Gerald E. Caiden

Administrative reform -- proceed with caution

The past decade has seen an acceleration in administrative reform. All around the world, the administrative state is being reexamined and reshaped. As a result, government is being transformed and reinvented, bureaucratic centralism is being abandoned, the welfare state is being downsized, the public sector is being reduced, public organizations are being reengineered, and public management is being reinvigorated. This all sounds familiar. Governments have promised as much before but they have too often failed to improve their performance simply because many reforms have proved disappointing. Reforms have failed to make any significant impact; they have gone wrong; they have been overtaken by events. The reformers have been too optimistic and often unrealistic; they have fallen into the many traps of implementation. Magical keys to reform success are few and far between. Reforms need strong political backing, mass support, and competent inside facilitation. Reformers need to take their time and accept wha...

Administrative Reform: A Prospectus

tent on destroying ongoing administrative systems in pursuit of some pie-in-the-sky idea, untested, impractical, and probably inoperable by mere mortals. Instead, it has an empirical ring to it as administrative tacticians seek to shift sluggish administrative systems in new directions and revitalize inert institutions. These work through regular rather than irregular channels. Time will tell whether they have achieved greater success than their forebears, but if they have not it will not be for want of trying or lack of knowledge or variety of approaches. Here some salient features of the state of the art will be reviewed critically. To avoid repeating what has already been covered extensively elsewhere (see Bibliography), the prospectus will inevitably be somewhat uneven in treatment and will dwell more

On Reforming Institutional Bureaucracies

New states in particular have placed undue faith in administrative reform in their developmental efforts. They realized early that their progress had to be stimulated by governmental initiatives spearheaded by state machinery, public enterprise and bureaucratic instruments. Yet, their intended administrative systems were not designed for developmental roles or were suffused with inertia. In many cases it was clear what was needed. National plans had

A checkered history of combating official corruption

Purpose – Official corruption has always plagued the conduct of public affairs and taxed every generation to keep it within reasonable bounds. Concerned governments have tried to apply whatever available remedies came to hand with varying success. Yet whenever one of corruptions many manifestations seemed to diminish, so another would demand attention. Combating it was and remains a tireless affair requiring continual vigilance and experimentation. This paper seeks to address these issues.Design/methodology/approach – The paper studies the history of official corruption and efforts to combat it.Findings – This checkered history of anti‐corruption efforts shows how the repertoire of techniques expands and how the corrupt evade their application. This everlasting battle of wits depends much on how seriously people and governments take the challenge of corruption, the nature of how public power is exercised, the triumph in governance of self‐interest over the general public interest, the level of personal i...

The value of comparative analysis

Critical questions in both theory and practice can only be answered through comparative analysis whose value increases with the growing internationalization of public administration. Theoretically, it has long been assumed that public administration has to be a discipline reaching beyond one country and any specific culture, but the practical benefits derived from comparative analysis, such as more effetive policy making, better administrative arrangements and enhanced development prospects need also t o be stressed. Comparative bureaucratic corruption illustrates both the benefits and t h e difficult methodological problems encountered, in this case revealing why rich and stable polities can depend on legal–rational norms while poor and unstable polities a r e more susceptible t o systemic deviant conduct by public officials.

Ombudsmen in Developing Democracies: Comment

were considerable misgivings and hesitations until New Zealand Ombudsman, Sir Guy Powles, convincingly demonstrated that the ,office could perform valuable functions in protecting citizens against public maladministration. In the burst of enthusiasm that followed, several underdeveloped countries, mostly in the British Commonwealth or with governmental systems based on the Westminster model, adopted their own versions. Despite

International Consultants and Development Administration

Despite the abundant and continuing employment of international consultants, their contribution .to development administration has largely gone unrecorded. It has been assumed that it has been worthwhile. Otherwise host countries would not have renewed contracts or continued to seek their help. Donors and consultants have been reluctant to confess failure, although privately they and host countries may have had reservations about some of their experiences and the possible misuse and abuse of their talents. Consultants have tended to look upon their relationship with host countries

Enron, Accountancy, and Professional Ethics

Abstract The Enron scandal, like Watergate, raises fundamental issues about morality in high places that will never quite go away, no matter what may be done to prevent any recurrence. Whereas the technical remedies adopted may tighten outside controls and inside behavior, they still rely on the enforcement of professional standards of conduct and the integrity of individual practitioners. While the search for perfectibility may be fruitless, the more society tackles deviance and corruption, vice and immorality, the closer it gets to good governance and cleaner hands crucial in building confidence in all public institutions and maintaining civilized social relations. Central to ensuring an honest and trustworthy society is the profession of accounting and the activities of financial auditors. This commentary reflects on the moral side of accounting and its role in combating misconduct by upholding ethical financial transactions, enforcing norms of professional conduct, strengthening public accountability, and exposing wrongdoing by all guardians of public trust.

Approaches and Guidelines for Monitoring, Measuring and Evaluating Performance in Public Sector Programs

AbstractPerformance measurement and evaluation of the public sector may be seen as critical to efforts to streamline governments; gain greater efficiency, productivity and effectiveness; enhance transparency and accountability; regain public trust in governmental institutions; and contribute to a reorientation of the role and functions of government. As ideas of governance have emerged, stressing cooperation between government, the non-profit and private sectors, and indirect ways of delivering public services have been adopted, the need to measure, monitor and evaluate the use of funds, quantity and quality of services, and the meeting of standards and compliance with contracts, has become essential. Performance measures are not panaceas, and there are important limitations to their use. But even small steps may bring important results.

Democracy and Corruption

“Blessed is. the country that does not need heroes.” Graffiti scrawled at the site of the explosion on the highway near Capaci in Sicily which killed Judge Giovanni Falcone, his wife and three escorts.