Performance audit is now in fashion, but in the past it has been a somewhat closed world, little studied by outsiders. Now an international team of researchers has studied the work of five national audit offices -- France, Finland, The Netherlands, Sweden, and the UK. The picture thus revealed contains elements of technical innovation, methodological challenge, and crucial strategic choice.
Performance audit is now in fashion, but in the past it has been a somewhat closed world, little studied by outsiders. Now an international team of re...
The public sector continues to play a strategic role across the world. The last thirty years have seen major shifts in approaches to public sector management in many countries. There is also a fierce debate across academic disciplines about contemporary public administration/management: some advocate the use of more managerialist approaches; while others see managerialism as undermining democratic institutions. New roles have arisen, such as programme evaluation, management consulting, and reliance on NGOs and partnerships, which require new assessments. There is an intensified need for an...
The public sector continues to play a strategic role across the world. The last thirty years have seen major shifts in approaches to public sector man...
The New Public Management paradigm seems to have produced a convergence of administrative reform. However, specific implementations of NPM show range of forms and results including performance indicators, personal reforms and evaluations of reforms. This text demonstrates how NPM is crafted differently in various institutional contexts.
The New Public Management paradigm seems to have produced a convergence of administrative reform. However, specific implementations of NPM show range ...
Public sector bureaucracies have been subjected to harsh criticism. One solution which has been widely adopted over the past two decades has been to 'unbundle government' - that is to break down monolithic departments and ministries into smaller, semi-autonomous 'agencies'. These are often governed by some type of performance contract, are at 'arm's length' or further from their 'parent' ministry or department and are freed from many of the normal rules governing civil service bodies. This, the first book to survey the 'why' and the 'how' of this epidemic of 'agencification', is essential...
Public sector bureaucracies have been subjected to harsh criticism. One solution which has been widely adopted over the past two decades has been to '...
Information--regular, systematic, reliable--is the life-blood of democracy and the fuel of effective management. Surely today there is no problem with information, for this is the age of information overload. It pours onto our computer screens and out of our printers. Indeed, many governments claim, often with some justification, to be more open and transparent than ever before. But what if the life-blood is contaminated, or the fuel polluted? Then the body politic sickens and the engine of public management runs rough. It is the vital issue of the quality of the information we...
Information--regular, systematic, reliable--is the life-blood of democracy and the fuel of effective management. Surely today there is no problem w...
Many countries now use agencies rather than ministries to deliver central government services. There have been many claims about the benefits of organizing and delivering government in this way, but there has been little research into how they work in practice. Agencies both reviews existing theories and models of 'agentification' and adds detailed analysis of major new empirical evidence. Based partly on a major international research project and partly on a reinterpretation of the existing literature, this book gets inside the world of agencies and ministries. An in-depth analysis of...
Many countries now use agencies rather than ministries to deliver central government services. There have been many claims about the benefits of organ...
Decentralise authority and let managers manage' has been an almost universal message in UK public services over the last 15 years. But does it really work? Drawing on their own - and a wide range of other research - the authors show that behind the ministerial rhetoric the experiences of NHS trusts, grant maintained schools and housing associations were in practice distinctly mixed. The book offers a sophisticated theoretical analysis of the origins and results of decentralised public management in the UK.
Decentralise authority and let managers manage' has been an almost universal message in UK public services over the last 15 years. But does it really ...
Decentralise authority and let managers manage' has been an almost universal message in UK public services over the last 15 years. But does it really work? Drawing on their own - and a wide range of other research - the authors show that behind the ministerial rhetoric the experiences of NHS trusts, grant maintained schools and housing associations were in practice distinctly mixed. The book offers a sophisticated theoretical analysis of the origins and results of decentralised public management in the UK.
Decentralise authority and let managers manage' has been an almost universal message in UK public services over the last 15 years. But does it really ...
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....
In this important new book, Christopher Pollitt, one of the leading researchers in public policy and management, argues that we are guilty of neglecti...
