Public Bureaucracy Research Articles

Budaya Manajerial Dalam Penerapan Model Organisasi Post Birokrasi di Kantor Imigrasi Serang Propinsi Banten

Part of the public bureaucracy is still considered inefficient and ineffective. Formalization is high on bureaucracy often make inefficient bureaucracy and convoluted. Whereas the government as an organization that provides services to the public are required to have higher. To realized responsiveness that there needs to be changes in the organizational model post-bureaucratic organization model in improving government performance. This study aims to determine how the managerial culture and application of post-bureaucratic organization model and how much influence the managerial culture of the post-bureaucratic organizational model application at the Immigration Office Serang. This research is a quantitative survey method. The study population is all employees in the Office of Immigration Serang. The data analysis technique used is the product moment correlation coefficient and the coefficient of determination. From the analysis of known managerial culture in the Immigration Serang is equal to 0.7816, the application of the post-bureaucratic organization of 0.7639. The influence of culture on the application of the managerial post bureaucratic organization of 0.579 or 57.9%, while 42.1% is influenced by other factors. Suggestions in this study need to internalize the organization's values, vision, mission and goals of the organization, formed an informal organization, the development of integrated information systems with relevant agencies, the selection of outstanding employees.

Anti-Corruption Initiatives and E-Government: A Cross-National Study

This paper discusses various approaches of anti-corruption initiatives and conducts statistical analyses on aggregate data of more than 200 different countries to find relationships between e-government and anti-corruption in government. Findings indicate that e-government could be an effective tool to curb corruption in government in spite of the fact that the rule of law is the most powerful predictor of anti-corruption as well as a fundamental precondition of a clean government. Findings also indicate that if digital government is strengthened with high-quality public bureaucracies, anti-corruption efforts could more effectively lower the corruption levels of public affairs.

Comparative study of drivers of and barriers to relational transactions faced by public clients, private contractors and consultants in public projects

Relational transactions can bring about good project outcomes. However, public projects in which different parties hold differential attitudes toward the adoption of relational transactions would likely encounter more uncertainties which may affect the implementation of such relational transactions. This paper aims to compare different parties' (i.e., clients, contractors and consultants) perceptions of the factors motivating and deterring relational transactions in public projects. The results of a questionnaire survey of 104 public projects in Singapore show that 21 drivers could significantly motivate each party to adopt relational transactions; and three parties' perceptions of the importance of the drivers are not significantly different. The topmost driver for each party to adopt relational transactions is the aim of achieving safety performance. The results also show that: (i) the three parties regarded public sector accountability, bureaucracy and stringent rules, regulations and laws as the most serious barriers; (ii) the biggest challenge to adopting relational transactions stems from the public sector client, followed by private sector consultants; and (iii) contractors face the least number of barriers. The measures to ameliorate the barriers to relational transactions are recommended.

Putting Politics Above Markets: Historical Background to the Greek Debt Crisis

Political clientelism and rent seeking have been the central organizing principles of Greek society since the foundation of the Greek state in the 19th century. The influence of the Eastern Orthodox Church on Greek nationalism and the legacy of the patrimonialist Ottoman empire produced a weak civil society. The result has been a disproportionately large Greek state and public bureaucracy since the 1800s that set the stage for rent-seeking struggles that have followed. Since the 1930s, political patronage has been disbursed through increases in public sector employment, regulations that limit competition, and the imposition of levies on transactions that benefit third parties. The resulting system has encouraged corruption, discouraged wealth creation and affected popular ideological narratives. The view that the state is good and that markets are bad is widespread, held across the political spectrum, and is understandable in a rent-seeking society where all activities, including market transactions, are seen as redistribution. But the realization of “putting people above markets” has deepened clientelism and produced the current national crisis.

The Obstacles to Effective Policy Implementation by the Public Bureaucracy in Developing Nations : The Case of Nigeria

The Obstacles to Effective Policy Implementation by the Public Bureaucracy in Developing Nations : The Case of Nigeria

Exploring the link between patronage and party institutionalization: an historical-institutional analysis of the Italian transition

This article analyses party patronage transformations in Italy since the early 1990s, a time when political parties and the party system entered a phase of continuing change. It examines how the interaction between the temporality of party system restructuring and historical legacies rooted in the nature of public bureaucracies reproduced patronage practices aimed at capturing state resources. The article employs a historical institutionalist approach as a research framework and concludes that this provides a cogent explanatory argument for the development of state exploitation taken by Italian political parties since the crisis of the early 1990s.

