Blame avoidance, scapegoats and spin: Why Dutch politicians won’t evaluate ZBO-outcomes

Public Policy and Administration ◽

10.1177/09520767211022490 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 095207672110224

Author(s):

Sandra van Thiel

Keyword(s):

Political Process ◽

Legal Obligation ◽

High Expectations ◽

Parliamentary Debates ◽

Blame Avoidance ◽

Hard Evidence ◽

Executive Agencies

Despite high expectations about the results of agencification and a legal obligation to evaluate executive agencies, ministers and MPs seem not very interested in evaluating agencies’ results. Hood’s theory on blame avoidance is used to explain the lack of evaluation in the case of the Dutch ZBOs. Only one in seven ZBOs is evaluated as frequently as mandated. Findings show that ZBO evaluations are more an administrative than a political process. Reports do not offer hard evidence and are seldom used in parliamentary debates. There are no clear patterns as to which ZBOs are evaluated more, or less, often.

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CONSTRUCTION OF THE BRITISH NATIONAL IDENTITY IN RELATION TO BREXIT: EVOLUTION OF THE DISCOURSE OF THE PRIME MINISTERS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM

Вестник Пермского университета Политология ◽

10.17072/2218-1067-2021-1-109-118 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 15 (1) ◽

pp. 109-118

Author(s):

I.V. Kazakov ◽

◽

Keyword(s):

National Identity ◽

Political Process ◽

Conservative Party ◽

Identity Transformation ◽

The European Union ◽

Main Method ◽

Prime Ministers ◽

Parliamentary Debates ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

The Eu

The discursive reality of Brexit had its effects on the discourse of the British Conservative Party which is important as the latter plays a key role in the process of making political decisions. The article discusses the components of the British national identity linked with the UK's membership in the European Union and Brexit as a political process. The UK's case is unique as it allows us to trace the identity transformation during the process of withdrawal from this integration group. The author chooses the constructivist approach and post-positivist discourse analysis as the main method. The paper studies the speeches of conservative politicians and parliamentary debates to analyze the changes in the discourse of the Conservative Party during the terms of the UK’s last three prime ministers. The discursive layers are highlighted: basic concepts, basic political orientations and extratextual ideological constructions used by conservative politicians to construct reality. The author traces the transformation of ideological constructions of the conservative party's discourse and consecutive changes in the significance of individual elements of the British national identity in the discourse. The paper examines relations between British and European identities, between the images of Britain and the EU in the discourse of British conservatives.

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The influence of parliamentarians on the development of financial management regulations for executive agencies

Journal of Public Budgeting Accounting & Financial Management ◽

10.1108/jpbafm-05-2019-0085 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 32 (3) ◽

pp. 421-438

Author(s):

Tjerk Budding ◽

Jos Klink

Keyword(s):

Financial Management ◽

Central Government ◽

Daily Practice ◽

Legislative Process ◽

Content Type ◽

Parliamentary Debates ◽

General Evaluation ◽

Members Of Parliament ◽

Management Techniques ◽

Executive Agencies

PurposeThe involvement of politicians in the introduction and use of financial management techniques in the public sector deserves more attention. This paper analyses the influence of members of Parliament (MPs) on the development of financial management regulations for Dutch central government executive agencies.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses desk research and analyses formal evaluation reports, as well as minutes of meetings of Parliament to analyse the influence of MPs on the changes in financial management regulations.FindingsMPs' influence on the change of prescriptions seems to have been small. The authors observe that modifications were most often already formulated in general evaluation reports by the Ministry of Finance, in advance of parliamentary debates. The analysis also reveals that the criteria to be met by the executive agencies became more detailed in the initial years of the agency model and became more global in recent years.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper aims to contribute to the literature on the influence of politicians on financial management regulations.Practical implicationsThe paper shows that the influence of MPs on the prescriptions is quite small in daily practice and therefore, their role in the legislative process, as far as financial management techniques are concerned, is limited.Social implicationsThe results show that politicians are both in charge of, as well as subject to NPM-inspired financial management regulations, whereas their influence on the rules is small. The authors advise to further analyse this, as well as to explore how their role can be enlarged.Originality/valueThe interplay between politicians and financial management techniques in general, and the influence of MPs on the legislative process in specific, is an underresearched area. This paper aims to contribute to this literature and shows that the influence of MPs on the development of financial management regulations is limited. Several changes were made in these prescriptions in a period of more than 25 years, whereas discussions in the Parliament hardly played a role in these modifications.

