Suchergebnisse

Policies in the EU are largely made by national civil servants who prepare and implement decisions in Brussels as well as at home. Despite their important role, these national civil servants form a relatively hidden world that has received little attention from both the media and academics. This volume considers a wide variety of sources and research methods to answer such questions as: how many civil servants are actually involved in EU-related activities? What do these civil servants do when they engage with the EU? And how do they negotiate their dual roles? The New Eurocrats offers unique and invaluable insights into these civil servants and their working practices-and uncovers some secrets in the world of EU governance along the way.

In recent years, there has been a drive to strengthen existing public accountability arrangements and to design new ones. This prompts the question whether accountability arrangements actually work. In the existing literature, both accountability 'deficits' and 'overloads' are alleged to exist. However, owing to the lack of a cogent yardstick, the debate tends to be impressionistic and event‐driven. In this article we develop an instrument for systematically assessing public accountability arrangements, drawing on three different normative perspectives. In the democratic perspective, accountability arrangements should effectively link government actions to the 'democratic chain of delegation'. In the constitutional perspective, it is essential that accountability arrangements prevent or uncover abuses of public authority. In the learning perspective, accountability is a tool to make governments effective in delivering on their promises. We demonstrate the use of our multicriteria assessment tool in an analysis of a new accountability arrangement: the boards of oversight of agencies.

Developments during this decade have transformed the character of the European security setting from one of relative political stability to a condition of considerable turbulence within its Central and Eastern regions. With clear trends toward increased interdependence across national boundaries and between sector areas, turbulence in any part of Europe will tend to generate conditions of considerable political concern also for governments in the rest of the continent. The strong impact of modern, transnational media coverage accentuates and widens the impact of such crisis-generating events. As a topic for collaborative European political science research, international crisis studies stand out as theoretically important and practically relevant.

This essay reconsiders the well-known thesis that, under conditions of crisis, administrative decision making becomes centralized. It discusses the theoretical and administrative underpinnings of this thesis and focuses on the role of small groups in crisis decision making, central government intervention in crisis situations, and crisis government doctrines. Using findings from recent comparative case research in crisis management, alternative patterns of governmental response to crises are outlined. These include formal and informal decentralization, non-decision making, and paralysis. This article concludes with a set of hypotheses that outline the conditions for the emergence of alternative structural patterns in coping with crises and a call for more contingent and reflective thinking about crisis management issues.

Journalists, politicians, watchdog institutions, and public administration scholars devote considerable energy to identifying and dissecting failures in government. Studies and case-studies of policy, organizational, and institutional failures in the public sector figure prominently in public administration curriculums and classrooms. Such a focus on failures provides students with cautionary tales and theoretical tools for understanding how things can go badly wrong. However, students are provided with less insights and tools when it comes to identifying and understanding instances of success. To address this imbalance, this article offers students a framework to systematically identify, comprehensively assess and carefully interpret instances of successful public governance. The three-stage design of the funnel introduces students to relevant debates and literatures about meaningful public outcomes, the prudent use of public power, and the ability to sustain performance over time. The articles also discuss how this framework can be used effectively in classroom settings, helping teachers to stimulate reflection on the key challenges of assessing and learning from successes.

This edited collection of essays studies the national experiences of six Western European countries through a number of concrete types of challenges to governance -- ie, the steel industry, health care, finance, & HIV & blood supply -- to determine why some public management policies succeed & others fail. The volume also aims to examine several key issues of public governance, eg, (1) the degree of legitimacy in governance within Western Europe in light of higher expectations from citizens & greater media criticism & (2) success & failure in governance. It also provides a comparative analysis of empirical research of the current beliefs that due to market globalization, individualization, informationization, & Europeanization, governments have lost their ability to govern autonomously. An understanding of the similarities & differences in the natures & results of policy measures to similar problems across countries allows a more systematic study of national policy styles, the influence of EU policy making, & the possibilities of uniting policy styles. L. A. Hoffman

The findings of 24 empirical studies of state performance of six West European countries across four policy sectors -- the steel industry, health care, finance, & HIV & blood supply -- are integrated into a comparative assessment of governance performance of all sectors & nations that were studied. Explanations are difficult, since variance in countries & sectors could raise many questions regarding assessments of the findings, but some preliminary conclusions & generalizations were made. The need to build cooperative & collaborative structures within the public sector & between the public & private sectors was established, with the practice in the Netherlands of consensus building showing the most success. Use of consensus in governing appears quite successful, even when political systems are centralized & hierarchical. The profitability of the study in terms of results & answers to the original questions is addressed. L. A. Hoffman

Seeking to explain the systemic research applied to studying the dynamics of policy success & failure comparatively across sectors & countries, expert contributors study four policy areas -- the steel industry, health care, finance, & HIV & blood supply -- across six European countries -- France, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, Spain, & Sweden. The study addresses the governance of decline, reform, innovation, & crisis in countries chosen for their differing approaches to governance -- consensual vs imposition relationships & anticipatory & active as opposed to reactive problem solving. Twenty-four case studies explored whether a government accomplished a goal-directed social intervention, adapted programs to changing circumstances, & controlled costs. Specific indicators of political failure or success are identified. A study of each case reveals symmetries or asymmetries in the relationship between programmatic & political success influenced by political structure, political culture, policy frames, governance task, & symbolic potential that forward the study of policy analytic research. 2 Tables, 2 Figures. L. A. Hoffman