As is true in most aspects of daily life, the expansion of government in the modern era has included a move to a technologically-based system. A method of evaluation for such online governing systems is necessary for effective political management worldwide. Proliferation of Open Government Initiatives and Systems is an essential scholarly publication that analyzes open government data initiatives to evaluate the impact and value of such structures. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics including collaborative governance, civic responsibility, and public financial management, this publication is geared toward academicians and researchers seeking current, relevant research on the evaluation of open government data initiatives.

In the new world order, conflicts between countries are increasing. Fluctuations in the economy and imbalances in the distribution of scarce resources to developing countries can result in wars. The effect of the recent COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis has caused changes in the strategies and policies of countries. Technological changes and developments have also triggered cyber wars. Despite this, many countries prefer to fight on the field. The damage to the international economy of wars, which kills civilians and causes serious damage to developing countries, is a current issue. The Handbook of Research on War Policies, Strategies, and Cyber Wars examines the factors that lead to war and the damages caused by war strategies and policies. It is a guide for future generations to develop constructive policies and strategies for living in a peaceful world. Covering topics such as geopolitical consequences, civil liberty, and terrorism, this major reference work is a dynamic resource for policymakers, strategists, government officials, politicians, sociologists, students and educators of higher education, librarians, researchers, and academicians.

The worldwide consumption of resources is causing environmental damage at a rate that cannot be sustained. Apart from the resulting environmental and health problems, this trend could threaten economic growth due to rapidly decreasing natural resources and the cost of addressing these issues. The public sector has a responsibility to stimulate the marketplace in favor of the provision of more resource-efficient and less polluting goods, services, and works in order to support environmental and wider sustainable development objectives. Green Public Procurement Strategies for Environmental Sustainability provides innovative insights on the adoption and implementation of green public procurement for sustainable practice in order to contribute to environmental protection. The content within this publication examines climate change, sustainable development, and document analysis and is designed for policymakers, environmentalists, managers, suppliers, development agencies, government officials, academicians, researchers, students, and professionals.

In the sixty-four days between November 3 and January 6, President Donald Trump and his allies fought to reverse the outcome of the vote. Focusing on six states - Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin - Trump's supporters claimed widespread voter fraud. Caught up in this effort were scores of activists, lawyers, judges and state and local officials, among them Rohn Bishop, enthusiastic chairman of the Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin, Republican Party, who would be branded a traitor for refusing to say his state's election was tainted, and Ruby Freeman, a part-time ballot counter in Atlanta who found herself accused of being a 'professional vote scammer' by the President. Working with a team of researchers and reporters, Mark Bowden and Matthew Teague uncover never-before-told accounts from the election officials fighting to do their jobs amid outlandish claims and threats to themselves, their colleagues and their families. The Steal is an engaging, in-depth report on what happened during those crucial nine weeks and a portrait of the heroic individuals who did their duty and stood firm against the unprecedented, sustained attack on the US election system and ensured that every legal vote was counted and the will of the people prevailed.

This book is an excellent resource for academics and students interested in ethics and accountability in the public sector, as well as for practitioners, NGO workers and policymakers. Over the last decades, issues in ethical leadership have become central to the global call for higher moral standards on the part of corporate organisations and their leaders and managers. The book's chapters investigate these concerns in Africa, where governance gaps often reflect poor leadership. Parenthetically, in 2001, a UNDP report found difficulties in applying anti-corruption laws and managing public institutions in the continent. Twenty years on, significant efforts have been made to improve the situation, yet extensive challenges still subsist. In this first volume, contributors discuss the practice of ethics, anti-corruption, and performance management, and propose solutions, some general to the continent and others country-specific.

A common refrain when policy diverges from 'ideal' is 'if only we could take the politics out of the policy process'. The authors of this book argue that rationalist dreams of this nature fail to recognize that policy making is inherently part of politics; policy is the mechanism for giving citizens in a democracy the societal outcomes they seek. In a new and innovative way of thinking about public policy, the book places values at the centre of the analysis. It argues that citizens have differing visions of the good society and different values priorities. In making decisions on behalf of the whole community, policy makers need to recognize and manage these values differences. And in the same way, students of the policy process need to connect what government does with the wider political processes typical of a democratic society. The book casts a critical eye over public policy theory, introduces the reader to research on human values, explores the importance of language, rhetoric and persuasion, and draws on the insights from various strands of psychology in order to understand the realities of policy making in liberal democracies. In so doing, Interrogating Public Policy Theory offers a refreshing alternative to existing analyses of the policy process. This book will be a vital tool for public policy scholars, as well as those upper-level students searching for a map of the policy studies field and a critical examination of the dominant theoretical perspectives. It will also be a unique, and innovative, reference for public policy practitioners seeking more realistic accounts of the policy process that help conceptualize the nature of policy conflict.

