This book provides a comprehensive comparison of municipally owned corporations in Europe. Municipal corporatisation is the act of delivering public services at arm's length from local government through municipally owned corporations. Although it has become an increasing trend in recent years, we still know little about cross-country differences in what these municipally owned corporations look like, what legislation applies to them, and how they are governed. This book seeks to fill this gap. Each chapter outlines the legal provisions that enable or hinder the formation of municipally owned corporations in a particular country, the trends around corporatisation, and the structure of the corporations that exist. Going beyond the national context, the book provides an overview of what unites countries in terms of the trend towards municipally owned corporations, and what differentiates them. It offers a critical comparison that will make finding regional and global trends easier for researchers, and will help practitioners to better understand the differences between countries to allow for greater collaborative policy learning.

Globalization transcends borders and cultures as it develops both from the natural flow of information and communication technologies and as a directed and driven quest for global hegemony by self-serving corporations and world political heavyweights. It bears a multifaceted web of influence that manifests in inequalities in growth, prosperity, and accountability in varying social, cultural, and economic contexts. The Handbook of Globalization, Governance, and Public Administration is the first comprehensive resource that untangles this complex knot of issues. Mapping the multi-layered relationships among the individuals, local and national governments, international organizations, global corporations, natural resources and the world market, this encyclopedic volume is both a primer and a guide for researchers, academics, and policymakers both public and private. The book demonstrates in broad terms how globalization presents new threats to national sovereignty, the environment and public health, tends to increase worldwide inequality, and produces global insecurity. Using country-specific cases, the essays examine the role of bureaucracy and market orientation in Hong Kong and China, the new position of public-private partnerships in Africa as protectors instead of exploiters of the people, a Russian implementation of incentive systems to maintain local growth, and the fruitless corruption of a land development scheme in India. Ethics and the need for future global consciousness is illustrated by energy policy, which pits consumers and business interests against local communities and is moderated only by supranational organizations. The solution calls for sustainable development to be grounded in community-based institutions while governments seek growth through market expansion worldwide. Concerns for public health, climate change, and sustainable energy are growing in the global village and understanding the multi-dimensional chess game is key to survival.

There are several competing theoretical approaches to studying governance networks. However, methodological questions about how to study democratic network governance have so far received little research attention. "Methods in Democratic Network Governance" aims to remedy this problem by addressing some important methodological questions in relation to a comparative case study of the multilevel network governance of employment policy in Britain, France and Denmark.

This book deals in different ways with the politics of death, with art and politics and with the politics of refuge and asylum. Cutting across these fields brings to the fore the fluid quality of social life under late capitalism. The elements of time, space and emotion are part of the overall approach adopted. The individual chapters illustrate themes of despair, striving and the politics of hope, and bring out the fluid and unpredictable qualities of social life. The guiding metaphor is fluidity, or what Urry refers to as "waves; continuous flow; pulsing; fluidity and viscosity" characteristic of life, death, refuge and art under the contemporary global system. Between the worlds of culture, political violence and art, the interconnected themes in this study illuminate conditions of 'liminality', or in-betweenness. The study presents a politics of hope under late capitalism, and cuts through more usual boundaries between art and science, harm and help, death and the politics of bare life. Each chapter grapples with issues that help illustrate wider trends in Global Development and International Relations scholarship and teaching. Amidst growing cynicism about human or even humanitarian values, the volume appeals for a politics of hope and social justice, based on the fluid contours of borderless and amorphous processes of self-organising and radical anarchy.

This book updates the public policy dialogue on major league sports facilities and the property tax in the US. By providing a rigorous treatment of the property tax within the context of major league sports facilities, this volume debunks the widely asserted claim that most major league teams do not pay property taxes. The chapters methodically lay out the property tax status of every activity major league facility, the actual worth of that property tax expenditure, and the impact of property tax exemptions on local public services. Using empirical data, the volume provides a foundation for informed policy making regarding major league sports facilities. As such, this book will be a useful tool for researchers and students in sports economics, sports management, public policy, and public finance, as well as practitioners involved in the policy process. Economists have extensively studied the billions of dollars that state and local governments have devoted to funding professional sports stadiums. However, the implicit subsidies that stadiums typically receive through property tax exemptions has received scant attention. In Major League Sports and the Property Tax, Geoffrey Propheter thoroughly examines the common practice of removing sports venues from local tax rolls, which results in millions of dollars in forgone tax revenue that is often not reported in the public accounting of costs. Propheter provides a detailed examination of how property taxes are administered and the implications that derive from stadium property tax exemptions and abatements. His comprehensive analysis presents stylized facts and specific examples that provide the most thorough treatment on the subject to date. The breadth of analysis and meticulous coverage of relevant issues demonstrates why Propheter has emerged as a leading expert on the economics of stadiums. This is perhaps the most important book on the public financing of stadiums written in the past decade, and anyone interested in stadium economics will want their own copy to read and reference. JC Bradbury, Professor of Economics, Kennesaw State University

