Abstract The introduction of specific and measurable objectives in the public sector is a practice that seeks to increase the efficiency of public services. This is done with their clear and acceptable identification, both at an individual and organisational level, their measurement with specific indicators and the benchmarking of the results. Goal setting is the essential tool for the specification and implementation of planning for various time horizons. As a detailed guide of organisational priorities, it constitutes the procedure of the determination of clear goals and objectives, deriving from the upper hierarchical level of each organization and their subsequent diffusion to the lower levels in the form of specific actions. This paper is the second and last part of a study about the application of principal management concepts in Greek public sector since year 2004 when Law 3230/2004 was introduced. In this part the experience of the implementation of "Management by Objectives" in Greek public services is analysed. Towards this end, the views and opinions of experts from the public sector are analyzed with the use of interviews and questionnaires. The aggregated results from both parts of the study are presented and discussed by the end of this paper.
Although nearly two decades have passed since the Honey Report was issued, MPA education is still wrestling with the "relevance question." This exploratory study seeks to assess the relevance issue from the unique vantage point of 183 mid-career MPA students at sixteen universities across the country. Queried are mid-careerist perceptions of the content, effect, and curriculum development needs of their MPA educational experience. The findings indicate: (1) a concern about the theoretical versus practical application focus of the mid-careerist experience; (2) a perception by these students that MPA education was having a substantial effect on their work habits, attitudes, and values; (3) a feeling that the balance afforded to ethics, politics, and skill development should probably differ among the subdisciplines; (4) a convergence of opinion with pre-service students on the most appropriate teaching styles for PA classrooms; (5) the perception that distinct differences existed in pre-service/mid-careerists to help academics provide a more applied view of the public service to pre-service students. The study concludes by arguing for the adoption of a service delivery ethic stressing knowledge co—production in the MPA educational process.
This research examines the War on Terror policies by the selected public speeches of the two former Presidents of the USA, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, with the object of discovering the referent object(s) and existential threat(s) – the two significant aspects of securitization theory. The process of securitization of Muslim communities, which expanded in parallel with the war on terror policy followed by the Bush and Obama administrations in the USA after September 11, has also been examined. The study claims that the concepts of referent objects and existential threats had realized through discursive political practices of the Presidents. The study finds that President Bush mobilized public opinion against different people, groups, terrorist organizations, and nations by securitizing them. In contrast, President Obama securitized some terrorist groups while seeking to desecuritize a previously securitized but less serious issue.
The role of duels changed a lot throughout history. Based upon observations, most duels resulted from personal grievances. Duels were present even in the mid-20th century in Hungary. In the 20th century, duels were one of the greatest dilemmas of justice. The public opinion accepted duels, but the legal profession condemned them, mainly because of the possible negative consequences. In my study, I will present most of the legal provisions for duels both in Hungary and in Europe, the ethical Code of duels, and the most important lawyers, opinions on duels. Finally, I will explain the main reasons that had led to the decline of duelling.
In: Political research quarterly: PRQ ; official journal of the Western Political Science Association and other associations, Band 62, Heft 3, S. 474-484
Is race politics about racism, ideology, or group conflict? After decades, this debate seems scarcely closer to resolution, despite the enormous theoretical, empirical, and normative issues at stake. I argue that a misguided approach to interpreting public opinion has stymied the debate. All three theories implicitly try to read a person's motives for supporting or opposing proposals off of their placement in the so-called complex space of contemporary opinion about race. However, I show that because the supposed complexity of the issue space is based on a methodological artifact, any attempt to read qualitative differences in motives from it must fail.
Since objective news coverage is vital to democracy, captured media can seriously distort collective decisions. The current paper develops a voting model where citizens are uncertain about the welfare eþects induced by alternative policy options and derive information about those eþects from the mass media. The media might however secretly collude with interest groups in order to in.uence the public opinion. In the case of voting over the level of a productivity-enhancing public bad, it is shown that an increase in the concentration of firm ownership makes the occurrence of media bias more likely. Although media bias is not always welfare worsening, conditions for it to raise welfare are restrictive.
