ALBERT

Notes: This note discusses a number of key issues developed by the Corporate Governance Project of the American Law Institute (ALI) and published in its report, The Principles of Corporate Governance: Analysis and Recommendations. This examination will focus on the socially and ethically important elements regarding the objective and conduct of the business corporation, and the twin fiduciary duties of care and fair dealing.

Notes: The stakeholder co-operatives formed around the town of Mondragón in the Basque region of Spain have been outstandingly successful on a number of measures in comparison with other forms of firms. The control architecture within and between Mondragón firms contains a number of innovations and lessons for developing the theory and practice of corporate governance. This paper outlines the 38 year evolution of Mondragón structures.The control and incentive architecture of Mondragón firms was custom designed according to the nature of both their activities and their principal stakeholders. The resulting unique control arrangements and outstanding performance supports the hypothesis that the structure of governance is a determinant of sustainable competitive advantages. The evolution of Mondragón firms also illustrates the need to consider corporate architecture as a variable at any one time or over time. The Mondragón experience illustrates how the social research approach of ‘action science’ can be used to create competitive enterprises. The paper recommends this approach for developing the theory and practice of corporate governance.

Notes: This article is based on the IMD Case Study of the same name written by Professor Fred Neubauer and Dr. Marika Taishoff.

Notes: Thomas Clarke and Elaine Monkhouse (eds), 1994 hardback, Rethinking the Company, London: Finance Times/Pitman Publishing.

Notes: In March 2001 the government announced that new disclosure rules relating to UK boardroom pay would be introduced. This paper critically evaluates these proposals. The new proposals emerged from the government’s Directors Remuneration consultative document issued in July 1999. The current paper makes the following contributions to the governance literature. First, the new disclosure proposals are reviewed. I suggest that they are incomplete both in their detail and scope. I also suggest that the government has conceded that more US style executive compensation disclosure is required. Second, I describe US executive compensation disclosure practices. If convergence in disclosure practice is potentially desirable then a more systematic comparison and analysis of current disclosure policies in the two economies is warranted.

Notes: One of the persistent problems facing corporate governance is the increasing shift toward knowledge-intensive organisations. This article focuses on the fiduciary responsibility of corporate governance for creating, developing, and leveraging the intellectual capital existing and embedded in the people, structures, and processes of the firm. Research and practice, traditionally concerned with governance responsibility for financial and physical capitals, has not much focused on the relations between governance and intellectual capital. Here, the authors’ intellectual capital paradigm is overlayered on a recent taxonomy of systems and features of corporate governance. The result is an explication of the role and characteristics of corporate governance in relation to the intellectual capital of the firm.

Notes: Given conflicting theoretical perspectives and inconsistent empirical results, this study examined the relationship between board leadership structure and organisational performance. A meta-analysis based on 22 independent samples across 5,751 companies indicates that independent leadership structure has a significant influence on performance. This relationship varies depending upon the context of the study.

Notes: The paper offers an inside view of the German corporate governance model, based on interviews with over 100 members of supervisory- (Aufsichtsrat) and executive-boards (Vorstand) of major German corporations. The traditional supervisory board with its large size of 20 members, one half elected by the employees, reflects the strong consensus orientation of the German corporate world. This system worked well in times of long innovation cycles and largely separate, national capital markets. It is coming under increasing pressure to adapt to the demands of a fast changing globalised capital market.Keywords: Corporate governance in Germany, supervisory board, codetermination, board composition, professionalisation of boards

Notes: This paper argues that constructive relationships between investors and boards have become crucial to running large organisations. Comparing interview data from Chairmen, Chief Executives and board members in 1987–89 and 1998–2000, this paper also considers the changing role of NEDs and influence of board culture which may constrain NEDs’ ability to perform effectively. While the board’s influence on shareholder value may be significant, the inability to account for its effectiveness or contribution appears surprising. The paper concludes that as shareholders exercise their “absolute rights” to question management, this may encourage more covert rather than overt behaviour, raising questions of accountability.

Notes: The process of building a corporate governance system in Poland is an ongoing one. It may be assumed, however, that the past ten years have seen the foundation created for the system. The institution of the supervisory board occupies an essential position within the infrastructure. For its part, the developing capital market, with such important institutions as the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as the Stock Market, fills a significant – though not yet broad – supporting function. It must be remembered, however, that the Polish system of corporate governance is still very young and is subject to continuous transformations. To a great extent, the direction of these transformations is marked by the quest for ever more effective solutions in the realm of supervision whilst the pool of experience already accumulated makes possible the implementation of the selected orientation.

