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Government Services (government + services)
Terms modified by Government Services Selected AbstractsCONTRACTING FOR GOVERNMENT SERVICES: THEORY AND EVIDENCE FROM U.S. CITIES,THE JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL ECONOMICS, Issue 3 2010JONATHAN LEVIN Local governments can provide services with their own employees or by contracting with private or public sector providers. We develop a model of this ,make-or-buy' choice that highlights the trade-off between productive efficiency and the costs of contract administration. We construct a dataset of service provision choices by U.S. cities and identify a range of service and city characteristics as significant determinants of contracting decisions. Our analysis suggests an important role for economic efficiency concerns, as well as politics, in contracting for government services. [source] FACILITATING CHOICE IN ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENTECONOMIC AFFAIRS, Issue 1 2006Stephen J. Bailey This paper examines recent policies to enhance the scope for choice by the users of local government services in England. It questions whether they can offset the progressively increasing restriction of local democratic choices that have resulted from the trend towards increasing centralisation of local finance and statutory controls over service standards. [source] Critically classifying: UK e-government website benchmarking and the recasting of the citizen as customerINFORMATION SYSTEMS JOURNAL, Issue 2 2009Benjamin Mosse Abstract In recent years, discussion of the provision of government services has paid particular attention to notions of customer choice and improved service delivery. However, there appears to be marked shift in the relationship between the citizen and the state moving from government being responsive to the needs of citizens to viewing citizens explicitly as customers. This paper argues that this change is being accelerated by government use of techniques like benchmarking, which have been widely used in the private sector. To illustrate this point, the paper focuses on the adoption of website benchmarking techniques by the public sector. The paper argues that the essence of these benchmarking technologies, a process comprised of both finding and producing truth, is fundamentally based on the act of classifying and draws on Martin Heidegger's etymological enquiry to reinterpret classification as a dynamic movement towards order that both creates and obfuscates truth. In so doing, it demonstrates how Heidegger's seminal ideas can be adapted for critical social research by showing that technology is more than an instrument as it has epistemic implications for what counts as truth. This stance is used as the basis for understanding empirical work reporting on a UK government website benchmarking project. Our analysis identifies the means involved in producing the classifications inherent in such benchmarking projects and relates these to the more general move that is recasting the relationship between the citizen and the state, and increasingly blurring the boundaries between the state and the private sector. Recent developments in other attempts by the UK government to use private-sector technologies and approaches indicate ways in which this move might be challenged. [source] The utilization of e-government services: citizen trust, innovation and acceptance factors,INFORMATION SYSTEMS JOURNAL, Issue 1 2005Lemuria Carter Abstract. Electronic government, or e-government, increases the convenience and accessibility of government services and information to citizens. Despite the benefits of e-government , increased government accountability to citizens, greater public access to information and a more efficient, cost-effective government , the success and acceptance of e-government initiatives, such as online voting and licence renewal, are contingent upon citizens' willingness to adopt this innovation. In order to develop ,citizen-centred' e-government services that provide participants with accessible, relevant information and quality services that are more expedient than traditional ,brick and mortar' transactions, government agencies must first understand the factors that influence citizen adoption of this innovation. This study integrates constructs from the Technology Acceptance Model, Diffusions of Innovation theory and web trust models to form a parsimonious yet comprehensive model of factors that influence citizen adoption of e-government initiatives. The study was conducted by surveying a broad diversity of citizens at a community event. The findings indicate that perceived ease of use, compatibility and trustworthiness are significant predictors of citizens' intention to use an e-government service. Implications of this study for research and practice are presented. [source] The Role of Social Networks in Immigrant Women's Political IncorporationINTERNATIONAL MIGRATION REVIEW, Issue 4 2009Elisabeth Gidengil This article examines how immigrant women's social networks affect their propensity to vote and to participate in unconventional political activities, as well as their knowledge of politics and government services and programs. Our primary source of data is a telephone survey of women living in Canada's two largest metropolitan areas. Our findings show that contrary to the social capital literature, bonding ties do not exert strong negative effects on political incorporation, while bridging ties are not as helpful as hypothesized. What is important for immigrant women are the resources that are embedded in their social networks. [source] Limits of the Appeal to Internet in Accessing Information and Training in the Exercise of Parenting Skills in QuebecJOURNAL OF COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION, Issue 2 2008François Larose In this article, we define the