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Responsible Government (responsible + government)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	100%

Selected Abstracts

The Limits to Public Value, or Rescuing Responsible Government from the Platonic Guardians

AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 4 2007
R.A.W. Rhodes
In various guises, public value has become extraordinarily popular in recent years. We challenge the relevance and usefulness of the approach in Westminster systems with their dominant hierarchies of control, strong roles for ministers, and tight authorising regimes underpinned by disciplined two-party systems. We start by spelling out the core assumptions behind the public value approach. We identify two key confusions; about public value as theory, and in defining ,public managers'. We identify five linked core assumptions in public value: the benign view of large-scale organisations; the primacy of management; the relevance of private sector experience; the downgrading of party politics; and public servants as Platonic guardians. We then focus on the last two assumptions because they are the least applicable in Westminster systems. We defend the ,primacy of party politics' and we criticise the notion that public managers should play the role of Platonic guardians deciding the public interest. The final section of the article presents a ,ladder of public value' by which to gauge the utility of the approach for public managers in Westminster systems. [source]

The Politics of Food Regulation and Reform in Ireland

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 3 2004
George Taylor
Amid a period of increasing political anxiety generated by the BSE crisis, the Irish Government sought to replace a confusing medley of food regulations with a single agency responsible for regulating food from the ,farm to the fork'. Presented as a radical departure from a regime previously discredited, its remit would be to redefine the relationship between risk assessment, management and communication. In this context, the paper puts forward three principal arguments. First, that while the Minister for Health and Children was keen to extol both the scientific credentials of the agency, and the importance of shifting regulatory responsibility from the Department of Agriculture and Food (DAF) to the Department of Health and Children (DOHC), what remains novel is the manner in which reform has managed to retain political access for influential agri-business interests. Second, that any reform undertaken should be fully cognisant of the international agreements between the European Union and the World Trade Organisation which extended further a free market in food trade. The agency's institutional architecture therefore was framed with the intention of restoring market confidence without threatening the habitat of those multi-national companies that occupy this arena. Finally, that the role of science (and risk) in food regulation has altered. Rather than perform the task of sustaining order through responsible government, science now participates in (re)constituting order through the market. [source]

Responsible, Representative and Accountable Government

AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 1 2001
Malcolm Aldons
As an evaluation of the health of Australia's political system, this article offers a perspective different from the lament over the loss of responsible government. It finds that responsible government is not compatible with representative democracy. Peculiar to Australia is conflict between ,responsible party government' and ,responsible parliamentary government'. Nevertheless, the system is healthy. A parliament-as-a-whole approach identifies key holistic functions of manifest and latent legitimation and accountability that bolster legitimacy. Political accountability is enhanced by the watchdog role of the media. Public accountability is enriched by the links between citizens and administrative review. Critical changes include the guarantee of senate independence and the removal of senate power over supply. These changes would confine the theory and practice of responsible government to the House of Representatives, promote accountability, and thus increase the legitimacy of Australian parliamentary democracy. [source]

Independent foundations, public money and public accountability: Whither ministerial responsibility as democratic governance?

CANADIAN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION/ADMINISTRATION PUBLIQUE DU CANADA, Issue 1 2003
Peter Aucoin
The democratic control that is meant to obtain under the Constitution is not present in the design of these foundations. This article examines the ways in which their organizational design is contrary to the principles of responsible government as well as to the government's own policy on so-called alternative service-delivery structures. The article also discusses how the designers of these foundations relied primarily on results-based reporting instead of the traditional system of ministerial responsibility. The author concludes that these organizational designs are beyond the pale of the Constitution's requirements for democratic control over public administration and suggests measures that may correct these deficiences. Sommaire: Au cours de la demière décennie, le gouvernement fédéeral a mis sur pied un certain nombre de fondations indépendantes visant à consacrer des fonds publics aux affaires publiques. Ces fondations ne comportent pas dans leur conception le contrôle démocratique prévu par la Constitution. Le présent article examine comment leur conception organisationnelle va à l'encontre des principes de gouvemement responsable ainsi que la politique même du gouvernement sur ce qu'on appelle les modes altematifs de prestation de services. L'article examine également la manière dont les concepteurs de ces fondations se sont fiés essentiellement à la reddition de comptes axés sur les résultats plutôt qu'au système traditionnel de respon-sabilité ministérielle. L'auteur conclut que ces conceptions organisationnelles ne repondent pas aux exigences de la Constitution pour ce qui est du contrôle démocratique de l'administration publique et propose des mesures qui pourraient pallier à ces insuffisances. [source]