This book explores human well-being in South Asia from a policy dimension. It discusses the cultural history and diversity of the region in order to highlight major priority areas of public policy to improve people's quality of life. The huge gap between economic development and human development, in areas such as education, health and income, is a concern for policymakers, researchers and other stakeholders. The book helps develop a strong argument for a shift of focus of state's expenditures aimed at improving human well-being, and assesses public policy initiatives from the perspectives of the stakeholders such as the state, the market, households, civil society as well as NGOs and agencies involved in this development mission. As such it is of great interest to scholars in the field of quality-of-life and well-being research and policymakers at national and international level.

This open access book examines the magnitude, causes of, and reactions to white-collar crime, based on the theories and research of those who have uncovered various forms of white-collar crime. It argues that the offenders who are convicted represent only 'the tip of the iceberg' of a much greater problem: because white-collar crime is forced to compete with other kinds of financial crime like social security fraud for police resources and so receives less attention and fewer investigations. Gottschalk and Gunnesdal also offer insights into estimation techniques for the shadow economy, in an attempt to comprehend the size of the problem. Holding broad appeal for academics, practitioners in public administration, and government agencies, this innovative study serves as a timely starting point for examining the lack of investigation, detection, and conviction of powerful white-collar criminals.

A broad-ranging introduction to the provision, funding and governance of health care across a variety of systems. This revised fifth edition incorporates additional material on low/middle income countries, as well as broadened coverage relating to healthcare outside of hospitals and the ever-increasing diversity of the healthcare workforce today.

This book gives a historical and contemporary overview of the redistricting process, using North Carolina for the different political, electoral, and legal issues and debates over the practice of drawing legislative district boundaries. Redistricting has been characterized as "the most political activity in America," and North Carolina has often been at the heart of recent controversies over this particular activity. In fact, the Tar Heel state was once described as "long notorious for (its) outrageous reapportionment." Through legislative construction to significant legal challenges, the Tar Heel state has been a noted case study for the past thirty years. From the contentious issues of redistricting principles to the matters of gerrymandering, based on race and politics, North Carolina's past three decades have seen major U.S. Supreme Court cases deal with redistricting controversies. By exploring this state's dealings with gerrymandering and redistricting, readers will have a better sense of the dynamics facing the nation as it confronts the 2020 Census and the subsequent redistricting efforts in 2021.

This book mobilises the theory of uneven and combined development to uncover the geopolitical economic drivers of China's rise. The purpose is to explain the formation and trajectory of its economic 'accumulation system' - which remains a confounding hybrid of statist and neoliberal forms of capitalism - as the outcome of China's geopolitical engagement of the USA during the late stages of the Cold War, and its participation in manufacturing global production networks (GPNs). Fear of geopolitical catastrophe drove China to open its economy, while GPNs enabled China to generate substantial export surpluses which could be recycled through state-owned banks as cheap credit and subsidies to large, vertically integrated and politically-controlled state-owned enterprises. In this way, a synergy emerged between the 'neoliberal' and 'Keynesian-Fordist' sectors of the economy, while the national-territorial state retained its form and expanded its functions. The book chronicles how this reliance on export surpluses, however, rendered China extremely vulnerable to external shocks - prompting a dramatic monetary and fiscal stimulus response to the crisis of 2008, even while sustaining the illusion of economic 'decoupling' from the global economy. Finally, it examines the growing role of the state in the current crisis-ridden economic model, as well as China's current geoeconomic and geopolitical expansionism in areas such as the Belt and Road Initiative and the militarisation of the East and South China Seas.

This book analyses Chile's "truth and justice" policies implemented between 1990 and 2013. The book's central assumption is that human rights policies are a form of public policy and consequently they are the product of compromises among different political actors. Because of their political nature, these incomplete "truth and justice" policies instead of satisfying the victims' demands and providing a mechanism for closure and reconciliation generate new demands and new policies and actions. However, these new policies and actions are partially satisfactory to those pursuing justice and the truth and unacceptable to those trying to protect the impunity structure built by General Pinochet and his supporters. Thus, while the 40th anniversary of the violent military coup that brought General Pinochet to power serves as a milestone with which to end this policy analysis, Chile's human rights historical drama is unfinished and likely to generate new demands for truth and justice policies.

Enterprise resource planning plays a strategic role in designing, and managing e-government resources. Governments all over the world face challenges in designing robust enterprise resource planning applications and methodologies to align themselves with the expectations of citizens and stakeholders. The existing standard enterprise resource planning solutions are proprietary, inflexible, and expensive to implement in government enterprises. Strategic Enterprise Resource Planning Models for E-Government: Applications and Methodologies is a collection of research from professionals and researchers working in the field of e-government including policymakers, ICT vendors, consultants, and implementing agencies. This book will aim to suggest enterprise resource planning frameworks for government enterprises along with their applications and methodologies to improve effectiveness of processes and enhance citizen-centric services. The research initiatives presented in this book will ease the process of implementing customized enterprise resource planning solutions in e-government.

