This ground breaking book provides empirical and theoretical insights into the interface between deliberative democracy and the rough and tumble of interest groups in advocacy politics. It examines how deliberative ideals work alongside the adversarial realties of interest-based politics.

"Innovation in the Public Sector addresses issues relevant to an understanding of the innovation journeys on which public organizations have embarked. If public innovation is defined as a necessary condition for establishing meaningful interactions between the government and society, what are the relevant issues that may explain successful processes and forms of public innovation?"--

The authors suggest that some of the problems of the public sector are self-inflicted and that current policies may only deliver partial success 'at a price we cannot afford'. It proposes a radical alternative and discusses practical ways it could be implemented. It also explores the threats and opportunities that such an approach might face.

Web 2.0 has become the buzz word for describing social media available on the Internet, such as blogs, photo and file sharing systems and social networking sites. These Web 2.0 applications are rapidly transforming citizen-citizen and citizen-government interactions in a manner not seen before. In recognition of these trends, governments are already taking a very close look at Web 2.0 and online communities in order to leverage them for designing products and services and for providing citizen services. This book brings together international scholars to provide the theoretical and practical contexts for understanding the nature of Web 2.0 technologies and their impact on political, public policy and management processes, and to explore how best Web 2.0 applications can be leveraged and aligned with the strategic goals of government organizations to add value and ensure effective governance. Drawing from experiences from countries around the globe, the book provides the theoretical context of the potential for Web 2.0 applications to transform government services, as well as practical examples of leading public sector institutions that have attempted to use Web 2.0 applications to enhance government operations, policy making and administration. There are three parts to the book, namely 1) Perspectives on Web 2.0 and Democratic Governance, 2) The Political, Policy and Management Impacts of Web 2.0 in Government, and 3) Leveraging Web 2.0 Applications for Effective Governance. This book differs from existing edited books on Web 2.0 technologies that focus primarily on politics and e-democracy because it examines the impact of the applications on politics, policy and public management. The book contributes toward the literature by filling the existing void and expanding knowledge in the field of public administration and policy, making it of interest to both academics and policy-makers.

A systematic and engaging new text that analyses accountability and transparency in contemporary public services, and examines how open government can be both a challenge and an aid to more effective public management. This text is an ideal guide for both practical and conceptual understanding of the possibilities of open government.

Drawing on contributions from user activists and academic researchers, this topical reader provides a critical stock take of the state of user involvement. It considers different contexts in which such involvement is taking place and includes diverse and sometimes conflicting perspectives on the issues involved. This original and insightful critique will be an important resource for students studying health and social care and social work, researchers and user activists.

Despite the large amounts of human and financial resources invested to foster democratic governance in developing countries, statistics show that the majority of these countries have not yet achieved significant improvements in living standards. While some regions make strides towards improving the living conditions of their citizens, Sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, is still trapped in poverty with more than 40% of its 600 million people living below the internationally recognized absolute poverty line of one US dollar per day. Poor governance and corruption should be highlighted as the most important systemic factors contributing to poverty in developing countries. As a result the institutional foundations of these countries are weakened, public funds are misappropriated, and policies and programs aimed at reducing poverty and fostering sustainable economic growth are undermined. It is therefore not surprising that a 2008 Transparency International report found a direct link between corruption and the failure of the societal institutions designed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals in the majority of developing countries. This book investigates the problems of democratic governance, particularly as they relate to corruption, and also whether democracy should be based on universal principles or local context and historical factors. It also analyses the rule of law, in promoting democratic governance and curbing corruption and if governmental, non-governmental organizations, and civil societies are effective in promoting democratic governance and curbing corruption. This book will go beyond identifying the challenges and offer plausible solutions that could be adapted to various developing countries. It is premised on the importance of bridging theory and practice, which has been lacking in most local and international development publications, making of interest to scholars and policy-makers alike concerned with public administration in developing countries.

Lobbyists in Washington aren't a new phenomenon. Since the early days of the republic, citizens and groups alike have hired professionals to press their interests with lawmakers. However, recent examples of misconduct-like that seen in the Abramoff scandal-highlight the unique ethical challenges this industry faces in the twenty-first century. Though major scandals happen less frequently than popularly believed, the more pervasive ethics problem is that members of the profession often cut deals that go against their clients' interests. They sacrifice the interests of those they represent in order to curry favor with lawmakers. In The Ethical Lobbyist, Thomas T. Holyoke exposes how current industry regulations fall short of ensuring principled behaviors and may actually incentivize unethical behavior. Holyoke presents the provocative argument that, in addition to welcoming stronger regulations, lobbyists need to borrow a page from the legal profession and adopt ironclad guarantees of principled representation. The Ethical Lobbyist puts forth a set of principles and a workable program for implementing reform. The result is a road map to reform that will transform "ethical lobbyist" from an oxymoron to an expectation-and change the industry and our government for the better. Georgetown Digital Shorts-longer than an article, shorter than a book-deliver timely works of peer-reviewed scholarship for a fast-paced world. They present new ideas and original content that are easily digestable for students, scholars, and general readers.

