The second edition of this significant text has been thoroughly revised to take account of the latest literature, case studies and international developments in the field. Drawing on global research and practical examples, Bason illustrates the key triggers and practices of public sector innovation.
Each chapter includes a refined ‘how to do it’ toolkit, and two new chapters have been added, one which discusses the rise of innovation labs in the public sector, and a practical chapter focused on change leadership, to complement the existing chapter on leadership roles.
The book will be a valuable resource for researchers and students in public administration, management and policy, as well as managers, project managers and staff in public sector organisations.
81 4 Transforming the Public Sector Austerity means a lot more than less. Cutting public sector budgets and staff holds long-run implications for the capacities and orientation of the state. When fiscal cuts are connected with particular normative programmes, transformation rather than erosion becomes the watchword. The purpose of this chapter is to put post-2008 public sector restructuring in its historical context by examining some of the central strategies for reform connected to the longer-run trend of New Public Management (NPM). Rooted in neoliberal
Policy & Politics vol 29 no 2 195 © The Policy Press, 2002 • ISSN 0305 5736 Regulatory problems in the public sector: theories and cases Rachel Ashworth, George A. Boyne and Richard M. Walker English We develop a framework for assessing the extent of regulatory problems, and propose three hypotheses on the reasons for variations in these problems across the public sector. Five theoretical regulatory problems are identified: regulatee resistance, ritualistic compliance, regulatory capture, performance ambiguity and gaps in data. Our case study evidence on
171© The Policy Press, 2012 • ISSN 0305 5736 Key words: public sector • ideas • policy change • Finland Policy & Politics vol 40 no 2 • 171-91 (2012) • http://dx.doi.org/10.1332/147084411X581871 The role of ideas and institutional change in Finnish public sector reform Mikko Niemelä and Arttu Saarinen This article explores institutional change and the role of ideas in Finnish public sector reform from the late 1970s to 2007. The main purpose of the study is to explore the ideas advanced in favour of legislative reforms – what have been the objectives behind
21 TWO The public sector and its problems Where the facts are most obscure, where precedents are lacking, where novelty and confusion pervade everything, the public in all its unfitness is compelled to make its most important decisions. The hardest problems are those, which institutions cannot handle. These are public problems. (Walter Lippmann, The Phantom Public, 1925, p 121) Governments are paradoxically, and often in equal parts, seen as part of the problem and part of the solution.1 Famously, then president-elect Ronald Reagan stated in 1981: ‘In
133 5 Personal data in the public sector: reconciling necessary sharing with confidentiality? Christine Bellamy, Perri 6 and Charles Raab Introduction In order to carry out their work, public services collect, process and store vast quantities of data relating to every man, woman and child in the UK. Yet public officials and data subjects alike are confused about the powers that government agencies possess to exploit those data and the safeguards that have been put in place to protect the privacy of the individuals to whom they belong. On the one hand, the impact
Introduction For an extensive duration, researchers and practitioners within the public sector have dedicated their attention to a crucial inquiry: How can we enhance public policies to achieve efficacy and political viability, particularly within the realm of democratic governance? This query holds immense significance as public governance confronts formidable challenges, including the pressing issues of climate change and public health. It becomes imperative to devise new solutions that leverage established practices in public management and policy, paving
PART II Experiences of marketisation in the public sector
93 Policy & Politics vol 36 no 1 • 93–108 (2008) © The Policy Press, 2008 • ISSN 0305 5736 Key words: market • public sector • health • education Final submission February 2006 • Acceptance June 2007 Markets in the public sector: when do they work, and what do we do when they don’t? Ian Greener There is a danger that we have become so used to the idea of markets in the public sector that they become taken for granted. This article first problematises the terms ‘market’ and ‘public’, before going on to talk about markets as they are being used in present
53 FOUR Policy analysis and public sector capacity Brian Head Policy bureaucrats, working in diverse public sector agencies, have been the main providers of public policy analysis and advice in modern Australia. In recent years, however, this central role has been seriously challenged on several fronts. This chapter examines: the policy advice capacities developed and exercised by government; the key processes at national level for policy development in Australia, including intergovernmental forums; the rise of alternative (non-government) sources of
