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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Public administration
How to Steal a City is an insider account of this intervention, which lays bare how the administration was entirely captured and bled dry by a criminal syndicate, how factional politics within the ruling party abetted that corruption, and how a comprehensive clean-up was eventually conducted. It is written as a gripping real-life thriller, taking the reader deeper and deeper into the rotten heart of the city. As a former senior government official and local government “fixer”, Crispian Olver was no stranger to dealing with dodgy politicians and broken organisations. Yet what he found was graft that went far beyond the dodgy contracts, blatant conflicts of interest and garden-variety kickbacks he had seen before. It had evolved into a web far more sophisticated and deep rooted than he had ever imagined, involving mazes of shell companies, assassinations, criminal syndicates, and compromised local politicians. The metro was effectively controlled by a criminal network, closely allied to a dominant local ANC faction. What he found was complete state capture—a microcosm of what has been happening in South Africa’s national government. But there was a personal price to pay. Intense political pressure and threats to his personal safety took a toll on his mental and physical health. He had to have a full-time bodyguard, and never maintained a regular routine. He eventually lost much of his political cover. Olver ultimately had to flee the city as the forces stacked against him started to wreak their revenge. This is his story.
Public administration comprises two integrated components, namely the political process in terms of which government policy is formulated, and a management process in terms of how this policy must be implemented. The introduction of strategic and performance management systems and procedures in the public sector has become international standard practice, often resulting in a comprehensive redesign of the traditionally bureaucratic legislative framework - strategic management links the government organisation to the community, thus incorporating the actual needs of the community in government's planning, while performance management gears the organisation towards service delivery. Strategic and performance management in the public sector provides an integrated management model for 21st century government organisations. This title is a step-by-step presentation of the strategic and performance management process, starting with government policies and culminating in a comprehensive performance management system. It contains practical examples, activities, relevant legislation boxes and supplementary material for further understanding.
What is Public Administration? How does Public Management operate? Who are the key role-players? What are the principles, and how are these applied practically in the developmental context of South Africa? Addressing the broad topics that form the foundations of Public Administration and Management in South Africa, this text introduces and critically explores all foundational and functional aspects of the development, theories, principles, concepts, approaches and structure of public administration. Key topic areas are accessed in dedicated chapters to provide a solid grounding in the discipline. Students are orientated in the theoretical foundations of public administration and the practical implementation of public management in developmental South Africa, across local, provincial and national government spheres. Covering the role and function of core aspects of public administration and management, topics addressed include: public decision-making; service delivery and policy implementation; leadership and control; human resources management; public financial management; and ethics in the public sector. An expertly designed pedagogical framework supports and develops important academic skills such as critical thinking, practical application and data interpretation. Presented in a real, applied and visual manner, this engaging text is the essential introduction for all students of BAdmin, BA, BSocSci or BCom degrees in public administration and public management.
The fall of Robert Mugabe and the inauguration of Emmerson Mnangagwa as Zimbabwe’s new president in November 2017 were events that no one could have predicted. Just three weeks earlier, Mugabe had sacked Mnangagwa as vice-president, a move that seemed to end the long political career of the man known as ‘The Crocodile’. In the Jaws of the Crocodile tells the gripping story of how Mnangagwa fled Zimbabwe in fear for his life, and of his brief exile in South Africa, where he declared to Mugabe that he would return ‘in a matter of weeks’ to take control of the levers of power. It describes the military intervention against Mugabe and his allies, analyses the sudden power shift within Zanu-PF, and gives an eyewitness account of the mass demonstrations as people took to the streets to demand an end to Mugabe’s rule. It describes Mnangagwa’s return to Zimbabwe to take over the presidency, and concludes with an account of the disputed 2018 election. Drawing on interviews with Mnangagwa, his family, allies and opponents, and key political figures, this book gives unprecedented insights into the momentous events that changed the fate of a nation.
Provides a comparative study of the complex governance challenges confronting city-regions in each of the BRICS countries. It traces how governance approaches emerge from the disparate intentions, actions and practices of multiple collaborating and competing actors, working in diverse contexts of political settlement and culture. The scale and pace of urban change in the recent past has been disorienting. As individual cities evolve into complex urban agglomerations, scholars battle to find adequate vocabularies for contemporary urban processes while practitioners search for meaningful governance responses. Governing Complex City-Regions in the Twenty-first Century explores the ongoing evolution of metropolitan governance as diverse urban agents grapple with the dilemmas of collective action across multi-layered and fragmented institutions, in contexts where there are also manifold centres of influence and decision-making. Whereas much of the existing literature is founded on the settled urban contexts of Western Europe and North America this book draws on the experiences of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). The author shows that governance approaches are rarely designed but emerge, rather, from the disparate intentions, actions and practices of multiple collaborating and competing actors working within diverse contexts of political settlement and political culture. Intended for students, academics and professionals, the book does not offer packaged solutions or easy answers to the challenges of urban governance, but it does show the value of comparative study in inspiring new thought and perspectives, which could lead to improved governance practice within South African contexts.