Notes: Book reviewed:Sir Adrian Cadbury, Family Firms and their Governance: Creating Tomorrow’s Company from Today’s

Notes: Growing interest in UK corporate governance has engendered research on specific issues of corporate governance reform. However, there seems to be little research on the more general impact of recent reforms in corporate governance. In this paper we employ an extensive postal questionnaire survey to investigate: (i) UK institutional investors’ general attitudes towards recent corporate governance reforms; (ii) whether UK institutional investors consider specific corporate governance initiatives to be of equal importance, and; (iii) whether all institutional investors represent a homogeneous group with respect to corporate governance reform. The empirical results indicate that institutional investors: (i) have generally welcomed the recent reforms; (ii) do not consider that specific corporate governance initiatives are equally important but attach more relevance to initiatives aimed at monitoring the principal/agent problem, and; (iii) may be treated as a homogeneous group, except in relation to voting policy, where pension funds appear more pro-active in their approach than other groups.

Notes: This paper develops and provides evidence for two statements: a) In Argentina, there has been a marked shift in ownership and control from big family-owned domestic companies towards foreign groups and investment funds, and b) While coping with governance issues, Argentina has been following the common law countries tradition, fostering a capital-market-based financial system and swapping its corporate governance practices outright. To ground these statements on facts, I survey corporate governance issues in this country before 1991, the underlying legal framework, the new rules of the game in capital structure and ownership as from 1991, largely due to a wave of privatisations, restructuring, mergers and acquisitions that took place through the last decade.

Notes: This paper examines China’s recent approach to the development of corporate governance and discusses some major corporate governance issues that need to be resolved. It focuses on the corporate governance issues of China’s larger state owned enterprises that have been corporatised and partially privatised. While the state enterprise sector has been on decline in terms of its contribution to industrial output, its dominance in urban employment, key industries and access to bank finance continues. The publicly listed and partially privatised enterprises portends in many ways the future path in corporate governance arrangements for all other kinds of enterprises in China. The study is based on results of survey data collected by the author on Shanghai’s publicly listed companies. An attempt is also made in this paper to outline a new corporate governance model that may be more appropriate for China’s social and economic conditions. The paper is organised as follows. Section 2 outlines the way the Chinese government has approached the development of corporate governance structures in China in recent years. Section 3 examines some major issues for corporate governance development in China. Section 4 outlines a new corporate governance model that may be better suited to China for the near future. Section 5 provides some conclusions.

Notes: Based on a survey of charity boards in England and Wales this paper examines what influence board inputs, structures and processes have on board effectiveness. The findings provide mixed support for the normative literature on board effectiveness. Using stepwise logistic regression the research suggests that board inputs and three process variables are important in explaining board effectiveness, namely: board members have the time, skills and experience to do the job; clear board roles and responsibilities; the board and management share a common vision of how to achieve their goals; and the board and management periodically review how they work together.

Notes: This article presents the reasons which led the business community in Greece to reconsider existing corporate governance practices of listed corporations in the Athens Stock Exchange, outlines the general rationale for the creation and adoption of specific recommendations for best corporate practice, presents the recommendations in full detail and finally provides suggestions for the required corporate legal reform.

Notes: This paper examines the impact of the entry and exit of board of directors on the share price of United Kingdom listed firms. Unlike previous studies in the area, this study distinguishes between the different type of board changes. The results of the study suggest that changes in the composition of management boards affect shareholders wealth. Small but significant positive abnormal returns are experienced on the day of the announcement. The results also indicate that the informational effects of new appointments are perceived differently by the market from resignations from the management board.

Notes: Accounting, auditing, and tax professionals constantly evaluate the integrity, competence, and financial performance of clients as factors in practice that influence both client acceptance decisions and the manner in which professional services are rendered. Yet, from an accounting perspective, previous research investigating the corporate board of directors as a governance mechanism has focused only on the representational role of board members. Moreover, many of these studies resulted in conflicting findings according to these attributes. Other disciplines address the particular influence of the board with respect to overall corporate performance, but arrive at little agreement on either the effect of or the most critical of board attributes. This literature review synthesizes the existing research to provide a framework in which to evaluate the effect of the board of directors in accounting settings and, in particular, when conducting future research that employs elements of corporate governance as dependent or independent variables in accounting studies.

