Performance Audits and Supreme Audit Institutions’ Impact on Public Administration: The Case of the Office of the Auditor General in Norway

2015 ◽  
Vol 50 (10) ◽  
pp. 1422-1446 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin Reichborn-Kjennerud ◽  
Åge Johnsen
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
Performance Audit ◽  
Auditor General ◽  
Positive Impacts

Performance audit is widespread but contested. The “audit society” proposition holds that audits are rituals producing comfort, whereas the “mandatory audit” proposition in public policy presumes that audits have positive impacts. Common to both propositions is the lack of empirical evidence of audit impact. This article analyzes survey data of the auditees’ tendency to make changes as a consequence of Supreme Audit Institutions’ performance audits. Civil servants who had experienced performance audits responded that ministries and agencies tend to make changes, but instrumental, institutional, and political factors have an effect on the institution’s propensity to make changes.

Exploration of the technocratic mentality among European civil servants

2021 ◽  
pp. 002085232199642
Author(s):  
Ringa Raudla ◽  
James W. Douglas ◽  
Zachary Mohr
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Performance ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Positive Interactions ◽  
Technical Knowledge ◽  
High Level ◽  
Proper Balance

Civil servants vary in the degree to which they hold technocratic attitudes. We explore whether bureaucrats’ exposure to politics and politicians is associated with the depoliticization dimension of the technocratic mentality. We use survey data of high-level executives in 19 European countries to explore factors that are associated with executives’ perceptions that removing issues and activities from the realms of politics leads to more farsighted policies. We find that respondents’ level of exposure to politics and politicians is indeed negatively associated with technocratic mentality. Bureaucrats have studied political science or public administration, work closer to politicians (in terms of type of organization), interact with them more frequently, and have more positive perceptions of these interactions tend to have lower levels of technocratic attitudes. Points for practitioners Beliefs affect behaviors and behaviors affect outcomes. Technocratic attitudes may limit the ability of civil servants to work effectively with politicians. We show that educational degrees that promote democratic values and exposure to politicians (particularly positive interactions) are associated with lower levels of technocratic attitudes. Given that a proper balance between political and technical knowledge can enhance organizational performance (Krause et al., 2006), these findings should be taken into account when staffing and structuring public organizations.

Introduction to the special issue of teaching public policy in Australia

2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-11
Author(s):  
Yvonne Haigh ◽  
Siobhan O’Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
Next Generation ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
The Public ◽  
Challenging Tasks

Teaching public policy, social policy, public management and public administration is an important vocation. It has the capacity to help equip the next generation of public and civil servants for the multitude of complex and challenging tasks they must undertake. Teaching public policy builds capacity within the public service, and can also be useful in training and preparing those who work alongside government, providing voluntary or contracted services.

Are They Ready for Their Close-Up? Civil Servants and Their Portrayal in Contemporary American Cinema

Public Voices ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle C. Pautz ◽  
Laura Roselle
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
Case Study Approach ◽  
The Public ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
American Cinema ◽  
Box Office ◽  
Narrative Forms

Perceptions of government and civil servants are shaped by a variety of factors including popular culture. In the public administration literature the significant role that film and other narrative forms have on citizens’ perceptions is duly noted, and there is ample research on politicians and military heroes in film, but a focus on civil servants remains largely elusive. Among the sparse literature centered on civil servants are studies that employ a case study approach or focus on a few films. In contrast, our research employs a large sample of 150 films. These films comprise the top ten box-office grossing films from 1992 through 2006; therefore we examine the films most likely to have been seen by a majority of movie-watching Americans. More than 60 percent of the films in our sample portray government as bad, inefficient, and incompetent. However, the data on more than 300 civil servants yield intriguing findings. Surprising, in light of the negative depiction of government, is the positive depiction of individual civil servants. Half of civil servants were positively portrayed, and only 40 percent were negatively depicted. Americans may view government negatively, but they see in film positive depictions of how individual civil servants can and do make a positive difference.

Evolution of public administration in the post-Soviet. Turkmenistan

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 98-118
Author(s):  
ALYM K. ANNAMURADOV ◽  
◽  
OVEZDURDY B. MUKHAMMETBERDIEV ◽  
MURAD O. HAITOV ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Civil Service ◽  
The State ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
Historical Changes ◽  
Special Place ◽  
Independent States ◽  
World Class ◽  
New Independent States

The article examines the formation of the statehood of modern Turkmenistan through the prism of historical changes that have occurred in the post-Soviet countries. It is noted that after 1991 all former republics of the USSR built new independent states on a fundamentally different basis – interaction between government and society. The authors emphasize that the establishment of trust between the state as an institution and citizens is possible under certain conditions, among which a special place is occupied by a clear organization of civil service and the professionalism of civil servants. The measures that have already been implemented and are being taken by the leadership of Turkmenistan at the present time to solve these problems are considered. It is noted that Turkmenistan acts within the framework and in accordance with the key world-class standards regarding the requirements for the organization of civil service. The measures taken in the country to combat corruption are analyzed.

scholarly journals Social Responsibility, Sustainability, and Public Policy: The Lessons of Debris Management after the Manabí Earthquake in Ecuador

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (7) ◽  
pp. 3494
Author(s):  
Paulina Guerrero-Miranda ◽  
Arturo Luque González
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Public Welfare ◽  
Shared Decision ◽  
Institutional Strategies ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
Depth Interviews

