The New Labour Government has placed great emphasis on service delivery. It has provided performance information in the form of Annual Reports, Public Service Agreements, Performance Assessment Frameworks, and a host of other targets. But has New Labour delivered on its welfare reform? Evaluating New Labour's welfare reforms: provides the first detailed and comprehensive examination of the welfare reforms of New Labour's first term; compares achievements with stated aims; examines success in the wider context; contributes to the debate on the problems of evaluating social policy. It is essential reading for academics and students of social policy and provides important information for academics and students in a wide range of areas such as politics, sociology, public policy, public administration and public management interested in welfare reform and policy evaluation.

Why do some policies succeed so well while others, in the same sector or country, fail dramatically? The aim of this book is to answer this question and provide systematic research on the nature, sources and consequences of policy failure. The expert contributors analyse and evaluate the success and failure of four policy areas (Steel, Health Care, Finance, HIV and the Blood Supply) in six European countries, namely France, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, Spain and Sweden. The book is therefore able to compare success and failure across countries as well as policy areas, enabling a test of a variety of theoretical assumptions about policy making and government. The book also sheds more light on the legitimacy of governance in Western Europe and goes beyond understanding the concepts of success and failure to explaining their genesis empirically. Success and Failure in Public Governance will be of interest to academics and researchers of political science, public policy and public administration as well as to practitioners of public policy.

This book aims to further advance analysis on Negotiated Environmental Agreements (NEAs) in a multi-disciplinary and co-ordinated way. The authors advocate increased use of NEAs as policy instruments to deal with environmental problems.The book analyses, both theoretically and through the example of existing European agreements, the critical factors that can influence the performance of a negotiated environmental agreement. Negotiating Environmental Agreements in Europe contains 12 case studies analysing 12 different negotiated agreements in European countries. These are analysed comparatively in order to examine to what extent the different hypotheses postulated in the book are valid. Policymakers, environmental economists and researchers as well as NGOs and representatives of industries affected by NEAs will all find this book of immense interest and worth.

The past two decades have seen a process of almost continuous reform in public management in developed countries and a renegotiation of traditional relationships between state, economy and society. These changes have been expressed through privatization, civil service reductions and restructuring, the introduction of market-type mechanisms to improve the delivery of public services, the construction of new forms of partnership between state and non-state organizations, and new types of regulation and accountability. In turn, these public management reforms have, in a variety of ways, been transferred to the state systems of developing and transitional economies. The Internationalization of Public Management constitutes one of the first attempts to examine the conceptual and practical problems which attend such policy transfers, and to make preliminary judgements about the successes and failures of public management reform in developing countries. The distinguished group of contributors offers instructive insights into the complex reality of the development state. Both academics and postgraduate students within the areas of politics and governance, public sector management and development studies will find this book essential reading. Practitioners in these fields, especially within aid agencies and research institutions, will also find the book contains valuable lessons and conclusions.

The agricultural and food sectors have developed into a prominent industry, impacting economic markets on an international scale. In certain regions, there is a significant potential for creating increased competitive advantage in these business areas. Exploring the Global Competitiveness of Agri-Food Sectors and Serbia's Dominant Presence: Emerging Research and Opportunities includes academic coverage and perspectives on enhancing the competitiveness of the Serbian food industry in the global marketplace. Highlighting pertinent topics such as exports, international trade, and manufacturing considerations, this book is an ideal resource for academics, researchers, graduate students, and professionals actively involved in the agri-food industry.

Cost-benefit analysis is a key component in the evaluation of economic development strategies. In this new, updated version of his earlier book, Project Appraisal for Developing Countries, Robert Brent provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to recent developments in project appraisal. Cost-Benefit Analysis for Developing Countries interprets, expands and evaluates the principles of project appraisal using the approach recommended by the World Bank. Robert Brent challenges a number of their findings, particularly through the inclusion of the 'numbers effect', the number of people affected by a development project, as a separate social objective. The book is based on a combination of sound economic theory and extensive empirical research, and case studies are used throughout to illustrate the theory. The author analyses, from an applied perspective, the most recent developments in project appraisal. He discusses key issues such as: structural adjustment lending investment criteria the basic needs approach shadow and market prices the social discount rate risk analysis. Cost-Benefit Analysis for Developing Countries will be essential reading for students with an interest in development economics, development studies, public policy and comparative economic systems as well as policymakers and practitioners in international organisations and developing countries.

