scholarly journals The Consequences of the Austerity Policies for Public Services in the UK

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 518-537
Author(s):  
Tania Arrieta Hernandez

This article examines the changing landscape of public service provision in the UK during austerity. Austerity is presented through the notions of retrenchment, decentralisation and shifts in governance. The analysis shows that retrenchment and decentralisation eroded the capacity of public institutions to protect the provision of vital public services. This is revealed through the reduced provision of non-statutory services and the reinforcement of inequalities in service provision. Shifts in governance have led to mixed outcomes in the quality of services. This article also addresses how austerity influenced many of the problems observed in service provision during the COVID-19 pandemic. Vital public services in the UK faced the pandemic with a diminished resource base, heightened inequalities and significant fragmentation in service provision.

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 399-420
Author(s):  
Elsa Debora Manurung ◽  
Shafira Nadya Rahmayani Sembiring ◽  
Wanodyo Sulistyani

Advancement in the information and communication technology make possible the development of e-government. The Indonesian government already grasped the opportunity to develop its own e-government system in providing public services. The obvious intent is to increase the quality of public service provision by the bureaucracy. This is hoped to be achieved by securing transparency and accountability of public officials. It is also to be expected that e-governance will be able to eradicate or at least decrease the possibility of corruptive behaviour.  Unfortunately, fact speaks differently. Cases to be analysed here are: corruption committed by public officials working at the Investment and One Stop Service Office of the Bandung Municipality and those performed by public officials managing e-procurement services. In particular, this article shall discuss the issue how to develop e-government as to better at eradicating and preventing corruption by public officials.


2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-71
Author(s):  
Firman .

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mereformasi birokrasi dalam aspek pelayanan publik dan kebebasan informasi. Rendahnya kualitas pelayanan dan kebebasan informasi yang telah diselenggarakan di birokrasi membuat beberapa masalah dalam mencapai kualitas pelayanan yang baik. Peraturan tentang pelayanan publik harus menjadi acuan yang dapat dimaksimalkan dengan baik oleh regulator ketika diimplementasikan. Hal ini membuat pelayanan publik menjadi rumit, panjang dan mahal, Hal ini juga yg menjadi pemicu penyalahgunaan dan korupsi di berbagai tingkat pemerintahan. Ditambah dengan cara berpikir birokrasi yang tidak membuat masyarakat sebagai aktor yang harus dilayani. Agenda reformasi birokrasi juga cenderung tidak memiliki orientasi yang jelas dalam berbagai masalah birokrasi terutama dalam kinerja birokrasi Kata Kunci :  Birokrasi, Pelayanan Publik, Keterbukaan Informasi Publik.This study purposes to bureaucratic reform in terms of aspects of public services and freedom of information. Low quality of services and freedom of information that has been held in the bureaucracy make some troubles in attaining a good quality service. The regulations concerning public services should become a reference that can be maximized well by the regulator in the execution. This made public services being complicated, long and expensive, this also triggers an abuse and corruption in various levels of government. Coupled with the manner of thinking of the bureaucracy that does not make the community as an actor that must be served. Bureaucracy reform agenda also tends to not have orientation that clearly in complete various bureaucratic problems primarily in the performance of bureaucracy Keywords :   Bureaucracy, Public Service, Transparency of Public Information.


Author(s):  
Pandelani H. Munzhedzi

Accountability and oversight are constitutional requirements in all the spheres of government in the Republic of South Africa and their foundation is in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa of 1996. All spheres of government are charged with the constitutional mandate of providing public services. The level of responsibility and public services provision also goes with the level of capacity of a particular sphere. However, most of the direct and visible services that the public receives are at the local sphere of government. As such, enormous resources are channelled towards this sphere of government so that the said public services could be provided. It is imperative that the three spheres of government account for the huge expenditures during the public service provision processes. The parliaments of national and provincial governments exercise oversight and accountability over their executives and administrations through the Public Accounts Committees, while the local sphere of government relies on the Municipal Public Accounts Committees. This article is theoretical in nature, and it seeks to explore the current state of public accountability in South Africa and to evaluate possible measures so as to enhance public accountability. The article argues that the current public accountability mechanisms are not efficient and effective. It is recommended that these mechanisms ought to be enhanced by inter alia capacitating the legislative bodies at national, provincial and local spheres of the government.


