James Downe
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 4128443 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | James Downe |
| NOMBRES | James |
| APELLIDO | Downe |
| FIRMA | DOWNE J |
| AFILIACIONES | Cardiff University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0772-3183 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 37 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 237 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 37 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2004 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 10 |
Key Practices of Knowledge Mobilization in Local Policy Settings
The literature on knowledge mobilization (KM) acknowledges the complex processes involved in the application of evidence to policy. However, the everyday activities employed by knowledge mobilizers to facilitate these processes have proved difficult to capture and codify. We address this gap in current understanding through empirical analysis of the practices used to mobilize knowledge in local policy making. We find that effective KM is characte…
Principles for ethical boundary spanning between science, policy and practice
Knowledge brokers have emerged as a key mechanism for facilitating knowledge exchange across institutional and epistemic divides to enable more inclusive, informed, and context-sensitive decision-making. However, despite growing recognition about their value and importance, critical gaps remain related to how knowledge brokers operate that hinders their effectiveness and efficiency in practice. One such gap relates to the ethical dimensions of th…
The success of e‐participation. Learning lessons from Decide Madrid and We asked, You said, We did in Scotland
Electronic participation (e‐participation) has grown across the world in recent decades and many governments offer a range of opportunities for e‐participation. However, there is a lack of comparative analyses of successful initiatives, which can be useful in supporting subsequent adopters. This study identifies the best practices and areas for improvement of Decide Madrid and We asked, You said, We did in Scotland, whose software has been widely…
Improving evidence use
Background: While the rhetoric of evidence-based policymaking and practice is pervasive and persuasive, the extent to which either have been achieved is contested. Both require effective approaches to research-based knowledge mobilisation, particularly at the local level where context specificities undermine generic 'what works' claims. There has been limited research on how local processes of knowledge mobilisation happen, the practices they emp…
Do policy actors have different views of what constitutes evidence in policymaking
The role played by evidence in policymaking is hotly disputed and there is no agreement over how evidence is defined. This article examines whether policy actors have different views of what counts as evidence and which factors influence these perceptions (for example, professional background, length of service, organisation setting, cultures of evidence)? In addressing this question, we contribute to the growing research focus on the context of …
Deconstructing complexity
This research deconstructs complexity as a key challenge of intergovernmental digitalisation projects. While much of the literature acknowledges that the fundamental restructuring coupled with technical capacity that these joint projects require leads to increased complexity, little is known about how different types of complexity interact within the collaborative process. Using established concepts of substantive, strategic, and institutional co…
Externalising policy advice within subnational governments
The concept of policy advisory systems (PAS) has been applied almost exclusively at national level. This article demonstrates that it can also be employed to analyse the development and dynamics of policy advice in a subnational government. Our empirical study of the externalisation of policy advice by the Welsh Government shows that it has been shaped by distinctive historical, institutional and political factors, and its impacts are different t…
Knowledge brokering organisations
Background: Government-funded knowledge brokering organisations (KBOs) are an increasingly prevalent yet under-researched area. Working in the space between knowledge and policy, yet framing themselves as different from think tanks and academic research centres, these organisations broker evidence into policy. Aims and objectives: This article examines how three organisations on different continents develop similar narratives and strategies to at…
Accounting for what and to whom? Accountability tensions in collaborations addressing long‐term unemployment
Across Europe, public employment services are experimenting with more holistic and cross‐sector collaborations to tackle the wicked problem of long‐term unemployment. These collaborations operate in a context characterised by tensions produced by multiple demands for accountability. Based on case studies of the accountability relations and challenges in five such collaborations in the Netherlands, Belgium (Flanders), Estonia, Scotland and Denmark…
What counts as evidence for policy? An analysis of policy actors' perceptions
Evidence plays a growing role in public administration worldwide. We analyze the perceptions of policy actors, using Q methodology and a structured questionnaire, which reveals four types of profiles. Most policy actors did not fit neatly into an Evidence‐Based Policy‐Making (EBPM) group. Instead, they either had a pragmatic view where context and policy issues influence what counts as evidence, an inclusive position which emphasized the importan…
