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Book part
Publication date: 24 October 2011

Alex Murdock

William Beveridge talked about the five evils that he felt confronted society. He listed them as want, idleness, squalor, ignorance and disease. He was writing before the end of…

Abstract

William Beveridge talked about the five evils that he felt confronted society. He listed them as want, idleness, squalor, ignorance and disease. He was writing before the end of the World War II at a time of anxiety, uncertainty and expectation (Abel-Smith, 1992). The post war welfare state and the growth of prosperity would arguably have served to resolve some of the evils listed by Beveridge. The absolute poverty that he referred to is no longer as prevalent and education is now a legal requirement and funded by the state at least up to school leaving age.

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New Steering Concepts in Public Management
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-110-7

Book part
Publication date: 24 October 2011

Jiannan Wu, Yuqian Yang and Liang Ma

This chapter looks into China's experiences with embracing new steering instruments to promote social stability, with particular reference to the protection of households involved…

Abstract

This chapter looks into China's experiences with embracing new steering instruments to promote social stability, with particular reference to the protection of households involved in city regeneration projects. During the closing years of the twentieth century, China experienced a fundamental transition, from a planned mode of urban regeneration to a new pattern that emphasised the involvement of the market. Under the planned regime, households affected by regeneration projects were provided with new apartments and temporary housing, all financed by the local government. Economic incentives were rarely employed to encourage households to resettle, as resettlement was seen as a civil obligation. The new approach, featuring marketisation, however, requires the affected households to pay for their new houses using monetary compensation and subsidies from the local governments. The local governments are strongly motivated to save such costs and thus provide limited compensation, and consequently complaints from the affected households have continued to grow (Peerenboom & He, 2009).

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New Steering Concepts in Public Management
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-110-7

Book part
Publication date: 24 October 2011

Joris Voets and Wouter Van Dooren

Networks are many things1, but certainly an important feature in contemporary government. In an era of collaboration, as Agranoff and McGuire (2003)2 label it, governments are…

Abstract

Networks are many things1, but certainly an important feature in contemporary government. In an era of collaboration, as Agranoff and McGuire (2003) 2 label it, governments are increasingly networked, using and engaging in all sorts of networks to achieve policy goals. Often, working in and through networks is regarded as the best or even only way to solve wicked problems (Goldsmith & Eggers, 2004). However, at the same time, criticism towards networks as a problem-solving strategy seems to increase in the field: they cost money, are time-consuming, cause transparency and accountability problems and so on (Huxham & Vangen, 2005; Kenis & Provan, 2009; Sørensen & Torfing, 2007). In the region of Flanders (Belgium), for instance, one of the main political issues is to regain grip on the hollowed out state, where much policy making and policy-making capacity is said to be ‘lost’ in a nebula of networks of which neither politicians nor public managers can make sense anymore.

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New Steering Concepts in Public Management
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-110-7

Book part
Publication date: 24 October 2011

Tony Bovaird and Rhodri Davies

In the United Kingdom under the New Labour government from 1997 to 2010, there was a shift of power away from local towards central government, leading to a situation in which the…

Abstract

In the United Kingdom under the New Labour government from 1997 to 2010, there was a shift of power away from local towards central government, leading to a situation in which the role of public service organisations could appear to be mainly implementing priorities set by central government and complying with national standards, enforced through the setting of targets and the use of performance management frameworks. The key performance management systems, and the standards within them, became increasingly focused on outcomes, defined as the results that services produce that have an impact on the lives of service users and citizens – the benefits of the service rather than the volume or quality of the outputs (Willis & Bovaird, 2011).

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New Steering Concepts in Public Management
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-110-7

Book part
Publication date: 24 October 2011

Philip Marcel Karré, Martijn van der Steen and Mark van Twist

In these times of financial austerity and the emergence of wicked problems, traditional Public Administration and New Public Management as government's conventional mechanisms to…

Abstract

In these times of financial austerity and the emergence of wicked problems, traditional Public Administration and New Public Management as government's conventional mechanisms to steer society often fail to produce desired societal outcomes. This has made the governments of many Western nations call for civic engagement hoping this will lead to the emergence of a resilient society that can resist and react to even the most major shocks and disasters by being flexible and adaptive (Longstaff, 2005; Meijs, 2004; Wildavsky, 1988). A recent example of this broader trend are the discussions in the United Kingdom on how government can help create a Big Society, in which local people and communities feel empowered to deal with social problems on their own, without the interference of politics or governmental busybodies.

Details

New Steering Concepts in Public Management
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-110-7

Book part
Publication date: 24 October 2011

Josie Kelly

Since the 1980s UK government enthusiasm for market reforms has reconfigured the nature and scope of public services. Initially the marketisation of public services changed how…

Abstract

Since the 1980s UK government enthusiasm for market reforms has reconfigured the nature and scope of public services. Initially the marketisation of public services changed how public services were provided, increasingly market reforms and pro business policies have also modified the formation and understanding of public policy problematics and how they ought to be resolved. This is particularly noticeable when markets work imperfectly or even fail. UK governments have shown their reluctance to employ regulatory instruments to change the behaviour of companies preferring instead to make use of softer interventions, by focusing on providing advice for consumers and urging individuals to act responsibly. The dilemmas of this approach are explored by discussing the UK's former Labour government's (1997–2010) response to the increase in the incidence of obesity and related health complications.

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New Steering Concepts in Public Management
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-110-7

Book part
Publication date: 24 October 2011

Erik-Hans Klijn, Bram Steijn, Jurian Edelenbos and Brenda Vermeeren

Governments face many complex problems that require collective solutions involving multiple actors who often disagree both on the nature of the problem and on the necessary…

Abstract

Governments face many complex problems that require collective solutions involving multiple actors who often disagree both on the nature of the problem and on the necessary solution (Rittel & Webber, 1973). The difficulties are often exacerbated because actors tend to have insufficient or incorrect knowledge of the problems at hand.

Details

New Steering Concepts in Public Management
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-110-7

Book part
Publication date: 24 October 2011

Abstract

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New Steering Concepts in Public Management
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-110-7

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 30 May 2017

Abstract

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Governmental Financial Resilience
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-262-6

Book part
Publication date: 28 August 2015

Abstract

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Asian Leadership in Policy and Governance
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78441-883-0

21 – 30 of 53