This text provides a cutting edge analysis of the increasingly central role think tanks play in societies worldwide. Examining their control of global resources both in economic and political policy fields and their inroads into structures of power, it addresses key questions. How have think thanks reached these positions of power? Has the northern core produced neoliberal clones that have hydra-like colonised the globe? Who funds and controls these think tanks and for what purpose? How is policy making knowledge created? How are new policy ideas propagated and validated? How do think tanks become dominant sources of knowledge in public spheres including the media? Exploring the dynamics of think tank networks in specific regions and countries, this book considers the coalitions they generate to advance the social purpose they endorse and, in particular, the spaces they occupy in the structures and fields of power at the national, regional and global level.

This book explores how public opinion is used to design, monitor and evaluate government programmes in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Using information collected from the media and from international practitioners in the public opinion field, as well as interviews in each of the 4 countries, the author describes how views of public opinion and governance differ significantly between elites and the general public. Bennett argues that elites generally risk more by allowing the creation of new data, fearing that its analysis may become public and create communications and political problems of various kinds. The book finds evidence that recent conservative governments in several countries are changing their perspective on the use of public opinion, and that conventional public opinion studies are facing challenges from the availability of other kinds of information and new technologies. This book is a hugely valuable contribution to a hitherto little explored field and will appeal to academics and practitioners alike.

This volume brings together cutting-edge research from emerging and senior scholars alike representing a variety of disciplines that bears on human preferences for fairness, equity and justice. Despite predictions derived from evolutionary and economic theories that individuals will behave in the service of maximizing their own utility and survival, humans not only behave cooperatively, but in many instances, truly altruistically, giving to unrelated others at a cost to themselves. Humans also seem preoccupied like no other species with issues of fairness, equity and justice. But what exactly is fair and how are norms of fairness maintained? How should we decide, and how do we decide, between equity and efficiency? How does the idea of fairness translate across cultures? What is the relationship between human evolution and the development of morality? The collected chapters shed light on these questions and more to advance our understanding of these uniquely human concerns. Structured on an increasing scale, this volume begins by exploring issues of fairness, equity, and justice in a micro scale, such as the neural basis of fairness, and then progresses by considering these issues in individual, family, and finally cultural and societal arenas. Importantly, contributors are drawn from fields as diverse as anthropology, neuroscience, behavioral economics, bioethics, and psychology. Thus, the chapters provide added value and insights when read collectively, with the ultimate goal of enhancing the distinct disciplines as they investigate similar research questions about prosociality. In addition, particular attention is given to experimental research approaches and policy implications for some of society's most pressing issues, such as allocation of scarce medical resources and moral development of children. Thought-provoking and informative, Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Fairness, Equity, and Justice is a valuable read for public policy makers, anthropologists, ethicists, psychologists, neuroscientists, and all those interested in these questions about the essence of human nature.

In this important new book, Christopher Pollitt, one of the leading researchers in public policy and management, argues that we are guilty of neglecting a fundamental dimension of both the practice and study of contemporary public policymaking and management: that of time.
Pollitt traces the character of, and the reasons for, this neglect in his wide-ranging study. He considers the theoretical options for addressing time in a more sophisticated way, and applies these perspectives both to his own research and that of many others. Finally he looks at the implications for practitioners.
Pollitt's analysis draws on an exceptionally wide range of work from many fields, sectors, and countries. It is rich in examples, concepts, and methods. It poses fundamental questions about some central tendencies in 21st century policymaking, and opens up a new direction for academic research.

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the study of sensors and the Internet of Things (IoT) from a government and public policy perspective. Since 2011, federal spending on IoT has been growing at a compound annual rate of ten percent. New technologies, such as sensors, and new kinds of data, such as big data, are creating new ways to systematically capture data and to use it to respond to complex problems. Some of these new technologies and applications have been identified and studied in recent literature in terms of their relevance to government. This volume adds to the literature by presenting sound theories and concepts for understanding the opportunities and challenges governments face when seeking to improve public services and government operations through the use of IoT. It also includes innovative methodologies for building understanding of the potential of a smart and connected government. In addition, the book offers relevant case studies and practical recommendations for the development, management, and evaluation of public policies and government programs.