concept of digital gap as a multidimensional construct, and account for the contradictory relations stated in the scientific literature concerning the appeal to Internet by the more or less privileged strata of society. We explore the state of the digital gap and analyze diverse policies implemented by federal and provincial governments to support accessibility to digital resources in Quebec. After presenting results of a survey with parents concerning access to information and training in the exercise of parenting skills, we analyze these data in accordance with factors associated with the digital gap. We conclude by underlining the danger of compensation policies for the most vulnerable strata of society when government services are placed online. [source] Employment, privatization, and managerial choice: Does contracting out reduce public sector employment?JOURNAL OF POLICY ANALYSIS AND MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2007Sergio Fernandez We examine the effects of governments' use of alternative service provision on public employment using panel data from a nationally representative sample of local governments. We model the effects of alternative service provision on the size of the public workforce and hypothesize that alternative provision jointly impacts both full- and part-time employment. We find evidence of an inter-relationship between these employment types. Our results from seemingly unrelated and 3SLS regressions indicate that full-time employment in the public sector declines when additional services are provided by for-profit providers, while part-time employment increases. The net employment effect in the public sector is negative when government services are moved to the for-profit sector. These combined effects result in a compositional shift toward more part-time public sector employment. © 2006 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management [source] African Independent Churches in Mozambique: Healing the Afflictions of InequalityMEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2002James Pfeiffer The recent explosive proliferation of African Independent Churches (AICs) in central Mozambique coincided with rapid growth of economic disparity in the 1990s produced by privatization, cuts in government services, and arrival of foreign aid promoted by Mozambique's World Bank/International Monetary Fund Structural Adjustment Program. Drawing on ethnographic research in the city of Chimoio, this article argues that growing inequality has led to declining social cohesion, heightened individual competition, fear of interpersonal violence, and intensified conflict between spouses in poor families. This perilous social environment finds expression in heightened fears of witchcraft, sorcery, and avenging spirits, which are often blamed in Shona ideology for reproductive health problems. Many women with sick children or suffering from infertility turn to AICs for treatment because traditional healers are increasingly viewed as dangerous and too expensive. The AICs invoke the "Holy Spirit" to exorcise malevolent agents and then provide a community of mutual aid and ongoing protection against spirit threats. [Mozambique, social inequality, African Independent Churches, intrahousehold, health] [source] IMPORTANCE-PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF CITIZEN SATISFACTION SURVEYSPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 1 2007GREGG G. VAN RYZIN This paper introduces the method of importance-performance analysis of citizen surveys, a useful approach to understanding citizen satisfaction with local government services. Using data from a US national online panel, we directly compare two approaches to importance-performance analysis: one employing an explicitly stated measure of importance, the other using a measure of importance derived from regression analysis. The different results that the two approaches give suggest that local government administrators and policy analysts arrive at distinctly different conclusions depending on which importance measure they use. These differences are illustrated by simulating the change in citizen satisfaction that would result from improvement in the top-rated services according to each measure. Research and policy implications are discussed. [source] Rational Management, Performance Targets and Executive Agencies: Views from Agency Chief Executives in Northern IrelandPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 3 2001Noel Hyndman The way in which central government services are delivered in both Britain and Northern Ireland has changed significantly since 1988. Executive Agencies have been created with the aim of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery, with changes being supported by an increasing focus on the rational management model as a basis for improving management in the public sector. This paper is a case study of nine agencies within the Northern Ireland ,family of agencies' and is the first study of its type in the UK. It presents the results of a series of interviews with agency Chief Executives that attempted to identify perceptions with respect to the development, use and impact of mission statements, objectives, targets and performance measures (components of a rational management approach). The main findings of the research include: Northern Ireland Chief Executives perceive an increased focus on quantification since agencification; this focus is viewed as helpful in providing a basis for improving management; systems in practice are considered to be much more flexible than a rigid management model would normally suggest; and, it is thought that the potential adverse consequences of such an approach can be managed. [source] Governing by goals and numbers: A case study in the use of performance measurement to build state capacity in ChinaPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION & DEVELOPMENT, Issue 1 2009Jie Gao Abstract This article examines why performance measurement, a tool adopted by western countries chiefly to improve government services, has been designed and implemented as an instrument for building state capacity and for ensuring policy compliance in China. Under China's performance measurement system, the central government translates its macro reform goals into specific policy objectives, which it then assigns downwards through the administrative hierarchy. Local governments at the county level convert the policy objectives allocated to them into a variety of prioritised performance targets for local officials to achieve. Using the experience of an inland Chinese county as a case study, this article argues that performance measurement accrues significant political benefits to its users. It forces local Chinese officials to concentrate their efforts on realising the policy priorities set by the higher-level authorities. However, the way that performance measurement is conducted,governing by goals and numbers,does not address the substantial governance issues and fundamental social and political tensions that exist in Chinese society. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] CONTRACTING FOR GOVERNMENT SERVICES: THEORY AND EVIDENCE FROM U.S. CITIES,THE JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL ECONOMICS, Issue 3 2010JONATHAN LEVIN Local governments can provide services with their own employees or by contracting with private or public sector providers. We develop a model of this ,make-or-buy' choice that highlights the trade-off between productive efficiency and the costs of contract administration. We construct a dataset of service provision choices by U.S. cities and identify a range of service and city characteristics as significant determinants of contracting decisions. Our analysis suggests an important role for economic efficiency concerns, as well as politics, in contracting for government services. [source] A BROAD PERFORMANCE BENCHMARK BASED ON CITIZENS' PREFERENCES: THE CASE OF SWEDISH PUBLIC TRANSPORTATIONANNALS OF PUBLIC AND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, Issue 4 2009Magnus Söderberg ABSTRACT,:,Benchmarks have been recommended for assessing the relative performance of local government services. However, these are often narrowly defined and therefore ignore important welfare dimensions. This paper proposes a framework for benchmarking based on a combination of production and cost characteristics and citizens' subjective perceptions. An evaluation consisting of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and different regression models is applied on all 21 Swedish regional public transport authorities, covering the period 2002,2006 (n = 103). The results indicate that the industry as a whole is about 70% efficient and that efficiency can be improved by increasing the sizes of the urban and the bus vehicle-km shares. The optimal ownership structure is to have one large owner combined with about 25 small owners. [source] Public or Private: Where Government Should Draw the LineAUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTING REVIEW, Issue 33 2004R. R. Officer The search by democracies for better forms of social structure inevitably raises questions about the role of government and how it might be structured in order to improve the well-being of the community. When changes involve new methods of financing the provision of government services, such as public-private partnerships, complex considerations arise. [source] Bricks, clicks and Calk: Clustering services for citizen-centred deliveryCANADIAN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION/ADMINISTRATION PUBLIQUE DU CANADA, Issue 4 2001Kenneth Kernaghan The challenge for governments is to determine how best to join up services within and between departments, across levels of government, between governmental and non-governmental service providers, and across channels. This article focuses on the delivery of government services by bringing them together in "clusters" and delivering them through more than one service channel. The article explains the concept of service clustering and provides a model of its major components; uses this model as a framework for describing innovative clustering initiatives in several countries; and examines the implications of service clustering for public administration, with particular reference to privacy and security issues. Sommaire: Depuis le milieu des années 1980, I'approche traditionnelle brique et mortier adoptée pour la prestation d'un service unique par le biais de contacts personnels dans les bureaux du gouvernement a connu une amelioration avec la mise en place des guichets uniques qui offrent de nombreux services de nature connexe ou non, de centres d'appels téléphoniques fournissant à la fois des services personnels et une réponse vocale interactive, et grâce au développement rapide de la prestation de services par Internet. Pour les gouvernements, le défi consiste à déterminer comment regrouper les services au sein d'un ministère et entre les ministères, entre les paliers de gouvernement, entre les foumisseurs de services gouvernementaux et non gouvernementaux, et entre les mécanismes de prestation. Le présent article se concentre sur la prestation des services gouvernementaux regroupés et fournis par l'intermédiaire de plusieurs mécanismes de prestation. Il explique le concept de regroupement des services et présente un modèle de ses principales composantes; il se sert de ce modèle comme cadre pour décrire les initiatives innovatrices en matière de regroupernent de services dans plusieurs pays; enfin, il examine les répercussions du regroupernent des services sur l'administration publique, en particulier du point de vue de la confidentialité et de la sécurité. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||