Suchergebnisse

There has been a global phenomenon in public sector management which advocates a paradigm shift from administrative to managerial values. Governments have been able to put an ideological gloss on managerial strategies to suit local political agendas. The spread of this policy, where public servants have their roles transformed to managers and the public to customers, serves to strengthen demonstration of the diminishing role of government and the increasing reliance on the market. Through our research on managerialism in local government in Victoria, we show that there has been a repackaging of the senior council manager into an idealised private sector version. However, we identify a paradox between the rhetoric of the empowered, entrepreneurial "new public manager" and the reality of intensified government control and scrutiny over municipal activities and conclude that "new public management" in Victorian local government is illusory or, at best, incomplete.

Few anticipated the radical program of public sector reform introduced by the Kennett government. A commitment to downsizing, markets and privatisation has transformed employment relations in the Victorian public sector. Familiar institutions have disappeared, major employment areas have been restructured, and jurisdiction for much public sector industrial relations has been transferred to the Commonwealth. Despite some industrial unrest, and occasional successes, public sector unions have been unable to fend off this ideological assault on traditional patterns of public sector employment.

AbstractParticipatory governance in developing countries is broadly viewed as an essential prerequisite for successful implementation of public projects. However, it poses many challenges for public bureaucrats in terms of their skills and willingness to engage citizens. Despite the growing evidence of the pervasiveness of participatory governance, research to date has not explored bureaucratic readiness to adopt participatory practices. This research presents findings of a bureaucratic readiness assessment for participatory governance in Bangladesh by exploring how public bureaucrats perceive the value of participation; how they are educated to collaborate with stakeholders; and the extent to which their attitudes are amenable to enhancing participatory governance. Our findings suggest that we can classify readiness in terms of both motivational and educational factors. The study has implications for how readiness can be developed in public officials that may assist in fostering participatory governance in Bangladesh and be informative to other countries experiencing similar issues.

Résumé Les administrations australiennes font de plus en plus appel à des prestataires de service du secteur privé pour améliorer l'efficacité de la prestation de service public et ont conclu une série de partenariats avec ces prestataires. Dans cet article, nous nous penchons sur l'efficacité des modèles de partenariat public-privé utilisés dans la prestation de services publics. Nous verrons que certaines initiatives de partenariat ont amélioré l'efficacité au niveau de la gestion locale mais sans parvenir à instaurer la confiance. Par ailleurs, la notion de valeur publique n'a pas été prise en compte dans la définition des objectifs du service public. D'autres modèles ont plutôt mis l'accent sur la participation communautaire dans la formulation des politiques ainsi que sur l'instauration de la confiance parmi les clients et les fournisseurs. Ces modèles pourraient bien indiquer la voie à suivre pour réussir de telles initiatives. Ces conclusions provisoires sont fondées sur une analyse de deux exemples de partenariats qui ont eu un effet sur les méthodes de fonctionnement et de gestion: Job Network et Best Value dans le gouvernement local de l'État de Victoria.

Governments in Australia increasingly rely on private sector service providers to improve efficiency in public service delivery and have entered into a range of business partnerships with those providers. This article considers the effectiveness of public-private partnership models used in delivering public services and suggests that some partnership initiatives have increased efficiency at the micro management level but have not been able to establish trust. The concept of public value, too, has not been used as a useful way of setting out public service goals. Other models have focused more on community participation in policy formulation and in building trust among the clients and the providers and these may point the way to the future of such initiatives. These tentative conclusions rest on an examination of two cases where partnerships have affected operating and management practices, Job Network and Best Value in Victorian Local Government.

This book draws together case analyses of public-private partnerships in four different countries: Australia, France, Romania and Spain. It represents research efforts conducted from December 2007 to November 2012, and it covers a wide range of experiences in planning and implementing public-private partnerships in countries that belong to two very different socio-economic regions: Europe and Australia. The study on Australia deals with key concepts and types of public-partnerships, as well as performance and evaluation issues. While the analysis on France focuses on water sanitation and public transport services, the research on Romania highlights water and infrastructure projects. Finally, the discussion of Spain emphasizes healthcare and network services. The study illustrates that public-private partnerships are very adaptable and can take an unexpected variety of forms in different industries, types of service, regions or legal frameworks. By suggesting new directions for future comparative research in this area, we hope that this collection of country case studies will stimulate useful and enlightened discussion of the field and encourage a greater focus on the importance of context in future discussions of public-private partnerships