It is becoming increasingly common for governments to initiate online governments for efficient and effective programs, facilitating more accessible government services, allowing greater public access to information and participation, and making government more accountable to citizens. Latin American countries are in pursuit of electronic government. They aim to understand and implement these programs much like the global leaders in communications and technology. Latin America Online: Cases, Successes and Pitfalls describes how e-government initiatives are taking place in several Latin American countries, and provides an insightful analysis about those factors that are critical in an e-government design and implementation process. Latin America Online: Cases, Successes and Pitfalls discusses how contextual factors affect e-government success or failure, and proposes strategies to move forward to address future challenges."

This book explains the increasing demand for evaluation as a result of the increasing frequency of reforms to local services, influenced by the New Public Management doctrine, the severe austerity policy in many European countries, and the wish to increase quality and reduce costs of public services, especially at the local (sub-national) level. Positioned at the interface of local services and evaluation research, it will enable the utilization of evaluation-generated knowledge in evidence-based policy making by focusing on the lessons learned from evaluation of local service delivery. It encompasses local public and social services (including waste, water, public transport, healthcare, education and eldercare) and examines the hypothesis that there is a North-West-South-East divide in Europe in terms of the evaluation of local service reforms. Particular attention is devoted to the explanatory function of evaluation. Providing fresh insight into the functioning of local government machinery in contemporary Europe, this book will appeal in particular to practitioners and students of local government, public economy, public administration and policy.

Research has paid little attention to date on how European Union law and regulation affect both the public-private mix in healthcare and the organization of private health insurance as an industry. Filling this gap, this collective book provides insights on the political economy of EU insurance regulation, its impact on private health insurers and on its interactions with domestic healthcare policy-making in four countries. Assembling original contributions drafted by a multidisciplinary team, Private Health Insurance and the European Union offers a thorough examination of a largely unrecognized source of EU influence in healthcare - and sheds a new light on the role played by private actors in social policy. Chapter 1 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Despite the growth in literature on political corruption, contributions from field research are still exiguous. This book provides a timely and much needed addition to current research, bridging the gap and providing an innovative approach to the study of corruption and integrity in public administration. The volume contributors provide insights from nine different countries, all drawing on extensive fieldwork data and following ethnographic methodologies. The topics discussed in this book include: the role of anti-corruption legislation; organizational change and morality; party corruption; socio-cultural dimensions of corruption; clientelism and patronage. Analyzing these topics comparatively, the volume concludes that in countries where public perception of corruption is high, citizens are well aware of the generalized damage of these practices and the loss of trust they cause for public administrations. On the other hand, corruption in public administration takes place following patterns that mirror some of the fundamental social and cultural features that characterize interactions among citizens and institutions. Scholars and students of the fields including public policy, public administration, sociology and anthropology will find this book to be of use to their research and studies. It will also be of interest to policy-makers internationally and public sector practitioners. Contributors include: M. Acar, C. Baez Camargo, E. Denisova-Schmidt, Z.T. Lofranco, N. Luci, R.M. Rivera, R.F Sambaiga, D. Torsello

This book shows how governance regimes before the 1970s suppressed rural prospects of housing improvement and created conditions for middle-class capture. Using original archival sources to reveal the intricacies of local and national policy processes, weak rural housing performances are shown to owe more to national governance regimes than local under-performance. Looking `behind the scenes' at policy processes highlights neglected principles in national governance, and shows how investigating rural housing is fundamental to understanding the national scene. With original insights and a new analytical perspective, this volume offers evidence and conclusions that challenge mainstream assumptions in public policy, housing, rural studies and planning.

The era of rapidly progressing technology we live in generates vast amounts of data; however, the challenge exists in understanding how to aggressively monitor and make sense of this data. Without a better understanding of how to collect and manage such large data sets, it becomes increasingly difficult to successfully utilize them. Managing Big Data Integration in the Public Sector is a pivotal reference source for the latest scholarly research on the application of big data analytics in government contexts and identifies various strategies in which big data platforms can generate improvements within that sector. Highlighting issues surrounding data management, current models, and real-world applications, this book is ideally designed for professionals, government agencies, researchers, and non-profit organizations interested in the benefits of big data analytics applied in the public sphere.

This book provides an in-depth analysis of the distribution of funds by the National Program for Local Development (PNDL), Romania's largest state funded budget program. It provides an objective assessment of the way state budget funds are allocated at the level of county councils and municipalities in urban and rural areas. It covers allocations of the second phase of program implementation, namely the reformed PNDL II 2017-2020, which has double the volume of funds than the previous phase. Using a conceptual framework at the crossroads of sociology, public management, and public finance, this book provides necessary context for the complex funding environment of first and second tier level institutions in Romania. A comprehensive study on public administration, politicization, and development imbalances, this book will be of interest to researchers in public administration, sociology, and public finance, as well as politicians, civil servants, consultants, decision-makers, and representatives of responsible institutions with EU funds at national and EU level.

