scholarly journals Determinants of Online Local Budget Transparency in Croatia and Slovenia

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-188
Author(s):  
Katarina Ott ◽  
Mihaela Bronić ◽  
Branko Stanić ◽  
Maja Klun ◽  
Jože Benčina
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Budget Process ◽  
Public Governance ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Socio Economic Variables ◽  
Local Budget ◽  
To Come

As a part of the public governance, transparency started to come forward during the New Public Management reforms, mostly for the evaluation of public sector efficiency. This article focuses on online local budget transparency (OLBT) in two neighbouring countries – Croatia and Slovenia. The article is pioneering in a comparative study of the determinants of budget transparency in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, based on a unique database and measure of transparency. The article tests the determinants of OLBT that reflect the accountability of local authorities and a cornerstone for public participation in the budget process. The following methodology was applied: using a data set of 768 Slovenian and Croatian local governments over the 2015–2017 period and testing it against several financial and socio-economic variables, and a random effects panel logistic regression, separately for Croatia, Slovenia, and a pooled sample. The results indicate that greater size of the population, higher administrative capacity and lower unemployment rate in individual local governments significantly contribute to higher levels of OLBT. This study demonstrates the possibility of developing a standardised measure of local budget transparency and using it to investigate the reasons for different levels of transparency in the two – and potentially other – CEE countries. The results of this and similar studies can serve as a basis for establishing cohesive local budget transparency policies for different countries and creating a combination of policy instruments to enhance transparency.

Agencification and Location

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morten Egeberg ◽  
Jarle Trondal
Keyword(s):  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
Public Governance ◽  
Large N ◽  
New Public

Chapter 7 offers a large-N study on whether the geographical location of government agencies affects public governance. Two decades of New Public Management have placed agencification high on the agenda of administrative policymakers. Moreover, agencies organized at arm’s length from ministerial departments have sometimes also been located outside of the capital or political centre. Although practitioners tend to assign weight to location as regards political-administrative behaviour, this relationship has been largely ignored by scholars in the field. This chapter shows that agency autonomy, agency influence, and inter-institutional coordination seem to be relatively unaffected by agency site. The chapter also specifies some conditions under which this finding is valid.

Political Steering and Bureaucratic Autonomy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morten Egeberg ◽  
Jarle Trondal
Keyword(s):  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Organizational Capacity ◽  
The Political ◽  
Questionnaire Data ◽  
Public Governance ◽  
Bureaucratic Autonomy ◽  
Large N ◽  
New Public ◽  
Political Steering

This chapter draws attention to the effects of vertical specialization of organizations and how it affects public governance. The chapter documents that agency officials pay significantly less attention to signals from executive politicians than their counterparts within ministerial (cabinet-level) departments. This finding also holds when controlling for variation in tasks, the political salience of issue areas, and officials’ rank. In addition, it is documented that the greater the organizational capacity available within the respective ministerial departments, the more agency personnel tend to assign weight to signals from the political leadership. Expert concerns are strongly emphasized at both levels; however, agency personnel are more sensitive to the influence of affected parties. The chapter applies large-N questionnaire data at four points in time (1986, 1996, 2006, and 2016) that spans three decades and shifting administrative doctrines: New Public Management as well as post-New Public Management.

scholarly journals Bringing the Law Back in the Law-Government Nexus in an Era of Network Governance

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stavros Zouridis ◽  
Vera Leijtens
Keyword(s):  
Public Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Network Governance ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Public Governance ◽  
The Public ◽  
New Public ◽  
The Law

Abstract Recently, scholars have claimed that public management theory has too much ignored law. Consequently, the under-legalized conception of public management has produced a flawed understanding of public management theory as well as public management practices, threatening public institutions’ legitimacy. In this article, we argue that law never left public management theory. Rather, the link between government and law has been redefined twice. We refer to the assumptions that constitute this link as the law-government nexus. This nexus changed from lawfulness in a public administration paradigm, to legal instrumentalism in a (new) public management paradigm, and to a networked concept in the public governance (PG) paradigm. In order to prevent a faulty over-legalized conception of public management, bringing the law back in should be built on lessons from the past. This article elaborates on three strategies to reconnect law and public management. We map the strengths and weaknesses of each law-government nexus and illustrate these with the case of the Dutch tax agency. In our strategies that aim to reconceptualize the current law-government nexus, we incorporate the benefits of each paradigm for public management theory. The revised law-governance nexus enables the PG paradigm to correspond to contemporary issues without encountering old pathologies.

