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Study Unit 2 Re-Imagining Public Administration: Globalisation,…
Study Unit 2 Re-Imagining Public
Administration:
Globalisation, Paradigms
and Governance
Chapter 1: Issues Affecting Public Administration Today
Globalisation and Public Administration
Globalisation can be understood as “the increasing movement of goods, services and capital across national borders
I.e.
rise of world gov
/ international agencies - With the decline of government, or at least a reimagining of it, public administration could also retreat accordingly
there were
others who believed that the effects of globalisation were inflated
and that the states were just as present and strong as before, protecting their sovereignty against the onslaught of non-state international actors
Rise of the Leviathan Government (Big Gov)
Globalisation influenced the inception of big government because:
Government's interest in controlling public administration and
determining the administrative culture
.
Economic intervention - global economic recession prompted governments to intervene more rigorously in the economy so as to
bail out financial entities
and to keep economies afloat by liquidity injections
Economicisation in Public Administration
public administrators increasingly rely
on “economic-derived analytical frames
and lenses” and public administration, both as a practice and as a discipline, has become “
marketised
”
Cost-benefit analysis
: In many countries, cost-benefit analysis and economic efficiency have affected traditional dimensions of public administration including managing human resources, decision-making, programme evaluation and budgeting
Effects in Economicisation
: One of the most common effects of these economicisation is reflected in the
re-orientation of governments and states
to become more
entrepreneurial
in its outlook and activities. (i.e pursuing
privatisation, outsourcing,
cost-recovery of public services provided)
Information and Communications Technology in Public Administration
Globalisation has also brought about technological diffusion (
reliance on ICT such as social media network
)
Benefits of ICTs
- benefits incudes
higher levels of
transparency and accountability,
access to government services and thus,
increase of trust
in government, as citizens are able to receive tangible benefits more easily
the pervasive use of social media sites, such as Facebook, by government agencies also
allows greater interaction
between the public administrators and citizens
Drawbacks of ICTs Drawbacks include:
Demographical outreach
: - e-government services may not necessarily be easily welcome by all citizens in a polity; citizens who have no access to ICT-enabled devices like smartphones or computers or have little ICT-oriented knowledge to access such services, may not benefit from e-government services
public entrepreneurs pursue profit, similar to private entrepreneurs
(Question of values)
Responding to 21st Century Issues
Issues include:
climate change,
gender inequalities,
income inequalities,
geopolitics,
ethno-linguistic cleavages as a result of migration,
trade wars, health epidemics,
the pre-dominance of non-state actors such as international organisations and businesses and changing demographic
public administration structures and public administrators are expected not only to ride the digital wave and
embrace public management with scientific precision
, but also to display their human touch, and
apply values and ethics
when responding to the citizens’ woes and demands.
Chapter 2: Re-Imagining Public Administration
Limitations of Public Administration characteristics of public
administration (unnecessarily) prioritise rules and technical expertise
Some criticism incldues
Vertical/Top-down governance
Public administration is vertically governed
as administration is organised hierarchically for both management and
enforcement of rules and regulations
so as to achieve the public service’s policy and goals.
However, the
concentration of power
at the top of the hierarchy sometimes
excludes those at the lower levels
of the hierarchy from the decision-making process.
As a result, horizontal organisational structures in public administration are increasingly favoured
Depoliticised professionals
these professionals often
avoid public debate and scrutiny
as they are removed from the political process.
While depoliticisation of policy formulation and implementation is not necessarily negative, the
overly narrow focus, impatience and lack of sensitivity to the political environment
(including the needs and wants of the electorate) are deemed to be incompatible to the fundamentals of a democracy.
instrumental rationality
In line with Weberian tradition, the
public service
such as bureaucracies often adopt instrumental rationality -
scientific knowledge-based rules govern in a top-down hierarchy
, so as to achieve maximum efficiency.
However, the views and actions of public administrators sometimes differ from policymakers as the public service often utilises technical expertise to attain goals and conversely, is seen to act irrationally, inefficiently and
incapable of solving real-world problems
Over-emphasis on bureaucratic principles
The bureaucracy and the
policy formulating
, and implementation process are
governed by principles
such as hierarchy, specialisation, technical expertise, and dense webs of rules and regulations.
However, these are
simply analytical tools
by which we analyse bureaucratic functions and performance but are so critical to our understanding of the public service, that
we reify these agencies
(i.e. attach real meaning to abstract concepts to give it a life of its own).
If these bureaucratic principles have simply been constructed by scholars and bureaucrats in history, then reinventing and reforming the public service should not be as troubled and difficult as it seems
Poor interactions/transparency
Similarly, the public service are often large, complex networks, matched only by rising expectations of citizens in public service delivery.
However, in their quest to rely on technical information and expertise, the
public service also shies away from deliberation and interaction with the public
, is less transparent with the public, and also less responsive to public criticism
Placating vs addressing
Many states today have established democratic institutions and much effort has been made to increase levels of citizen participation in the political process.