The local government response to austerity in a small devolved country
The 2008 Global Financial Crisis and subsequent austerity drive across Europe and North America has been particularly felt at a local government level. Wales presents a valuable case study through which to explore the impact of austerity on local government: it is a small country with a devolved government that is philosophically opposed to austerity, yet where cuts to local government have been drastic. Drawing on interviews with Welsh councils …
The Motivations for the Adoption of Management Innovation by Local Governments and its Performance Effects
This article analyses the economic, political, and institutional antecedents and performance effects of the adoption of shared Senior Management Teams (SMTs)—a management innovation (MI) that occurs when a team of senior managers oversees two or more public organizations. Findings from statistical analysis of 201 English local governments and interviews with organizational leaders reveal that shared SMTs are adopted to develop organizational capa…
Does knowledge brokering facilitate evidence-based policy? A review of existing knowledge and an agenda for future research
The claim that evidence-based policy (EBP) produces better outcomes has gained increasing support over the last three decades. Knowledge brokering (KB) is seen as a way to achieve improved policymaking and governments worldwide are investing significant resources in KB initiatives. It is therefore important to understand the range of these activities and to investigate whether and how they facilitate EBP. This article critically reviews the extan…
What Determines Ethical Behavior in Public Organizations
Leadership is widely seen as having an important role in fostering ethical conduct in organizations, but the ways in which the actions of leaders intersect with formal ethics regulation in shaping conduct have been little researched. This article examines this issue through a qualitative study of the operation of the “ethical framework” for English local government, which entailed all councils adopting a code of conduct to regulate the behavior o…
Administrative traditions and citizen participation in public policy
The participation of citizens in public policy-making has become a key aim for national and supranational institutions across Europe, but the relative importance policy-makers actually accord citizen participation arguably varies due to the alternative administrative traditions within different countries. Using data drawn from a large-scale survey of senior public managers in France, Germany, the United Kingdom (UK) and Norway, we find support fo…
Reframing Governance
Much of the work on contemporary governance points either to a strong central government that continues to operate hierarchically or else to a relatively weak centre which relies on network forms of coordination. In place of the choice between hierarchy and networks, the cultural theory pioneered by Mary Douglas draws our attention to five distinctive ‘social environments’ characterized in terms of hierarchy, individualism, egalitarianism, fatali…
Analysing Performance Assessment in Public Services
Approaches to performance assessment have been described as 'performance regimes', but there has been little analysis of what is meant by this concept and whether it has any real value. We draw on four perspectives on regimes - 'institutions and instruments', 'risk regulation regimes', 'internal logics and effects' and 'analytics of government' - to explore how the concept of a multi-dimensional regime can be applied to performance assessment in …
Regulating Public Services
Performance management systems have become a key component of contemporary public administration. However, there has been only limited analysis of the social construction of performance by public managers who are subject to them. This article examines the ways in which public managers create, maintain, and disrupt performance management practices. The authors find that managers make external performance assessments perform for themselves by const…
Contracting for social cohesion
Under the Labour government, Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) in England were responsible for the delivery of Local Area Agreements (LAAs) – agreed targets between central and local government. This paper uses statistical techniques and local authority case studies to explore the impact of LAAs on LSPs’ efforts to promote social cohesion. The results suggest that LSPs with a LAA for social cohesion experienced a better rate of improvement in c…
Putting the Citizen at the Centre? Assembling Local Government Policy in Wales
Since devolution in 1999, the Welsh Government has developed a distinctive approach to the management of local government policy. Alongside an emphasis on welfarism and partnership, local authorities have been exhorted to put the citizen at the centre of public service delivery. Drawing on the notion of assemblage, developed in the governmentality literature, this paper identifies two different rationalities running through Welsh Government polic…
Managing Politics? Ethics Regulation and Conflicting Conceptions of “Good Conduct”