The community development profession: issues, concepts and approaches is an informative resource for students and practitioners of community-based development as it faces the stumbling blocks of a new professionalism. Authors Professors Frik de Beer and Hennie Swanepoel introduce and debate the relevant issues, concepts and approaches, and their evolution, interpretation and application in the field of development. Based on an extensive literature study, the book argues that some more recently evolved approaches can be traced to a "community development" origin, with possible pitfalls of marginalisation and disempowerment in the hands of powerful people. De Beer and Swanepoel also discuss issues such as the origin and history of community development from an international and South African perspective; community development principles, policy, ethics, institutions and training; community development project management and evaluation; the integrated development programme (IDP); all aspects of participatory planning, local economic development, and sustainability; the important role played by government and NGOs. Lecturers will benefit from the questions for reflection and discussion, a reading list per theme and a glossary for second-language users, all of which are included in each chapter.

This book is unique in that it explores public sector reform from a strategic management perspective. The authors whose work is represented in the book examine seven strategies for public management reform: (1) increases in accountability, (2) decentralization and delegation of authority and responsibility for decision making and management, (3) application of information technology to improve management and responsiveness of governments to citizens, (4) developing and improving management control systems in the public sector, (5) measures to reduce corruption in government, business and society, (6) development and use of performance indicators, and (7) integration of performance measurement and management in public organizations. Authors address the need for and application of various strategies, and impediments to implementation of each strategy. Case analysis is used to derive findings and conclusions.

A uniquely hybrid approach to welfare state policy, ecological sustainability and social transformation, this book explores transformative models of welfare change. Using Ireland as a case study, it addresses the institutional adaptations needed to move towards a sustainable welfare state, and the policy of making such transformation happen. It takes a theoretical and practical approach to implementing an alternative paradigm for welfare in the context of globalisation, climate change, social cohesion, automation, economic and power inequalities, intersectionality, and environmental sustainability, as well as perpetual crisis, including the pandemic.

This book unpacks policy and politics for health, equity, and wellbeing. With a critical realist lens, the book provides a methodology for sophisticated health focussed policy analysis which situates public health within complex political processes and systems. The application of that lens is demonstrated with insights from a decade of research into urban and regional planning.

Niall Sinclair, a well-known official in the Canadian Government and in Knowledge Management, presents an innovative way to circumvent the inflexibility of government bureaucracy to drive successful knowledge management initiatives in the public sector. Sinclair proposes a technique that has been proven to work in his own governmental area of 20,000 employees that enables executives and professionals, especially those in government and public institutions, to implement KM programs successfully and circumvent KM critics.

This book examines the roles of communities in the general framework of territorial innovation, particularly in the context of less developed regions. With a specific focus on Portugal, it offers conceptual improvements that will be of use to other European regions. The book will appeal to scholars and students of regional governance and politics, from public administration to economics, sociology, geography and political science, as well as to practitioners.

This book explores how the real conditions and subjective conceptions of ageing and well-being are transformed when people move from one country to another. Focusing on ageing female migrants from Latvia in the UK and other European countries, this book is based on fifty life-history interviews with women aged 40s-60s. Empirical chapters concentrate on functional well-being in migration, which includes access to the economic citizenship of work, income, pensions, and accommodation, and on psychosocial well-being, and explores Latvian women's experiences of intimate citizenship in migration. In addition, the authors' research challenges the trope of vulnerability which generally surrounds the framing of older migrants' lives. The study's findings offer policy-makers insights into the realities of ageing working migrants and advocates for a more inclusive transnational citizenship, better working conditions, and ongoing care arrangements for older migrants post-retirement, either abroad or back home.

