School of Social and Political Sciences - Research Publications
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ItemChoosing one’s history wisely: network governance and the question of institutional performance( 2004)How do governments get from one place to another? This is the question that lies at the centre of all discussions of institutional performance. In this paper I review some recent work on new forms of partnership and collaborative governance which suggest that a number of countries have recently begun to break from their previous structures and to make significant shifts in the way actors are engaged in public institutions. The paper will ask whether this can be understood in terms of standard notions of institutional theory (path dependence, systems theory, cultural theory and so on) and if not, why not.
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ItemEnterprising the state(Cambridge University Press, 2001)Perhaps there once was a time when the terms ‘state’, ‘market’ and ‘bureaucracy’ had settled meanings and when the institutions which they helped define had standard, widely understood purposes. If so this is certainly a book about the closing of that era and about a radical set of changes that now seeks to alter the nature of governance in many advanced capitalist states. The particular reform strategies we will identify in four countries seeking will help us map the contours of wider changes in the nature of contemporary governance. The front-line reinventions in these four countries spell-out the central characteristics of a process of change which can be defined as the enterprising of the state. This transformation is something less than a final accomplishment. Process is often more revealing than structure. The enterprising activity takes root in forms of managerialism, contractualism and reinvention within programs aimed at both the work of officials and the identity of citizen-clients. As such it constitutes a new transition model for systems of public action which are seeking ways to meet the challenges of globalisation and the imperatives of new levels of cultural diversity (Jessop, 1991; Lash and Urry,1987).
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ItemThe reform that never ends: quasi-markets and employment services in Australia(Kluwer Law International, 2005)
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ItemExplaining the Normative Underpinnings of Local Governance(University of New South Wales Press, 2005)
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ItemThe baby and the Bath water: The impact of American-Style Sctiovation Policies on Families(Melbourne University Press, 2005)
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ItemSteering, efficiency and partnership: the Australian quasi-market for public employment services(DJOF Publishers, 2005)
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ItemMaking Public Policy: Institutions, Actors, Strategies(Polity Press, 2005)
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ItemNetworks and interactivity: making sense of front-line governance in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Australia(Informa UK Limited, 2003-03-01)
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ItemBureaucracy, network, or enterprise? Comparing models of governance in Australia, Britain, The Netherlands, and New Zealand(BLACKWELL PUBLISHERS, 2003-01-01)Theories of democratic government traditionally have relied on a model of organization in which officials act impartially, accept clear lines of accountability and supervision, and define their day–to–day activities through rules, procedures, and confined discretion. In the past 10 years, however, a serious challenge to this ideal has been mounted by critics and reformers who favor market, network, or “mixed–economy” models. We assess the extent to which these new models have influenced the work orientations of frontline staff using three alternative service types—corporate, market, and network—to that proposed by the traditional, procedural model of public bureaucracy. Using surveys of frontline officials in four countries where the revolution in ideas has been accompanied by a revolution in methods for organizing government services, we measure the degree to which the new models are operating as service–delivery norms. A new corporate–market hybrid (called “enterprise governance”) and a new network type have become significant models for the organization of frontline work in public programs.