Notes: This study describes the survival cases of two local savings banks in Finland during fundamental changes in 1990’s when 90% of the Finnish Savings Bank Group did not survive. Survival is studied through the roles of the non-executive boards and the CEOs in the context of three change periods. Institutional theory is used as a framework in describing and explaining the survival. The cases describe how radical renewals can be made despite dominant actors and generally agreed ways of change in the field. It is suggested that the CEO and the non-executive board of directors were in a key role in changing the future of a local savings bank. Old institutions can die, but the active role of the small banks themselves was decisive; by taking active role they recreated and renewed their organizations (c.f. Greenwood and Hinings 1996).

Notes: The name of Sir Adrian Cadbury has become synonymous with the development of corporate governance. His original involvement was chairing the UK Committee on the Financial Aspects of Corporate Governance in 1991, whose report has taken the name of Cadbury into the annals of the subject. Since then Sir Adrian has visited 28 countries, contributing massively to the raising of board level standards around the world. Now he reports that he has enjoyed this governance odyssey, but is “retiring from this particular field”. His contributions as a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of this journal have been very significant. Here he draws some conclusions on the state of corporate governance and likely developments in the future.

Notes: The author has made significant theoretical contributions to the literature of corporate governance, with works such as Corporate Governance, The Emperor’s Nightingale and Power and Accountability, and major practical interventions through his representational investing through his vehicle the Lens Fund and, more recently, Hermes Fund. He is a distinguished member of this journal’s Editorial Advisory Board. In this paper he responds to the recent UK Department of Trade and Industry consultation document on the future of company law in Britain. We believe that this contribution highlights some important aspects of the corporate governance debate, as well as arguing to some interesting possibilities for the UK. Although the paper stands on its own, references to ‘The Strategic Framework’ have been left in for scholars wishing to explore the arguments further.

Notes: This paper examines the financial rewards received by the directors of the listed Water companies in the five years following privatisation. It considers the salaries, the bonus payments, the gains from executive share options, and the increase in pension entitlements. The increase in the level of the financial rewards of directors of Water companies was greater over this period than of directors in other companies. This was partly the result of the comparatively lower levels of salaries prior to privatisation and partly the result of high gains from executive share options. One of the reasons for the high level of gain on options was the underpricing of the initial public offer of shares. From a corporate governance point of view the period following privatisation was unique in terms of the conditions in which the companies were operating. The annual levels of reward for those directors in post five years after privatisation was in line with directors of similar size companies.

Notes: A new theory of organizational change and success has recently been proposed, organizational portfolio theory (Donaldson, 1999). One purpose of this theory is to provide a fresh perspective on the determinants and consequences of board composition. After outlining organizational portfolio theory, this paper suggests some implications of the new theory for understanding the dynamic relationship between board composition and firm performance.

Notes: Kay, Carolyn, Institutional investors and corporate governance: best practices for increasing corporate value

Notes: Debates about the form and nature of changes in the management of public systems have for some time now been articulated under the theme of governance. All definitions of governance are related to the problems of securing convergence among a diversity of actors and organizations, of redistributing power in an organizational or social field characterized by a high level of heterogeneity and of gaining sufficient legitimacy to act in the name of the collectivity. This paper concentrates on the dynamics involved in the emergence of new governing capabilities in public systems. More precisely we study the implementation of regionalization policies in the health care field (in this case of Canada) conceived as one major attempt to renew the governance structures in a large public system.Our study draws on the comparative analysis of empirical regulation in three health regions as contrasted with three ideal type models of governance in regionalized systems. The first model is inspired by an economic approach to organizational behaviour and focuses on mandate-giving, execution and control. The second model is based on a political interpretation of behaviours and focuses on negotiation processes between actors. Finally, the third model is based on the theory of deliberation as well as the institutional school of policy analysis and focuses on direct public participation in public affairs. Evidence for this article is primarily derived from interviews with key informants and documentary analysis.Our analysis shows that none of the three models is sufficient in itself to grant regional structures the authority and legitimacy they need to create added value in terms of regulation that could ensure their survival. Regional Boards are thus forced by environmental constraints to conceive and implement original mixes of these models. The two predominant logics in regional action are inspired by the first two models although the last one also has an influence. Overall, our study also suggests that the implementation of new sources of governing authorities in a public system is rather fragile because of dependence on existing institutions. Clearly, the attempt to modify the dynamics of governance in a given system must be conceived as a political exercise and not just as a technical problem consisting of the rational adjustment of policy instruments.