Concern for fostering trust in public institutions has prompted many governments to invest in systems of ethics regulation, embracing various dimensions of good governance. This article assesses the impact of ethics regulation on the conduct of English local politicians using Foucauldian perspectives on government, power, and resistance. The research finds that ethics regulation encountered problems when politicians resisted the models of politic…
The determinants of public trust in English local government
One of the most difficult and under-examined issues in integrity research is understanding whether regulatory interventions designed to improve the ethical conduct of public bodies actually have any effect on public trust. In this article, we present the results of research which has sought to unpack this issue. Drawing on a large-scale public survey and case study analysis of nine local councils in England, the research examined the relative imp…
The Multi-Level Governance of Wales
Research Highlights and Abstract Provides a reading of the literatures on multi-level governance and federalism to develop a series of propositions about the nature of the relationship between different levels of government in the devolved United Kingdom. Drawing on a survey of local government officers in Wales, the article reports support for both layer cake and marble cake interpretations of multi-level governance. The article concludes with a…
Learning from complex policy evaluations
Recognition of the importance of interactions between policies has fuelled demand for larger, longer-term, more holistic studies of their impacts and effectiveness. The broader perspective provided by evaluations of this kind appears to have been useful to policy makers, but their scale and complexity present practical and methodological challenges. Research funders need to commission and coordinate groups of studies rather than procuring researc…
Public confidence and public services
Governments around the world are concerned about declining public confidence in democratic institutions. It has been widely assumed that improving the performance of public services will help address this problem. Policy makers in the United Kingdom (UK) have therefore been puzzled to discover that public confidence in local government continued to decline at a time when local services seemed to be improving. The reason for this apparent paradox …
Regulation inside government
Previous research has highlighted an unprecedented increase in the scale, scope and intensity of regulation inside government in the UK, and growing concerns about its cost and effectiveness. Empirical analysis of 'BestValue' inspections of local government suggests that the processes of inspection were transparent and applied in a reasonably consistent manner. However, the direct and indirect costs were high; the fragmented nature of inspection …
Knowledge creation and transfer in the beacon scheme
This article examines the extent to which processes of knowledge creation, transfer and application through sharing learning are effective in improving local public services. We examine the impact of the Beacon Scheme as a means of achieving service and corporate improvement. The research findings suggest that the acquisition of knowledge by learning network members and the transfer of learning leading to change in working practices and corporate…
Joined up policy in practice? The coherence and impacts of the local government modernisation agenda
The last decade has witnessed a raft of new policies designed to transform the politics and performance of local authorities in the UK. Over the next three years, a specially commissioned themed section of Local Government Studies will explore the impact of these policies drawing on recent empirical studies by leading researchers in the field. This paper, the first in the series, sets the scene by tracing the evolution of key policies, analysing …
Managing Politics? Ethics Regulation and Conflicting Conceptions of “Good Conduct”
Concern for fostering trust in public institutions has prompted many governments to invest in systems of ethics regulation, embracing various dimensions of good governance. This article assesses the impact of ethics regulation on the conduct of English local politicians using Foucauldian perspectives on government, power, and resistance. The research finds that ethics regulation encountered problems when politicians resisted the models of politic…
The three challenges of community leadership
The ongoing reform of UK local government emphasises the development of local authorities as ‘community leaders’. Both the definition of the term, and local government's fitness for the role are, however, contested. Previous research suggests that to fulfil this role local government will have to meet three challenges: engage citizens in the determination of community priorities, provide strategic leadership and develop the collaborative potentia…
Supporting Effective Citizenship in Local Government
Civic-republican theories suggest that an active citizenry is associated with community cohesion, better political institutions and inclusive democratic decision making. The influence of these arguments on the UK Labour government has led policy makers to focus attention on strategies to promote citizenship at a local level. In particular, English local authorities are expected to provide ‘support for citizenship’ as part of their wider duty to p…
Analysing Performance Assessment in Public Services