The Case Against Privatization

The privatization of government functions has for the most part given rise to instrumental questions concerning the desirable ways of providing for these functions. In particular, current discussions typically frame the issue as a trade-off between two forms of executing certain functions or services: public bureaucracy and private entrepreneurship. Proponents of privatization emphasize the benefits of deploying the latter in service of more efficiently executing government objectives. Opponents of privatization, by contrast, insist that the private form of executing government functions is a liability, rather than an asset, due to the loose commitment on the part of private entities to the promotion of the public good. The shared assumption of both advocates and opponents of privatization is that the service or the function in question can, in principle, always be performed by either private or public bodies and that the

Give Them Their Rights: A Critical Review of Godfather and Godson Politics in Nigeria

This study evaluated the extent godfather politics has contributed to instability in Nigeria with a view to preferring solution to the problems identified. Survey research method was adopted. Data collected through questionnaire were analyzed using Z-test. The findings revealed that the current political instability in Nigeria is a function of the politics of godfathrism, it also revealed that godfatherism is the mother of corruption in Nigeria. The politics of godfatherism has also introduced mediocrity in the public bureaucracy resulting from faulty and lopsided recruitment method. Based on these findings, some of the major recommendations include; that the National Orientation Agency should intensify efforts in the reorientation of the political actors and employers of labout in the public service to enable them know the shortcomings of godfather politics. The law makers should enact a law to prohibit godfather politics in Nigeria and offenders should be barred from participating in political activities in Nigeria. Same law should guide recruitment, posting and training in the bureaucracy.

Peningkatan Kapasitas dan Akuntabilitas Kinerja Birokrasi dan Indikator serta Model Pengukurannya

Accountability is an obligation embodiment of government institutions to take responsibility for the success and failure of their mission. Implementation of accountability through a strategic approach, which will accommodate the rapid changes occurring in the organization and quickly adapt to changes as the demands anticipatory stakeholders concerned. Implementation of accountability and the external examination itself is needed as one of the pillars for the creation of good governance and clean government. The democratic climate in public bureaucracies inspires trust and mutual trust between the government and the public. A clear division of powers and a balance between the state creates a conducive atmosphere to the built of the nation and the state.

The State of Governance in Bangladesh: The Capture of State Institutions

The state of governance in Bangladesh has a chequered history. The country's battle for independence, and its history of military dictatorships and dysfunctional democracy, have brought challenges in terms of establishing a sound system of governance. The five pillars of public governance have posed formidable obstacles to establishing and reforming key institutions, refining processes and strategies of management and guiding the country towards a more efficient and effective system. Here we analyse the backgrounds of legislators elected to parliament in 1991, 1996 and 2001, legislative accountability, functional mechanisms, and the constraints of regulatory, administrative and economic institutions in order to examine how poor governance practices have created high levels of patronage in return for short-term political gains. We argue that state institutions have been captured by members of a powerful nexus who have developed a symbiotic relationship with the state, affecting its institutional capacity to reduce corruption, strengthen transparency and accountability, and allow the judiciary and public bureaucracy to work professionally.

Regional Leadership: A Systemic View

New innovation and industrial policies contribute to the development of an informal economy and have increased collaborative processes across sectors and social spheres within regions. This paper addresses the role of regional leadership in the informal economy. By themselves, network processes increase complexity and create a series of uncertainties that differ from processes that are steered through the hierarchical procedures of public bureaucracy or regulated through the judicial and competitive mechanisms of the market. These collaborative and steering challenges must be addressed by regions that seek to succeed with their development efforts. Empirical findings show us that relatively similar regions do not respond in a uniform fashion to the challenges raised by network based development processes. This paper argues that regional leadership anchored in representative democracy can reduce some of the uncertainties and complexities of network based regional innovation policies, increase sustainability and long term effectiveness, and strengthen local democracy.