Public Policy Transfer highlights how local adaptations and innovations contribute to ongoing policy development, as domestic policy-making activity becomes increasingly engaged with global networks. This work draws together various disciplinary perspectives that dominate the study of policy transfer, which have otherwise remained separate and distinct. This is the first book to analyze comparatively the micro-dynamics of transfer across regions, contrasting policy fields and multiple levels of governance. With authors from a wide range of disciplines such as law, development and policy studies, and various cases from Europe, Africa, Australia and South America, this book breaks new ground both theoretically and empirically. Unique to this work are the case studies examining policy transfer across countries within the Global North and Global South. This yields in-depth exploration of challenges and characteristics of transfer across emerging economies. Rooted in original research by policy specialists, this book provides fresh and arresting insights into the micro-dynamics as well as the macro-effects of policy transfer. Offering the richest comparative analysis of policy transfer to date, this book has global appeal to academics and students of public policy. The diverse range of case studies will make this book invaluable to policy practitioners and public officials. Contributors include: R. Coman, L. Delcour, T. Delpeuch, I. Erdinc, M. Hadjiisky, C. Mavrot, C. Milhorance, L.A. Pal, O. Porto de Oliveira, M. Vassileva, C. Visier, C. Vigour, C. Walker, F. Zardo

This book focuses on the relationship between the state and economy in the development of cities. It reviews and reinterprets fundamental theoretical models that explain how the operation of markets in equilibrium shapes the scale and organization of the commercial city in a mixed market economy within a liberal state. These models link markets for the factors of production, markets for investment and fixed capital formation, markets for transportation, and markets for exports in equilibrium both within the urban economy and the rest of the world. In each case, the model explains the urban economy by revealing how assumptions about causes and structures lead to predictions about scale and organization outcomes. By simplifying and contrasting these models, this book proposes another interpretation: that governance and the urban economy are outcomes negotiated by political actors motivated by competing notions of commonwealth and the individual desire for wealth and power. The book grounds its analysis in economic history, explaining the rise of commercial cities and the emergence of the urban economy. It then turns to factors of production, export, and factor markets, introducing and parsing the Mills model, breaking it down into its component parts and creating a series of simpler models that can better explain the significance of each economic assumption. Simplified models are also presented for real estate and fixed capital investment markets, transportation, and land use planning. The book concludes with a discussion of linear programming and the Herbert- Stevens and the Ripper-Varaiya models. A fresh presentation of the theories behind urban economics, this book emphasizes the links between state and economy and challenges the reader to see its theories in a new light. As such, this book will be of interest to scholars, students, and practitioners of economics, public policy, public administration, urban policy, and city and urban planning. >

This book provides an analysis of the urban government system in Bangladesh, focusing on its upper tier, the City Corporation (CC), and the institutional and legal frameworks within which it operates. Along with a discussion of the scale and magnitude of urbanization, the book presents a comprehensive analysis of the reform agendas of CCs including their functional assignments, local political leadership, local control over administration and service delivery, local fiscal autonomy and local financial management, and local participation and accountability mechanisms. Very few efforts have been taken to analyze the comprehensive reform agenda required to make the CCs effectively discharge their duties and responsibilities in the context of Bangladesh. This book therefore not only fills this gap in the literature, but also provides recommendations on each reform agenda.

This book brings together the theory and practice of managing public trust. It examines the current state of public trust, including a comprehensive global overview of both the research and practical applications of managing public trust by presenting research from seven countries (Brazil, Finland, Poland, Hungary, Portugal, Taiwan, Turkey) from three continents. The book is divided into five parts, covering the meaning of trust, types, dimension and the role of trust in management; the organizational challenges in relation to public trust; the impact of social media on the development of public trust; the dynamics of public trust in business; and public trust in different cultural contexts.

With the widespread knowledge and use of e-government, the intent and evaluation of e-government services continues to focus on meeting the needs and satisfaction of its citizens. E-Government Services Design, Adoption, and Evaluation is a comprehensive collection of research on assessment and implementation of electronic/digital government technologies in organizations. This book aims to supply academics, practitioners and professionals with the understanding of e-government and its applications and impact on organizations around the world.

This book is an attempt to understand the challenges of globalization and governance in the public sector. Written from the perspectives of both developed and developing countries, it uses governance and public administration interchangeably to argue that the tasks of implementation require the cooperation of both the public and private sectors, especially in a rapidly globalizing landscape. It then utilizes statistical analyses to investigate the challenges of globalization in managing human resources, ethics and accountability, sustainability, e-governances, and leadership in the public sector.