Collective decision making seems a straightforward matter: people come together and decide. But why is it that today's winners can turn into tomorrow's losers? Why can't you always get what you want? How does the interaction between the decision makers influence the outcome? And are opportunists better off than stubborn decision makers? This book takes a refreshing look at collective decision making by using models of evolutionary biology and naturalistic decision making to analyse real-world cases. These cases include the rise and fall of the Dutch high-speed railway project and the unexpected effects of introducing public-private partnerships to connect the new Thai national airport to Bangkok. Gerrits and Marks successfully guide the reader towards an in-depth understanding through rich empirical research and uncover the beautiful complexity of collective decision making. Understanding Collective Decision Making will be of great interest to academics working in public administration, political science and evolutionary theory. Public managers will also find this book helpful to understand why and how collective decisions are formed.

During the last decade, interoperability has emerged as a vivid research area in electronic business and electronic governance, promising a significant increase in productivity and efficiency of information systems, enterprises and administrations. Interoperability in Digital Public Services and Administration: Bridging E-Government and E-Business provides the latest research findings such as theoretical foundations, principles, methodologies, architectures, technical frameworks, international policy, standardization and case studies for the achievement of interoperability within the provision of digital services, from administration and businesses toward the user citizens and enterprises.

This book discusses Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) and their potential to protect and maintain critical infrastructure in a variety of global governmental settings. Critical infrastructure is defined as essential services that underpin and support the backbone of a nation's economy, security, and health. These services include the power used by homes and businesses, drinking water, transportation, stores and shops, and communications. As governmental budgets dwindle, the maintenance of critical infrastructure and the delivery of its related services are often strained. PPPs have the potential to fill the void between government accounting and capital budgeting. This volume provides a survey of PPPs in critical infrastructure, combining theory and case studies to provide a comprehensive view of possible applications. Written by a diverse group of international experts, the chapters detail PPPs across industries such as transportation, social infrastructure, healthcare, emergency services, and water across municipalities from the US to New Zealand to Hong Kong. Chapters discuss objectives and legal requirements associated with PPPs, the potential advantages and limitations of PPPs, and provide guidance as to how to structure a successful PPP for infrastructure investment. This book is of interest to researchers studying public administration, public finance, and infrastructure as well as practitioners and decision makers interested in instituting PPPs in their communities.

This book is about the function and use of official statistics. It welcomes the aspiration for official statistics to be an indispensable element in the information system of a democratic society, serving the government, the economy and the public with data about the economic, demographic, social and environmental situation. The book identifies the political role of official statisticians, who decided what gets measured as well as how it is measured. While thousands of official statistics are published every year, and some are quoted by politicians, used by policy-makers or reported in the media, the authors observe that, in the main, official statistics do not feature much in everyday lives of people and businesses. The book concludes with suggestions for more that should be done, especially in the context of improving wellbeing and helping meet the worldwide set of sustainable development goals set for 2030.

Most people have a bias toward seeing the world as they would like it to be. It might be best for some purposes, however, to know the world as it actually is. "Unlimited Progress: The Grand Delusion of the Modern World" can help in that quest. One of the most misleading ideas permeating the modern world is the concept that progress can be almost unlimited. Most of this book focuses on modern science and how it underlies and influences almost all of our general views about what the world is like. Americans have become hooked on progress. Much of this addiction has developed because of the great advances of modern science and related technology. Author Dennis Knight Heffner, M.D., has a broad-based perspective on science, developed over half a century, that will help you understand that there are limits to progress. Being aware of them can help you make important choices affecting your life- especially political choices.

This volume is devoted to three key themes central to studies in regional science: the sub-national labor market, migration, and mobility, and their analysis. The book brings together essays that cover a wide range of topics including the development of uncertainty in national and subnational population projections; the impacts of widening and deepening human capital; the relationship between migration, neighborhood change, and area-based urban policy; the facilitating role played by outmigration and remittances in economic transition; and the contrasting importance of quality of life and quality of business for domestic and international migrants. All of the contributions here are by leading figures in their fields and employ state-of-the art methodologies. Given the variety of topics and themes covered this book, it will appeal to a broad range of readers interested in both regional science and related disciplines such as demography, population economics, and public policy.

This book is the first of its kind about healthcare reform efforts in Kazakhstan since its independence within the context of the public sector reform movement. The book provides a brief background of Kazakhstan and its Soviet legacy and the country's efforts to modernize the health system, before creating an overview of the existing system, the reforms since independence, and the future of healthcare in Kazakhstan. This book will be of interest to policymakers, analysts, and development economists.