The International Directory of Government is the definitive guide to people in power in every part of the world. All the top decision-makers are included in this one-volume publication, which brings together government institutions, agencies and personnel from the largest nations (China, India, Russia, etc.) to the smallest overseas dependencies (Guadeloupe, Guernsey and Christmas Island, etc). Institutional entries contain the names and titles of principal officials, postal, e-mail and internet addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and other relevant details. Key features: - comprehensive lists of government ministers and ministries - coverage of state-related agencies and other institutions arranged by subject heading - details of important state, provincial and regional administrations, including information on US states, Russian republics, and the states and territories of India.

This book starts with an introduction to process modeling and process paradigms, then explains how to query and analyze process models, and how to analyze the process execution data. In this way, readers receive a comprehensive overview of what is needed to identify, understand and improve business processes. The book chiefly focuses on concepts, techniques and methods. It covers a large body of knowledge on process analytics - including process data querying, analysis, matching and correlating process data and models - to help practitioners and researchers understand the underlying concepts, problems, methods, tools and techniques involved in modern process analytics. Following an introduction to basic business process and process analytics concepts, it describes the state of the art in this area before examining different analytics techniques in detail. In this regard, the book covers analytics over different levels of process abstractions, from process execution data and methods for linking and correlating process execution data, to inferring process models, querying process execution data and process models, and scalable process data analytics methods. In addition, it provides a review of commercial process analytics tools and their practical applications. The book is intended for a broad readership interested in business process management and process analytics. It provides researchers with an introduction to these fields by comprehensively classifying the current state of research, by describing in-depth techniques and methods, and by highlighting future research directions. Lecturers will find a wealth of material to choose from for a variety of courses, ranging from undergraduate courses in business process management to graduate courses in business process analytics. Lastly, it offers professionals a reference guide to the state of the art in commercial tools and techniques, complemented by many real-world use case scenarios.

As governmental entities face accelerating public demand for electronic services and the internal need to utilize technology to achieve superior outcomes and operational efficiency, traditional techniques and tools are radically reshaping and evolving into innovative electronic methods of conducting governmental activities.""E-Government Diffusion, Policy, and Impact: Advanced Issues and Practices"" sheds light on how e-government technologies are shaping today's knowledge society from the ground roots of the citizen experience to the supreme level of policy and decision making. With chapters providing insights into such critical topics as public service delivery, technological diffusion, and e-readiness, this publication offers researchers, students, policy makers, and practitioners a quality depiction of worldwide social practice and how advancements within the realm of technology will affect all corners of the globe.

Focusing on the three Scandinavian countries, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, Policy Learning from Canada is a systematic study of the international relevance of the Canadian immigration and integration policy model. To reveal how the Canadian immigration model has shaped the reform process in Scandinavia, Trygve Ugland critically examines public documents, including government proposals, documents from parliamentary debates, and reports by ad-hoc expert commissions, as well as letters from consulted agencies. Ugland's intensive studies on Canada's immigration and integration policies depict Canada not only as a model and inspiration to Scandinavian policy makers, but, in particular, as an intellectual stimulus for the rediscovery of labour immigration in Scandinavia during the 2000s. The study demonstrates that the Canadian model, often perceived as a product of unique circumstances, can be relevant in other countries.

This book explores the role of the welfare state in the overall wealth and wellbeing of nations and in particular looks at the American welfare state in comparison with other developed nations in Europe and elsewhere. It is widely believed that the welfare state undermines productivity and economic growth, that the United States has an unusually small welfare state, and that it is, and always has been, a welfare state laggard. This book shows that all rich nations, including the United States, have large welfare states because the socialized programs that comprise the welfare state-public education and health and social insurance-enhance the productivity of capitalism. In public education, the most productive part of the welfare state, for most of the 19th and 20th centuries, the United States was a leader. Though few would argue that public education is not part of the welfare state, most previous cross national analyses of welfare states have omitted education. Including education has profound consequences, undergirding the case for the productivity of welfare state programs and the explanation for why all rich nations have large welfare states, and identifying US welfare state leadership. From 1968 through 2006, the United States swung right politically and lost its lead in education and opportunity, failed to adopt universal health insurance and experienced the most rapid explosion of health care costs and economic inequality in the rich world. The American welfare state faces large challenges. Restoring its historical lead in education is the most important but requires investing large sums in education, beginning with universal pre-school and in complementary programs that aid children's development. The American health insurance system is by far the most costly in the rich world, yet fails to insure one sixth of its population, produces below average results, crowds out useful investments in children, and is the least equitably financed. Achieving universal coverage will increase costs. Only complete government financing is likely to restrain long term costs. In memory of Robert J. Lampman Colleague, Co-author, Friend and Mentor