This book examines an interdependent approach to happiness and well-being, one that contrasts starkly with dominant approaches that have originated from Western culture(s). It highlights the diversity of potential pathways towards happiness and well-being globally, and answers calls - voiced in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals - for more socially and environmentally sustainable models. Leading global organizations including the OECD, UNICEF, and UNESCO are now proposing human happiness and well-being as a more sustainable alternative to a myopic focus on GDP growth. Yet, the definition of well-being offered by these organizations derives largely from the philosophies, social sciences, and institutional patterns of Europe and the United States. Across seven chapters this book carefully probes the inadequacy of these approaches to well-being globally and reveals the distorting effect this has on how we imagine our world, organize institutions, and plan our collective future(s). It shares a wealth of evidence and examples from across East Asia - a region where interdependence remains foregrounded - and concludes by provocatively arguing that interdependence may provide a more sustainable approach to happiness and well-being in the 21st century. A timely and accessible book, it offers fresh insights for scholars and policymakers working in the areas of psychology, health, sociology, education, international development, public policy, and philosophy. This is an open access book.

This open access book presents a unique interdiscplinary analysis of urban projects promoted by the EU from a comparative perspective This book presents cross-sectional and cross-time analyses at the territorial level targeted by these initiatives focusing on the design, theory and impacts of urban projects developed under the framework of initiatives promoted by the European Union. The book includes a new methodology to analyse the design and theory of urban plans (the comparative urban portfolio analysis) and quasi-experimental strategies to perform impact assessment at the neighbourhood level (the territorial target of those initiatives). Although empirical analyses focus on examples in Spain, the resulting analytical and methodological outcomes of these studies can be applied in a broader context to analyse integral urban policies in other countries.

After a long time of neglect, migration has entered the arena of international politics with a force. The 2018 Global Compact for safe, orderly and regular migration (GCM) is the latest and most comprehensive framework for global migration governance. Despite these dynamics, migration is still predominantly framed as a state-centric policy issue that needs to be managed in a top-down manner. This book proposes a difference approach: A truly multi-stakeholder, multi-level and rights-based governance with meaningful participation of migrant civil society. Drawing on 15 years of participant observation on all levels of migration governance, the book maps out the relevant actors, "invited" and "invented" spaces for participation as well as alternative discourses and framing strategies by migrant civil society. It thus provides a comprehensive and timely overview on global migration governance from below, starting with the first UN High Level Dialogue in 2006, evolving around the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) and leading up to the consultations for the International Migration Review Forum in 2022.

Cost-benefit analysis is the only method of economic evaluation that can effectively indicate whether a health care treatment or intervention is worthwhile. In this thoroughly updated and revised second edition, Robert Brent expands the scope of the field by including the latest concepts and applications throughout all regions of the world. This book attempts to strengthen the link between cost-benefit analysis and the mainstream health care evaluation field, which is dominated by non-economists. The need to build a bridge between the two is more important than ever before, as the general understanding of cost-benefit analysis appears to have regressed.Case studies are used throughout to explain and illustrate the various methodologies being examined. In addition, the author now covers more of the statistical requirements that are necessary to understand and carry out health care evaluations, and follows an applied economics approach. Ultimately, he resolves a number of disputes and makes some new, but subtle, contributions by reinterpreting, correcting and extending existing work. The book covers the topic in an accessible manner, from the foundations to the frontiers of the field, and clearly explains all the necessary economic principles along the way. Cost-Benefit Analysis and Health Care Evaluations, Second Edition will be invaluable to students and researchers of health economics, public policy and health care policy, as well as policymakers and health care practitioners. It can also be used as a comprehensive introductory text by anyone with an interest in cost-benefit analysis. From this perspective, the new additional final chapter is particularly useful as it supplies a summary of CBA that highlights the main conclusions of the text in a single chapter. Contents: 1. Introduction to Health Care Evaluation 2. Cost Minimization and the Definition of 'Cost' 3. Types of Costs and their Measurement 4. External Costs 5. Social Cost of Taxation 6. Fundamentals of Cost-effectiveness Aanalysis 7. Further Issues of Cost-effectiveness Analysis 8. Fundamentals of Cost utility Analysis 9. Measuring Utilities in Cost utility Analysis 10. Cost-utility Analysis and Equity 11. Cost-benefit Analysis and the Human Capital Approach 12. Cost-benefit Analysis and Willingness to Pay 13. Cost-benefit Analysis and Equity 14. Methods for Measuring the Benefits of HIV/AIDS Interventions Index