Democratic governments who need public opinion on their side to make decisions use different strategies to win popular support for their wars. This book chronicles that process in specific how popular support for the Iraq Wars were won by the two Bush Presidents, and how the leaders can often twist the truth. There is a tacit assumption that the public wants to trust the President, and that there are things the leaders know that the general public is not privy to. In certain cases, like wars of retaliation, little marketing is necessary. The use of polling data can also aide the government in.
From the mid 1990s to the present day agricultural biotechnology - GM crops and foods - has been the focus of debate and conflict in many European countries. Contrasting views of risks and benefits trust in science and regulation the understanding of science media coverage and mobilization of the public by civil society groups - all have been cited as drivers of public opinion. Designed in part to allay public concerns about GM agriculture a European moratorium led to a new regulatory framework. The long running controversy is a signal that the public's view cannot be ignored in the developmen
Global Spin reveals the sophisticated techniques being used around the world by powerful conservative forces to try to change the way the public and politicians think about the environment. Large corporations are using their influence to reshape public opinion, to weaken gains made by environmentalists, and to turn politicians against increased environmental regulation. The corporations techniques include employing specialized PR firms to set up front groups that promote the corporate agenda whilst posing as public-interest groups; creating 'astroturf' -artificially created grassroots
This article develops the understanding of symbols as a certain type of signs, the meaning of which is established by agreement or habit. There is an opinion that symbols in public discourse are a reflection of values and anti-values of the society, which are formed in the process of mass communication. This article identifies the main features of the characters, including emotional engagement, attachment to a particular act of communication, as well informativeness. The types of meaning are determined, and the mechanism of nomination is explained. The article reveals the concept of semantic competition. M. Edelman's opinion that value structures can be divided into mono-, bi- and multimodal — depending on the number of values assigned to key symbols. The presidential speeches delivered before the Ukrainian Constitution Day in 2017–2020 were analyzed in this article. Thanks to the content analysis of emotionally colored words, the symbols, which are characteristic for the speeches of P. Poroshenko and V. Zelensky, were identified focusing both on similarities and differences of Ukrainian values and anti-values. This article analyzes the nominations used by speakers to give meaning to key symbols. Aspects of semantic competition of the key symbols are defined here as well. It was revealed that during the tenure of President Poroshenko, other symbols circulated mostly in the Ukrainian public discourse than those during the presidency of V. Zelensky. Among the common key values for both presidents, we can find "Constitution," "Constitution Day" and "freedom". There is a semantic competition in their use. Both presidents underline the negative meaning of the term "parliamentary immunity." Poroshenko expresses the threat using symbols such as "Russian aggressor", "fifth column," "corruption," "Russian Empire" and "war." On the other hand, V. Zelensky does not use symbols of external threat. It was found that the value structure formed by Poroshenko's speeches showed signs of bimodality, and the one created by V. Zelensky's speeches — multimodality.
This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge in Historical Networks in the Book Trade on 01-07-2015, available online: https://www.routledge.com/Historical-Networks-in-the-Book-Trade/Feely-Hinks/p/book/9781848935891 ; Because of the wealth of quantitative information and editorial opinion they provide, those researching British migration have often turned to newspapers and other periodicals; the use of shipping notices, advertisements, original reportage and editorial commentaries has provided historians with contemporary descriptions of changes in population composition, whether by immigration, natural growth, increased mortality or out-migration. Although requiring corroboration, these sources provide excellent indications of when changes occurred and when these became worthy of comment. However, the precise nature of these commentaries, the mechanics of their creation, transmission and evolution, remains unclear. While recent work in newspaper and media history have begun to trace information networks present in Victorian and Edwardian Britain, the lines of communication in the early empire remain unclear. Throughout the Georgian period, newspapers cited, borrowed and blatantly stole editorial content from other British and colonial papers. The question remains, however, whether this source material was manipulated by local editors to suit local prejudices or whether an uncritical inclusion of reprints shaped or utterly transformed local opinion. Since its official founding in 1787, the British colony of New South Wales had been home to a wide range of British immigrants including convicted prisoners, government and military personal, religious missionaries and free settlers. Nonetheless, this complex view of migration and settlement in Australia was not always appreciated by those who resided in sending communities within Britain. Rumours mixed with half-record fact to create an eclectic and fluctuating public conversation of Antipodean prospects. In recent years, historians have begun to rewrite imperial histories to better account for the fluctuating and multi-layered nature of identity within Britain's "white" colonies, encompassing class, faith, nationality and provincial status. Yet, there remains a fundamental disconnect between the study of public spheres within the colonies themselves and that of Britain. While the study of individual newspaper titles has a long history and imperial historians have now begun to compare perceptions of identity and empire between disparate regions, there has yet to be a close study of the tangible connections between metropolitan, provincial and colonial public spheres. This implies that the two did not intersect or that the spread of identity was mono-directional in nature. This article therefore traces the editorial history of the printed conversations and proclamations found in British and Australian newspapers between 1803 and 1842, the years in which the Sydney Gazette, Australia's most commonly cited periodical, was in operation. By examining Australia's public portrayal of immigration, settlement and the demographic composition of New South Wales and by tracing these descriptions through the reprints, abridgements and commentaries of British newspapers, this article compares and contrasts public notions of identity and nationalism within Australia with those who remained or had returned to Great Britain. From this, this article demonstrates the extent to which the Sydney Gazette acted as the gatekeeper and envoy of Australian identity in the early nineteenth century.
