Getting to a Wealthier and Fairer Scotland

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Keating ◽  
Robert Liñeira
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Public Spending ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Division Of Powers ◽  
Scottish Government

Scotland has some of the prerequisites for a social investment state. Yet the division of powers between the Scottish and UK levels in relation to taxation and welfare is not optimal. The Scottish Government has reformed its policy-making structures but still has shortcomings in planning for the long term. While public opinion in Scotland supports spending on public services from which citiziens benefit, it is only slightly more favourable to redistribution than in England. The experience of other counrties shows that citizens will support public spending and the resultant taxes if they know that they will get good services.

Peeble them wi’ stanes: Twenty years of the Scottish Parliament

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
David McCrone
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Social Attitudes ◽  
Demographic Characteristics ◽  
Scottish Parliament ◽  
Uk Government ◽  
Scottish Government ◽  
The Uk ◽  
First Session

Twenty years of the Scottish Parliament requires assessment of its impact. What do people in Scotland think of it so far? Has it fulfilled their expectations and needs? This article focuses on evidence from Scottish Social Attitudes surveys over the period, and in particular how the performances of Scottish Government vis-à-vis UK Government are judged by public opinion. To what extent has the devolution conundrum, identified in the first session of the parliament, namely, that the Scottish tier of government gets the credit for any successes, and the UK government the blame for failures been reversed? How do people rate the respective tiers of government In terms of willingness to listen, and trust in governments to work in Scotland's long-term interests and judgements about fairness? How are these differences best explained in terms of people's social and demographic characteristics as well as their political and constitutional views? The article concludes that Scottish Government has maintained early expectations, and established itself as the premier tier of government despite its constitutional position as a devolved institution. It has become, in the eyes of people in Scotland, the main framework through which politics and policy-making in Scotland are carried out.

scholarly journals Late neoliberalism: Delineating a policy regime

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian McGimpsey
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Policy Discourse ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Policy Regime ◽  
Fiscal Constraint ◽  
Post Industrial

In the aftermath of the financial crisis, policy-making in post-industrial nations has been widely characterised in terms of austerity. Yet this provides an insufficient basis for an understanding of social policy-making at this time. I argue for a ‘late neoliberal’ phase distinguished by a change in the regime governing the emergence of public service formations. I work from the example of UK policy discourse to demonstrate how in late neoliberalism austerity, social investment and localism operate in conjunction. Beyond fiscal constraint, this conjunction serves to move social policy on from ‘quasi-marketisation’ to reflect more closely the logic and forms of finance capital. The effects of this change can be seen in the reconstitution of ‘value’ in public services, how capital is distributed, and in the subjectivating force of policy. Ultimately late neoliberalism serves to sustain and reproduce familiar relations of domination.

A Wealthier, Fairer Scotland

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Institutional Reform ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Political Will ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Scottish Government ◽  
Practical Constraints

The ambition of the Scottish Government is to create a wealthier and fairer nation. There is evidence that economic growth and social inclusion are not conflicting aims but are complementary. Following the devolution acts of 1998, 2012 and 2016, it has extensive powers and resources to fulfil its ambition. On the other hand, its powers are limited and there are practical constraints on what governments can achieve These include the need to attract investors and taxpayers, the inertia of existing policies and political pressures. There is agreement on focusing on social investment on the long-term, inter-generational issues but this requires political will and institutional reform.

The political economy of English public services reform and implications for management knowledges in health care organizations

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ewan Ferlie ◽  
Sue Dopson ◽  
Chris Bennett ◽  
Michael D. Fischer ◽  
Jean Ledger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Public Services ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Health Care Organizations ◽  
Public Agencies ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
Management Reform ◽  
New Public

This chapter explores, in greater depth, the idea floated in the Introduction that the macro-level political economy of public services reform can exert effects on preferred management knowledges at both national and local levels. We argue that an important series of New Public Management reforms evident since the 1980s have made UK public agencies more ‘firm like’ and receptive to firm-based forms of management knowledge. We characterize key features of the UK’s long-term public management reform strategy, benchmarking it against, and also adding to, Pollitt and Bouckaert’s well-known comparativist typology. We specifically add to their model a consideration of the extent to which public management reform is constructed as a top-level political issue.

scholarly journals Long-Term Benefits of Intermunicipal Cooperation for Small Municipalities in Waste Management Provision

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 1449
Author(s):  
Michal Struk ◽  
Eduard Bakoš
Keyword(s):  
Waste Management ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Economies Of Scale ◽  
Long Term Results ◽  
Municipal Solid Waste Management ◽  
Long Term Study ◽  
Financial Benefits ◽  
Intermunicipal Cooperation

Intermunicipal cooperation offers an interesting alternative in cases when municipalities are too small to individually provide public services at an efficient cost level but are reluctant to form a municipal amalgamation in order to benefit from economies of scale. Forming a body consisting of multiple municipalities with a specific focus provides a way to reduce costs on service provision while maintaining municipal sovereignty in other areas. In our paper, we quantify the cost benefits of utilizing intermunicipal cooperation in the field of municipal solid waste management. We examine this using data from a 10-year period from municipalities in the South Moravian Region in the Czech Republic, where high municipal fragmentation results in many dominantly small municipalities that often are not able to provide public services at reasonable costs. This analysis contributes to the literature by conducting a long-term study of the effects of intermunicipal cooperation on public service provision costs. Our results suggest that municipalities participating in intermunicipal cooperation focused on waste management experienced annual cost savings of approximately 13.5% for provision of this service throughout the examined period of 2010–2019 when compared to municipalities that did not cooperate. These long-term results show how beneficial intermunicipal cooperation can be in reducing service costs. In addition to the direct financial benefits, municipal representatives stated that intermunicipal cooperation often brings other qualitative and non-financial benefits such as better service quality, the possibility to share infrastructure, and relief from administrative and managerial burdens through the utilization of professional management, which was especially appreciated by the smallest municipalities with limited administrative staff.

scholarly journals Poverty and Social Justice in the Devolved Scotland: Neoliberalism Meets Social Democracy?

