Effects of different modes of local public services delivery on quality of life in Spain

2012 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 68-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beatriz Cuadrado-Ballesteros ◽  
Isabel-María García-Sánchez ◽  
José-Manuel Prado-Lorenzo
2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 263-285
Author(s):  
Claudia Petrescu ◽  
Flavis Mihalache

Public services represent an important dimension of quality of society, as they create the contextual conditions for people to further their quality of life. Romanian public administration reform has brought about a constant institutional transformation, which has influenced both the specific features and the quality of the services. This article aims to analyse trends regarding the perceived quality of public services in Romania, in European comparative perspective, using the data of the European Quality of Life Survey (2003–2016). The article aims to understand the low satisfaction with public services in Romania against the background of the public service reform measures taken by government in this period. The article describes the context of Romanian public administration and public service reform, the most important public policy measures adopted and the most important challenges. The lack of vision in the public service reform, the partial introduction of reform elements, the permanent and, sometimes, conflicting changes are issues that may have influenced the way in which the population perceives the quality of public services. The decentralisation process of public services and the insufficient allocation of public funds for delivering such services at local level might have an impact on their quality and quantity perceived by the population. Keywords: public services; public administration reform; citizens’ satisfaction; New Public Management; New Weberianism.


Author(s):  
J.K. GALBRAITH ◽  

The changing economic structures, increased complexity and social requirements of advanced societies have rendered the statistical foundations of the National Income and Product Accounts highly problematic as a guide to policy-making. Discussions of “secular stagnation” and low productivity growth are predicated on these problematic measures, including the measures of price change that are used to distinguish “real” from “nominal” changes. This paper explores the consequences for measurement and for policy of the rise of the decline of manufacturing employment, the rise of services, and the rising need for public goods, public services, and investments aimed at sustainability and at the quality of life.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 284
Author(s):  
Nuriyanto Nuriyanto

Dynamic development of society, they want the public bureaucracy to be able  to provide the public services more professional, effective, simple, transparent, open, timely, responsive and adaptive. With excellent public service, to build a human quality in the sense  of  increasing  the  capacity  of  individuals  and  communities  to determine actively its own future. Actualization of democratic precepts in the public services delivery in Indonesia starting point on the importance of community participation ranging from formulating criteria for the services, how the delivery   of the services, arranging each engagement, public complaints mechanism set up   by the monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the public services in order to co-together build a commitment to create quality of the public services. It’s all been contained in the Law 25 of 2009 on Public Services, certainly it has been based on the precepts of the democracy of Pancasila. Rembug of the public services as an actualization of the public services based on the democracy of Pancasila.


Author(s):  
Beatriz Cuadrado-Ballesteros ◽  
Isabel María García-Sánchez ◽  
Jennifer Martínez-Ferrero

The most important reason to decentralise the public services delivery is to make the citizens' needs better known by the local governments, so it follows to act more efficiently to their satisfaction. Nonetheless it has been found an opportunistic use of these agencies to avoid legal limits on indebtedness imposed on sub-national administrations, generating fiscal illusion. Accordingly, the aim of this study is to analyse the effect of the functional decentralisation processes on public revenues and financing. The results show that the use of decentralisation process, especially companies are created by left-wing political parties in order to raise more income from commercialization of public services. It was also found that these practices are strongly linked to the municipality's fiscal pressure.


Author(s):  
Ian McLoughlin

In the United Kingdom, major investments have been made in e-government in order to modernize government and improve the efficiency and quality of public services. It has been claimed that these changes herald a “new era of digital governance”. The management of the vast majority of public services in the United Kingdom takes place at local and regional levels and provision at this level has a key role in “joining-up services” through greater information sharing and multi-agency working. This chapter examines these developments with reference to a study of the procurement of a software system by a city council, an experiment in multi-agency working to provide services to children, and the introduction of a regional smart card. It is argued that if such innovations are to have outcomes consistent with the claims of the digital governance thesis, then the relationship between technological and organizational change will need to be re-thought.


2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 521-535 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beata Mikusova Merickova ◽  
Juraj Nemec ◽  
Mária Svidroňová

The new approaches to the delivery of local public services include co-creation. In this paper, we focus on two local public service delivery actors: local governments and civil society. Our objective is to identify different types of co-creation in social innovations and the relevant drivers and barriers that account for the success or failure of co-creation processes at the local government level in Slovakia, focusing on the fields of welfare and the environment. The main findings of our analysis are that co-created innovations are mostly initiated by non-governmental actors, and that most local governments have neutral or even negative attitudes to co-created innovations. We provide a positive case study, in which the local government was open to co-creation, and public services were provided in an alternative way. Our study uses a qualitative approach and is based on original survey data from our own research, conducted mainly within the ‘Learning from Innovation in Public Sector Environments’ (LIPSE) research project.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 601-622
Author(s):  
Nikola Štefanišinová ◽  
Nikoleta Jakuš Muthová ◽  
Jana Štrangfeldová ◽  
Katarína Šulajová

Data-intensive technologies, such as artificial intelligence, imply huge opportunities for transforming the delivery of healthcare and social services, improving people’s quality of life and working in the health and welfare system. The aim of this paper is to present examples of the implementation of artificial intelligence techniques in healthcare and social services and to sketch the trends and challenges in the adoption of artificial intelligence techniques, with an emphasis on the public sector and selected public services. Analysis is based on a realistic assessment of current artificial intelligence technologies and their anticipated development. Besides the benefits and potential opportunities for healthcare and social services, there are also challenges for governments. Understanding the huge potential of artificial intelligence as well as its limitations will be a key step forward, but it is essential to avoid the trap of an overestimation of artificial intelligence potential.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
VIVIANE HELENA FRANÇA ◽  
Celina Maria Modena ◽  
Ulisses Eugenio Cavalcanti Confalonieri

Abstract Background: Tackling poverty requires reconsideration of quantitative factors related to "who" is poor and by "how much” and qualitative factors addressing "what poverty means in these individuals’ lives". Greater understanding is required concerning the types of access actually used by families in poverty in attempts to meet their basic needs. Poverty must be addressed based on the question: “Inequality of what?” It is in reflecting on the realities of such groups when their basic needs are not met that public policies can be improved and implemented with legitimate priorities. Objective: Describe coverage and access to public health, education and social assistance services and the related effects on the quality of life of families in extreme poverty.Methods: An exploratory mixed methods study was performed applying Amartya Sen's “basic capability equality” framework, with: 1) 27 interviews with managers and professionals from public services serving territories with extreme poverty; 2) Survey with a systematic proportionate stratified sample of 336 heads of households in extreme poverty, from a total 2,605 families. The resulting data was analyzed with thematic content analysis and descriptive statistics, respectively.Results: The managers and professionals described the lives of families in extreme poverty with phrases such as, “These people suffer. Sadness weighs on their lives!” and “Depression is the most common illness”. Their precarious circumstances and inadequate access were cited as causes. Quality of life was considered bad or very bad by 41.4% of heads of households. A total income of less than 1/3 of the minimum wage was received by 56.9%. One or more people were unemployed in the family in 55.8% of cases. For 53.3%, public services “did not meet any or few of their needs”. The main social determinants of health were described as: Alcohol and drugs 68.8%; Lack of good health care 60.7%; Absence of income/work 37.5%. The following were identified as solutions to improve their quality of life: 1 - Health 40.5%; 2 - Education 37.8%; 3 - Employment 44.6%.Conclusions: The social determinants of poverty and health must be addressed jointly through intersectoral public policies and egalitarian mechanisms that promote investment in social protection.


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