Privatizing Responsibility: Public Sector Reform under Neoliberal Government

À la lumière des réformes du secteur public au Canada et ailleurs, l'auteure se concentre sur le déplacement des priorités des responsabilités sociales vers les responsabilités privées et soulève de nouvelles questions sur les forces de l'entreprise privée et des partenariats reposant sur les mécanismes du marché. D'après elle, dans les programmes néo-libéraux du gouvernement, la responsabilité de la privatisation est liée à trois principaux aménagements : la reconsidération des relations entre le public et le privé; la mobilisation de l'esprit de civisme; et la création d'une mentalité culturelle d'observance de la règle allant de pair avec ces transformations. La recherche qui a été effectuée pour cet article s'est fondée sur l'analyse à grande échelle de documents de politique et d'initiatives de réforme du secteur public, de même que sur des interviews de fonctionnaires fédéraux canadiens.
In light of public sector reforms in Canada and elsewhere, this paper focuses on the shift of emphasis from social to private responsibilities and raises new questions about the forces of private enterprise and market-based partnerships. Under neoliberal governmental agendas, privatizing responsibility links to three main developments: the reconsideration of the relations of public and private; the mobilization of responsible citizenship; and the formation of a cultural mentality of rule that works alongside these developments. The research for this article is based on extensive analysis of policy documents and public sector reform initiatives, as well as interviews with Canadian federal public service employees.     

The Government Communication Decision Wheel: Toward a Public Relations Model for the Public Sector

We argue that the existing public relations and communication models do not adequately account for the unique environmental characteristics of the public sector. By reviewing the public sector environment literature, we identify 8 attributes that affect government public relations: politics, focus on serving the public, legal constraints, extreme media and public scrutiny, lack of managerial support for public relations practitioners, poor public perception of government communication, lagging professional development, and federalism. We then review 5 existing public relations models, arguing that none of these models fully incorporates the unique environmental characteristics of the public sector. We conclude by proposing a new model: the government communication decision wheel.     

Public and private agri-environmental regulation in post-socialist economies: Evidence from the Serbian Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Sector

Using primary survey data and interview evidence this paper analyses the implementation and enforcement of public and private environmental regulation in the Serbian Fresh Fruit and Vegetable (FFV) sector. This provides a basis for engaging in a wider debate on the nature of agri-food regulation in post-socialist economies. Depictions of the restructuring of agri-food supply chains as a shift from public to private regulation are rejected. Rather two distinct supply chains co-exist: a small number of export oriented producers operate subject to extensive private regulation while the majority of FFV farmers occupy regulatory voids, immune to both private and private control. Those farmers operating under extensive private regulation are more likely to obey appropriate public regulation. Findings highlight the differentiated nature of regulatory regimes that can co-exist within a national production sector.     

Relationship Between Government Size and Trade Openness: Evidence from Pakistan

In this paper the effect of trade openness on government’s role in the economy is investigated in Pakistan using data for the period 1947–2009. The results demonstrate that there is a significant positive association between trade openness and government size. The explanation appears that as openness increases the size of government will inflate. This association is robust to the inclusion of a wide range of control variables and model specifications. The results support the compensation hypothesis and imply that government consumption plays a risk-reducing role in Pakistan. The empirical findings also highlight the role of other variables in determining the government size. Government size increases with income, democracy, foreign debt and investment, while it decreases with the increase in inflation and urbanization.     

Rights and Access to Plant Genetic Resources under India's New Law

Recognition of ‘Farmer's Rights’ is an attempt by developing countries to evolve a counterclaim to breeders' Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) promoted under the TRIPs Agreement of the WTO. India is one of the first countries to have granted rights to both breeders and farmers under the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act, 2001. This multiple rights system aims to distribute rights equitably, but may pose the threat of an ‘anticommons tragedy’ i.e. too many parties independently possessing the right to exclude others from utilising a resource. If under‐utilisation of plant genetic resources results, the Act will have negative consequences for sustaining crop productivity and for the welfare of the very farming communities it seeks to compensate.     

Social Marketisation and Policy Influence of Third Sector Organisations: Evidence from the UK

The marketisation of social sector organisations or social marketisation emerged and spread around the world in the past three decades. In contrast with existing literature which claims that social marketisation makes social sector organisations reduce their efforts on advocacy and thus harms a civil society, this research argues that social marketisation is positively contributed to the influence of third sector organisations on government policies, and thus it strengthens civil society, rather than erodes it. Based on the National Survey of Charities and Social Enterprises in the UK, the results of regression analyses indicate clearly that, when other factors are equal, the two indicators of social marketisation, social entrepreneurship and achieving government contracts for purchasing services, are both statistically significant in estimating the level of policy influence of third sector organisations. The contribution of this research is that it finds a positive, instead of a negative, relationship between social marketisation and the perceived policy influence of third sector organisations.     