Author(s):  
Anne Wren

This chapter focuses on the role of skill formation, wage-setting, and public service provision in shaping different national growth strategies in a post-industrial context, taking the cases of Germany, Sweden, and the UK as detailed examples and making use of data from the EU-KLEMS Growth and Productivity Accounts Database (2008). It highlights the role played by skills policy in shaping patterns of specialization in high productivity, traded sectors, which are important engines of growth even in “consumption-led” regimes. It shows that Sweden’s ability to compete in less price-sensitive, high-end services (and manufacturing) markets rests on the availability of a workforce with high levels of tertiary skills. Germany’s reliance on more traditional manufacturing sectors is rooted in its well-established system of firm-based vocational training and its limited tertiary sector. In the UK, the expansion of domestic demand has, in part, been debt-driven, although it has also, as in the Swedish case, been facilitated by rising real wages. Nevertheless, a key driver of rising real wages in the UK has also been productivity growth and the expansion of trade in high-end, ICT-intensive services. The chapter confirms that welfare state policies (including the protection of relative wages, public service provision, and, above all, strategies of skill formation) are critical to the outcomes observed in the context of deindustrialization and technological change. The development of sustainable strategies for growth and employment creation in a context of deindustrialization, and of revolutionary changes in ICT, rely on the creation of a capacity to expand into ICT-intensive, high value-added sectors, and especially in dynamic services sectors.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-194
Author(s):  
Beáta Mikušová Meričková ◽  
Nikoleta Jakuš Muthová

AbstractIn order to gain a better understanding of human behaviour, Economics seeks to work with other disciplines such as Psychology, Sociology, or Anthropology (Behavioural Economics). Unlike neoclassical economic theory, behavioural economics does not assume a rational individual. On the contrary, it focuses on an irrational (bounded rational) individual while revealing what really influences his decision and his actions in order to respond more adequately to public needs, increasing the efficiency of public-service provision. The aim of the paper is to investigate the factors of willingness to pay for public services. The willingness of individuals to pay depends on factors such as affection and sympathy, conviction, compassion, regret, respect, warm glow, commitment to society, appreciation, invitation to participation, fundraising method and tax policy. The significance of the research conclusions lies in initiating a new perspective on the possibilities of securing public services.


2021 ◽  
pp. 153-179
Author(s):  
Jingjing Shan ◽  
Yanan Geng ◽  
Jin Fu ◽  
Binglei Yu

AbstractThechallengefacingurban policymakersis how to tackle the long-standing differences in social welfareand basic public services provision for migrant and incumbent workers arising from the dual-household registration system. In this chapter, we quantify inequalities in access to basic public services between migrant workers and the local urban population across different regions of China. We consider both inequalities within urban areas, and inequalities that exist between urban and rural areas. For urban areas, we find large inequalities in access to basic public services between the indigenous urban population and migrant workers. There are also significant differences between urban and rural areas. The level of basic public services in the West of China lags behind other regions. Across China as a whole, the gap within regions is greater than the gap between regions. Internal variations within a region arise mainly from inequality in access to basic public services between urban and rural populations and across urban neighbourhoods. Chinese public services are characterised by ‘dualisation’ in urban–rural provision and ‘fragmentation’ across regions in terms of the level and quality of service. These two features constitute a formidable obstacle for the ‘citizenisation’ of migrant workers. We provide detailed examples from across China of countermeasures and strategies currently being implemented to reduce inequalities in public service provision.


Author(s):  
Xuesong Li ◽  
Yunlong Ding

The notion of holistic governance was originally proposed to make up for the fragmentation of public service provision. However, such a notion also has a great potential to be transferred and understood in the digital government context in China, where there is an increasing need to reshape the landscape of government–enterprise relationships that can enable enterprises to involvement effectively in holistic governance, or the planning and design of public services. However, previous empirical studies on holistic governance have neglected the question of how to make this happen. The aim of this article is to fill these gaps, building on holistic governance theory, this article offers a theoretical framework for government–enterprise relationships under the holistic governance paradigm. The framework identifies a comprehensive set of relationships that explain how these relationships affect enterprises’ participation in public service provision. The empirical analysis is based on case studies of four e-services cooperation programs in China. We report three main findings. First, economic incentive should be developed in combination with a holistic governance strategy in order to encourage policymakers to reshape government–enterprise relationships. Second, it seems that the implementation of holistic governance is more effective when complemented with a managerial strategy in relation to organizational transformation. Finally, trust-building between governments and enterprises plays a pivotal role in nurturing the holistic governance paradigm. These findings have important policy implications for efforts to promote enterprise participation and cross-sector solutions to fragmented public service provision.


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