How can unjust societies be overcome with a better distribution of opportunities to flourish? How can human development be revitalised in countries where social welfare is being questioned? In short, how can human development be fostered in practice? These are some of the important questions asked in this volume through analysis of existing policies and conceptualisations of coherent and systematic strategies for human development policies at the local, national and international level. International contributors innovatively combine the hitherto unpaired perspectives of the capability approach and the tradition of critical social policy with empirical examples using case studies from South-Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and North and South America. The result is a call for a new, feasible approach towards more socially balanced, democratic and innovative capability-promoting policy activities, models and programmes that reduce social and human suffering to promote an enhanced social quality of current societies around the world.

Examining the debate on quality of jobs in Europe, this book focuses on the work-life balance-a central element of the EU agenda. It addresses tensions between work and private life, examining job quality, job security, working conditions and time-use patterns of individuals and households as well as institutional contexts.

The aim of this book is to clarify the ground on which public service scholars, practitioners and advisers stand in relation to values and virtues in public administration. It explores assumptions, the unspoken and unexamined things that are taken for granted in the field of serving the public good. Accordingly, Value and Virtue in Public Administration gives an account of the recent developments and progress in public sector management and public service. It describes the progress made in the discipline of public administration, in theories related to public administration and in the practice of public administration in tackling the questions surrounding values and virtues. These trends, descriptions, theories and comparisons make it possible to answer the question of how administrative ethics vary and what this variance depends upon. Featuring contributions from scholars in several different disciplines and in-depth case studies, the book concludes that under New Public Management instrumental values and consequential ethics have become dominant and more fundamental values have been neglected.

This book explores dominance in Australia's medical culture through the positioning of international medical graduates (IMGs). It argues that IMGs are 'othered' and ultimately positioned as an underclass, a positioning validated and reinforced by the intersecting inequalities of class, race and nation. It also suggests that the positioning of IMGs is organised through the dimensions of structural power, hegemonic power and interpersonal power, which allow an exploration of power relations between the structures of the health system, the Australian medical profession and the agency of IMGs. The Australian narrative presented to the world espouses a community of social justice and human rights. Instead, an historical lens traces the formation and persistence of difference represented in ethnocentrism, racism and xenophobia from 1788 to the present. The research presented is multidisciplinary in scope. An anti-oppressive theoretical framework enables the voices of lived experience to penetrate throughout and a social justice platform engages the participants and the reader into the interwoven conversations. The data set comprises a focus group, 10 individual interviews with IMGs and a selection of inquiry submissions revealing rich and sometimes shocking evidence to paint a stark picture. Other medical voices join the conversation via media responses to revelations of experiences not only by IMGs but also by Australian-trained doctors. It exposes a toxic culture endemic with bullying and sexual harassment.This book is of interest to practitioners, researchers and administrators in the fields of medical education, human resource management, legal studies, health sciences, social sciences, health services, government departments, universities and hospitals, as well as those tasked with duty of care and the provision of a safe workplace. The voices gifted to this study raise awareness of current issues within medicine in Australia at a very personal level and begin to formulate a policy and practical response to address these disturbing revelations.

This edited collection showcases some of the best recent research in the philosophy of science. It comprises of thematically arranged papers presented at the 5th conference of the European Philosophy of Science Association (EPSA15), covering a broad variety of topics within general philosophy of science, and philosophical issues pertaining to specific sciences. The collection will appeal to researchers with an interest in the philosophical underpinnings of their own discipline, and to philosophers who wish to study the latest work on the themes discussed.

The United States entered the third century of its existence facing many social, political, and religious issues. Socialism, Communism, and terrorism are such threats. Christianity is not practiced as in the past. Many US citizens neglect the Word of God, and moral decay has risen rapidly. May our people seek God's direction, as per II Chronicles 7:14, so God will bless America and its future.
American patriots like Billy Graham, J. Edgar Hoover, and William Buckley expressed facts, thoughts, and quotations in the field of politics, religion, law, defense, energy, environment, and economics. Presently our military power is being reduced. Author Barlane Eichbaum relates biblical prophecy and writings on the Greek, Roman, and British empires to American maladies. These same signs of decay have led other once-great powers to their downfall. This historical and biblical perspective that Eichbaum possesses is a strong plus for Awake America.

This collection presents the results of a research agenda which examines how information plays a key role in policymaking. As a very dynamic environment characterised by many different modes of information gathering and processing, the EU forms a particularly interesting case to test the politics of information approach.

Argues that autonomous agencies are not the result of a systematic design, but are produced by the interactions of political and bureaucratic forces. The case studies illustrate how political struggles between politicians and bureaucrats can create a muddle of agencies that lack coherence and are subject to conflicting levels of political control.