The protruding implications of privatization: attractive potentials leading to unpleasant consequences

Privatization has become a worldwide trend in public management for reducing the burden on public bureaucracies, ameliorating the fiscal deficits and contributing towards efficiency in service provision. Though the intention of the government carries attractive potentials, it results in unpleasant consequences. Like many governments worldwide, the Hong Kong government has followed this path too. A focus on the privatization launched by Hong Kong Housing Authority (HKHA) demonstrates that the reform failed to achieve its objectives. The article traces the implementation of these changes and assesses their impacts on the government at large.

False Dawn, Window Dressing or Taking Integrity to the Next Level? Governments Using ICTs for Integrity and Accountability - Some Thoughts on an Emerging Research and Advocacy Agenda

Governments enthusiastically embrace technologies as central cornerstones of initiatives to tackle a wide variety of corruption issues that affect public bureaucracies. Yet, high hopes and expectations stand in contrast to a limited and mixed evidence base and little systematic monitoring and advocacy by civil society to critically accompany related technology implementations and to ensure that they perform effectively in stamping out corruption.This article explores these challenges in a bit more detail and presents some ideas on how to start addressing them. Section 1 sets the scene by providing a brief overview of how pervasive, serious and difficult to fix the problem of corruption is. Section 2 gives a sense of the very exuberant hopes and expectations that ride on new information and communication technologies to evolve into a game-changer in the fight against corruption. Chapter 3 describes the immense scale and scope of governmental ambitions to deploy ICTs for deep reforms of political and administrative systems. It then zooms in on four concrete application areas where corruption risks are particularly rife and detrimental and where governments are particularly focussed on deploying ICT solutions with the express (although not exclusive) aim to tackle corruption. These four areas are electronic reforms in public procurement, judicial case management, tax administration and ID card systems. For each of these areas, examples of technology applications, a first overview of the empirical evidence base on impact and the status of related advocacy and monitoring by civil society are discussed. This section also summarises this first scan of evidence and engagement, arriving at a mixed picture. Some early positive evidence confirms a beneficial potential, yet other studies and lessons from technology adoption more broadly point to high risks of failure or inefficacy. Overall the evidence base is still very limited and inconclusive and critical engagement by civil society in this area is still in its infancy. This means, the extraordinary excitement, ambition and governmental action on deploying ICT as a major weapon in the fight against corruption stands somewhat in contrast to empirically-justifiable expectations and an overall still limited understanding of what design principles, implementation strategies and civil society engagement could make success more likely. In section 4 the paper then speculates on the reasons for this peculiar mismatch and finds some capability constraints and, equally important, a convergence of interests by different stakeholders to engage in some wishful thinking and believe in the extraordinary potential of technology for integrity. Chapter 5 moves from diagnosis to remedies and proposes a more in-depth and systematic approach to map these disparities more comprehensively and identify the most critical gaps as well as priority entry points for stepping up research and engagement. Chapter 6 concludes by suggesting a first list of the most important research questions that would have to be broached, in order to build the empirical knowledge base for effective advocacy in this area. ICT has an enormous potential to tackle corruption. The four application areas that are briefly reviewed are only a small part of this, many other applications from mobile payment systems to computer-administered education tests also fall into this category of government technology use for integrity. But much more close scrutiny, critical appraisal, learning, careful design and constructive engagement by civil society is required to fully unlock this potential. Both the good governance and the technology communities should take note and work together for making this happen.

Introduction: Transformation of universities in Europe

The growth and diversification of higher education during the last decades have made it an institution of steadily growing importance. As an increasing proportion of the population enters higher education, more enterprises depend on university educated labour and research based products, and as higher education and research consume a larger share of society’s resources and public budgets, it also receives the attention of politicians and the public at large. The study of higher education is still a small and rather undeveloped research field compared to other comparable fields of social research, but the research effort is rapidly increasing. One expression of this increasing effort is the research program on Higher Education and Social Change (EuroHESC, 2009–2012) funded by the European Science Foundation (ESF). One of the four collaborative projects under the program, the Transformation of Universities in Europe (TRUE), focuses on European universities as organizations. Universities have traditionally been considered as a specific kind of institution with peculiar organizational characteristics such as decentralized internal authority vested in subunits and individual professors, and a high degree of organizational autonomy from outside interests, be they public bureaucracies or market actors. In the 1960s and 1970s social scientists made important contributions to organization theory based on studies of universities and their organizational peculiarities. Recognizing the growing social and economic importance of higher education, reform politicians have tried to remove or modify these peculiarities, making them more alike business enterprises that are generally being regarded as more cost effective forms of organizing large scale production processes, in this case aiming at more efficient production of educated candidates and research. Given the growth and diversification of higher education and the reform efforts of the last decades, we ask: what has happened to the traditional organizational characteristics of

