Welfare State Government Research Articles

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE GOVERNMENT'S DISCRETION IN INDONESIA, AUTHORITY, AND RESPONSIBILITY IN THE MANAGEMENT OF GOVERNMENT

The research entitled "Implementation of the Government's Discretionary Authority and Accountability in the Administration of Government" has five problem formulations. First, how is the implementation of discretionary authority in the administration of Government? Second, there are obstacles in the exercise of discretionary authority. The third is how to overcome obstacles. Fourth, the limits of discretion in decision making. Fifth, Government Instruments. The purpose of this study was to identify and analyze the five problem formulations above. This research is qualitative descriptive The results of this study indicate that the exercise of discretionary authority in the administration of Government is a logical consequence of the welfare state where the welfare state government is a state power that is given the task and responsibility for the welfare of its citizens.
 In contrast, discretionary authority does not mean that it can be used freely. However, it must follow the rules written in Law Number 30 of 2004 concerning Good Governance and Principles of Good Governance (AAUPB). The implementation of discretionary authority in the administration of Government also has several obstacles that cause the Government to be less efficient and less effective. Efforts to overcome these obstacles are not easy because they must involve all parties, namely legislative power, executive power, and judicial power. This is also, of course, requires the role of citizens. These things are to ensure the implementation of discretionary authority in the administration of Government so that it is efficient and effective in realizing people's welfare.

The struggle between welfare state models and prevailing healthcare policy in Scandinavian healthcare legislative documents

PurposeThe paper aims to compare and discuss the findings of discursive constructions of patients in legal texts from the three Scandinavian countries. Since traditional welfare state systems in Scandinavia are being challenged by new governance systems, new questions are being raised about patient positions and agency, carrying with them potential ethical dilemmas for healthcare professionals.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology of the paper is inspired by critical discourse analysis. Comprehensively analysing the findings of previous discourse studies on how “the patient” is constructed in central policy texts, this study compares the position of the patient in Norway, Sweden and Denmark.FindingsThe paper reveals ideological struggles across the Scandinavian countries, operating at a political level, a legislative level and a healthcare level. It is shown that national governance systems still exert hegemonic power by strongly influencing patients' degree of choice and autonomy. The discursive struggle between welfare state governance and other governance systems in Scandinavia indicates a shift towards a commercial healthcare market although a traditional welfare model is advocated by professionals and researchers.Research limitations/implicationsBecause of the specific conditions of Scandinavian healthcare policy, the findings lack generalisability. The research approach should therefore be explored further in additional contexts.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study can inform policymakers, professionals and patients of the ideological values underlying seemingly objective shifts in national policy.Originality/valueA comparative critical discourse analysis can expose patterns in the Scandinavian approaches to patient rights.

Accountability and hybridity in welfare governance

AbstractHybridity has become a central characteristic of accountability in public governance. Contemporary service delivery is increasingly defined by the mixing and layering of public, market and social accountability regimes operating as overlapping ‘hybrid’ accountability arrangements. Although hybrid accountability is not a new phenomenon, recent trends have accelerated the process of hybridization, particularly in welfare state governance. In this symposium, we seek to advance our understanding of the under‐theorized concept of hybrid accountability and empirically examine what is actually going on. In this introductory article, we put forward a definition of what hybridity means in public welfare governance and explore its origins and dynamics. We then present the articles of this symposium, showing how they go beyond fixed and static typologies to grasp the dynamics of interactions between actors, values and mechanisms under hybrid accountability. We conclude by reflecting on a future research agenda for studying hybrid accountability arrangements.

Accountability and Hybridity in Welfare Governance

English Abstract: Hybridity has become a central characteristic of accountability in public governance. Contemporary service delivery is increasingly defined by the mixing and layering of public, market and social accountability regimes operating as overlapping “hybrid” accountability arrangements. Although hybrid accountability is not a new phenomenon, recent trends have accelerated the process of hybridisation, particularly in welfare state governance. In this symposium, we seek to advance our understanding of the under-theorised concept of hybrid accountability and empirically examine what is actually going on. In this introductory article, we put forward a definition of what hybridity means in public welfare governance and explore its origins and dynamics. We then present the papers of this symposium, showing how they go beyond fixed and static typologies to grasp the dynamics of interactions between actors, values and mechanisms under hybrid accountability. We conclude by reflecting on a future research agenda for studying hybrid accountability arrangements.

The development of flood risk management in the United States

Delta regions have always been prone to flooding disasters. To provide protection, welfare state governments have built floodwalls and levees to keep people safe. However, the feasibility of this approach is now being questioned. Can these infrastructural measures accommodate changing floods risks? In many delta countries, governments are embracing “flood risk management” (FRM) as an alternative approach. In FRM, the focus lies on reducing human vulnerabilities to flood risks instead of preventing floods to occur. Based on a case study of the development of FRM in the United States – the country where the approach originated – this paper demonstrates that FRM relies on a value system with underlying divisions of responsibilities, costs and information requirements that significantly differs from traditional welfare state approaches to flood governance. It argues that these systemic features need to be taken into account in the transfer of FRM to welfare state contexts.