Natural disasters can generate millions of tons of debris and waste, which has an impact on the environment and poses direct risks to the health of the population, hence the need to analyze public policy and its consequences following the 2016 earthquake in Ecuador. Several in-depth interviews were conducted with individuals active in public service during the post-earthquake management period, together with fieldwork analysis of debris management and the institutional strategies for its recycling and reuse in three of the most affected cities: Pedernales, Portoviejo, and Manta. The environmental impact was examined, including its taxonomy of inconsistencies within public administration, alongside the processes of decentralization and shared decision-making. Similarly, the links between corporate social responsibility (CSR), public policy, and sustainability were analyzed at both the national and local level for their wider implications and ramifications. The study highlighted the gaps in the management of such a crisis, exposing a lack of ethics and the shortcomings of social (ir-)responsibility in the distorted processes of public welfare in the country, aspects that should rather work in concert to achieve full sustainable development.

scholarly journals Bouncing around in a turbulent teaching environment: Teaching and researching resilience for public administration

2021 ◽  
pp. 014473942110004
Author(s):  
Peter Marks ◽  
Monika Knassmüller
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Teaching Environment ◽  
Administrative Systems

The COVID-19 pandemic forced surprised governments worldwide to act fast and decisively, often revealing lack of preparation for this kind of situation. However, such crises are expected to occur far more frequently than ever before. To keep societies prospering, governments, administrations, and civil servants will have to adapt quickly and effectively—and hence need to develop the required capabilities (e.g., appropriate policies, strategies, knowledge, skills). To deepen our understanding of appropriate action in face of crises, resulting consequences for stability and required, demanded or enforced behavior of people, we propose the concept of resilience. Resilience, we argue by way of five propositions, helps articulating the underlying dynamics in society and its administrative systems in order to allow for a sustainable incorporation of the long-term perspective in the short-term strategy, particularly in times of disturbances and temporary perturbations.

A Note on “Public Policy”

1973 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 661-664 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Vaison
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Studies ◽  
Policy Analysts ◽  
Government Body

Normally in political studies the term public policy is construed to encompass the societally binding directives issued by a society's legitimate government. We usually consider government, and only government, as being able to “authoritatively allocate values.” This common conception pervades the literature on government policy-making, so much so that it is hardly questioned by students and practitioners of political science. As this note attempts to demonstrate, some re-thinking seems to be in order. For purposes of analysis in the social sciences, this conceptualization of public policy tends to obscure important realities of modern corporate society and to restrict unnecessarily the study of policy-making. Public policy is held to be public simply and solely because it originates from a duly legitimated government, which in turn is held to have the authority (within specified limits) of formulating and implementing such policy. Public policy is public then, our usual thinking goes, because it is made by a body defined somewhat arbitrarily as “public”: a government or some branch of government. All other policy-making is seen as private; it is not public (and hence to lie essentially beyond the scope of the disciplines of poliitcal science and public administration) because it is duly arrived at by non-governmental bodies. Thus policy analysts lead us to believe that public policy is made only when a government body acts to consider some subject of concern, and that other organizations are not relevant to the study of public policy.

IMPROVEMENT OF MECHANISMS OF PUBLIC POLICY IMPLEMENTATION IN THE SOCIO-HUMANITARIAN SPHERE

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrii Moisiiakha ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Policy Implementation ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
State Policy ◽  
The State ◽  
Practical Implementation ◽  
Humanitarian Mission ◽  
Legal Nature ◽  
Public Policy Implementation ◽  
Definition Of

The article is devoted to the problems of finding ways to improve the mechanisms of implementation of state policy in the socio-humanitarian sphere. The purpose of this article is to identify areas for improvement of mechanisms for implementing public policy in the socio-humanitarian sphere, taking into account the needs of their unification within a single approach to the organization of social processes in the analyzed area. Achieving this goal has provided solutions to more practical problems: the development of goals, objectives, areas of state policy in the socio-humanitarian sphere, as well as organizational and legal support for its implementation. All this together will allow to introduce quite detailed algorithms and tools for managing the socio-humanitarian development of Ukraine and to quickly and effectively overcome the negative risks that arise in it. The content, essence and state-legal nature of mechanisms of public administration, as a set of ways and tools of practical realization of state policy are revealed. The analysis of modern approaches to understanding the essence of mechanisms of public administration is carried out. The author's definition of the mechanism of public administration in the socio-humanitarian sphere is offered. The content and essence of state policy in the socio-humanitarian sphere are revealed. The conclusion concerning the basic determinants and features of its development is made. Approaches to the formation of mechanisms for the implementation of state policy in the socio-humanitarian sphere are generalized. The need to further unify approaches to the implementation of such public policy in different sectors of the socio-humanitarian sphere has been proved. The main directions of improvement of mechanisms of its realization are allocated. The mechanism of state policy implementation in the socio-humanitarian sphere is defined as a set of nonlinear sets of tools and methods of state influence, which is implemented through appropriate management decisions (a set of measures as components of state policy) to develop the rights and interests of citizens and practical implementation. guarantees of the state in the fields of education, health care, social security, as well as others covered by the humanitarian mission of the state and able to influence the formation of productive forces, human, intellectual and social capital in society.

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