Suchergebnisse

Reanalyzes telephone survey data from 1,221 NY residents regarding the state welfare system & proposed welfare reforms that are key features of the new federal welfare law. Analysis explores the extent to which public support for these reforms can be explained by self-interest factors, political affiliation, & beliefs regarding the poor, social rights, & the welfare system. While these variables have been found to be important in prior research, they provide a somewhat less consistent explanation of support for specific features of the new welfare system in the US. 4 Tables, 2 Appendixes, 25 References. Adapted from the source document.

A growing body of empirical work suggests that identifying the actors formally tasked with implementing policy can focus attention away from incumbent politicians. We examine the effects on blame attribution and voting intention of (a) the identifiability of a responsible policy worker (administrator), and (b) the evaluability of the policy work or outcome (policy failure), in the context of programs at two federal agencies (loans by the Small Business Administration and inspections by the U.S. Department of Agriculture). Using a set of online survey experiments with 1105 US adults, we find that the evaluability of a (negative) outcome generally reduces voting intention, but that the identifiability of a policy worker (administrator) tends to shift blame away from the incumbent politician and thus to increase voting intention. These experimental findings provide at least partial support for our theoretical expectations.

AbstractEvidence‐based management is on the rise as a strategy to promote more rational decision‐making and effectiveness in governance and public service delivery. To understand how widespread the use of evidence is among managers in various settings, and why evidence is emphasized more in some settings than others, it is necessary to have a good measure of the use of research and evidence in management decision‐making. This article reports on the development and testing of a new multi‐item scale, Norm of Evidence and Research in Decision‐making (NERD), that can be used across organizational and functional settings to assess evidence‐based management practices within an agency. The results indicate that the scale is internally consistent (reliable) and that it correlates with criteria of the underlying construct (valid). The article concludes with a discussion of the potential utility of the scale for advancing research and understanding about the use of evidence by public and nonprofit managers.

AbstractScholars and practitioners have long questioned whether the race, ethnicity, and gender of public bureaucrats matter to the efficacy and legitimacy of public services. Representative bureaucracy theory and research provide a growing body of empirical evidence that it does. This article examines some of the rich scholarly work that has been generated on representative bureaucracy and its implications for practice. A significant aspect of recent research focuses on the notion of symbolic representation, whereby the mere existence of a passively represented bureaucracy can itself improve outcomes by influencing the attitudes and behaviors of clients, regardless of bureaucratic actions or results. This article is intended to help both students and public managers understand the importance of representativeness in public organizations for a broad spectrum of practices and goals, from the coproduction of services to democratic rule.

Résumé Le Royaume-Uni (RU) a institué un cadre de performance pour le Service national de la santé (le « National Health Service » (NHS)) à la fin des années 90 qui, s'inspirant du nouveau management public (NMP), faisait appel à la mesure et à la gestion de la performance dans le but d'améliorer la qualité des services de santé offerts aux citoyens, ainsi que de réaliser les objectifs en matière d'efficience. Grâce à des données issues des Eurobaromètres 1996 et 2002 et à une approche analytique basée sur la différence dans les différences, nous allons évaluer les conséquences de ces réformes de performance en comparant le RU à d'autres pays de l'Union européenne sur le plan de la satisfaction globale des citoyens à l'égard du système de soins de santé et de l'efficacité de ce système de leur point de vue. D'une manière générale, nos résultats indiquent que la satisfaction des citoyens et leurs perceptions en matière de performance au RU étaient plus favorables après les réformes que ce qui se serait passé en l'absence de mise en œuvre des réformes. L'amélioration estimée dans la satisfaction et l'efficacité perçue est à la fois statistiquement et substantivement significative, ce qui confirme que le cadre de la performance britannique, qui s'inspire du NMP, a effectivement atteint certains de ses objectifs au moins. Remarques à l'intention des praticiens Les mouvements que sont le nouveau management public et la mesure de la performance dans l'administration publique ont suscité une mise en avant du service à la clientèle et de la satisfaction des citoyens. Nous évaluons les conséquences des réformes axées sur la performance dans le système de soins de santé au RU au fil du temps en les comparant à d'autres pays de l'UE. Nos résultats indiquent que les aspects du nouveau management public axés sur la qualité et sur la clientèle qui ont été appliqués dans le cadre des réformes du système de santé britannique semblent avoir amélioré la satisfaction des citoyens à l'égard des soins de santé et l'efficacité perçue du système de santé. Les initiatives des praticiens visant à mesurer, relater et améliorer la qualité peuvent avoir une influence considérable sur les attitudes des citoyens.

The United Kingdom (UK) instituted a performance framework for the National Health Service (NHS) in the late 1990s that, inspired by the New Public Management (NPM), employed performance measurement and management in an effort to improve the quality of health services to citizens, in addition to realizing efficiency goals. Using data from the 1996 and 2002 Eurobarometer and a difference in differences analytical approach, we evaluate the impacts of these performance reforms by comparing the UK to other European Union countries in terms of overall citizen satisfaction with the health care system and perceptions of how well the health care system performs. In general, our results suggest that citizen satisfaction and performance perceptions in the UK were more favorable after the reforms than what would have occurred, absent the implementation of the reforms. The estimated improvement in satisfaction and perceived performance is both statistically and substantively significant, and thus provides evidence that the UK's NPM-inspired performance framework did accomplish at least some of its goals. Points for practitioners The New Public Management and performance measurement movements in public administration have called for a focus on customer service and citizen satisfaction. We evaluate the effects of performance-focused reforms in the health care system in the UK over time in comparison to other EU countries. Our results suggest that the quality and customer-focused aspects of New Public Management that were applied through the UK's health system reforms seem to have improved citizen satisfaction with health care and perceived performance of the health system. Practitioners' efforts to measure, report, and improve quality may have noticeable effects on citizens' attitudes.

The proper balance between governmental secrecy and open government is at the forefront of contemporary public debate. Citizens have different degrees of interest in and demand for governmental transparency. Using data from a national online survey of more than 1,800 respondents, we develop several indices to measure citizens' demand for transparency at the local level and explore its correlates. We also examine the correlates of citizens' reported requests for information from local government. The data and analysis suggest that there are several dimensions to the public's demand for transparency, including fiscal, safety, and government concerns, and principled openness. Age, political ideology, confidence in government leaders, frequency of contacting government, and especially the perception that there is currently not enough access to government appear to drive the public's demand for transparency, although determinants differ for each dimension. Some, although not all, of these factors also predict citizens' actual requests for government information.