Notes: This paper uses an interpretative approach to analyse the relationship between ministers and officials. It argues that generally, the relationship between ministers and civil servants is harmonious. This can be explained by the fact that both sets of actors tend to draw from the same tradition, the Westminster model. The Westminster model can be understood as the building block from which both ministers and civil servants develop narratives that shape and condition their actions. In the case of ministers, the dominant narrative drawn from the Westminster model is what we refer to as that of ‘historical impact’. In the case of civil servants, their dominant narrative, again drawn from the Westminster model is conditioned by the need to provide an account that continually emphasizes how they have acted with ‘constitutional propriety’. Generally, these two contrasting narratives do not lead to conflict between ministers and civil servants. However, a serious breakdown in the relationship between ministers and civil servants can occur when either one or both sets of actors draw on a tradition other than the Westminster model, or when they appeal to a different narrative within the Westminster model which shapes their subsequent behaviour and actions.

Notes: The study of administrations and ministers and their relationships with UK Parliaments has tended to focus on the issues of accountability and responsibility, levels of legislative dissent or broad performance indicators supported by anecdotal examples. This paper addresses the lack of systematic analysis of executive/legislative relations in the policy-making process by examining the dominance of different administrations and ministers in the Scottish Parliament. Two questions are addressed. First, is there any variance in the legislative dominance of different administrations in the parliamentary arena? Second, do individual ministers make a difference to the degree of policy dominance? Controlling for both initial authorship and quality of amendments to Executive policy, we analyse the nature and extent of Executive dominance during the legislative process of the First Session of the Scottish Parliament. We find some evidence to suggest that Executive dominance varies both by administration and by individual minister.

Notes: The structure of the British state is growing increasingly complex. This trend raises a number of questions that focus on the forces stimulating this complexity and its implications both for society-state relationships and the design and implementation of public policy. This article focuses on one specific element or strand of these debates: the growth in the number and role of quasi-autonomous public bodies within Britain. It seeks to analyse and reflect upon the distinctive approach taken by the Labour government, since winning office in May 1997, in relation to the sphere of ‘distributed public governance’ in Britain. Moreover, the article seeks to locate this analysis within broader debates surrounding the future of the British state and the Labour government's approach to statecraft through a thematic framework based around: growth, co-ordination, accountability, depoliticization and power. The central argument of this article is that the Labour government has increased considerably the sphere of distributed public governance in Britain. This process has been largely devoid of an underpinning rationale and this may have significant implications for successful policy delivery, the public's trust in government and the future trajectory of the British state.

Notes: One of the most important claims advanced by comparative public management reform studies is that these reforms have been more successfully implemented in majoritarian than in consensus democracies. The claim is built on the premise that the institutional structure of a majoritarian democracy enables a parliamentary majority to implement policies unilaterally and in a desired way whereas the institutional structure of a consensus democracy forces parliamentary majorities to negotiate compromises. This claim, we argue, lacks sufficient empirical backing, is biased by studies focusing on the initiation of reforms, and needs serious rethinking in the light of recent empirical studies that downplay the salience of institutions as an explanatory factor for variations in policy reform. With The Netherlands and New Zealand as cases, this article first shows that far-reaching reforms can be implemented in consensus systems too; secondly, it develops a model that centres on the interplay between institutions and politicians’ reform styles and applies this to these countries.

Notes: This article seeks to highlight the conditions in which organizations with different levels of ‘publicness’ interact in the framework of policy-making. In France, decision making and implementation is shared among public, semi-public and private organizations. The specific responsibility and influence of public organizations within institutional collective action however is a source of ambiguity. It becomes therefore a matter of political authority for public organizations to invest in the structuring of public problems and policies. The case analysed here shows that the publicness of implemented policies is a construction which stakeholders may try to influence. Responses by public organizations show that publicness does not only relate to the plurality of organizational forms but also to the existence of a form of hierarchy within systems of governance themselves.

Notes: This paper presents empirical and theoretical analysis of the enactment of New Public Management (NPM) within the UK police service. It draws on empirical material gathered in a two-year study that explores the ways in which individual policing professionals have responded to, and received, the NPM discourse. Theoretically informed by a discursive approach to organizational analysis, the paper focuses on the new subject positions promoted within NPM that serve to challenge traditional understandings of policing organization and identities. The paper examines the implications of this for policies that promote community orientated policing (COP) and increased inter-agency partnership. The paper argues that the promotion of a more progressive form of policing, based on community orientation and equality principles, may struggle to gain legitimacy within the current performance regime that legitimizes a competitive masculine subjectivity, with its emphasis on crime fighting.