In recent years, municipalities have had to adjust to dramatic changes in their role in a new democratised system of national, provincial and local government. They have had to accept increased responsibilities in terms of service rendering and some have found it difficult to cope with the growing demands of their communities. South African municipal government and administration clarifies the powers and functions of the local sphere of government, what services communities are entitled to, and how councillors and officials could be made accountable for non-delivery of these services, under-performance or lack of pride in the quality of work done. This second edition of South African municipal government and administration incorporates the most recent developments in this sphere of government. It describes the obligations of councils, councillors and appointed officials with regard to policy implementation, and their accountability for the delivery of high-quality services to civic society. It includes various practical examples as well as rulings of the Constitutional Court, policy statements and reports. Contents include the following: Origins and characteristics of urban areas; Functions and powers of municipal councils; Coordinating structures, composition and objectives of municipal councils; Municipal planning; Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA); Human resource administration and management; Municipal associations and related institutions; Public relations: functions and objectives. The book is aimed at undergraduate and postgraduate students studying municipal government and administration, as well as aspiring and serving municipal councillors.
To explain the fundamentals of public policy, this best-selling text focuses on the process behind the crafting of legislation. By examining the individual steps-from identifying a problem, to agenda setting, to evaluation, revision, or termination of a policy-students are able to see how different factors influence the creation of policy. Each chapter features at least one case study that illustrates how general ideas are applied to specific policy issues. This new Eighth Edition provides thoughtful updates based on the 2012 election and completely revised case studies.
The Democratic Alliance won control of the uMngeni Municipality in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands after the local government elections in 2021. As the only DA-run municipality in KZN, uMngeni provides a template for how local government could work in a post-ANC South Africa. Written by two leaders at the very heart of the project, Saving South Africa reveals the challenges, the triumphs and disasters the new administration has encountered along the way. It is an eye-opening exposé of how cadre deployment has helped to bring the country to its knees. It is a story of incompetent officials, political spies, gunwielding tenderpreneurs, petty theft and grand larceny. And yet, as we follow the authors on their journey, there is always hope for a better future as the corrupt layers of local governance are gradually stripped away, revealing the responsive and caring civil service envisioned by the South African Constitution.
The metaphor of 'state capture' has dominated South Africa's political discourse in the post-Zuma presidency era. What is state capture and how does it manifest? Is it just another example of a newly independent, failed African state? And is it unique to South Africa? The contributors in this collection try to explain the phenomenon from a variety of viewpoints and disciplines. All hold fast to the belief that the democracy that promised the country so much when apartheid ended has been significantly eroded, resulting in most citizens expressing a loss of hope for the future. Read together, the essays cumulatively show not only how state capture was enabled and who benefitted, but also how and by whom it was scrutinised and exposed in order to hold those in power accountable. The book aims to present a scholarly and empirical understanding of how things went awry, even with various regulating bodies in place, and how to prevent state capture from happening again in the future.
This book explores the nature and type of prevalent collective behavior that influences women empowerment, women workforce participation and behavior change in sanitation. The influence of collective norms and customs have been investigated through a series of studies throughout India. There are very few research works on understanding social norms that distinguishes it from a range of other collective behaviors. This understanding would not only improve analytical clarity on collective behavior in general and social norms in particular, in the context of gender and sanitation, but also improve development practice in these areas. This book is also novel as it would expound the social network in the context of sanitation behavior in India. The tools and techniques discussed in the book are replicable and hence would be helpful for other researchers and development practitioners to analyse other collective behaviours.
What are the dynamics around the quality and quantity of municipal services in South Africa? What kind of systemic, structural and managerial adjustments should be made to improve local government? Who decides what in municipalities? How could active citizen participation in local affairs be stimulated? These and other questions are addressed in Municipal Management: Serving the people. The authors take a bird’s-eye view of issues such as the constitutional dispensation, regulatory frameworks, municipal administrative and managerial systems, community and political dynamics, as well as municipal functions and services. This 4th edition reflects new features of, and the latest developments in, the local sphere of government, which makes the book even more relevant to:
Thinking Government examines the key roles and duties of the Canadian federal government and its public service, and the policy and program debates that revolve around these roles and duties. The fifth edition of this textbook provides students with a core awareness of major issues shaping federal policies and programs - socio-economic policy options, French-English relations, regionalism and regional policy, Canadian-American relations, immigration, environmental policy, and Indigenous relations. This book takes a close look at how prime ministers and cabinet ministers interact and discusses issues in federal, financial, and human resources management, ethics and accountability, and leadership. The new edition is revised and updated throughout and addresses the 2021 federal election and the resulting Trudeau minority government as well as the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thinking Government helps its readers to be smart citizens and knowledgeable critics of what governments do well, what they could be doing better, and why they, at times, fail to deliver effective policies and programs.