Approaches to performance assessment have been described as 'performance regimes', but there has been little analysis of what is meant by this concept and whether it has any real value. We draw on four perspectives on regimes - 'institutions and instruments', 'risk regulation regimes', 'internal logics and effects' and 'analytics of government' - to explore how the concept of a multi-dimensional regime can be applied to performance assessment in …
Policy transfer and convergence within the UK
Analysis of the development and implementation of local government performance improvement regimes in England, Scotland and Wales over the last decade reveals congruence in policy goals but divergence in policy implementation and outcomes. The governments in all three countries had a common aim of improving local government performance. However, differences in ideology, the nature of central–local government relations, the numbers of councils and…
Administrative traditions and citizen participation in public policy
The participation of citizens in public policy-making has become a key aim for national and supranational institutions across Europe, but the relative importance policy-makers actually accord citizen participation arguably varies due to the alternative administrative traditions within different countries. Using data drawn from a large-scale survey of senior public managers in France, Germany, the United Kingdom (UK) and Norway, we find support fo…
Public confidence and public services
Governments around the world are concerned about declining public confidence in democratic institutions. It has been widely assumed that improving the performance of public services will help address this problem. Policy makers in the United Kingdom (UK) have therefore been puzzled to discover that public confidence in local government continued to decline at a time when local services seemed to be improving. The reason for this apparent paradox …
The determinants of public trust in English local government
One of the most difficult and under-examined issues in integrity research is understanding whether regulatory interventions designed to improve the ethical conduct of public bodies actually have any effect on public trust. In this article, we present the results of research which has sought to unpack this issue. Drawing on a large-scale public survey and case study analysis of nine local councils in England, the research examined the relative imp…
The Multi-Level Governance of Wales
Research Highlights and Abstract Provides a reading of the literatures on multi-level governance and federalism to develop a series of propositions about the nature of the relationship between different levels of government in the devolved United Kingdom. Drawing on a survey of local government officers in Wales, the article reports support for both layer cake and marble cake interpretations of multi-level governance. The article concludes with a…
Promoting Civic Culture by Supporting Citizenship
Scholars and policy‐makers alike argue that government efforts to empower citizens and build cohesive communities are integral to the development of a flourishing civic culture, especially within disadvantaged areas. In this paper, we explore this assumption by analysing the impact of different approaches to supporting citizenship in English urban local authorities on levels of political efficacy and social cohesion. Support for citizenship is mo…
Support for active citizenship and public service performance
Government efforts to increase civic engagement are predicated, in part, on the belief that this will lead to better public services. This assumption is tested by analysing the impact of different approaches to supporting active citizenship in English local authorities on their recorded service performance in 2005. Performance and support for active citizenship are modelled using data drawn from a national survey and secondary sources. The result…
The Shining Lights? Public Service Awards as an Approach to Service Improvement
Award schemes have proliferated in the public sector worldwide – yet there is little analysis of their role in improving public services through celebrating performance and sharing good practice. This paper theorizes this development, establishing a research agenda to examine the functioning, attractiveness and effectiveness of award schemes, which may be classified as being threshold or competitive schemes. The paper examines a major English com…
Contracting for social cohesion
Under the Labour government, Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) in England were responsible for the delivery of Local Area Agreements (LAAs) – agreed targets between central and local government. This paper uses statistical techniques and local authority case studies to explore the impact of LAAs on LSPs’ efforts to promote social cohesion. The results suggest that LSPs with a LAA for social cohesion experienced a better rate of improvement in c…
Putting the Citizen at the Centre? Assembling Local Government Policy in Wales
Since devolution in 1999, the Welsh Government has developed a distinctive approach to the management of local government policy. Alongside an emphasis on welfarism and partnership, local authorities have been exhorted to put the citizen at the centre of public service delivery. Drawing on the notion of assemblage, developed in the governmentality literature, this paper identifies two different rationalities running through Welsh Government polic…
Learning from complex policy evaluations
