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This book provides a comprehensive comparison of municipally owned corporations in Europe. Municipal corporatisation is the act of delivering public services at arm’s length from local government through municipally owned corporations. Although it has become an increasing trend in recent years, we still know little about cross-country differences in what these municipally owned corporations look like, what legislation applies to them, and how they are governed. This book seeks to fill this gap. Each chapter outlines the legal provisions that enable or hinder the formation of municipally owned corporations in a particular country, the trends around corporatisation, and the structure of the corporations that exist. Going beyond the national context, the book provides an overview of what unites countries in terms of the trend towards municipally owned corporations, and what differentiates them. It offers a critical comparison that will make finding regional and global trends easier for researchers, and will help practitioners to better understand the differences between countries to allow for greater collaborative policy learning.
This book compares the trajectories and effects of local public sector reform in Europe and fills a research gap that has existed so far in comparative public administration and local government studies. Based on the results of COST research entitled, ‘Local Public Sector Reforms: an International Comparison’, this volume takes a European-scale approach, examining local government in 28 countries. Local government has been the most seriously affected by the continuously expanding global financial crisis and austerity policies in some countries, and is experiencing a period of increased reform activity as a result. This book considers both those local governments which have adopted or moved away from New Public Management (NPM) modernization to ‘something different’ (what some commentators have labelled ‘post-NPM’), as well as those which have implemented ‘other-than-NPM measures’, such as territorial reforms and democratic innovations.
This book discusses how the Dutch vocational education system has undergone significant waves of reform driven by global imperatives, national concerns and governmental policy goals. Like elsewhere, the impetuses for these reforms are directed to generating a more industry-responsive, locally-accountable and competence-based vocational education system. Each wave of reforms, however, has had particular emphases, and directed to achieve particular policy outcomes. Yet, they are more than mere versions of what had or is occurring elsewhere. They are shaped by specific national imperatives, sentiments and localised concerns. Consequently, whilst this book elaborate what constitutes the contempo...
This collection of field studies offers novel insights into the issues of migration and integration of immigrants. The focus of the chapters is on actions, processes, and complexity of organising practices, in contrast to more policy-oriented works. The contributors address vital questions: How is the labour market integration of refugees and other immigrants being organised in practice? What ideas of integration give rise to, and are promoted by contemporary integration initiatives? And what are the effects of these integration initiatives – on immigrants’ lives, and on their labour market integration in terms of diversity, gender, and power relations? With contributions highlighting the importance of coordination and collaboration for the successful organising of integration, this book should be of interest to researchers and advanced students from the fields of management and organisation studies, public administration and management, migration and integration studies, sociology, cultural studies and science and technology studies. It should also interest professionals and policymakers working with integration who face the challenges described here in their daily work.
The welfare state in its traditional form seems no longer sustainable. At the Rothenberge Seminar 2004, a joint venture of the School of Business, Public Administration and Technology at the University of Twente, NL, and the Institute of Public Economics at the Westfaelische Wilhelms-University Muenster, D, the reform options for the welfare state as such and in particular for the health care sector were discussed. In addition to that, other topics were touched upon as environmental policy, the urban structure of Germany and the public sector in general.
Deciphering the European Investment Bank: History, Politics and Economics examines the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Union’s financial institution and the largest lender and borrower among the International Financial Institutions. Since its establishment in 1958, the EIB has developed without becoming front-page news and has remained highly invisible. By putting together 14 chapters that analyze topical and meaningful moments and aspects of the bank, this edited book offers the first comprehensive analysis of its origins and its evolution in terms of its mandate, governance, structures, policy activity, and performance. Written by acknowledged experts from various discipline...
“This study probes deeply into the dynamics of the blame games that seem now to have become an inevitable part of advanced societies’ responses to negative events. Resodihardjo’s forensic analysis of how such negative events get framed, investigated and accounted for significantly advances our understanding of how incidents and crises affect the reputations and political capital of public authorities, and how they can foster but also significantly impede institutional learning.”—Paul ’t Hart, Utrecht University, The Netherlands “The crisis is often not even over before the mud starts flying. This little gem of a book outlines causes and consequences of blame games. The author o...
This comprehensive Encyclopedia is an essential reference text for students, scholars and practitioners in public management. Offering a broad and inter-cultural perspective on public management as a field of practice and science, it covers all the most relevant and contemporary terms and concepts, comprising 78 entries written by nearly 100 leading international scholars.
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.
Public innovation is distinctive from private sector innovation by being set in a political system rather than a market. The roles of citizens and elected politicians as well as public servants and other stakeholders are frequently relevant. Public organizations can be creators, funders, orchestrators or sense-makers of innovations, which are carried out with the aim of benefitting society. This book provides a comprehensive insight into the theory and practice of public innovation using a wide range of research evidence about the processes, drivers and barriers, stakeholders and outcomes of innovation. Using the lens of public value, the book offers a stimulating discussion of how public innovation is valued and contested in current societies. Valuing Public Innovation aims to help develop a deeper understanding of innovation and how to use that knowledge in practical ways. This is essential reading for academics and students in the fields of innovation, organisation studies, public administration and public policy, as well as for policymakers and practitioners.