Notes: Greater fiscal transparency is seen by its advocates as a means of improving economic governance arrangements in ways which, by promoting fiscal stability, will in turn improve the functioning of the government sector and facilitate improvements in the economic environment for the private sector. ‘Fiscal transparency’ is much acclaimed by policy-makers, not only in the UK Treasury but also by the IMF and OECD. Fiscal transparency can have substance or can just be voguish incantation. This article explores the meaning of fiscal transparency, by examining its structure and evaluating criteria for assessing the degree of fiscal transparency attached to particular sets of circumstances. It explores the link between transparency and accountability, developing the distinction between event and process transparency. Consideration is given to the trade-off between the value of sunlight (to employ an analogy) and the danger of over-exposure. The performance of the United Kingdom against emerging international best practice is examined, with regard to both public expenditure and taxation. By international standards, UK fiscal transparency is high. Nevertheless, there is a major gap between UK rhetoric and practice, indicating a  divergence between nominal and effective transparency. This is evidenced by: frequent changes in public expenditure definitions; the non-publication of important analyses; the location of certain liabilities ‘off-balance sheet’; and a lack of candour about tax policy.

Notes: This article gives a broad overview of Norwegian research on public administration over the past 40 years. The main picture that emerges is that a Norwegian public administration built primarily on Webernian principles has lost some but not all these original properties. It describes a research tradition based on organizational theory and democratic theory. It also paints a picture of public administration as integrated into a complex network of domestic political institutions, public agencies, organized interests and clients, as well as extensive European and international networks. It shows how a strong theoretical tradition, based on bounded rationality, is supplemented by different types of institutional theories and increased theoretical pluralism. Finally, the paper underlines the importance of considering public administration not simply from an internal technical viewpoint, but of placing the discipline in a wider political and democratic context.

Notes: The aim of this article is to gain some understanding of the way the European Court of Auditors (ECA) assesses European Union (EU) member states’ performances in managing EU finances. To this end the ECA's annual reports for 1996–2001 have been analysed.We find that the information provided in the ECA annual reports is somewhat unsystematic, which is the result of the ECA's approach to auditing and its working methods. A review of the literature, as well as our own empirical analysis, allows us to conclude that the ECA does not in fact live up to its own mission of providing relevant, objective reports. Our analysis suggests, for instance, that there is some ambiguity within the ECA due to differences in audit traditions within the EU. Improvements could be made by reducing the number of ECA members to three or five, by (further) integrating the traditional ECA audit and the audit within the framework of the statement of assurance, and by further integrating internal and external budgetary control within the EU.

Notes: John Stewart, Modernising British Local Government: an Assessment of Labour's Reform ProgrammeChristopher Pollitt and Colin Talbot (eds), Unbundled Government: a Critical Analysis of the Global Trend to Agencies, Quangos and ContractualisationPaul Maltby, In the Public Interest? Assessing the Potential for Public Interest CompaniesChristopher Hood and B. Guy Peters with Grace O.M. Lee (eds), Reward for High Public Office. Asian and Pacific-Rim StatesStephen B. Johnson, The Secret of Apollo: Systems Management in American and European Space ProgrammesMichael Hill and Peter Hupe, Implementing Public Policy: Governance in Theory and PracticePeter John, Local Governance in Western EuropeRobert Agranoff and Michael McGuire, Collaborative Public Management: New Strategies for Local GovernmentsMartin Lodge, On Different Tracks: Designing Railway Regulation in Britain and GermanyAnthony B.L. Cheung and Ian Scott (eds), Governance and Public Sector Reform in Asia: Paradigm Shifts or Business as Usual?

Notes: This paper presents a review of three decades of implementation studies and is constructed in the form of a personal reflection. The paper begins with a reflection upon the context within which the book Policy and Action was written, a time when both governments and policy analysts were endeavouring to systematize and improve the public decision-making process and to place such decision-making within a more strategic framework. The review ends with a discussion about how public policy planning has changed in the light of public services reform strategies. It is suggested that as a result of such reforms, interest in the processes of implementation have perhaps been superseded by a focus upon change management and performance targets. It is further argued that this has resulted in the reassertion of normative, top-down processes of policy implementation. The paper raises points that are important ones and indeed are reflected throughout all four papers in the symposium issue. These are: (1) the very real analytical difficulties of understanding the role of bureaucratic discretion and motivation; (2) the problem of evaluating policy outcomes; and (3) the need to also focus upon micro political processes that occur in public services organizations. In conclusion, the paper emphasizes the continued importance of implementation studies and the need for policy analysts to understand what actually happens at policy recipient level.