However, instead of listening to citizens and taking their demands, suggestions and general involvement seriously,
the public service is seen to simply placate citizens, seeing them as threats to their interest and functions
, especially when citizens demand accountability and question the efficacy and capacity of public administrators
Another related consequence of this phenomenon is when public administrators in turn
attempt to influence the attitudes of civil society and citizens
(presumably in favour of the public service) and
not being open to citizen voices
Dualistic Thinking
Dualistic thinking, whereby the
separation of politics and the public from the administrative process
is still present in public administration today.
As such, despite much effort, the complexity of the socio-political, socio-economic and human contexts in which all policy problems occur and require to be solved is not adequately reflected in many decisions made by the public service.
As long as
bureaucratic rigidity compromises citizen’s abilities to query, make demands
of and critique the public service and the
citizens are simply reduced to being passive recipients of government services
, the very goals of public administration to diligently and efficiently serve the public, will go unmet.
Paradigms of Public Administration - The Era of New Public Management and New Public Governance
Ancient and Traditional public administration were thus seen as stagnant and unable to address the wider significance of changes in societies (Wicked problem)
As such, newer paradigms in the field of public administration such as New Public Management (NPM) and New Public Governance (NPG) were developed
Borrowing from the Private Sector - New Public Management
NPM was seen as a way to amend the failures and moral bankruptcy that characterised Old public administration and instead sought to bring about improvements to practice of public administration via seven doctrines
seven doctrines of NPM
Disaggregation
Gain efficiency by creating manageable units via decentralisation and unbundling of formely compounded units
Parsimonious
Do more with less by inculcating displine
Emphasis on Out put-control
Emphasis on resource allocation and rewards, given focus on results
Greater competition
Use of term contracts and public tendering procedures to create rivalry among goods and service provider to lower costs and increase standards
Explicit Standards
Clear definitions of Goals, targets, indicators and objective to promote accountability
Private sector styles of management
Use of proven private sector management tools such as flexibility in hiring and rewards system and use of public relations technique.
Hands-on professional management
Clear assignment of power to top management who have the freedom to manage via discretionary powers
Critique on NPM
Upon careful examination of the ideas articulated in the
seven doctrines
of NPM, one would realise that they are
not entirely new
.
For instance, the professional management styles are
reminiscent of the traditional politics-administration
dichotomy which dates way back to the 1880s
Hood and Jackson (1991) argue that many features of NPM
leave governments and the public service in a vulnerable position.
While their study was how NPM approaches affected government response to natural disasters, there are some generic learning points.
For instance, an
emphasis on corporate or privatised agencies
may result in the latter considering risk or profits when responding to public policy issues.
These can also lead to such agencies distorting or concealing information about organisation
dysfunction, especially when reward is linked to performance.
Such narrow bottom-line approaches may also inadvertently tempt the public service to doctor statistics and results, as opposed to how senior administrators with a true public service ethic may respond, given similar scenarios.
Another potential problem lies with the emphasis on
cost-cutting - cost-cutting pressures
often “serve to destabilise the bureaucracy and to weaken or destroy elementary but essential competences at the front-line” (Hood & Jackson, 1991).
A related criticism is that NPM’s emphasis on professional managers has counter-intuitively
Promoted the “career interests of an elite group of new managerialists rather than the masse of public service customers or low-level staff”
(Hood, 1991);
the latter, street-level bureaucrats who are one of the most critical actors in the public service delivery process and ordinary citizens who consume public goods and services daily, are sadly not the main focus of NPM reform.
Spotlight on Citizens and Public Interest - New Public Governance
While
NPM
placed
emphasis on the technicalities of increasing efficiency
in the public service via private-sector management styles,
New Public Governance
on the other hand
focused on a more social aspect
of public administration - citizens and the community.
As such, there is a
diffusion of power
in public decision-making and implementation and the state is no longer the sole determiner of public administration
under NPG, there is a
closer working relationship
between government, the public service, citizens, community and civil society actors, all functioning coherently in a collaborative, horizontal structure
Emphasis on the public service ethos
The NPG method also places greater emphasis on public service ethos of the public servants.
While public servants are still expected to be professional and impartial, NPG
requires public servants to be more citizen- and service-oriented
and they are expected to “exhibit voluntarism and willingness to carry out a larger range of tasks” and are also accountable to the public (Robinson, 2015).
Unlike under NPM, the public service in
NPG provides public goods and services not so much as to make profit
or recover costs, but
more to solve societal problems
Collaborative
The
emphasis on the collaborative horizontal relationship
in NPG is also a departure from earlier paradigms of public administration; traditional public administration emphasised a single-line, vertical structure while NPM highlighted the need for market reforms.
However, NPG emphasises the
integration of “social organisations and individuals to form a complex network”
comprising “government, market, society, public organisations, community and individual citizens” who cooperate and are interdependent, sharing resources and satisfying needs of various citizens.
This
diffusion of decision-making power
thus
increases not only the democratic accountability of the public service but also allows the public service to more effectively construct and enact public policy
optimally, according to the interests, needs and wants of the population.
Approaching Wicked problems.
Another reason why NPG is seen favourably by public administration scholars, is the nature of problems that challenge the public service today.