Local enactments of national health promotion policies: A Danish case.

Governments of welfare states are firmly committed to public health, resulting in a substantial number of public health policies. Given the multilevel structure of most welfare systems, the influence of a public health policy is related to its ability to spread geographically and move across organisational levels. Visiting, observing, and interviewing 15 policy workers from 10 municipalities during a 2-year period, this study investigated what happened to a Danish national health promotion policy as it was put into practice and managed in the Danish municipalities. The analysis reveals that the policy was practiced in at least 5 different ways: as an ideal, a cookbook, a tangible artefact, a creative deconstruction, and a mapping. The various practices each enacted a different version of this policy, and some of these enactments brought unintended but valuable effects. Without recognising the concrete enactments and their locally experienced effects, our understanding of national public health policies risks becoming detached from praxis and unproductive. Public health policy makers must pay methodological and analytical attention to the policies' multimodality and their concrete locally experienced effects.

Academic excellences of business graduates through nudging: prospects in Saudi Arabia

Globally academic excellence and quality education is receiving paramount importance. With innovations in methodology of teaching and rapid changes in technologies, delivering quality education has become easy. Nudging is a tool that is now used globally to enhance academic excellence. Nudge is defined as "any attempt at influencing people's judgment, choice or behavior in a predictable way (1) made possible because of cognitive biases in individual and social decision-making posing barriers for people to perform rationally in their own interest, and (2) working by making use of those biases as an integral part of such attempts." It is used in business and by governments of welfare states to change behaviour of the masses. The study reviews a few successful implementations of nudges in academic filed, and explores the possibility of utilising it in Saudi education sector to solve a few compelling problems faced by it. A few suggestions to this effect are also provided.

Academic excellences of business graduates through nudging: prospects in Saudi Arabia

Globally academic excellence and quality education is receiving paramount importance. With innovations in methodology of teaching and rapid changes in technologies, delivering quality education has become easy. Nudging is a tool that is now used globally to enhance academic excellence. Nudge is defined as any attempt at influencing people's judgment, choice or behavior in a predictable way (1) made possible because of cognitive biases in individual and social decision-making posing barriers for people to perform rationally in their own interest, and (2) working by making use of those biases as an integral part of such attempts. It is used in business and by governments of welfare states to change behaviour of the masses. The study reviews a few successful implementations of nudges in academic filed, and explores the possibility of utilising it in Saudi education sector to solve a few compelling problems faced by it. A few suggestions to this effect are also provided.

DECENTRALIZATION: AN INITIAL STUDY ON GOVERNANCE REFORMS TOWARDS THE WELFARE STATE

<p align="center"><strong> </strong></p><p>Based on the constitution Indonesia is a state that adheres to the model welfare state. But in practice, the governance of the welfare state in Indonesia is merely a dream. This when seen from the facts of the neglect of issues of fundamental rights of citizens, such as the high number of poor people, the number of maternal and child mortality, school dropout rate, and so on. Centralization is a major obstacle of weak governance in realizing this welfare state. Therefore this article attempts to offer a thought for the reform of the welfare state governance through decentralization.<br /> Keywords: decentralization; governance; state; reform; welfare state</p>

The Welfare State: A Fundamental Dimension of Modern Government

AbstractWhat, in fact,isthe Welfare State? This article traces the emergence of the welfare state as a specific mode of government, describing its distinctive rationality as well as its characteristic forms, functions and effects. It identifies five sectors of welfare governance, the relations between them, and the various forms these take in different times and places. It discusses the contradictory commitments that shape welfare state practices and the problems associated with these practices and contradictions. It situates welfare state government within a long-term account of the changing relations between the social and the economic spheres. And it argues that the welfare state ought to be understood as a “normal social fact”—an essential (though constantly contested) part of the social and economic organization of modern capitalist societies.

Expo 58: the catalyst for Belgium's Welfare State Government complex?

This article investigates the role of Expo 58, the first post-war world's fair, in the development of contemporary planning strategies for administrative and cultural complexes in Brussels. It argues that the Belgian government used this Mega Event as a catalyst for the construction of high-prestige buildings situated in a central zone within the capital. It examines the early planning initiatives of the government-commissioned Cité administrative and its connections with Expo 58, thereby highlighting the engagement of the Belgian Welfare State with modern architecture in the planning of prestige projects. This article thus argues for an understanding of the great event and the Cité administrative as part of the post-war government's ‘Exhibitionary Complex’, and using the case of Brussels suggests ways in which the impact of Mega Events could extend beyond their material remains.