The contents include a chapter on Conversion and the following. In Act Two, we have, "Words Before Blows" by Sammie Byron, Brutus; "Most Noble Brother, You Have Done Me Wrong" by DeMond Bush, Mark Antony; and, "Have You Not Love Enough to Bear with Me?" by Ron Brown, Cassius. In Intermission, we have Othello: Unplugged at Luther Luckett Correctional Complex. In Act Three, we have The Luckett Symposium on Shakespeare and Race: Titus Andronicus, Merchant of Venice, and Othello; "George Bush Doesn't Care about Black People": Agnes Wilcox's Julius Caesar at Northeast Correctional Center. In Act Four, we have "Romans, Countrymen, Lovers!" The Shakespeare Behind Bars Tour at the Kentucky Correctional Institute for Women; "Unsex Me Here": Playing the Lady at Luckett; and, Rapshrew: Jean Trounstine and the Framingham Women's Prison. In Act Five, we have: A Visit with Warden Larry Chandler; Desdemona Speaks: Mike Smith on the Outside; and, Shakespeare in Solitary: "To Revenge or to Forgive?": Laura Bates' Hamlet and Othello at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility. The contents also include an epilogue.

Service delivery in the digital era is all about bringing together innovative ideas from various stakeholders in the private, public, and civil sectors to meet customer expectations. Like any business, government public service entities must provide public service delivery to their customers in an age that is heavily influenced by technological advancements. Information Systems Strategic Planning for Public Service Delivery in the Digital Era is an essential reference source that discusses issues related to public service delivery in the digital era and the degree to which governments may take advantage of the transformational potential of ICT to move towards seamless government, particularly for improving service delivery, democratic responsiveness, and public outreach. The book also provides a pragmatic framework for government entities to define their information systems strategic plan (ISSP), guiding the reader in a step-by-step practical description of the various technical concepts, current and future technology trends, and implementation considerations for formulating their ISSP to ensure the maximum gain from public service delivery. Including research on topics such as human capital, knowledge economy, and block chain technology, this book is ideally designed for academicians, public administrators, government officials, IT consultants.

This volume proposes a capacity-centered approach for understanding American bureaucracy. The administrative institutions that made the country a superpower turned out to be fragile under Donald Trump's presidency. Laboring beneath systematic accusations of deep statism, combined with a market oriented federal administration, bureaucratic capacity manifested its decay in the public health and constitutional cataclysms of 2020, denting America's global leadership and contributing to its own people's suffering. The authors combine interviews with a historical examination of federal administrative reforms in the backdrop of the recent pandemic and electoral tumult to craft a developmental framework of the ebb and flow of capacity. While reforms, large and small, brought about professionalization and other benefits to federal administration, they also camouflaged a gradual erosion when anti-bureaucratic approaches became entrenched. A sclerotic, brittle condition in the government's capacity to work efficiently and accountably arose over time, even as administrative power consolidated around the executive. That co-evolutionary dynamic made federal government ripe for the capacity bifurcation, delegitimization, and disinvestment witnessed over the last four years. As the system works out the long-term impacts of such a deconstruction, it also prompts a rethinking of capacity in more durable terms. Calling attention to a more comprehensive appreciation of the dynamics around administrative capacity, this volume argues for Congress, citizens, and the good government community to promote capacity rebuilding initiatives that have resilience at the core. As such, the book will be of interest to citizens, public reformers, civic leaders, scholars and students of public administration, policy, and public affairs.

This book aims to establish a dialogue around the various "urban sanctuary" policies and other formal or informal practices of hospitality toward migrants that have emerged or been strengthened in cities in the Americas in the last decade. The authors articulate local governance initiatives in migrant protection with a larger range of social and political actors and places them within a broader context of migrations in the Western Hemisphere (including case studies of Toronto, New York, Austin, Mexico City, and Lima, among others). The book analyzes in particular the limits of local efforts to protect migrants and to identify the latitude of action at the disposal of local actors. It examines the efforts of municipal governments and also considers the role taken by cities from a larger perspective, including the actions of immigrant rights associations, churches, NGOs, and other actors in protecting vulnerable migrants.

This book presents an overview of European migration policy and the various institutional arrangements within and between various actors, such as local councils, local media, local economies, and local civil society initiatives. Both the role of local authorities in this policy field and their cooperation with civil society initiatives or networks are under-explored topics for research. In response, this book provides a range of detailed case studies focusing on the six main groups of national and administrative traditions in Europe: Germanic, Scandinavian, Napoleonic, Southeastern European, Central-Eastern European and Anglo-Saxon.

