Unbundled Government

Unbundled Government
Author: Christopher Pollitt
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 426
Release: 2004-07-31
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1134379781

Public sector bureaucracies have been subjected to harsh criticism. One solution which has been widely adopted over the past two decades has been to 'unbundle government' - that is to break down monolithic departments and ministries into smaller, semi-autonomous 'agencies'. These are often governed by some type of performance contract, are at 'arm's length' or further from their 'parent' ministry or department and are freed from many of the normal rules governing civil service bodies. This, the first book to survey the 'why' and the 'how' of this epidemic of 'agencification', is essential reading for advanced students and researchers of public management. It includes case studies from every continent - from Japan to America and from Sweden to Tanzania, these 14 case studies (some covering more than one country) critically examine how such agencies have been set up and managed.

Regional Integration and Future Cooperation Initiatives in the Eurasian Economic Union

Regional Integration and Future Cooperation Initiatives in the Eurasian Economic Union
Author: Lagutina, Maria
Publisher: IGI Global
Total Pages: 339
Release: 2019-12-27
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1799819523

The integration of the Eurasian Economic Union has been under constant development as officials try to successfully implement new economic policies within its various regions. Introducing a new policy such as this creates the formation of new markets, the improvement of cooperation initiatives, as well as a new legislative base and supplementations. These continual alterations require updated analysis and research for political leaders to follow regarding provincial incorporation methods. Regional Integration and Future Cooperation Initiatives in the Eurasian Economic Union is an essential reference source that discusses the conceptual and empirical frameworks of the current phase of Eurasian integration as well as its economic impact. Featuring research on topics such as multilateral cooperation, free trade, and international views, this book is ideally designed for politicians, economists, strategists, public relations specialists, research scholars, policymakers, students, and academicians seeking coverage on regional integration issues in modern Eurasia.

Power Market Structure

Power Market Structure
Author: Maria Vagliasindi
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 394
Release: 2013-03-28
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0821395564

The current distribution of power markets around intermediate structures that fall between the two extremes of full integration and unbundling suggests that there has not been a linear path to power market structure reform. Rather, many developing countries may retain intermediate structures into the foreseeable future. This possibility exposes a gap in the understanding of power market structures, since most theoretical work has focused on the two extreme possibilities and there is limited evidence of the impact of unbundling for developing countries. Power Market Structure takes a novel analytical approach to modeling market structure, together with ownership and regulation, in determining performance across several indicators, including access, operational and financial performance, and environmental sustainability. Its conclusions--which will be of particular interest to policy makers, academics, and development practitioners--reflect evidence drawn from statistical analysis and a representative sample of 20 case studies, selected based on initial conditions such as income and power system size. The key result of the analysis is that unbundling delivers results when used as an entry point to implementing broader reforms, particularly introducing a sound regulatory framework, and reducing the degree of concentration of the generation and distribution segments of the market by attracting additional public and private players and greater private sector participation. In addition, there seems to be a credible empirical basis for selecting a threshold power system size and per capita income level below which unbundling of the power supply chain is not expected to be worthwhile. Partial forms of vertical unbundling do not appear to drive improvements. The most likely reason is that the owner was able to continue exercising control over the affairs of the sector and hinder the development of competitive pressure within the power market.

Splintering Urbanism

Splintering Urbanism
Author: Steve Graham
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 516
Release: 2002-09-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 113465698X

Splintering Urbanism makes an international and interdisciplinary analysis of the complex interactions between infrastructure networks and urban spaces. It delivers a new and powerful way of understanding contemporary urban change, bringing together discussions about: *globalization and the city *technology and society *urban space and urban networks *infrastructure and the built environment *developed, developing and post-communist worlds. With a range of case studies, illustrations and boxed examples, from New York to Jakarta, Johannesberg to Manila and Sao Paolo to Melbourne, Splintering Urbanism demonstrates the latest social, urban and technological theories, which give us an understanding of our contemporary metropolis.