Throughout Europe income support for the poor has become highly controversial. It is often assumed to be not the answer to, but the cause of social exclusion, and is increasingly believed to give rise to welfare dependency This book contributes to a more complex understanding of welfare state regimes and welfare recipients in contemporary Europe. Describing social assistance "careers" in different national and urban contexts, it documents the strong interplay between personal biographies and policy patterns - a particularly useful perspective which compliments the more structural, top-down approach of much international work in social policy "Social Assistance Dynamics in Europe" compares: a range of northern and southern European countries (Sweden, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Portugal); focuses on the actual working of their policies: their set of actors; cultural background; implementation; and uses a methodological approach, which combines longitudinal analysis with qualitative research Academics and students of welfare and poverty, policy makers and social policy evaluators in the public, private and non profit sectors should find this book useful.

Social marginalisation due to changing labour markets in a global, knowledge-intensive economy poses a major challenge to international welfare states. Addressing the problem from a citizenship perspective, this book contributes significantly to the understanding of policy problems and the development of appropriate strategies "Changing labour markets, welfare policies and citizenship" readdresses the question of how full citizenship may be preserved and developed in the face of enduring labour market pressures. It: clarifies the relationship between changing labour markets, welfare policies and citizenship; discusses possible ways in which the spill-over effect from labour market marginality to loss of citizenship can be prevented; specifies this problem in relation to the young, older people, men and women and immigrants; offers theoretical and conceptual definitions of citizenship as a new, alternative approach to empirical analyses of labour market marginalisation and its consequences; and highlights the lessons to be learned from differing approaches in European countries This book provides important insights for academics and students in comparative social policy, sociology

Public Policies and Political Institutions explores the major questions posed by the advent of the new institutionalism in political science and public administration. It demonstrates how policy communities are influenced in thought and action by the values, rules, traditions and routines embedded in political systems. Frank Hendriks compares traffic policy making in two major European cities - Munich in Germany and Birmingham in England. Using cultural and new institutional theory he is able to conclude that political institutions contribute to the mobilization of cultural bias in policy making. He shows that political institutions influence the interaction between different cultural perspectives on policy issues, which in turn influences the course that policy processes take. Ultimately, the author makes a plea for pluralistic and perspectivistic democracy. This book will be welcomed by academics interested in public policy, public administration, political theory, environmental studies and urban planning, as well as local government policymakers and practitioners.

Approaches focusing on ideological and cognitive factors to analyse public policy have moved to centre-stage in political science. This book presents the great variety of theoretical and empirical research on the role of ideas which has emerged in recent years.How can you quantify ideas? Ideas are objective entities, not conducive to empirical research. The appeal of this book lies in the juxtaposition of a careful exploration and discussion of the theories behind the role of ideas in policy making and policy areas, and their detailed contextualisation. Through carefully researched contemporary examples offering single country studies, comparative studies and examples from the European Union, these 'ideas' show themselves to be a double-edged sword. Ideas are revealed as both a societal and political resource, crucial to both promoting and inhibiting policy change. A clear understanding of the impact and influences of ideas on the crucial process of policy is essential to all political scientists and analysts of public policy, as well as individuals interested in the effects on policy decisions.

This timely book provides an authoritative analysis of the pension reform process in nine countries, namely Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the UK and USA, with Japan being covered in the introduction by the editors. The book draws on the work of experts from each of these countries to provide a picture of how the pension systems work in each country. The contributors examine the policy reform process in each country, against the background of the fiscal stresses arising from the ageing populations in OECD countries. They also analyse whether different types of pension delivery systems (e.g. the public-private mix) generate different standards of living. Each study is prepared according to a common template allowing meaningful analysis of pension delivery and outcomes across countries using similar macroeconomic statistics and microdata. Pension Systems and Retirement Incomes across OECD Countries is an extremely valuable and empirically sound book on a highly topical subject. It will appeal to scholars of economics, public policy, political science and finance as well as being of great interest to policymakers and practitioners involved in pension fund management.