Grassroots Advocacy and Health Care Reform shows how grassroots issue advocacy is conducted today by telling the story of Health Care for America Now's campaign in Pennsylvania in support of the Affordable Care Act. As both the director of the HCAN PA campaign and a former professor of political theory, Stier brings a unique perspective to the analysis of how HCAN Pennsylvania implemented a national campaign in the context of contemporary political science. Grassroots Advocacy and Health Care Reform provides valuable insights for historians, political scientists, organizers, and citizens alike about how advocates can best build campaigns to affect legislative change.

This book is a political ethnography of norm diffusion and storytelling through international institutions in China. It is driven by intellectual puzzles and realpolitik questions: are we converging or diverging on values? Do emerging powers reinforce or reshape the existing international order? Are international institutions socialising emerging powers or being used to promote alternative norms? This book addresses these questions through fieldwork research over three years at the United Nations Development Programme in China, the first international development agency to enter post-reform China in 1979. It provides a crucial case to study the everyday practices of norm diffusion in emerging powers, and highlights the central role of storytelling in translating and contesting normative scripts. The book selects norms in human rights, rule of law and development cooperation to analyse how translators and brokers innovatively use stories to advocate, and how these normative stories move back-and-forth between local-global spaces and orders. "A fascinating ethnography that tells us much about international institutions and China's changing role in the world: of interest both to China specialists and theorists of international relations." -Rana Mitter, Director of the University of Oxford China Centre, University of Oxford, UK "Through pioneering ethnographic research, Xiaoyu Lu's outstanding book makes a major contribution to our understanding of norm diffusion and the ways in which China is shaping, and is shaped by, international development norms. Lu's richly textured analysis shows how 'norm translators' use case studies, personal stories, and other narratives to negotiate between global and local normative orders, and to facilitate the day-to-day processes of norm diffusion." -Amy King, Associate Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University, Australia "An intricate account of the everyday politics in international development institution, that will enrich our understanding of emerging powers and their roles in global development." -Emma Mawdsley, Director of the Margaret Anstee Centre for Global Studies, University of Cambridge, UK

Max Rolfstam examines the increasing emphasis on public procurement as a means to stimulate innovation and the theoretical implications of this policy development. While 'regular' public procurement may be regarded as the outcome of anonymous market processes, public procurement of innovation must be understood as a special case of innovation, where social processes - and consequently the institutions governing these social processes - need to be considered. This book contributes to our understanding with a detailed institutional analysis of the public procurement of innovation.The author draws on an institutional framework that underscores the importance of conducting a multilevel institutional analysis. Unlike earlier studies that reduced public procurement challenges to a legal issue, this book offers insights of a more holistic nature. Academics, students and researchers with an interest in innovation policy will find this book to be an informative and fascinating read. It will also provide an invaluable reference tool on how public procurement can be used as an innovation policy tool for policy makers at both national and EU levels. Contents 1. Introduction 2. Public Procurement of Innovation Theory 3. Legal Institutions for Public Procurement of Innovation 4. Public Procurement of Innovation Diffusion 5. Public Procurement of Innovation as Collaboration 6. Public Procurement of Innovation as Endogenous-Exogenous Knowledge Conversion 7. Success Factors Public Procurement of Innovation 8. Concluding Remarks References Index

The ability of a nation to finance its basic infrastructure is essential to its economic well-being in the 21st century. This book covers the municipal securities market in the United States from the perspective of its primary capital financing role in a fiscal federalist system, where subnational governments are responsible for financing the nation s essential physical infrastructure. Using the latest financial research and theory, Johnson, Luby and Moldogaziev use data-driven analysis to inform current public policy debates regarding the future of subnational government debt finance, including the regulation of professional financial service providers. The theories, research and practical examples in the book illustrate the policies and practices that helped governments navigate through the recent financial crisis and great recession, and those policies and practices that contributed to government shipwrecks. The book is designed to help officials make good, sound fiscal choices in a fast changing, complex financial world, and within the constraints imposed by fiscal rules and institutions. State and Local Financial Instruments will be of interest to academics, students and researchers interested in economics, finance, international studies and public policy. It is also an excellent reference tool for government officials, public policymakers and professionals working in finance. Contents: 1. Introduction 2. The Tax-Exemption of Municipal Debt 3. States as Fiscal 'Sovereigns' - Implications for Ability and Willingness to Pay in Full and on Time 4. The Federalist Framework: Fiscal Sovereignty, Federal Regulation and Disclosure 5. Subnational Government Debt Financial Management I - Financing Principles and Policies v6. Subnational Government Debt Financial Management II - Bringing an Issue to Market: Networks and Practices 7. The Serial Debt Issue Structure 8. Secondary Market Disclosure 9. Financial Engineering 10. Reducing Debt Service by Refunding Debt 11. Lessons Learned From the Birth, Growth and Collapse of the Municipal Auction Rate Securities (MARS) Market 12. Enhancing Municipal Credit 13. 'Non-Traditional' Capital Financing Mechanisms 14. Conclusion Index

One of the solutions proposed by the European Union to remedy the effects of the 2008 economic crisis is to increase female labour participation. This book explores the policy changes in four new member states that may reduce the gender employment gap and improve women's equal participation in the labour force.