Recognition of the importance of interactions between policies has fuelled demand for larger, longer-term, more holistic studies of their impacts and effectiveness. The broader perspective provided by evaluations of this kind appears to have been useful to policy makers, but their scale and complexity present practical and methodological challenges. Research funders need to commission and coordinate groups of studies rather than procuring researc…
Knowledge brokering organisations
Background: Government-funded knowledge brokering organisations (KBOs) are an increasingly prevalent yet under-researched area. Working in the space between knowledge and policy, yet framing themselves as different from think tanks and academic research centres, these organisations broker evidence into policy. Aims and objectives: This article examines how three organisations on different continents develop similar narratives and strategies to at…
Externalising policy advice within subnational governments
The concept of policy advisory systems (PAS) has been applied almost exclusively at national level. This article demonstrates that it can also be employed to analyse the development and dynamics of policy advice in a subnational government. Our empirical study of the externalisation of policy advice by the Welsh Government shows that it has been shaped by distinctive historical, institutional and political factors, and its impacts are different t…
The local government response to austerity in a small devolved country
The 2008 Global Financial Crisis and subsequent austerity drive across Europe and North America has been particularly felt at a local government level. Wales presents a valuable case study through which to explore the impact of austerity on local government: it is a small country with a devolved government that is philosophically opposed to austerity, yet where cuts to local government have been drastic. Drawing on interviews with Welsh councils …
Validity, Utilization and Evidence-Based Policy
Over the last decade, external assessments of organizational effectiveness have played an increasingly pivotal role in the regulation of UK local authorities. Unlike most approaches to evaluation, which are concerned with the implementation and outcomes of policies, programmes or interventions, these assessments are concerned primarily with internal organizational processes. And in contrast to traditional forms of public services inspection, whic…
Redistricting Local Governments in England
The Commission-based process of local government electoral redistricting in England seeks to balance the tensions between both neutral and party political and mathematic and organic approaches to boundary drawing. We evaluate the success of this process by assessing the impact of redistricting on electoral equality and the strength of the political parties in each local authority. On one hand, the Commission appears to be effective in achieving v…
Reframing Governance
Much of the work on contemporary governance points either to a strong central government that continues to operate hierarchically or else to a relatively weak centre which relies on network forms of coordination. In place of the choice between hierarchy and networks, the cultural theory pioneered by Mary Douglas draws our attention to five distinctive ‘social environments’ characterized in terms of hierarchy, individualism, egalitarianism, fatali…
Picking Winners to Define and Disseminate Best Practice
From 1998 the Government launched Beacon award schemes in local government, schools, the National Health Service, further education and central government. The schemes were distinctive in that they all shared the assumption that organisational learning could be advanced through a competitive process of identifying successful organisations and recruiting them to disseminate their good practices. Drawing on a number of evaluations of the different …
Redistricting Local Governments in England
The Commission-based process of local government electoral redistricting in England seeks to balance the tensions between both neutral and party political and mathematic and organic approaches to boundary drawing. We evaluate the success of this process by assessing the impact of redistricting on electoral equality and the strength of the political parties in each local authority. On one hand, the Commission appears to be effective in achieving v…
Knowledge creation and transfer in the beacon scheme
This article examines the extent to which processes of knowledge creation, transfer and application through sharing learning are effective in improving local public services. We examine the impact of the Beacon Scheme as a means of achieving service and corporate improvement. The research findings suggest that the acquisition of knowledge by learning network members and the transfer of learning leading to change in working practices and corporate…
Picking Winners to Define and Disseminate Best Practice
From 1998 the Government launched Beacon award schemes in local government, schools, the National Health Service, further education and central government. The schemes were distinctive in that they all shared the assumption that organisational learning could be advanced through a competitive process of identifying successful organisations and recruiting them to disseminate their good practices. Drawing on a number of evaluations of the different …
The three challenges of community leadership
The ongoing reform of UK local government emphasises the development of local authorities as ‘community leaders’. Both the definition of the term, and local government's fitness for the role are, however, contested. Previous research suggests that to fulfil this role local government will have to meet three challenges: engage citizens in the determination of community priorities, provide strategic leadership and develop the collaborative potentia…