China's Gilded Age

China's Gilded Age
Author: Yuen Yuen Ang
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 275
Release: 2020-05-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1108802389

Why has China grown so fast for so long despite vast corruption? In China's Gilded Age, Yuen Yuen Ang maintains that all corruption is harmful, but not all types of corruption hurt growth. Ang unbundles corruption into four varieties: petty theft, grand theft, speed money, and access money. While the first three types impede growth, access money - elite exchanges of power and profit - cuts both ways: it stimulates investment and growth but produces serious risks for the economy and political system. Since market opening, corruption in China has evolved toward access money. Using a range of data sources, the author explains the evolution of Chinese corruption, how it differs from the West and other developing countries, and how Xi's anti-corruption campaign could affect growth and governance. In this formidable yet accessible book, Ang challenges one-dimensional measures of corruption. By unbundling the problem and adopting a comparative-historical lens, she reveals that the rise of capitalism was not accompanied by the eradication of corruption, but rather by its evolution from thuggery and theft to access money. In doing so, she changes the way we think about corruption and capitalism, not only in China but around the world.

Reforming Infrastructure

Reforming Infrastructure
Author: Ioannis Nicolaos Kessides
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2004
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Electricity, natural gas, telecommunications, railways, and water supply, are often vertically and horizontally integrated state monopolies. This results in weak services, especially in developing and transition economies, and for poor people. Common problems include low productivity, high costs, bad quality, insufficient revenue, and investment shortfalls. Many countries over the past two decades have restructured, privatized and regulated their infrastructure. This report identifies the challenges involved in this massive policy redirection. It also assesses the outcomes of these changes, as well as their distributional consequences for poor households and other disadvantaged groups. It recommends directions for future reforms and research to improve infrastructure performance, identifying pricing policies that strike a balance between economic efficiency and social equity, suggesting rules governing access to bottleneck infrastructure facilities, and proposing ways to increase poor people's access to these crucial services.

Territory, Authority, Rights

Territory, Authority, Rights
Author: Saskia Sassen
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 511
Release: 2008-07-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1400828597

Where does the nation-state end and globalization begin? In Territory, Authority, Rights, one of the world's leading authorities on globalization shows how the national state made today's global era possible. Saskia Sassen argues that even while globalization is best understood as "denationalization," it continues to be shaped, channeled, and enabled by institutions and networks originally developed with nations in mind, such as the rule of law and respect for private authority. This process of state making produced some of the capabilities enabling the global era. The difference is that these capabilities have become part of new organizing logics: actors other than nation-states deploy them for new purposes. Sassen builds her case by examining how three components of any society in any age--territory, authority, and rights--have changed in themselves and in their interrelationships across three major historical "assemblages": the medieval, the national, and the global. The book consists of three parts. The first, "Assembling the National," traces the emergence of territoriality in the Middle Ages and considers monarchical divinity as a precursor to sovereign secular authority. The second part, "Disassembling the National," analyzes economic, legal, technological, and political conditions and projects that are shaping new organizing logics. The third part, "Assemblages of a Global Digital Age," examines particular intersections of the new digital technologies with territory, authority, and rights. Sweeping in scope, rich in detail, and highly readable, Territory, Authority, Rights is a definitive new statement on globalization that will resonate throughout the social sciences.

Under-Rewarded Efforts

Under-Rewarded Efforts
Author: Santiago Levy Algazi
Publisher: Inter-American Development Bank
Total Pages: 323
Release: 2018-07-11
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1597823058

Why has an economy that has done so many things right failed to grow fast? Under-Rewarded Efforts traces Mexico’s disappointing growth to flawed microeconomic policies that have suppressed productivity growth and nullified the expected benefits of the country’s reform efforts. Fast growth will not occur doing more of the same or focusing on issues that may be key bottlenecks to productivity growth elsewhere, but not in Mexico. It will only result from inclusive institutions that effectively protect workers against risks, redistribute towards those in need, and simultaneously align entrepreneurs’ and workers’ incentives to raise productivity.

Inside Countries

Inside Countries
Author: Agustina Giraudy
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 389
Release: 2019-06-13
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 110849658X

Offers a groundbreaking analysis of the distinctive substantive, theoretical and methodological contributions of subnational research in the field of comparative politics.