The Machinery of Government

The Machinery of Government
Author: Joseph Heath
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 439
Release: 2020
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0197509614

In most liberal democracies for example, the central bank is as independent as the supreme court, yet deals with a wide range of economic, social, and political issues. How do these public servants make these policy decisions? What normative principles inform their judgments? In The Machinery of Government, Joseph Heath attempts to answer these questions. He looks to the actual practice of public administration to see how normative questions areaddressed. More broadly, he attempts to provide the outlines of a "philosophy of the executive" by taking seriously the claim to political authority of the most neglected of the three branches of the state.

Running the Government

Running the Government
Author: Salvatore Schiavo-Campo
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 597
Release: 2018-09-03
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1351607987

Sound machinery of government is at the core of a well-functioning state. Written by an author with wide experience in public administration globally, this book addresses both the commonalities and the diversity of administrative practice around the world. Exploring developed countries as well as developing and transitional economies, it combines a strong conceptual foundation with thorough coverage of the main topics in public administration, supported by current data and a wealth of concrete illustrations from a variety of countries. The book is organized around three important themes: the interaction of governance, politics and administration, the role of institutions in determining administrative outcomes, and the importance of country context. A concluding chapter summarizes the lessons of international experience and offers guidance to improve the management of the public sector in sustainable ways. Running the Government will serve as a core text for courses in public administration and as a supplement for undergraduate and graduate courses in political science, public economics, and international affairs. It may also serve as an accessible and complete reference for civil service training courses around the globe.

The Government Machine

The Government Machine
Author: Jon Agar
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 565
Release: 2003-09-26
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 0262292904

An examination of technology and politics in the evolution of the British "government machine." In The Government Machine, Jon Agar traces the mechanization of government work in the United Kingdom from the nineteenth to the early twenty-first century. He argues that this transformation has been tied to the rise of "expert movements," groups whose authority has rested on their expertise. The deployment of machines was an attempt to gain control over state action—a revolutionary move. Agar shows how mechanization followed the popular depiction of government as machine-like, with British civil servants cast as components of a general purpose "government machine"; indeed, he argues that today's general purpose computer is the apotheosis of the civil servant. Over the course of two centuries, government has become the major repository and user of information; the Civil Service itself can be seen as an information-processing entity. Agar argues that the changing capacities of government have depended on the implementation of new technologies, and that the adoption of new technologies has depended on a vision of government and a fundamental model of organization. Thus, to study the history of technology is to study the state, and vice versa.

The Machinery of Criminal Justice

The Machinery of Criminal Justice
Author: Stephanos Bibas
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2012-02-28
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0190236760

Two centuries ago, American criminal justice was run primarily by laymen. Jury trials passed moral judgment on crimes, vindicated victims and innocent defendants, and denounced the guilty. But since then, lawyers have gradually taken over the process, silencing victims and defendants and, in many cases, substituting plea bargaining for the voice of the jury. The public sees little of how this assembly-line justice works, and victims and defendants have largely lost their day in court. As a result, victims rarely hear defendants express remorse and apologize, and defendants rarely receive forgiveness. This lawyerized machinery has purchased efficient, speedy processing of many cases at the price of sacrificing softer values, such as reforming defendants and healing wounded victims and relationships. In other words, the U.S. legal system has bought quantity at the price of quality, without recognizing either the trade-off or the great gulf separating lawyers' and laymen's incentives, values, and powers. In The Machinery of Criminal Justice, author Stephanos Bibas surveys the developments over the last two centuries, considers what we have lost in our quest for efficient punishment, and suggests ways to include victims, defendants, and the public once again. Ideas range from requiring convicts to work or serve in the military, to moving power from prosecutors to restorative sentencing juries. Bibas argues that doing so might cost more, but it would better serve criminal procedure's interests in denouncing crime, vindicating victims, reforming wrongdoers, and healing the relationships torn by crime.

Joined-Up Government

Joined-Up Government
Author: Vernon Bogdanor
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 204
Release: 2005-07-21
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780197263334

'Joined- up government' is a key theme of modern government. The Labour government, first elected in 1997, decided that intractable problems such as social exclusion, drug addiction and crime could not be resolved by any single department of government. Instead, such problems had to be made the object of a concerted attack using all the arms of government - central and local government and public agencies, as well as the private and voluntary sectors. This book seeks to analyse 'joined-up government', to consider its history, and to evaluate its consequences for British institutions such as the Cabinet, the civil service and local authorities. Is joined-up government a new idea, or merely a new label for a very old idea? What lessons can be learnt from previous attempts at joined-up government? How does it affect our traditional constitutional conceptions relating to Cabinet government, a politically neutral and non-partisan civil service, and an independent system of local government? Will it lead to the concentration of power in 10 Downing Street or is it compatible with a political system based on checks and balances? Drawing together papers given at a conference held at the British Academy, Joined-Up Government provides a broad overview of one of the most significant aspects in modern government. Its contributors include not only distinguished academics, but also those who have themselves been engaged as practitioners in developing joined-up programmes. This book will be indispensable to all those who seek to understand how new developments in government are affecting our lives.

Challenges to State Policy Capacity

Challenges to State Policy Capacity
Author: M. Painter
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2004-12-17
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0230524192

Globalization and New Public Management pose major challenges to the policy capacity of the state. Challenges to State Policy Capacity offers the most timely and comprehensive coverage of contemporary state policy capacity. Drawing on the work by international leading scholars in political science and public administration, the book is indispensable to anyone interested in policy capacity, administrative reform and the state.

Strategies for Governing

Strategies for Governing
Author: Alasdair Roberts
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 125
Release: 2020-01-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 150174559X

With the fields of public administration and public management suffering a crisis of relevance, Alasdair Roberts offers a provocative assessment of their shortfalls. The two fields, he finds, no longer address urgent questions of governance in a turbulent and dangerous world. Strategies for Governing offers a new path forward for research, teaching, and practice. Leaders of states, Roberts writes, are constantly reinventing strategies for governing. Experts in public administration must give advice on the design as well as execution of strategies that effective, robust, and principled. Strategies for Governing challenges us to reinvigorate public administration and public management, preparing the fields for the challenges of the twenty-first century.

How Should A Government Be?

How Should A Government Be?
Author: Jaideep Prabhu
Publisher: Profile Books
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2021-02-11
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1782834850

For a century, the most divisive question in political thought has been about the size of the state. Should it expand and take an active role in all sorts of areas of life? Or is that just meddlesome and wasteful? Those questions might have made sense in the previous century. Now, with revolutions in technology and organisational structure, and a world transformed by Covid-19, a revolution is also coming in the essential business of government - whether we like it or not. Join organisations expert Jaideep Prabhu on a tour of what's possible in government. Discover amazing initiatives in unexpected places, from India's programme to give a digital identity to a billion citizens, to a Dutch programme that lets nurses operate almost entirely without management. Or perhaps China's ominous Social Credit system is a more accurate vision what the future has in store for us. Whether you are on the political left or right, it matters whether your government does what it does fairly and well. And the game is changing...