Joined up policy in practice? The coherence and impacts of the local government modernisation agenda
The last decade has witnessed a raft of new policies designed to transform the politics and performance of local authorities in the UK. Over the next three years, a specially commissioned themed section of Local Government Studies will explore the impact of these policies drawing on recent empirical studies by leading researchers in the field. This paper, the first in the series, sets the scene by tracing the evolution of key policies, analysing …
The Shining Lights? Public Service Awards as an Approach to Service Improvement
Award schemes have proliferated in the public sector worldwide – yet there is little analysis of their role in improving public services through celebrating performance and sharing good practice. This paper theorizes this development, establishing a research agenda to examine the functioning, attractiveness and effectiveness of award schemes, which may be classified as being threshold or competitive schemes. The paper examines a major English com…
Regulation inside government
Previous research has highlighted an unprecedented increase in the scale, scope and intensity of regulation inside government in the UK, and growing concerns about its cost and effectiveness. Empirical analysis of 'BestValue' inspections of local government suggests that the processes of inspection were transparent and applied in a reasonably consistent manner. However, the direct and indirect costs were high; the fragmented nature of inspection …
Supporting Effective Citizenship in Local Government
Civic-republican theories suggest that an active citizenry is associated with community cohesion, better political institutions and inclusive democratic decision making. The influence of these arguments on the UK Labour government has led policy makers to focus attention on strategies to promote citizenship at a local level. In particular, English local authorities are expected to provide ‘support for citizenship’ as part of their wider duty to p…
Support for active citizenship and public service performance
Government efforts to increase civic engagement are predicated, in part, on the belief that this will lead to better public services. This assumption is tested by analysing the impact of different approaches to supporting active citizenship in English local authorities on their recorded service performance in 2005. Performance and support for active citizenship are modelled using data drawn from a national survey and secondary sources. The result…
Validity, Utilization and Evidence-Based Policy
Over the last decade, external assessments of organizational effectiveness have played an increasingly pivotal role in the regulation of UK local authorities. Unlike most approaches to evaluation, which are concerned with the implementation and outcomes of policies, programmes or interventions, these assessments are concerned primarily with internal organizational processes. And in contrast to traditional forms of public services inspection, whic…
Promoting Civic Culture by Supporting Citizenship
Scholars and policy‐makers alike argue that government efforts to empower citizens and build cohesive communities are integral to the development of a flourishing civic culture, especially within disadvantaged areas. In this paper, we explore this assumption by analysing the impact of different approaches to supporting citizenship in English urban local authorities on levels of political efficacy and social cohesion. Support for citizenship is mo…
The Multi-Level Governance of Wales
Research Highlights and Abstract Provides a reading of the literatures on multi-level governance and federalism to develop a series of propositions about the nature of the relationship between different levels of government in the devolved United Kingdom. Drawing on a survey of local government officers in Wales, the article reports support for both layer cake and marble cake interpretations of multi-level governance. The article concludes with a…
Learning from complex policy evaluations
Recognition of the importance of interactions between policies has fuelled demand for larger, longer-term, more holistic studies of their impacts and effectiveness. The broader perspective provided by evaluations of this kind appears to have been useful to policy makers, but their scale and complexity present practical and methodological challenges. Research funders need to commission and coordinate groups of studies rather than procuring researc…
Public confidence and public services
Governments around the world are concerned about declining public confidence in democratic institutions. It has been widely assumed that improving the performance of public services will help address this problem. Policy makers in the United Kingdom (UK) have therefore been puzzled to discover that public confidence in local government continued to decline at a time when local services seemed to be improving. The reason for this apparent paradox …
Policy transfer and convergence within the UK
Analysis of the development and implementation of local government performance improvement regimes in England, Scotland and Wales over the last decade reveals congruence in policy goals but divergence in policy implementation and outcomes. The governments in all three countries had a common aim of improving local government performance. However, differences in ideology, the nature of central–local government relations, the numbers of councils and…
