Evolution in Public Governance Models: From Administrative Management to the Hybrid and Normative Concept of Good Governance (Part I)

The administrative-bureaucratic system developed by M. Weber dominated for many years in public governance. Serious criticisms of its inefficiency led to the emergence of an alternative concept called new public management in the 1980s. The new model introduced market-oriented solutions, as well as corporate management tools and approaches such as strategic and business planning. As a result, the new public management increased the efficiency of public governance. However, it created public discontent due to ignoring the criteria of social justice. With globalization and technological change, new views and paradigms emerged, which have been derived from the practices of many countries and crystalize in the concept of good governance. It is a hybrid concept because new socially significant principles such as openness, transparency and digital communication have been added to accepted principles like rule of law, efficiency and effectiveness. It is also a normative concept because the principles are treated as guiding rules, which countries have to follow in their public governance.

Claiming solidarity: A multilevel discursive reconstruction of solidarity

Solidarity is one of the central concepts in social theory and has gained much attention due to the multiple challenges that the EU has been facing the last decade and due to the most recent COVID-19 pandemic. Although the debate on the nature and conditions of solidarity has been revitalized, there remains a large variety in how to conceptualize solidarity. In contrast to other approaches, we do not conceive solidarity as normative concept, but as descriptive–analytical one. Therefore, we provide a theory-based definition that is prone to capture the empirical dimensions of solidarity. Accounting for the dynamic and interactive character of solidarity as subject to permanent societal and political renegotiation, we conceptualize solidarity from a discourse perspective and follow a multilevel design breaking down the understandings of solidarity on different levels. This approach contributes to the research of solidarity that is interested to capturing the ‘real world’ dimensions of solidarity.

Good and Evil

This chapter examines Nietzsche’s genealogical account of the concepts “good and evil.” I suggest that the introduction of this conceptual pair involves two fundamental innovations, both of which motivated by ressentiment: a normative concept of equality, or the idea that all human beings have equal worth; and a certain conception of moral agency, centered around the possession of freedom of will, which underwrite a descriptive concept of equality, or the idea that all moral agents are not only subject to the new evaluative categories, but also may be expected to comply with them. I also examine the sense in which the invention of Christian morality constitutes an imaginary revenge, and argue that this indicates a change in the very character of the revenge, rather than an ordinary act of revenge that is merely imagined. I conclude with a discussion of the manner in which self-deception is involved in this imaginary revenge.

Evaluation Turned on Itself

This chapter clarifies and addresses a deep challenge to the conceptual ethics of normativity. The challenge arises from the fact that we need to use some of our own normative concepts in order to evaluate our normative concepts. This might seem objectionably circular, akin to trying to verify the accuracy of a ruler by checking it against itself. We dub this the vindicatory circularity challenge. If the challenge cannot be met, it would suggest that all normative inquiry (not just the conceptual ethics of normativity) rests on worryingly arbitrary foundations. We defend a way of answering the challenge that adapts anti-skeptical resources from epistemology. Along the way, we reject several alternative replies to the challenge. These include dismissing the challenge because it cannot be formulated with our concepts, answering it by appeal to a distinctive normative concept, and answers that appeal to certain metaphysical or metasemantic resources.

The “Normative” Concept of Personhood in Wiredu’s Moral Philosophy

The article explores the place and status of the normative concept of personhood in Kwasi Wiredu’s moral philosophy. It begins by distinguishing an ethic from an ethics, where one involves cultural values and the other strict moral values. It proceeds to argue, by a careful exposition of Wiredu’s moral philosophy, that he locates personhood as an essential aspect of communalism [an ethic], and it specifies culture-specific standards of excellence among traditional African societies. I conclude the article by considering one implication of the conclusion, which is that personhood embodies cultural values of excellence concerning the place and status of partiality in Wiredu’s moral philosophy. Keywords: Afro-communitarianism, agent-centred personhood, Ethic, Ethics, Kwasi Wiredu, Partiality Personhood.

Impact of the Compliance system on the Financial Performance of an Economic Entity

The aim of the research is to provide a theoretical and practical justification for implementing a compliance system for business management in order to prevent financial risks. To achieve this goal, the definitions of the concept of "compliance" for business purposes from various sources are considered, since there is no normative concept. The author offers the definition of "compliance" as a set of measures aimed at compliance with legal norms and internal rules of an economic entity in order to protect the interests of owners and eliminate financial risks. The experience of business management using the compliance implementation system is summarized. The significance of the compliance policy at the enterprise as a means of increasing competitiveness and efficiency of activities is revealed. The theoretical and methodological basis of the research is the development of domestic and foreign scientists on the significance of a set of measures aimed at compliance with legislative norms and internal rules of an economic entity in order to protect the interests of owners and eliminate financial risks. It is concluded that companies that use the compliance system are more competitive than other similar companies, which means that they can increase the efficiency of their activities and, as a result, financial results.

Non-normative use of reflexivity in social work with families in the Czech Republic

Discourse on the normative use of reflexivity predominates in the professional literature. Expert articles on the topic of non-normative use of reflexivity, which is based on the presumption that social workers do not use reflexivity to improve their work quality, but rather its functions for themselves to fulfil specific purposes, is missing, with some exceptions in the literature. The presented article therefore aims to understand the use of reflexivity in the practice of social work with families in its non-normative concept and to determine the implications for social work. Using the abduction method (in which Schechtman’s narrative identity theory was applied to data analysis), the following four categories of the use of reflexivity in a non-normative way were saturated with data obtained from initial interviews, field observations and subsequent reflection of field observations with social workers: personal interest, survival, moral responsibility and compensation. The non-normative concept of reflexivity is further discussed in the context of specific implications for education and practice of social work.

Disaster Resilience Policy through the Lens of Culture and Values

With the transition from a descriptive construct to a normative concept, resilience has engendered debate as to its appropriateness and effectiveness as a community planning strategy in addressing existing and future threats. In some measure the questions raised are because the role of cultural values in resilience construction has not been fully explored. As communities, cities, and regions strive to enhance resilience, a greater understanding of the importance of cultural values is required. The authors adopt two metaphors are useful in describing how resilience is construction. They use the metaphors to construct a heuristic that incorporates cultural values in resilience construction in a very transparent manner. The heuristic draws upon the theoretical work in cultural values by Mary Douglas, the enhancement of that work by Kahan and others, and by integrating the two into recent work in resilience on assemblage theory.

Proliferation of Transnational Labour Standards: The Role of the ILO

The article examines the institutional history of the ILO in the aftermath of the Cold War, and in particular how the ILO has transformed itself into a global actor in terms of labour governance through coining the normative concept of fundamental labour rights in the 1990s, as well as the ongoing struggle in which the ILO has engaged to promote greater coherence of labour standards in the post-national era. The proliferation of transnational labour standards and decentralized standard-setting is a recognizable trend in international labour protection today. International regulation of labour has become a crowded field, as labour standards are increasingly set and enforced outside the ILO framework. The mushrooming of transnational labour standards also leads to fragmentation, conflicts and competition between norms, values and visions. In the face of proliferating labour standards, the ILO has to endeavour to reinstate itself as the central institution for innovative economic and social theories as well as for labour standards. The ILO needs to exercise its leadership not just in defending normative coherence but also in advancing a humanitarian vision of the economy and society.