Suchergebnisse

Why are some conflicts managed better than others? Social scientists have used various disciplinary lenses to answer this question but until now, public administration has not been used to understand how conflict is managed. This book explores the everyday management of conflict in two cases of power-sharing from the view of elite level bureaucrats

The management of conflict has long been of concern to social scientists, urban planners and community-minded citizens. While differing mechanisms of managing ethno-national or ethno-linguistic tensions exist, few studies advance our understanding of how conflicts are actually managed -- in other words, the study of ethnic peace. "Public Administration in Contested Societies" draw on the experiences of two differing examples of ethnic peace: Belfast and Brussels in the expectation that other contested cities such as Kirkuk, Jerusalem, Nicosia or Mostar, who may one day consider power-sharing as a form of governance, may learn from what have been categorised as sites of successful power-sharing. While there are few studies of ethnic peace, fewer studies again seek to understand the role of the elite level bureaucrat in sustaining this peace. The book ascertains the extent of discretion available to the bureaucratic elite and further, through determining core beliefs, establishes how this discretion is employed.

Dans le présent article, nous nous intéressons à des recherches qui ont été menées sur le comportement des bureaucrates. Lorsqu'un pouvoir discrétionnaire existe, le comportement est-il défini par des associations de base, comme l'identité religieuse, de genre ou raciale, ou ces associations sont-elles supplantées par les affinités professionnelles ou technocratiques apprises ? C'est à travers l'objectif théorique de la bureaucratie représentative et sur la base de la méthode Q que nous étudions les perceptions du rôle des bureaucrates et que nous observons deux typologies de bureaucrates à Belfast. Les données indiquent que les bureaucrates de haut niveau représentent tantôt leurs propres intérêts professionnels, tantôt cherchent à représenter activement les intérêts de l'élite politique en tant qu'ensemble. Les observations ont des implications pour les recherches sur la bureaucratie représentative étant donné que l'on observe que les bureaucrates de haut niveau représentent parfois activement quelque chose d'autre qu'une identité primaire. La présente contribution donne aussi un bon aperçu de la vie de tous les jours dans les services d'un système de gouvernance efficace axé sur le partage du pouvoir. Remarques à l'intention des praticiens Les politiciens et les bureaucrates d'Irlande du Nord sont sans cesse invités à « partager les enseignements » de leur expérience en matière de partage du pouvoir. Le présent article fait ressortir l'importance du bureaucrate de haut niveau dans le maintien des régimes de partage du pouvoir et apporte un fondement empirique à ceux qui cherchent à s'appuyer sur l'expérience de l'Irlande du Nord en matière de gestion des conflits et de gouvernance post-conflit.

This article reports research on bureaucrat behaviour. Where discretion exists, do primary associations such as religious, gender or racial identity guide behaviour or are these associations superseded by secondary learned professional or technocratic attachments? Using the theoretical lens of representative bureaucracy and Q methodology to investigate bureaucrat role perceptions, two distinct bureaucrat typologies are identified in Belfast. The evidence demonstrates that an elite-level bureaucrat may actively represent his or her own professional interests or, alternatively, may seek out and actively represent the interests of the political elite as a collective. The findings have implications for representative bureaucracy research as it is demonstrated that an elite-level bureaucrat may actively represent something other than a primary identity. This contribution also provides a useful insight into everyday life within a bureau of a successful power-sharing system of governance.Points for practitionersPoliticians and bureaucrats from Northern Ireland are perpetually being invited to 'teach the lessons' of their power-sharing experience. This article highlights the importance of the elite-level bureaucrat in sustaining power-sharing regimes and provides an empirical basis for those seeking to draw on the Northern Ireland experience of conflict management and post-conflict governance.

In this paper we seek to understand how religion influences discretion in a developing fragile society: Palestine. Drawing on a recent review of the religion and public administration literature and the theory of representative bureaucracy, we ask: Does active representation on behalf of a religious identity exist? And if so, what does it look like? We explore four different possible manifestations, including none at all. In other words, this is a study of how religiosity influences civil servant behaviour in instances of discretion. Using original small-n in-person survey data, we find active representation by a majority of mid-level civil servants on behalf of a religious identity; we find evidence of religious service being underpinned by public service motivation and by pro-social motivation. Others are guided by traditional Weberian bureaucratic values while others are guided by what they perceive to be the religious foundation of the bureaucracy.

Representative bureaucracy is used to understand original data, shedding light on the administrative side of the politico-administrative axis in one part of one of the world's most contentious and divisive conflicts: the Palestinian Israeli conflict. We theorize and test six different theoretically existent roles of elite level bureaucrat (ELB) role conceptions in the West Bank. Using Q Methodology in 22 ELB interviews, we identify two empirically existent bureaucrat role conceptions associated with serving the public: one traditional Wilsonian/Weberian; the other a coproducer of public policy. Bureaucrats serve the entire population, as in public service motivation, not a sub-section. They believe that politics and bureaucracy should be separate and share concerns that bureaucratic independence is in jeopardy. The discovery of these profiles suggests that both pro-social and active representations on behalf of primary identities are notably absent, suggesting further investigation is required into bureaucrat role conceptions in the fragile or developing society.

In an innovative approach, applied to a region of the world on which research remains in its infancy, this article identifies the dominant administrative reform traditions embedded within the administrative elites responsible for administrative reform in Eurasia. Our contribution is twofold. Firstly, we establish a mechanism for measuring bureaucrat perceptions of administrative reform that may be replicated in other regions, by identifying the extent to which the three dominant Western traditions of public service (traditional public administration, new public management and new public governance) have been embedded in Eurasian societies. The article thereby demonstrates the effectiveness of these turns in public administration to be 'learned' and become embedded within the psyche of elite-level bureaucrats in these Eurasian post-Soviet regimes. The article posits that, while members of these elites hold several common governance perceptions, understanding of administrative reform differs markedly between bureaucrats and is broadly aligned with various aspects of the three dominant turns in public administration. Therefore, it is recommended that some rebalancing needs to take place between international/regional public policy interventions and public administration interventions. While public policy interventions are of course required, the administrative foundations upon which they are built (or learned), require greater attention to the needs, skills and attitudes of practitioners.

Although Belgian politics has experienced numerous political conflicts in the post-war period, the Brussels political system has, since 1989, remained relatively stable. This has led some scholars to suggest that Brussels may be experiencing a depolarization of its traditional linguistic cleavages. In this article, we analyze the possible realignment of these divisions and the possible emergence of an identity based on the urban territory. We trace the development of the public administrations at sub-state level in Brussels post 1989 and add new data on the often neglected elite-level bureaucrats and their individual attachment perceptions. This topic is most relevant as the organization and functioning of the public administrations have proven to be one of the major politically and socially divisive issues of the power-sharing agreement. The article draws on published and unpublished documents and interviews with 20 elite-level bureaucrats from four distinct public administrations operating in Brussels. The findings suggest that a regional urban attachment is emerging among the bureaucratic elite; however, this attachment would not prove robust if either community were to feel threatened. The likelihood of unintended policy making, which would have unintended consequences, is quite high given that the bureaucratic elite do not have confidence in the administrative structures of the city. The findings should be of interest to those interested in identification perceptions and to those studying other more fragile environments in and around Europe's borders that may one day consider adopting the Brussels approach to conflict management.