Managing Politics? Ethics Regulation and Conflicting Conceptions of “Good Conduct”
Concern for fostering trust in public institutions has prompted many governments to invest in systems of ethics regulation, embracing various dimensions of good governance. This article assesses the impact of ethics regulation on the conduct of English local politicians using Foucauldian perspectives on government, power, and resistance. The research finds that ethics regulation encountered problems when politicians resisted the models of politic…
The determinants of public trust in English local government
One of the most difficult and under-examined issues in integrity research is understanding whether regulatory interventions designed to improve the ethical conduct of public bodies actually have any effect on public trust. In this article, we present the results of research which has sought to unpack this issue. Drawing on a large-scale public survey and case study analysis of nine local councils in England, the research examined the relative imp…
Contracting for social cohesion
Under the Labour government, Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) in England were responsible for the delivery of Local Area Agreements (LAAs) – agreed targets between central and local government. This paper uses statistical techniques and local authority case studies to explore the impact of LAAs on LSPs’ efforts to promote social cohesion. The results suggest that LSPs with a LAA for social cohesion experienced a better rate of improvement in c…
Putting the Citizen at the Centre? Assembling Local Government Policy in Wales
Since devolution in 1999, the Welsh Government has developed a distinctive approach to the management of local government policy. Alongside an emphasis on welfarism and partnership, local authorities have been exhorted to put the citizen at the centre of public service delivery. Drawing on the notion of assemblage, developed in the governmentality literature, this paper identifies two different rationalities running through Welsh Government polic…
Reframing Governance
Much of the work on contemporary governance points either to a strong central government that continues to operate hierarchically or else to a relatively weak centre which relies on network forms of coordination. In place of the choice between hierarchy and networks, the cultural theory pioneered by Mary Douglas draws our attention to five distinctive ‘social environments’ characterized in terms of hierarchy, individualism, egalitarianism, fatali…
Analysing Performance Assessment in Public Services
Approaches to performance assessment have been described as 'performance regimes', but there has been little analysis of what is meant by this concept and whether it has any real value. We draw on four perspectives on regimes - 'institutions and instruments', 'risk regulation regimes', 'internal logics and effects' and 'analytics of government' - to explore how the concept of a multi-dimensional regime can be applied to performance assessment in …
Regulating Public Services
Performance management systems have become a key component of contemporary public administration. However, there has been only limited analysis of the social construction of performance by public managers who are subject to them. This article examines the ways in which public managers create, maintain, and disrupt performance management practices. The authors find that managers make external performance assessments perform for themselves by const…
What Determines Ethical Behavior in Public Organizations
Leadership is widely seen as having an important role in fostering ethical conduct in organizations, but the ways in which the actions of leaders intersect with formal ethics regulation in shaping conduct have been little researched. This article examines this issue through a qualitative study of the operation of the “ethical framework” for English local government, which entailed all councils adopting a code of conduct to regulate the behavior o…
Administrative traditions and citizen participation in public policy
The participation of citizens in public policy-making has become a key aim for national and supranational institutions across Europe, but the relative importance policy-makers actually accord citizen participation arguably varies due to the alternative administrative traditions within different countries. Using data drawn from a large-scale survey of senior public managers in France, Germany, the United Kingdom (UK) and Norway, we find support fo…
Does knowledge brokering facilitate evidence-based policy? A review of existing knowledge and an agenda for future research
The claim that evidence-based policy (EBP) produces better outcomes has gained increasing support over the last three decades. Knowledge brokering (KB) is seen as a way to achieve improved policymaking and governments worldwide are investing significant resources in KB initiatives. It is therefore important to understand the range of these activities and to investigate whether and how they facilitate EBP. This article critically reviews the extan…
Political science (34 obras) · Public Administration (24 obras) · Public Administration (23 obras) · Public relations (22 obras) · Government (linguistics (20 obras) · Politics (19 obras) · Public Policy and Administration Research (19 obras) · Law (18 obras) · Law (18 obras) · Business (15 obras)