This major new text on the theory and practice of public management moves away from descriptive accounts of its evolution to provide a systematic treatment of the key paradigms of public management today. It examines their competing outlooks, values, tools and assumptions and - using a wide range of examples from different areas of management around the world - their implications for practice. The text sets out three contrasting 'logics' for management - performance, professionalism and politics - and shows how public managers act on the interplay between these for effective results. Relating all three logics to a wide range of diverse contexts - from police services to healthcare, social services to educational providers - the text shows how managers can simultaneously perform to a high standard, act professionally through their work, and cope with internal and external politics. Incorporating the latest theories and practices, this comprehensive book will appeal to readers around the world wanting to understand, and contribute to, public management today.

This book articulates a unified theory of capitalism as an attempt to provide a comprehensive scientific theory of this social system. A unified theory of capitalism is not the combination of the predominant economic theories-neoclassical, classical, and Keynesian-so as to make them compatible. It is not a composite economic theory. It is a new economic theory. Predictions of the theory's models were consistent with eight basic empirical regularities of capitalism dealing with economic growth, income inequality, employment level, and environment degradation. Therefore, the unified theory can be accepted as a good approximation of the real capitalist world. But the models were constructed at a high level of abstraction. Also problematic was the need to work out more fully the public policy implications of the theory. It is, therefore, no wonder that essays on the unified theory to answer these questions are a natural outcome of a new scientific endeavor attempting to reach a unity of knowledge in economics.

China has undergone a remarkable transition over the past thirty years from a centrally-planned economy to a more market oriented one. The transformation of business in China has been correspondingly evident. This book gives an interdisciplinary analysis of the evolution of business development in China and the 'marketization' of industry during this period within a complex framework of legal, political, and economic reform aims.
The book includes twelve original business case studies to provide industry-specific analysis of the overarching macroeconomic and legal developments. It examines both domestic enterprise reform in China and the evolving treatment of foreign firms in the context of both corporate laws and economic policies, and how business is likely to evolve as economic and legal reforms rapidly increase during the twenty-first century, notably with regard to China's increasing global integration.

This book highlights the main factors determining the quality of public administration in conflict affected countries; and assesses to what extent the conflict determines and impacts on the performance of public administration in affected countries. The main value added by this book is confirming the general expectation that there is no direct and universal link between the conflict and public administration performance (and vice-versa). One may need to argue that each country situation differs and specific factors of internal and external environments determine the trends of public administration performance in conflict affected countries. To achieve the overarching goal of the book, sixteen country studies were developed from all relevant continents - America, Africa, Asia and Europe: Bangladesh, Colombia, Croatia, Egypt, Georgia, Iraq, Kosovo, Nigeria, Palestine, Paraguay, Philippines, Serbia, South Africa, Uganda, Ukraine, and Venezuela.

The book relates three years of history of social movements from Asia and Europe who work on social justice, as a rough overview. The work for the book is mainly done on the ground, day after day, working in villages and cities, with people and their organisations, organising resistance and preparing alternatives. It is based on the fact that European and Asian concerns are identical, in spite of divergent levels of development and wealth, and that the existing international initiatives, such as the ILO's social protection floors, or the UN's Sustainable Development Goals are perfectly compatible with neoliberal policies. The book goes beyond and sees social commons as a strategic tool for transforming societies. It is basically a project for the sustainability of life, of humans, of societies, and of nature. The book describes the ideas at the basis of the work in different sectors. It is not about the practice of social policies but about the ideas and discourses that can in the end shape the political practices. In sum, this book, presents a new social paradigm. It concretely shows how social justice and environmental justice do go hand in hand.

In 1989, the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) published the milestone volume Management of Success: The Moulding of Modern Singapore, edited by Kernial Singh Sandhu and Paul Wheatley, which delved into a wide variety of issues that were integral to the growth of modern Singapore. The world that Singapore faced in 1989 has changed irrevocably. Meanwhile, within Singapore, the city-state has seen two prime ministerial transitions and the installation of third generation leaders who have articulated their vision for the twenty-first century. This new volume serves to update and review public policies from the early 1990s onwards. It gathers prominent thinkers and scholars on Singapore to examine issues of leadership and policy; economic restructuring; societal transformation; foreign relations and national identity. It seeks to outline the impending challenges of the twenty-first centuey, and to demonstrate a clear trajectory of intellectual analysis of contemporary Singapore for students and scholars alike.