Reforming Property Tax Exemption Policy in the Nonprofit Sector: Commercialism,Collective Goods,and the Donative Theory

This article develops, critiques, and tests the donative theory, which bases the tax treatment of nonprofits on their production of collective or public goods, through twelve variations for determining property-tax-exempt organizations in five nonprofit industry groups. Using a case study of Indianapolis nonprofits, the results reveal that a significant number of organizations in the nonprofit sector and most industry groups would experience the loss of their property tax exemption. The author calls for nonprofit managers and scholars to give greater future attention to property tax exemption policy in the nonprofit sector.     

The Self as Public Property: Made in Israel

This article examines the connection between state order and self‐understandings in everyday life through a case study of the “Boarding School for Gifted Disadvantaged” in Israel. It includes content analysis of governmental protocols that documented the establishment of the boarding school (governmental constitution of a new self‐concept) and interviews with sixty of its graduates (self‐understandings in everyday life). The findings reveal how the new cultural order invented a new selfhood, “gifted disadvantaged,” previously unknown in Israel. This category is based on structural distinctions between being “naturally” gifted versus the governmental constitution of gifted status. Interviews with graduates indicate that they experience selfhood as a philanthropic gift bestowed on them by the state of Israel and voice their gratitude toward the state. The concluding discussion suggests that the graduates experience their selfhood as “public property.” The self, perceived as having been constructed from outside, is in a continuous dialectic between the presence and the absence of certain personal qualities.     

The Experience of Gender Change in Public Sector Organizations

The state has a twofold relationship to gender change in society, through its overall steering capacity and through the gendered character of its constituent agencies. It is therefore important to understand the experience of gender change in state organizations. The findings from a study of gender relations in ten public‐sector worksites in New South Wales, Australia are presented. There is a widespread consciousness of gender change linked with new labour processes, restructuring and new patterns of management. These changes are uneven and limits to change are visible. Gender is recognized as an organizational problem in specific circumstances, most visibly where men’s resistance to change appears. A number of mechanisms limit the consciousness of gender as a problem. Several trends, including the current strength of neo‐liberalism, converge to make the gender‐neutral workplace the principal goal of gender reform in the public‐sector workplace. This, however, limits the state’s steering capacity in regard to societal gender relations.     

Factors Contributing to the Size of Nonprofit Sector: Tests of Government Failure,Interdependence, and Social Capital Theory

Based on the county-level longitudinal data in the USA, this study finds that racial diversity is positively associated with the nonprofit sector size. We further find that the share of children below poverty level is negatively associated with the size of nonprofit sectors. Our findings support the government failure theory. Random effects models also show that federal funding and local funding are positively associated with the size of nonprofit sectors, which confirms interdependence theory. Lastly, we do not find statistically significant relationship between social capital—measured by the number of associations—and the nonprofit sector size.     

The Allocation of Black Workers into the Public Sector

Abstract

This study examines the effects of individual and structural factors on the odds that a black worker will be employed in the public sector (federal or state-local government) rather than the private sector. The independent variables include human capital, gender, citizenship, and the structural features of the labor markets (metropolitan areas) in which these workers reside (percent black, residential segregation, geographic region). The study focuses on percent black and residential segregation, two variables which significantly influence discrimination, group power and the employment opportunities of black workers. Logistic regression shows that, controlling for other factors, the odds of black employment in the public sector are highest in metropolitan areas that have large black populations and relatively low levels of residential segregation. These findings indicate that the allocation of black workers into the public sector results from processes of both discrimination and group power. The implications of the findings for the future prospects of black Americans to advance economically through public sector employment are discussed.     

The Origins and Influence of Land Property Rights in Vietnam

Vietnam's 1993 Land Law was intended not only to increase the security of farmers’usage rights to their land, but also to facilitate land transfers. Despite potential benefits, the actual issuance of land‐use rights certificates to farmers (as specified by the law) proceeded rather slowly in some regions. This article seeks to identify factors that explain the emergence of this form of property right as well as to measure its effect on agricultural production. The results suggest that the certificate's direct contribution may be rather small in the absence of the appropriate supporting conditions and institutions.     

政府向社会组织购买公共服务的问题与对策分析

政府向社会组织购买公共服务是我国公共服务制度的重要创新,对节约政府开支,提高公共服务效果有着重要意义。这种做法正在探索之中,购买程序、购买内容、定价、资金来源、评估机制等都存在着问题,需从两大方面探求解决途径,即政府应加大培养社会组织的力度,从法律法规层面上健全制度设计。     

Antecedents of Total Factor Productivity Change: Empirical Evidence from the Chinese Banking Sector

By applying the non-parametric Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) method, this paper attempts to investigate the sources of productivity changes of China’s State Owned Commercial Banks (SOCBs) and Joint Stock Commercial Banks (JSCBs) during the period 2000–2005. The empirical findings suggest that the China banking sector has exhibited productivity progress attributed to the increase in efficiency. The empirical findings suggest that the SOCBs and the JSCBs have exhibited productivity progress of 0.2 and 1.3%, respectively.