Recall how many socioeconomic and political problems are considered to be wicked.
Climate change, gender bias, economic inequalities, poverty and concerns related to population ageing, which are increasingly common in contemporary societies, are typical examples of wicked problems.
Wicked problems
cannot be solved by one single actor or agency and instead require the expertise of “collaborative networks
between public managers, citizens and not-for-profit actors”.
As such, neither the classical authoritative governance of old public administration nor the results oriented NPM is able to adequately solve wicked problems
Wicked problems cannot be solved completly
Horizontal Fragmentation
Firstly, the increase of horizontal fragmentation across various departments and organisations within the public service structure and the attempt to create more collaborative networks with stakeholders external to the public service structure requires careful coordination, which in itself,
presents various challenges
when eventually implemented on the ground.
Considering multiple perspectives
Secondly, these efforts to find solutions to problems that hitherto have had no solutions, may at most, result in increased chances of “finding a better solution”.
Where
harnessing the understanding of wicked problems in public administration becomes useful
is
when public administrators
realise such complexities and challenges and
ensure that problem-solving
in policy issues not only includes elements of NPG but also includes a “strong
focus on considering problems from several perspectives”
Governance in Public Administration
What is Governance and Why is it Important?
governance can be understood as “exercise of economic, political and administrative authority to manage a country’s affairs”, as according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
The Nexus between Public Policy and Governance
What is public policy
Public policy refers to a
decision made by government
, with an explicit set of objectives and goals, after careful consideration of various available options
Characteristics
Characteristics of Public policies include:
affects socio-economics and political areas. (Health, Economic growth
involves use of coercion to ensure compliance (i.e. taxes and penalties)
involves spending public resources to achieve chosen objective and goals.
Aims to solve soicetal problems that require public or collective action
Juridcal in nature
Collaboration, Networks and Steering in Governance
less government and more governance
moving forward,
public decision-making
should no longer adequately be undertaken by top-down, hierarchical models. Instead, it would take place in systems - “
interlaced webs of tensions
in which control is loose, power diffused, and centres of decision making plural”
The rationale for decision-making to be located in such dense webs is
simply a result of the magnitude of problems to be solved
Solution: big responses will be “multi-organisational and will
involve both public and private organisations”
Citizens viewed as
partners
Differences between responsiveness and collaboration
responsiveness
is seen as “
passive, unidirectional
reaction to people’s needs and demands”
public administration runs like a private-sector organisation (a marketplace) features more responsiveness to account for
performance output
and to
receive legitimisation when results are achieved.
collaboration
is “
active, bidirectional act
of participation, involvement and unification of forces between two (or more) parties”
collaboration is more characteristic of New Public Governance where it “highlights a
moral value
of genuine cooperation
and team-work
”, where neither actor is a “pure servant or master”
Key Elements of Governance in the Public Sector
What is Good Governance?
There are
four major types
of governance:
Political governance
Economic governance
Administrative governance
Systemic governance
It should be noted that
all four types of governance are
subject to influence and pressures
of citizens, civil society actors and the private sector
it would be naïve to assume that these four variants are independent of each other -
they collectively impact on governance structures in a country
Measuring Good governance
Good governance is measured by the World Bank via six indicators including
(1) voice and accountability,
(2) political stability and absence of violence,
(3) government effectiveness,
(4) regulatory quality,
(5) rule of law, and
(6) control of corruption
Elements of Good
Governance
Rule of Law
all
political and administrative
actors
are
subject to
the rule of
law
independence of law enforcement institutions
such as the judiciary and inquiry commissions
Corruption Control
formulation and implementation of sound policies and
regulations
to prevent exercise
of public power
for private gain
prevention of capture of the state
and its resources by political and administrative elites
Government Effectiveness
Formulation and implementation of public
policy to address
political and socio-economic
development and concerns
Long-term vision and commitment of government to ensure citizens’ concerns are addressed and development needs are met
Political and/or Administrative Reforms
timely and meaningful reforms of public institutions such as the civil service
to enhance policy formulation and implementation
, promotion of transparency, adoption of efficiency-boosting initiatives such as e-government or decentralisation
Good Governance and Sustainable Development
outcomes of public policy should also be defined in terms of
“sustainable economic, social and environmental benefits”
As a result of wicked problems, many
non-state actors
such as non-governmental organisations and civil society organisations become
increasingly important stakeholders
who are “
assuming stronger roles
in providing and delivering” public goods and services, as was discussed earlier in the study unit
Sustainability
Sustainable human development refers largely to:
poverty reduction,
job creation and sustainable livelihoods,
environmental protection and
regeneration and advancement of women
public administration must pay closer attention to its contribution in sustainable development
Public administration thus far has been
engrossed in assessing how to effectively and efficiently deliver public goods and services
by evaluating various strategies (as examined under the various public administration paradigms).
However, in order to achieve a more comprehensive form of public sector good governance, the “combined economic, social, and environmental impact of their policies, plans, and decisions” must be considered; simply put, the
public sector must “ensure that its decisions further the entity’s purpose, contribute to intended benefits and outcomes, and remain within the limits of authority and resources
”