Understanding the impact of mandatory accrual accounting on management practices: interpretation of Japanese local governments’ behavior

2021 ◽  
pp. 002085232198895
Author(s):  
Makoto Kuroki ◽  
Keiko Ishikawa ◽  
Kiyoshi Yamamoto
Keyword(s):  
Internal Control ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Institutional Pressures ◽  
Accrual Accounting ◽  
Logistic Analysis ◽  
The Impact

Accompanying the spread of “new public management” since the 1980s, accrual accounting and results-based management has become a global standard. However, whether accrual accounting results in successful outcomes and which drivers lead to the intended impacts of the reform have been contested. Given the mixed arguments in the literature, we set out two research questions: (1) “Have public sector organizations realized any positive impacts on management practices by adopting mandatory accrual accounting?”; and (2) “What are the primary drivers of such impacts?” To answer these questions, we examine the impact on management practices by analyzing a survey to ascertain how financial department officers in Japanese local governments perceive the benefits of adopting mandatory accrual accounting on management practices. The results indicate that they have so far not recognized the intended benefits, though they had expected higher benefits in internal control. Then, we use technical-rational, socio-political, and institutional isomorphic perspectives in a comprehensive approach to understand the impacts on management practices. The logistic analysis shows that financial managers in local governments that do not have a majority party in the assembly, but consist of several parties in power, as well as in those with greater financial dependence on the central government, perceive higher benefits. Further, we find that financial managers that imitate other local governments as a form of mimetic pressure perceive fewer benefits. The results show that some technical-rational tools, socio-political conditions, and institutional pressures change the perceived benefits for public managers of adopting mandatory accrual accounting. Points for practitioners We find that some technical-rational, socio-political, and institutional factors explain the intended internal benefits of the mandatory adoption of accrual accounting. In practice, financial managers in local government feel the merits of accrual accounting in less autonomy in not only politics, but also finance, and few mimetic conditions. It might be understood that difficult situations would drive practitioners to use mandatory information.

Co-design and action learning in local public services

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilpo Laitinen ◽  
Tony Kinder ◽  
Jari Stenvall
Keyword(s):  
Public Management ◽  
Service Management ◽  
Public Services ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Action Learning ◽  
Social Activity ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Public Governance ◽  
Local Public Services ◽  
New Public

The paper argues that from a new public governance and service management perspective, local public services are best conceptualised as service systems in which users co-produce and co-design; this differentiates public from private services, which have lower of trust and shared values resulting in a goods-dominant logic and are an alternative to the new public management viewpoint. Referencing new case studies from Finland and Scotland, we further argue that for local public servicesʼn co-production as an action- learning environment supports and encourages co-design: this makes local public services a special case of codesign. Analysing the two cases of co-design, we argue that since public services are subject to public scrutiny, and since design is a social activity, there exists a wider democratic footprint. Finally, we argue that co-design of local public services is best analysed from the perspective of action learning, for which we suggest an analytical framework.

scholarly journals Ledelseskommunikation på tværs af styringsparadigmer

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 44-58
Author(s):  
Cecilie Glerup ◽  
Ursula Plesner
Keyword(s):  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Public Governance ◽  
New Public ◽  
New Public Governance