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Foundations as organisational science policy interfaces? An analysis of the references to foundations made during parliamentary debates in the German federal parliament

Journal of Science Communication ◽

10.22323/2.18030206 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 18 (03) ◽

pp. A06 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Franziska Oehmer ◽

Otfried Jarren

Keyword(s):

Science Policy ◽

Scientific Knowledge ◽

Political Process ◽

The Political ◽

Parliamentary Debates ◽

Quantitative Content ◽

German Bundestag ◽

Scientific Systems ◽

Theoretical Considerations ◽

Political Decisions

Complex political decisions increasingly require scientific knowledge and expertise. But the exchange between actors from the political and the scientific systems is confronted by challenges. Science policy interfaces are needed in order to overcome the barriers to communication. This article analyses and discusses the importance of foundations as science policy interfaces. To this end, we will first present the salient features and functions of foundations as organisations in the framework of theoretical considerations and discuss their fundamental suitability as mediators of scientific knowledge in the political process. We will then identify the significance of foundations as science policy interfaces using a quantitative content analysis of references to foundations in the debates of the 18th German Bundestag.

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Working Hard or Hardly Working? Examining the Politics of In-Work Conditionality in the UK

Social Policy and Society ◽

10.1017/s1474746421000294 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-22

Author(s):

Joan Abbas ◽

Joe Chrisp

Keyword(s):

Political Parties ◽

Welfare Reform ◽

Online Survey ◽

Unemployment Benefits ◽

Parliamentary Debates ◽

Party Manifestos ◽

Avoidance Strategies ◽

Blame Avoidance ◽

Using Data ◽

The Uk

The intensification of behavioural requirements and punitive measures in unemployment benefits by UK governments has been popular and instrumental to the politics of welfare reform. Yet there is scant research into the politics of extending this approach to working households, known as ‘in-work conditionality’ (IWC), which was introduced in the UK under Universal Credit in 2012. Addressing this gap, we examine the preferences of political parties and voters towards IWC, using data from an online survey of 1,111 adults in 2017, party manifestos and parliamentary debates. While we find evidence of a partisan split between voters and politicians on the left (oppose IWC) and right (support IWC), intra-party divides and the relative infancy of IWC suggests the politics of IWC is not set in stone. This helps to explain the blame avoidance strategies of current and previous Conservative governments responsible for IWC.

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Representations of the European Union and the nation(-state) in Italian party discourse

Journal of Language and Politics ◽

10.1075/jlp.3.1.06kos ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 53-80 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Ankica Kosic ◽

Anna Triandafyllidou

Keyword(s):

European Union ◽

European Integration ◽

Political Process ◽

Nation State ◽

Right Wing ◽

The European Union ◽

Parliamentary Debates ◽

Clear Cut ◽

Party Ideology ◽

The Relationship

Research on party attitudes towards European integration has concentrated on the relationship between party ideology and positions related to European integration as an economic and/or political process, ignoring the representational aspect of party discourse. This study aims to contribute towards filling this gap by examining how Italian parties represent the European Union, the nation(-state) and the relationship between the two in their electoral platforms and parliamentary debates. We shall therefore analyse critically how parties use specific representations of Europe, the EU and the nation to frame and support their ideologies and positions and how they shape these representations in different ways depending on the challenge they are confronted with. We shall also look beyond presumed clear-cut relationships between party ideology and party attitudes towards European integration, exploring the complexities and ambiguities of party discourse and highlighting how specific EU or nation representations are used as legitimisation strategies by parties in combination to their left- or right-wing ideology.

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