research addresses the advantages of e-government, few studies focus on user satisfaction and effectiveness in rural areas, particularly regarding Plavon Dukcapil. Aims: This research aims to assess the effectiveness of Plavon Dukcapil's online services, focusing on community satisfaction related to service quality, speed, and accessibility. Results: Findings indicate that although service productivity aligns with regulations, efficiency is hindered by incomplete documentation and delays. Community satisfaction is compromised as many residents prefer in-person services over online options. Novelty: This study offers new insights into the operational challenges of e-government in rural Indonesia and highlights the need for improved community engagement. Implications: Enhancing communication and technical support for users, especially the elderly, could significantly improve the effectiveness and satisfaction of Plavon Dukcapil services, fostering better public service delivery in the digital era. Highlights: Digital Transformation: The study emphasizes the role of technology in enhancing public service accessibility and efficiency. Community Preferences: Many residents still prefer traditional in-person services over online platforms, indicating a gap in user experience. Need for Engagement: Improved communication and support for vulnerable populations, particularly the elderly, are essential for increasing online service effectiveness. Keywords: Plavon Dukcapil, Online Services, Community Satisfaction, E-Government, Public Administration