Major General Dennis Laich makes a compelling case that the all-volunteer force no longer works in a world defined by terrorism, high debts, and widening class differences. He sets up his argument by posing three fundamental questions: Is the all-volunteer force working? Will it work in the future? What if we had a war and no one showed up on our side? The answers to these questions become all too clear once you learn that less than one percent of US citizens have served in the military over the last twelve years-even though we've been fighting wars the entire time. What's more, most of that one percent comes from poor and middle-class families, which poses numerous questions about social justice. This one percent-the ones that survive-will bear the scars of their service for the rest of their lives, while the wealthy and well-connected sit at home. Fortunately, there are alternatives that could provide the manpower to support national security, close the civil-military gap, and save taxpayers billions of dollars per year. It's possible to fight for what's right while ensuring a bright future, Laich offers a wake-up call that a debt-burdened nation in a dangerous world cannot afford to ignore.

This insightful book focuses on the economic consequences of structural reform policies in the economies at the cutting edge of reform: Denmark, The Netherlands, New Zealand and Norway. The contributors examine policies aimed at improving the underlying path of growth, employment and saving-investment balances of the economy and apply state of the art methods to measure and model structural reforms. They examine the areas of competition policy, regulation of entry barriers, non-tariff trade barriers and employment protection rules as well as the quality of education and training, the efficiency of various public sector agencies and labour supply effects of care for children and the elderly. Special attention is paid to two 'success stories': New Zealand's 'Kiwi-model' and the Dutch 'Polder-model'. The book provides a welcome addition to the scarce evidence on both the costs and the benefits of structural reform and identifies the policy problems and the analytical issues at stake. This book will be indispensable to policymakers and academics with an interest in structural reform and macroeconomic policy.

Issues of 'difference' are on the agenda right across the social sciences, and are encountered daily by practitioners in policy fields. A central question is how the welfare state and its institutions respond to impairment, ethnicity and gender. This book provides an invaluable overview of key issues set in the context of housing. Touching on concerns ranging from minority ethnic housing needs to the housing implications of domestic violence, this broad-ranging study shows how difference is regulated in housing. It deploys a distinctive theoretical perspective which is applicable to other aspects of the welfare state, and bridges the agency/structure divide. Housing, social policy and difference: brings disability, ethnicity and gender into the centre of an analysis of housing policies and practices; offers a new approach to housing, informed by recent theoretical debates about agency, structure and diversity; develops the ideas of 'difference within difference' and 'social regulation'; looks beyond the concerns of postmodernism to create an original account of difference and structure within the welfare state. The book will be an important text for students and researchers in housing, social policy, planning, urban studies, sociology, disability studies, gender studies and ethnic relations. It will also interest practitioners committed to greater equalities of opportunities and a fairer society.

This book provides a long-term perspective on policies regarding intergovernmental grants in the US since the 1970s. This period spans six presidential administrations and encompasses a diverse set of political and economic conditions. Containing original research, this book contributes to critical assessments of intergovernmental grant issues such as: whether state and local government spending responds symmetrically to increases or decreases in federal aid the effects of converting categorical grants to block grants on program spending; and the political economy of federal aid distribution. >The author's empirical analyses are based on a unique data set of US federal intergovernmental grants and cover a range of programs, including transportation, substance abuse prevention and treatment, and community development and welfare. The book is a rich source of material on intergovernmental grants and fiscal relations for scholars and practitioners in public policy, political science, economics and public finance.

Over the past decade, there has been continual development and renewal of strategies and practices surrounding e-governance. Governments around the world have embraced new information and communication technologies to increase the efficiency of internal processes, deliver better and more integrated services to citizens and businesses, invite citizen and stakeholder participation in planning decisions, improve communication, and sometimes even enhance democratic processes. Global Strategy and Practice of E-Governance: Examples from Around the World provides readers with an overview of relevant strategy and policy-level theoretical frameworks and examples, as well as up-to-date implementations from around the world. This book offers valuable insights into best practices, as well as some of the issues and challenges surrounding the governance of and with information and communication technologies in a globalized, knowledge-based world.