Der har gennem de seneste år været stort fokus på kommunikation i den offentlige sektor. Kommunikation er blevet en organisatorisk og institutionel betingelse for offentlig ledelse, der fylder som opgave i den offentlige leders daglige arbejde. Denne artikel anskuer sproget som aktivt medskabende af den kontekst, hvori det indgår. Den undersøger relationerne mellem offentlig ledelseskommunikation og styringsparadigmer såsom New Weberian State, New Public Management og New Public Governance, fordi disse kan anskues som de sociale kontekster, kommunikationen skal virke i. Artiklen er baseret på kvalitative forskningsinterviews med offentlige ledere fra forskellige sektorer; undervisning, ældrepleje, politi, psykiatri, planlægning m.m. Analysen anskueliggør hvordan ledernes kommunikation formes af og er med til at forme forskellige typer styring: bureaukrati, New Public Management og New Public Governance. I alle disse kontekster beskrev lederne forskellige udfordringer med at mobilisere interesse, hvorfor vi konkluderer, at offentlige lederes kommunikation fra denne artikels perspektiv er et konstant mobiliseringsarbejde, og ikke blot et værktøj til at løse konkrete problemer. Et blik på kommunikation og styringsparadigmer fortæller os således, at offentlige ledere har brug for at kunne arbejde analytisk og strategisk med at skabe opmærksomhed om og engagement i en mængde sammenhænge via 1) en formel juridisk og økonomisk retorik, 2) en visionær og historiefortællende praksis og 3) eksperimenterende og lokale dialoger.

Il Public Value Creation e il ruolo delle Universitŕ

2012 ◽  
pp. 255-272
Author(s):  
Vincenzo Formisano ◽  
Giuseppe Russo ◽  
Rosa Lombardi
Keyword(s):  
Value Creation ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Public Value ◽  
Public Governance ◽  
New Public ◽  
New Public Governance

Nell'attuale scenario economico-competitivo, lo studio delle reti d'impresa (Bastia, 1989; D'Alessio, 2008; Cafaggi, 2004; Lipparini, 2002; Lorenzoni, 1992) consente di enfatizzare il ruolo svolto dalla cooperazione tra piů organizzazioni sia pubbliche, sia private. In questa direzione, con l'avvento dell'economia della conoscenza, le imprese creano valore collettivo per effetto dell'azione di gruppo e degli interessi coinvolti nel sistema organizzativo a rete. Le opportunitŕ che si presentano alle aziende coinvolte nella rete sono molteplici: l'investimento relazionale favorisce l'interdipendenza tra i differenti sistemi aziendali e ne rafforza la loro complementarietŕ; ogni processo cooperativo influenza ciascuna impresa della rete. Nelle aziende pubbliche, tale fenomeno č noto come New Public Governance (Bovaird, 2002; Lynn et al., 2007): all'interno di una rete locale si trovano aziende pubbliche e private la cui azione č protesa alla realizzazione del bene comune (Zamagni,2008). In questo senso, il passaggio dal New Public Management al New Public Governance ha permesso di valorizzare il concetto di network indagandolo quale rete di soggetti o entitŕ interagenti tra loro, in grado di guidare le loro relazioni verso il raggiungimento di un obiettivo comune: il public value creation (Moore, 2005). In questa direzione, il presente contributo si propone di analizzare il concetto di rete, con particolare riferimento alle possibili configurazioni che possono assumere i network pubblici locali. Nel caso di specie, lo studio si concentra sui network all'interno dei quali esiste la presenza dell'istituzione universitaria quale catalizzatrice del sapere e fonte della creazione di valore pubblico locale. Mediante l'esperienza dell'Universitŕ di Cassino, lo studio si propone di definire il ruolo dell'universitŕ rispetto al contesto territoriale di riferimento e quale impatto economico-sociale genera la sua azione. La domanda di ricerca č la seguente: Che cosa sono i network? Nell'ottica della New Public Governance, qual č il ruolo svolto dalle universitŕ nel sistema di rete? Č possibile individuare, in tal caso, un modello di rete?

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