This textbook analyses from an economic perspective the phenomena of public law, the constitution, the democratic and political process, federalism, NGOs, administration and state decisions. It also examines selected fields of administrative law, including finance and tax law, public economic law and environmental law. Although the book uses examples from different legal orders, it maintains a focus on continental European law, as it aims to advance the law and economics approach in Europe.

This practically-focused text presents a hands-on guide to making biometric technology work in real-life scenarios. Extensively revised and updated, this new edition takes a fresh look at what it takes to integrate biometrics into wider applications. An emphasis is placed on the importance of a complete understanding of the broader scenario, covering technical, human and implementation factors. This understanding may then be exercised through interactive chapters dealing with educational software utilities and the BANTAM Program Manager. Features: provides a concise introduction to biometrics; examines both technical issues and human factors; highlights the importance of a broad understanding of biometric technology implementation from both a technical and operational perspective; reviews a selection of freely available utilities including the BANTAM Program Manager; considers the logical next steps on the path from aspiration to implementation, and looks towards the future use of biometrics in context.

"Theories of Democratic Network Governance" aims to renew and refocus the political and scholarly debate on the use of governance networks in public policy making by raising and answering a series of questions about the dynamics of governance networks, the conditions for governance network success and failure, the forms and functions of metagovernance (defined as the regulation of self-regulating networks) and the democratic implications of network governance. In an attempt to answer these pressing questions, the contributors draw on a wide range of theoretical approaches within governance network theory, institutional theory and democratic theory.

This timely Handbook unpacks the underlying common factors that give rise to corrupting environments. Investigating opportunities to deliver ethical public policy, it proposes strategies for building integrity and diminishing corruption in public administration. Beginning with an exploration of contemporary global trends in public administration and its vulnerability to corruption today, this Handbook sheds light on the avenues for corruption to access health care, education and local government sectors, as well as the effects of corruption on environmental protection, policing and the justice system and border administration. Employing an international approach, chapters consider how different national administrative environments shape corruption, and how governments seek to eradicate the unique problems that it poses. It concludes by scrutinizing the responses taken by public administrators in dealing with corrupt activities and highlighting opportunities to build integrity in the future. Featuring both theoretical illuminations and real-word insights, this Handbook is key reading for academics and researchers of public administration and management. Policymakers will also benefit from the proposed strategies for tackling public administrative corruption and building integrity. Contributors include: E. Butkevicien , M. Camerer, E. David-Barrett, G. De Graaf, M. Fotaki, G. Fuller, A. Goldsmith, A. Graycar, D. Harris, M. Heide, S.P. Heyneman, M. Howlett, L.W.J.C. Huberts, S.K. Ivkovic, D. Jancsics, A. Jiang, M. Johnston, M.W. Katusiimeh, N. Kirby, E. Kolthoff, C. Lui, M. Macaulay, G. Marcetic, T. Minh Le, V. Morkevi ius, G. Mugellini, T. Oberman, B.J. Palifka, M. Pyman, J.S.T. Quah, T.H.S. Rice, B. Sarican, A. Shaipov, W. Slingerland, K. Smith, R.G. Smith, A.R. Timilsina, E. Vaidelyt , Z. van der Wal, A. van Montfort, T. Vian, S.R. Vidli ka, J.-P. Villeneuve, L. Vyas, R. White, A.M. Wu, A. Yates

This book is the first to explore collaborative governance arrangements in Israel. It offers a new, modular definition of collaborative governance, focusing on its contributions toward public values and democracy. The book discusses different kinds of collaborations, their scope, implications and impact on governability in Israel, a country which provides an interesting setting for learning about collaborative governance, given its heterogenous population and the nature of the relationship between the state's civil service, the business sector and the civil society. The book presents examples derived from local, and central government levels, and from policy areas such as education, regulation and local government.