Now in its third edition, Encyclopedia of Public Administration and Public Policy remains the definitive source for article-length presentations spanning the fields of public administration and public policy. It includes entries for: Budgeting Bureaucracy Conflict resolution Countries and regions Court administration Gender issues Health care Human resource management Law Local government Methods Organization Performance Policy areas Policy-making process Procurement State government Theories This revamped five-volume edition is a reconceptualization of the first edition by Jack Rabin. It incorporates over 225 new entries and over 100 revisions, including a range of contributions and updates from the renowned academic and practitioner leaders of today as well as the next generation of top scholars. The entries address topics in clear and coherent language and include references to additional sources for further study.
Crime in the United States has fluctuated considerably over the
past thirty years, as have the policy approaches to deal with it.
During this time criminologists and other scholars have helped to
shed light on the role of incarceration, prevention, drugs, guns,
policing, and numerous other aspects to crime control. Yet the
latest research is rarely heard in public discussions and is often
missing from the desks of policymakers. This book accessibly
summarizes the latest scientific information on the causes of crime
and evidence about what does and does not work to control it.
Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. In this updated second edition, internationally renowned scholar B. Guy Peters provides a succinct introduction to public policy and illustrates the design approach to policy problems. Peters demonstrates how decision-makers can make more effective choices and why a design approach to public intervention can improve policy formulation. Key features of the second edition include: Analytical identification and evaluation of the vital components of policy design Reflections on the challenges posed by Covid-19 and public policy solutions An expanded overview of evaluation and behavioral public policy analysis Critical discussions of alternatives to cost-benefit analysis. Offering a timely and concise approach to the field, this book will be crucial for high-level students who are new to public policy, as well as scholars and researchers hoping to improve and advance their understanding of the design perspective. Its analytic and theoretical grounding will also prove useful for policy practitioners, enabling sophisticated solutions to common policy problems.
Although nearly every country in the world today holds multiparty
elections, these contests are often blatantly unfair. For
governments, electoral misconduct is a tempting but also a risky
practice, because it represents a violation of Although nearly
every country in the world today holds multiparty elections, these
contests are often blatantly unfair. For governments, electoral
misconduct is a tempting but also a risky practice, because it
represents a violation of international standards for free and fair
elections. In Defending Democratic Norms, Daniela Donno examines
how international actors respond to these norm violations. Which
governments are punished for manipulating elections? Does
international norm enforcement make a difference? Donno shows that
although enforcement is selective and relatively rare, when
international actors do employ tools of conditionality, diplomacy,
mediation and shaming in response to electoral misconduct, they can
have transformative effects on both the quality and outcome of
elections. Specifically, enforcement works by empowering the
domestic opposition and increasing the government's incentives to
reform institutions of electoral management and oversight. These
effects depend, however, on the presence of a viable opposition
movement, as well as on the strength and credibility of the
enforcement effort itself. The book shows that regional
international organizations possess unique sources of leverage and
legitimacy that make them the most consistently effective norm
defenders, even compared to more materially powerful actors like
the United States.
Owen E. Hughes investigates governance across sectors including corporate, international and political governance, arguing that governance, as a general concept and an operational system, is in crisis. Hughes reasons that the crisis is in governance in general, in how societies run themselves, in how companies are run and how international organizations are run. This critical book examines the ways in which governance enables the smooth running of these societies, companies and organizations, from sub-national to international levels, and how the setting up of structures or institutional arrangements can impact this. These structures, institutions and arrangements are explored from legal, ethical and behavioural perspectives to provide a well-informed introduction to the crisis of governance. The book further examines debates over the facts, lies, science and policies behind governance, scrutinising the conflicts between democracy and autocracy in governance. The Crisis of Governance will be a beneficial resource for both undergraduate and graduate courses in public administration and management. Academics, students and scholars interested in public affairs, international politics and corporate economics will also find value in this timely book.
Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. Taking an innovative look at how megaprojects are managed, including the important Why, What, Who and How elements, this insightful Advanced Introduction is enhanced with case studies of megaprojects from across the globe. Throughout, the authors highlight the fundamental issues in an accessible format, such as why megaprojects are undertaken, what their challenges are, how to market projects and who deals with stakeholder engagement. It also investigates key areas such as governance, social value creation, management, contractual and decision-making issues. Key features: Discusses how the creation of narratives can address uncertainty in projects Illustrates the pros and cons of a conventional approach to decision-making versus a naturalistic approach Provides a post-modernist approach to the management of megaprojects based on flexibility, versatility and ambidexterity Highlights the importance of megaproject leadership engaging with stakeholders to align interests and create value effectively This Advanced Introduction will provide essential reading for practitioners, specifically megaproject leaders, as well as academics of megaproject studies and management studies and projects. Students engaging in project and management studies will also find this enlightening and informative.
From Louis Brandeis to Robert Bork to Clarence Thomas, the
nomination of federal judges has generated intense political
conflict. With the coming retirement of one or more Supreme Court
Justices--and threats to filibuster lower court judges--the
selection process is likely to be, once again, the center of
red-hot partisan debate.
This Handbook brings together a collection of leading international authors to reflect on the influence of central contributions, or classics, that have shaped the development of the field of public policy and administration. The Handbook reflects on a wide range of key contributions to the field, selected on the basis of their international and wider disciplinary impact. Focusing on classics that contributed significantly to the field over the second half of the 20th century, it offers insights into works that have explored aspects of the policy process, of particular features of bureaucracy, and of administrative and policy reforms. Each classic is discussed by a leading international scholars. They offer unique insights into the ways in which individual classics have been received in scholarly debates and disciplines, how classics have shaped evolving research agendas, and how the individual classics continue to shape contemporary scholarly debates. In doing so, this volume offers a novel approach towards considering the various central contributions to the field. The Handbook offers students of public policy and administration state-of-the-art insights into the enduring impact of key contributions to the field.
The public finance branch of economics has seen a great deal of change in prevailing attitudes regarding the role of the market and the role of government in countries with democratic institutions and market economies. Different functions have been added, over the past century, and especially after World War II, to the role that the government should play. The laissez faire ideology of the past, that minimized the government role, was progressively abandoned until the last two decades of the 20th century, when there was an attempt to reduce the ambitious role that the government had assumed, and to give a growing role back to the market. This book explains how changes in both the market and the government have made public finance a more challenging, interesting and at times frustrating branch of economics. It provides a cosmopolitan perspective and details the part that historical developments have played in shaping modern views. The author explores the real life, practical nature of public finance and de-emphasizes the role of armchair theorizing by focusing on real issues that are seen from a community rather than an individualistic perspective. The Advanced Introduction to Public Finance offers a fresh look at the field for students, researchers and policymakers in economics, public administration, taxation, policy and economic history.
This enlightening book scrutinizes the shifting and overlapping governance paradigms that inform public administration reforms. Exploring the models that shape and reshape the daily operation of public organizations, it explains the core features of public bureaucracy and professional rule in the modern day. From the rise to supremacy of New Public Management to the growing preference for alternatives, such as Digital Era Governance, Public Value Management and New Public Governance, four world-renowned authors launch a powerful and systematic comparison of the competing and co-existing paradigms. Advancing the 'public governance diamond' as a critical tool for comparing the core features of governance paradigms, this insightful book discusses the underlying behavioural assumptions of these models and the challenges faced by leaders when managing in a public sector. Informed by both key theory and empirical analysis, this book will be crucial reading for students and researchers seeking an authoritative voice on competing and co-existing modes of governance. Public leaders and managers, as well as public employees, will also benefit from its insights into the varying and multifaceted dynamics of public governance.
This timely book argues that the overcrowding of national parks in the United States represents a social problem in need of public sector action and a policy solution, as no systematic means to address this problem has been implemented either nationally or on a park-by-park basis. Throughout the book, Albert N. Link provides an innovative pricing solution to the overcrowding of the parks which will help to change the existing status quo. Utilizing a methodology grounded in economics, and expanding the use and policy relevance of the concept of public sector entrepreneurship, the author illustrates how individuals respond to prices and offers a method to estimate the impact of a seasonal entrance fee based on calculated price elasticities of demand. Chapters also provide recommendations for increases in seasonal entrance fees individually for each of the national parks that currently have an entrance fee. Public Sector Entrepreneurship will be a key resource for academics and students in the fields of entrepreneurship, public management and resource management who are looking to use economics as a framework for analyzing tourism topics, as well as environmental researchers and public policy officials responsible for national parks. |
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