Suchergebnisse

A full understanding of the implementation of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is essential. PPPs should be considered in sectors where there is need for improvement of infrastructure and service delivery. Every government should have legislation and a regulatory framework on PPPs to facilitate local and foreign investors to implement new projects. The absence of a legal and regulatory framework on PPPs hinders close collaboration between the public and private sectors. This article argues that the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) project is an excellent model for governments in SSA where there is lack of infrastructure to provide better service delivery. Most BOT projects require sizeable financial investment. Many governments prefer to use BOT for construction of specific infrastructure such as new electricity power plants, toll roads, prisons, dams and water plants. Experience shows that BOT agreements tend to reduce market and credit risk for the private sector because in most cases government is the only customer, thus reducing the risk associated with insufficient demand and the inability to pay.

In "For Public Sociology" and other essays, Michael Burawoy acknowledges that the national sociologies of countries other than the US (e.g. Brazil, Norway, South Africa) differ substantially from the US case. The balance and dynamics among the four types of sociology, the timing and phases of the historical development of the discipline and the challenges that face the discipline, are some of the many ways sociology differs from country to country (2005a: 20-22; 2005c: 382-4, 2005d: 423-4). Canada is a particularly interesting case because of its geographic proximity and close economic and cultural ties to the United States. Canadian sociology has been deeply influenced by American sociology, but has always stood in an uneasy intellectual and political relationship to the US version of the discipline (Hiller 1982; Brym with Fox 1989; Cormier 2004; McLaughlin 2005). A serious discussion of the possibilities and challenges for a public sociology in Canada requires an analysis of the historical and sociological specificity of the Canadian version of the discipline, something we hope to offer here in this introduction as well as in the papers to follow.

Considering the high pressure on the healthcare limited resources, mainly on hospitals, determined by the population ageing, and the increased incidence of chronic and infectious diseases, it is essential to both decrease expenditures and provide good quality healthcare. In this paper we focus on the efficiency of Romanian public hospitals. Our research goals are to identify and examine the inefficient public hospitals in Romania; to determine sources of inefficiency in Romanian public hospitals; to describe a potential reduction in all inputs on average to rationalize hospital resources; and recommend that hospital management be improved. We propose an approach that contains preliminary data analyses to obtain homogeneous distributions, then we use Data Envelopment Analysis to estimate the technical efficiency scores for the hospitals in the sample. The results showed that more than half of the examined small hospitals were technically inefficient and that they could have produced a larger number of discharges and consequently an increased number of inpatient days. Possible reductions in inputs were also indicated. These results suggest ways of improving hospital management and restructuring and reorganizing decisions that can be implemented in the hospital network.

The public interests -- Virtue of public administrators -- Utility in democratic policymaking -- Duty to the constitution and laws -- Federalism, states, communities & honesty -- Public organizations management & loyalty -- Human resources management & diversity -- Public financial management & corruption -- Nonprofits & faith-based organizations

Abstract
The current study is a result of the Hungarian government's aspiration to cut bureaucracy and increase public administration's efficiency, thus impacting personnel and reorganizing the labour market. The public-sector headcount reduction is being justified in terms of Hungary's inadequate private-/public-sector employment ratio. This reorganization can come to fruition only via the development of intellectual capital and a well-designed system for retraining and further education. In cases of retraining and further education offered by the state, we must be wary of generational differences and possible motivations, while also keeping in mind the influence education can have on the market, society, and the individual. Our research has shown that the demand for a given type of instruction is also influenced by the generational differences among those who wish to learn. Overall, our respondents showed an interest in learning.

During the last three decades government debt has increased in most developed countries. During the same period we have also observed a significant liberalization of international financial markets. We propose a multicountry model with incomplete markets and show that governments may choose higher levels of debt when financial markets become internationally integrated. We also show that public debt increases with the volatility of uninsurable income (idiosyncratic risk). To the extent that the increase in income inequality observed in some industrialized countries has been associated with higher idiosyncratic risk, the paper suggests another potential mechanism for the rise in public debt. (JEL D31, E62, F65, H63)

Over the last two decades, policy analysis has flourished as government has turned increasingly to the services of policy experts. With the refinement of analytic tools, vast amounts of data have been made available to decisionmakers. These developments have no doubt enhanced the management of many government programs. But some of the most serious policy problems -- those involving macroeconomic policy & aspects of foreign policy -- have not yielded to solutions. Moreover, the abundance of data has sometimes been overwhelming for decisionmakers, a fact that may in part explain the inclination of many to seek simple & painless panaceas for complex problems. Although policy analysis can help policymakers, it does not provide an escape from difficult decisions. HA.

Inadequate understanding of the realities of the current health care system hampers the continuing debate between those favoring a "free market" approach & those supporting socialized medicine. Promarket arguments rely on an idealized, nonexistent market; antimarket arguments vaguely discuss "meeting reasonable needs," without providing a functional definition of these terms. Only an adequate grasp of the realities of the existing market -- taking into account the roles played by insurance, regulation & monopoly, & the cost, ineffectiveness, & allocation of resources characterizing present practice -- can lead to effective modification of health care provision. Greater attention should be paid to economic analysis of specific practices such as clinical procedures, screening & preventive programs, organization of health clinics & hospital departments, & large capital investments; behavioral modeling can also point to effective change. All of these tasks require the cooperation of economists & health care specialists, not a continuation of the ideological clash of pro- & antimarket forces. J. Weber.

The Canadian Annual Review has become an indispensable reference work for all concerned with Canadian public affairs.