This book provides an overview of the rapid development Beijing has seen in a wide range of areas in 2018, both in itself and as an integral part of a larger region, as China's economic development continues to improve in overall quality and regional coordination. General reports on progress Beijing made and problems it faced in 2018 in improving its economy, public services, and municipal and community governance, urban planning, and funding for innovations are followed by case studies that look at best practices and how they can be applied towards promoting coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. The strategy features prominently in the outlook contributors present for the greater metropolitan area of Beijing for 2019. This book is a valuable source of reference for anyone trying to gain a better understanding the what, how, and why in relation to one of the world's fastest growing mega-cities.

This book seeks to consistently explain the role of ideas and institutions in policy outcomes, and addresses the problem of how resource nationalism causes a deficit of public accountability in oil producing countries from Latin America and the Caribbean. The authors present a causal mechanism linking ideas and policy outcomes through institutional arrangements, focusing on policy design to describe the role of instruments selection and combination in improving or reducing public accountability through agenda setting, policy formulation, cross-sectorial coordination and political interplays.

This book explores the development of mental health systems in the Pacific Island Countries (PICs) of Samoa and Tonga through an examination of several policy transfer events from the colonial to the contemporary. Beginning in the 1990s, mental health became an area of global policy concern as reflected in concerted international organisation and bilateral aid and development agendas, most notably those of the World Bank, World Health Organization, and the governments of Australia and New Zealand. This book highlights how Tonga and Samoa both reformed their respective mental health systems during these years, after relatively long periods of stagnation. Using recent scholarship concerning public policy transfer, this book explains these policy outcomes and expands it to include consideration of the historical institutional dimensions evidenced by contemporary mental health systems. This book considers three distinct levels of policy implicated in mental health system transfer processes from developed to developing nations: colonial authority and influence; decolonisation processes; and the global development agenda surrounding health systems. In the process, the author argues that there are in fact three levels of policy change that must be accounted for in examining contemporary policy change. These policy levels include formal policy transfers, which tend to be prescriptive, involving professional problem construction and the designation of appropriate state apparatus for curative or custodial care provision; quasi-formal transfers, which tend to be aspirational and involve policy instruments developed through collaborative, participatory processes; and informal transfers that tend to be normative and include practices by professional actors in delivering service merged with traditional cultural beliefs as to disease aetiology as well as reflecting a deep understanding of the cultural context within which the services will be delivered. This book argues that a renewed focus on the importance of public policy and government institutional capacity is necessary to ensure human rights and justice are secured.

A volume in Research in Public Management Series Editor: Lawrence R. Jones, Naval Postgraduate School A myth from the colonial period was that Americans could defend themselves by keeping a rifle in the closet and when needed, grab it, and march off to battle in times of crisis. Unfortunately, providing national defense is more complicated that that; indeed it was more complicated even during the Revolutionary war. General George Washington's struggles to form a standing army supported by workable logistics and supply processes and to get funding for both from the Revolutionary Congress are well documented. Financing national defense requires planning and resourcing in advance. Reacting at the instant of crisis is too late. Building an educated, highly trained and capable Armed Forces and the acquisition of defense weapons and weapons systems has long lead times and involves making decisions the consequences of which are likely to last for decades. These decisions include how to recruit and retain military and civilian personnel as well as designing, buying and fielding a vast array of ground weapons, ships, aircraft and other weaponry. A decision to buy a major defense weapons system for example sets in motion a chain of other decisions that will affect the U.S., its allies and enemies around the world. Implementation of such decisions is financed through the U.S. federal government and Department of Defense budget processes in a planned yet highly and pluralistic and disaggregated system for determining how to advocate, acquire and allocate scarce resources in a manner that culminates in congressional and presidential approval. In this book we examine the concepts and practices of defense financing, provide a detailed description and analysis of resource policy decision making, financial management and budget execution processes, and analyze the most significant features of the national defense and U.S. federal government resource decision and management system. The book assesses the numerous factors, including those that characterize the complex budget review and appropriation decision making dynamics of Congress, that make U.S. defense finance and budgeting different from any other system in the world. In addition, in a concluding chapter the book compares U.S. defense policy and budgeting to other nations in different regions of the globe, drawing conclusions about the effects of U.S. defense policy and defense financing abroad in regions including Europe, Russia, the Middle-East and Asia.

Electronic Government is continually advancing in topics such as hardware and software technology, e-government adoption and diffusion, e-government policy, e-government planning, management, e-government applications, and e-government impacts. Technology Enabled Transformation of the Public Sector: Advances in E-Government is filled with original research about electronic government and supplies academicians, practitioners, and professionals with quality applied research results in the field of electronic/digital government, its applications, and impacts on governmental organizations around the world. This title effectively and positively provides organizational and managerial directions with greater use and management of electronic/digital government technologies in organizations. It also epitomizes the research available within e-government while exponentially emphasizing the expansiveness of this field.