2009 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 379-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gill Scott ◽  
Gerry Mooney
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Social Democracy ◽  
Neoliberal Economics ◽  
Policy Measures ◽  
Scottish Government

Drawing on current debates in social policy, this paper considers the extent to which social justice has and is informing social policy making in devolved Scotland. Relating to the work of social justice theorists Young, Fraser and Lister in particular, it critically examines some key Scottish social policy measures since 1999, considering some of the ways in which these have been constructed in terms of social justice and which make claims to the Scottish national. Through a focus on the issue of anti-poverty policies, the paper explores the ways in which the dominant policy approaches of the Scottish Government have reflected an uneven and tension-loaded balance between the enduring legacies of Scottish social democracy and the influences of neoliberal economics.

scholarly journals Best Practices and Methodologies to Promote the Digitization of Public Services Citizen-Driven: A Systematic Literature Review

Information ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heloise Leão ◽  
Edna Canedo
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Systematic Literature Review ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Private Companies ◽  
Digital Platform ◽  
Brazilian Government ◽  
Delivery Of Services

Governments at all levels have a mandate to provide services, protect society, and make the economy prosper. While this is a long-term goal, citizens are now expecting greater and faster delivery of services from government. This paper presents a systematic literature review of service digitization carried out by the governments of several countries, which was motivated by the lack of primary studies in the literature related to the identification of the processes and methodologies adopted by these governments and private companies to provide their services to the citizen. This work also contributes to the identification of best practices, technologies and tools used for the provision and evaluation of digitized services provided and how governments are evaluating the gains from digitization. These results of this systematic literature review serve as inputs to guide current and future research of the Brazilian Government in the construction of a digital platform for the provision of its services directed to the citizen, seeking to analyze their needs and improving the services currently provided.

scholarly journals SECULAR STAGNATION: REAL PROBLEMS AND STATISTICAL ILLUSIONS

2021 ◽  
Vol 230 (4) ◽  
pp. 156-178
Author(s):  
J.K. GALBRAITH ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Public Goods ◽  
Productivity Growth ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Price Change ◽  
National Income ◽  
Secular Stagnation ◽  
Manufacturing Employment

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.

scholarly journals Some Problems of Perspective Planning in Pakistan

1964 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-202
Author(s):  
Said Hasan
Keyword(s):  
Policy Making ◽  
Time Horizon ◽  
Close Relation ◽  
The Third ◽  
Preceding Period ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Perspective Planning ◽  
Economic Future ◽  
Work Done

The growing confidence of Pakistan's planners in the nation's economic future is indicated by the boldness of their successive plans and by the lengthening of their time horizon. As far as the latter is concerned, the First Five-Year Plan did not reflect any thinking on economic and social development beyond a specific five-year period; the Second Plan, however, contained some remarks on long-term growth; the Third Plan is being prepared in close relation to the work being done on the Perspective Plan. What fifteen years ago would have been regarded as a waste of time is now considered to be of basic import¬ance for sound planning. What nobody dared think about in the earlier days is now the subject of serious analysis and policy-making. The need for a Perspective Plan is there not only from an economic angle but there are also sound political reasons for it. From the economic angle, we realized that the five-year periods chosen for our plans are only arbitrary periods in a process stretching over a much longer time. Our decisions and policies during one plan influence the pattern of growth in the next one, and influence also the effectiveness of established policies. Therefore, any particular five-year plan has to be part of a whole chain of plans, all fitting together and building further on the work done in the preceding period.

scholarly journals Uncoupling Inter-Municipal Cooperation Capacity: Lithuanian Municipalities’ Efforts To Sustain Services Provision

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 32-60
Author(s):  
Jurga Bučaitė-Vilkė ◽  
Remigijus Civinskas ◽  
Aistė Lazauskienė
Keyword(s):  
Service Delivery ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Municipal Service ◽  
Economy Of Scale ◽  
External Influences ◽  
Services Delivery ◽  
Large Size ◽  
Cooperative Solutions

Abstract Despite the absence of the long-term tradition of inter-municipal cooperation in Lithuania, the country represents a compelling case of cooperative solutions which are mostly focused on public services delivery design imposed by the central government. The article provides theoretical and empirical insights on the inter-municipal cooperative capacities and their scope in the case of Lithuania, with reference to the size of the municipality. The results reveal that the large size municipalities are more likely to benefit from collaborative arrangements in comparison to small size municipalities which have less institutional ability for collaboration. In this respect, the external influences imposed by the central authorities’ agenda on implementing economy of scale principles and strong municipal service delivery regulations is extremely important for understanding the municipal efforts for collaboration.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document