This up-to-date book takes a fresh look at regulation and risk and argues that the allure of regulation lies in its capacity to reduce risk while preserving the benefits of trade, travel and commerce. Regulation appears as a politically attractive, targeted and effective way to ensure that disasters of the past are not repeated. Diverse challenges are tackled through regulatory means - including the industrial, financial and terrorist-related hazards analyzed in this book. Fiona Haines' empirical work shows, however, that regulation attempts to reduce risks beyond their stated remit of preventing future disaster. Her analysis reveals a complex nexus between risk and regulation where fulfilment of regulatory potential depends on managing three fundamentally different types of risk: actuarial, socio-cultural and political. This complex risk management task affects both reform and compliance efforts, generating tension and paradoxical outcomes. Nonetheless, Haines argues, enhancing political legitimacy and public reassurance are central, not peripheral, to successful regulation. This insightful book will appeal to academics, researchers and postgraduate researchers working in regulation across law, politics, sociology, criminology and public management. Masters of public management, MBA students, public administrators and regulators, as well as political commentators, will also find this book invaluable.

In many countries, government and society have undergone a major shift in recent years, now tending toward 'smaller government' and 'bigger society'. This development has lent increased meaning to the notion of interactive governance, a concept that this book takes not as a normative ideal but as an empirical phenomenon that needs constant critical scrutiny, reflection and embedding in modern societies. Critical Reflections on Interactive Governance assesses the fundamental changes we can see in civic engagement in interactive governance to new forms of civic self-organization. Eminent scholars across a host of varying disciplines critically discuss a wealth of surrounding issues such as; the role of politicians in interactive governance; whether government strategies - stressing increasing responsibilities for citizens - exclude and mainstream certain people; the type of leadership required for interactive governance to work and what new forms of co-production between governmental institutions, civic organisations and citizens arise. The book concludes with the prospect of potential hybrid institutional and organizational arrangements, like the co-operative model to democracy or the social enterprise, in developing and implementing public services and products. Astute and engaging, Critical Reflections on Interactive Governance will appeal to students in the areas of political science, sociology, public administration and organization management. Scholars and practitioners in the field of interactive governance, participation and civic self-organization will also be particularly interested in this book. Contributors include: H.P. Bang, K.P.R. Bartels, V. Bekkers, T. Bovaird, T. Brandsen, E. Czaika, B. Denters, M. Duijn, M. Duniam, J. Edelenbos, G.J. Ellen, R. Eversole, S. Groeneveld, E.H. Klijn, J. Kooiman, E. Loeffler, S. Moyson, B. Ottow, Y. Papadopoulos, K.L. Patterson, B.G. Peters, J. Pierre, M. Ranahan, A. Roiseland, D. Rumore, M. Russo, T. Schenk, R.M. Silverman, J.D. Sobels, T. Sondergard Madsen, E. Sorensen, J. Torfing, P. Triantafillou, S.I. Vabo, A. van Buuren, S. Van de Walle, I. van Meerkerk, W. Voorberg, H. Wagenaar, L. Yin

Government interest in wellbeing as an explicit goal of public policy has increased significantly in recent years. This has led to new developments in measuring wellbeing and initiatives aimed specifically at enhancing wellbeing, that reflect new thinking on 'what matters' and challenge established notions of societal progress. The Politics and Policy of Wellbeing provides the first theoretically grounded and empirically informed account of the rise and significance of wellbeing in contemporary politics and policy. Drawing on theories of agenda-setting and policy change, Ian Bache and Louise Reardon consider whether wellbeing can be described as 'an idea whose time has come'. The book reflects on developments across the globe and provides a detailed comparative analysis of two political arenas: the UK and the EU. Offering the first reflection grounded in evidence of the potential for wellbeing to be paradigm changing, the authors identify the challenge of bringing wellbeing into policy as a 'wicked problem' that policymakers are only now beginning to grapple with. This pioneering account of wellbeing from a political science perspective is a unique and valuable contribution to the field. The authors' theoretical and empirical conclusions are of great interest to scholars of politics and wellbeing alike.