A Critical and Argumentative Study of the Development and Performance of the Ombudsman Institution in a Small Multiracial Society: The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago

Since the end of World War II the Ombudsman institution has increasingly spread from Scandinavia to other parts of the world. Although it has worked reasonably well in developed nations, its performance is not so satisfactory in the developing nations. This article identifies and examines the problems, issues and factors that make its operation difficult and problematic in a developing democracy namely Trinidad and Tobago, and suggests some remedial measures. It also concludes that if provided with the proper environment in which to develop, grow and thrive, it is conceivable that with the passage of the time this institution will gradually and slowly emerge as a powerful force for redressing grievances and complaints against public bureaucracy and maladministration, for ensuring transparency, and for promoting and protecting human rights and democratic values. It examines various issues from both contemporary and historical perspectives. Although this article focuses on Trinidad and Tobago, references to other parts of the globe are also made for a better and comparative understanding of this institution.

Counting Cadres: A Comparative View of the Size of China's Public Employment

AbstractIs China's public bureaucracy overstaffed? To answer this basic question objectively, one needs to define public employment in the contemporary Chinese context; survey data sources available to measure public employment; and finally, compare China's public employment size with that of other countries. Using a variety of new sources, this article performs all three tasks. It also goes further to clarify the variance betweenbianzhi(formally established posts) and actual staffing size, as well as other permutations of thebianzhisystem, especiallychaobian(exceeding thebianzhi). A key finding is that China's net public employment per capita is not as large as often perceived; quite the contrary, it is one-third below the international mean. However, it is clear that the actual number of employees in the party-state bureaucracy has grown – and is still growing – steadily since reforms, despite repeated downsizing campaigns. Such expansion has been heavily concentrated at the sub-provincial levels and amongshiye danwei(extra-bureaucracies).

Thinking about the state, talking bureaucracy, teaching public administration

By examining issues concerning the role and nature of the state together with the character of public bureaucracy, this article shows that, as a practical activity, public administration retains a distinct identity. Notwithstanding the many changes that have taken place in the public sector during recent years, programmes of study in the subject still have much to offer. Such programmes should reassert their place within the social sciences. Their virtues should be proclaimed with confidence, while resisting misplaced calls for more narrowly focused vocationalism.

The role of agencies in policy-making

There is an extensive literature on the proliferation of agencies and the delegation of authority to such bodies across different countries. Much of this research asks whether New Public Management (NPM)-style agencification reforms have been implemented according to the original objectives, and what consequences – intended or unintended – the reforms have produced. Yet much of this research lacks an explicit link to the literature on the policymaking functions of public bureaucracies and their interactions with elected politicians. What are the consequences of agencification for the policy process at large? What policy relevant tasks do agencies perform, to what extent are they involved in policy-making, and what factors influence the quality and quantity of their participation? This introductory article gives an overview of key concepts such as “public agencies” and “policy autonomy” and the research literature. Moreover, it critically discusses relevant theoretical perspectives, outlines the articles included in this themed issue and argues for a more systematic and theoretically guided analysis of agencies’ role in policy-making.

The Risk of the New Developmentalism: 'Brasil Maior' Plan and Bureaucratic Rings

This working paper examines the rise of the “new developmentalism” in Brazil and the role of the last three industrial policies created by the federal government since 2004, specially the latest, which is called “Brasil Maior.” The main purpose of the paper is to analyse the risk of political alliances between private sector elites and the government in the promotion of national companies and the development of some sectors of the economy. The paper brings back the concept of “bureaucratic rings,” used by the sociologist Fernando Henrique Cardoso in the seventies to analyse Brazilian developmental State, to examine the role played by the Brazilian Development Bank today and the possibility of formation of pressure rings between the public and private sector inside the public bureaucracy.

Patterns of Enforcement: Examining the Interplay between Firms, Media and Regulators

This research examines the interplay between regulators, media and firms by showing how public bureaucracies maintain institutional control in light of varying degrees of firm compliance and issue ...