Trevor L. Brown

Contract–Management Capacity in Municipal and County Governments

Under pressure to do more with less, governments across the country have moved from direct service provision to providing services by contract. Proponents argue that contracting can reduce costs and improve flexibility and customer satisfaction. Critics point to a growing number of failed contracts, arguing there are numerous pitfalls associated with contracting. Missing from these debates is a discussion of how governments’ managerial capacity can improve contract performance. In this article, we identify specific capacities that governments can use to harness the promise of contracting while avoiding its pitfalls. We present analyses of data on municipal and county government contracting activities that show how governments invest in contract– management capacity in response to several internal and external threats to effective contract performance. Because government investment in contract–management capacity is uneven—that is, some governments invest in less capacity even when circumstances would call for more—our analyses may help to explain why some contract arrangements are more successful than others.

Trust and contract completeness in the public sector

Abstract In this paper, we identify the implications of different levels of contract completeness for the delivery of public services. While numerous factors influence the effectiveness of more or less complete contracts, achieving a win–win outcome – in which both parties to a contract achieve their goals – is in part contingent on the degree of trust between the contracting parties. We explore how varying levels of trust interact with the degree of contract completeness to influence contract effectiveness across different circumstances. In particular, we draw on examples of two types of commonly contracted, but distinctly different public services – refuse collection and social service provision – to illustrate how contracting governments often adapt contract completeness in response to changes in the level of trust with the vendor. We show how contracts become less complete over time as trust evolves between parties, as well how less complete contracts become more complete when trust deteriorates between parties. As such, we explore when contracting is risky for both governments and vendors and how contract relations can be structured to help create win–win outcomes for both.

Editorial Overview: Symposium on Mixed and Hybrid Models of Public Service Delivery

ABSTRACT This symposium presents research from different contexts to improve our collective understanding of a variety of aspects of mixed forms of service delivery, be they mixed contracting at the level of the market (which is more common in the U.S.), or mixed management and ownership at the level of the firm (which is more common in Europe). The articles included in this special symposium examine the factors that give rise to mixed forms of service delivery (e.g., economic and fiscal stress, regulatory flexibility, geography, management) and how these factors impact their design and operation. Articles also explore the performance of mixed forms of service delivery relative to more conventional arrangements like contracted or direct service delivery. The articles contribute to a better theoretical and conceptual understanding of mixed/hybrid forms of services delivery.

Constitutional Courts and Legislative‐Executive Relations: The Case of Ukraine

There is a primary debate, as yet unresolved, regarding the superi ority of presidential or parliamentary regime types for the stability of demo cratic government. Because qualitative and quantitative analyses have yet to demonstrate definitively whether one regime type is inherently more stable than the other, researchers have branched out in a number of directions. One prominent stream of research examines the role that key intervening factors have in determining regime stability, including the electoral system, federalism, and the role of the prime minister in mixed presidential-parliamentary systems. This stream of research contends that regime stability is a function of the inter play of the specific distribution of powers between the legislative and executive branches and these other intervening factors. In this paper, we identify a fourth important intervening factor?constitutional courts. Specifically, we examine the constitutional court in the transitioning nation of Ukraine to demonstrate the role that judicial institutions can play in mediating legislative-executive conflict and thereby contributing to regime stability.

Elite Attitudes and Democratic Stability: Analysing Legislators' Attitudes towards the Separation of Powers in Ukraine

Disagreements among the core actors of transition over the type of government and electoral system may create questions about the legitimacy of the emerging democratic government, the decision-making process, and the future of the political system. Such institutional indeterminacy about core procedures necessary for producing democracy may not only leave the transition incomplete, but also postpone any consolidation of democracy.2

Public–Private Partnerships: Infrastructure, Transportation and Local Services

Public–private partnerships (PPPs) are arrangements between government and private actors with the objective of providing public infrastructure, facilities and services. Three fundamental questions frame the use of PPPs at the local level: What do PPPs look like? What gives rise to the use of PPPs? And, what are the outcomes of PPPs? The articles in this symposium provide insightful answers to these questions. In addition, the symposium contributions identify lines of research that invite further investigation, namely: problems related to the degree of risk transfer; the challenges posed by renegotiation; and evaluation of PPPs’ results.

Collaborative Governance in Mainland China and Hong Kong: Introductory Essay

ABSTRACT This symposium explores collaborative governance in Mainland China and Hong Kong across an array of different goods and services, including local community services, national disaster insurance, social services, and sustainable development. Past research demonstrates that collaborative governance can be imposed, induced, or organically created. According to this symposiums four pieces, all three dynamics are in play in influencing collaborative activity in the delivery of these services in China. In this introductory essay we begin by highlighting the major contributions of these pieces to our understanding of collaborative governance in Mainland China and Hong Kong. We follow this summary by recommending important lines of research on collaborative governance in China. We conclude by suggesting approaches that scholars can take to unlock new insights given the research challenges that China presents.

Contracting out by Local Governments in Transitioning Nations The Role of Technical Assistance in Ukraine

This article examines the factors that promote and inhibit contracting out by local governments in transitioning nations. Specifically, this article analyzes the effect of a variety of factors on the decision by Ukrainian local governments to contract out public services. The article uses Logit techniques to analyze the results of a 72-city survey undertaken in Ukraine in 1997 and 1998. Analysis of the data indicates that the presence of a technical assistance program in particular increases the likelihood that a local government will engage in contracting out. The findings also demonstrate the importance of factors identified by contracting out models of local governments in advanced industrialized contexts.

The separation of powers in Ukraine

Abstract This paper examines the passage of a new constitution in Ukraine in order to determine which factors contribute to the establishment of a stable separation of powers system at the national level. We focus on three types of factors: legacies of the past; the structure of institutions at key time periods; and the nature of dynamics between political groups. We find that while all of these factors play some role in the evolving institutional arrangements in Ukraine, negative legacies of the past can be overcome by the decisions of new political groups and the creation of new institutional arrangements.

Laying the foundation for institutionalisation of democratic parliaments in the newly independent states: The case of Ukraine

This article examines the institutionalisation of the Ukrainian Parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, since the fall of the Soviet Union. The emergence of a popularly elected legislature in post‐Soviet Ukraine stands as a cornerstone in the development of a democratic regime. While the Verkhovna Rada is by no means a mature parliament, the foundation for future institutionalisation has been laid through the establishment of a representative political process, nascent political parties, a separation of powers between the executive and the legislature, and the policy‐making capacity of the Parliament.