The article compares the ideological self-placement on a left-right dimension of the senators of four South American countries –Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay– and their opinions about different socio-economic issues. We compare the attitudes of the legislative élites (including the Lower House) with the results of public opinion surveys. ; En el artículo se comparan el autoposicionamiento ideológico de los senadores en cuatro países sudamericanos –Argentina, Brasil, Chile y Uruguay– en una escala izquierda derecha y sus opiniones sobre diferentes temas socioeconómicos. Se confrontan las actitudes a nivel de la élite parlamentaria (incluyendo los diputados) con resultados de encuestas de opinión pública.
En el artículo se comparan el autoposicionamiento ideológico de los senadores en cuatro países sudamericanos –Argentina, Brasil, Chile y Uruguay– en una escala izquierda derecha y sus opiniones sobre diferentes temas socioeconómicos. Se confrontan las actitudes a nivel de la élite parlamentaria (incluyendo los diputados) con resultados de encuestas de opinión pública. ; [EN] The article compares the ideological self-placement on a left-right dimension of the senators of four South American countries –Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay– and their opinions about different socio-economic issues. We compare the attitudes of the legislative élites (including the Lower House) with the results of public opinion surveys.
As the European Union enters into the next decade, its leaders seemingly strive towards more future integration rather than less, despite the recent setback of Brexit and the rise of anti-EU populist parties. In his state of the Union in 2018, Jean Claude Junker emphasized s 'European solidarity'. One key policy 'expression of solidary' would be Cohesion Policy and the Structural Funds, which are "the only real, significant redistributive mechanism in the EU…" (Fratesi 2017). . Despite elite commentary, we know surprisingly little about what EU citizens think of the rationale behind the policy of Cohesion – e.g. economic redistribution within the EU. As part of the PERCEIVE Horizon2020 project, we launched a unique survey to investigate how citizens feel about economic integration within the Union, where 17,200 citizens were interviewed. In this paper, we show how we measure support for the policy, the results as well as a host of correlates. Our analysis shows the variation in citizens' support for EU Cohesion policy between countries, how support varies between demographic groups, as well as the extent to which support is correlated with utilitarian and ideational factors as well as cue taking. Implications for future developments of this policy are discussed. ; A medida que la Unión Europea ingresa en la próxima década, sus líderes aparentemente luchan por más integración futura en lugar de menos, a pesar del reciente revés del Brexit y el surgimiento de los partidos populistas anti-UE. En su estado de la Unión en 2018, Jean Claude Junker hizo hincapié en la "solidaridad europea". Una política clave de "expresión de solidaridad" sería la Política de Cohesión y los Fondos Estructurales, que son "el único mecanismo redistributivo real y significativo en la UE." (Fratesi 2017). A pesar de las opiniones de la élite, sorprendentemente sabemos poco sobre lo que piensan los ciudadanos de la UE sobre la lógica detrás de la Política de Cohesión, de la redistribución económica dentro de la UE. Como parte del proyecto ...