Notes: This paper argues for the need to re-assess models of policy implementation in the ‘congested state’. This re-appraisal focuses on two main directions. The first involves locating implementation in the context of wider models of the policy process. We fuse three models, those of Kingdon, Wolman, and Challis et al., to form a new ‘policy streams’ approach. The second examines implementation in multi-level governance. In the UK and elsewhere, much of the focus of traditional implementation studies has been on the link between one central government department and a local agency. However, this vertical (central-local) dimension fails to give sufficient stress to the other horizontal dimensions of ‘central-central’ and ‘local-local’. Paraphrasing Kingdon's terms, implementation models also need to incorporate the ‘little windows’ at local level as well as the ‘big’ windows at national level. Using evidence relating to the implementation of UK policy towards health inequalities, this paper argues successful implementation is more likely when the three policy streams are linked across the three dimensions. The model is thought to be applicable to other areas of the public sectors and complex issues facing all governments.

Notes: Applying implementation theory to practice has been rare. Reasons include the difficulty of the theoretical challenge, the varied needs of practitioners and the complicating normative issues at stake. Nonetheless, several approaches can contribute to the efficacy of implementation action. Building on points of theoretical consensus is one strategy. A second is the systematic probing of points in theoretical dispute, to sketch out practical implications. A third is the development of a contingency perspective to determine which theoretical strands may be appropriate in a given case. Finally, tapping the emerging ideas built on a synthesis of partial perspectives is ultimately likely to be the most useful approach. New methodological tools can help select out valid high-performing instances for systematic inspection and possible emulation. And some of the synthetic perspectives now available are amenable to heuristic application; these include approaches based upon reversible logic, game-theoretic notions and contextual interaction theory.

Notes: Arguably, the government's aim of using the reward of ‘earned autonomy’ and Foundation Trust status as an incentive to improve performance in the NHS will only be effective if Trust managers view greater autonomy as both desirable and realistic. This article examines this issue by investigating the extent to which members of an NHS Trust's senior management team perceive themselves as autonomous, the factors most likely to hinder their ability to operate autonomously, and the extent to which managers want greater autonomy. In the event, autonomy was largely restricted by extensive centrally dictated targets. Entrenched professional interests and a lack of managerial skills on the part of clinician managers suggested limitations on the extent to which autonomy can be realistically devolved. Additionally, there was little belief among managers that greater autonomy would enable healthcare services to be delivered more effectively.

Notes: The contemporary literature on governance notes the difficulties that core executives, central points for steering and co-ordinating public activity, have in undertaking this strategic function. The UK core executive, particularly the Treasury, has developed a regime of Public Service Agreements (PSAs) as a novel and ambitious tool of governance, particularly for public services. The tool incorporates improved priority setting, information about performance, and incentive effects for ministers and officials through a system of performance targets. However, systems for setting priorities are fragmented and include those focused on the Prime Minister's Office and Cabinet Office. Monitoring has been improved, although measures often provide a limited, or sometimes even potentially misleading, impression of progress towards valued goals. The direct incentive effects of PSAs appear to be weak. While the link between the system and the allocation of expenditure has engaged the interest of departments in discussing priorities, ministerial and other officials’ responsibility for performance has been limited. Targets have increasingly been seen as by ministers as minimum pledges of performance rather than tools for stretching and improving performance. Various forms of blame avoidance and blame shifting have occurred and the credibility of the PSA system is in danger of being undermined by frequent changes to targets and misrepresentation of performance in some areas.

Notes: This paper explores the dynamics for changes to the machinery of government and public administration in the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey. Although constitutionally Crown possessions and under the jurisdiction of the UK, both territories are self-governing and are neither part of the UK nor the EU. Their importance as major offshore tax havens means that questions should be asked about their ability to effectively police the money that is invested through them, an issue that has acquired increased significance in the wake of recent terrorist events. Questions of financial probity inevitably lead to questions about governance and governmental efficiency and effectiveness. This paper explores the Bailiwicks’ reactions to this within the theoretical context of the differentiated polity and the modernizing government and new public management agenda. The paper suggests the unique and entrenched political culture of the Bailiwicks is resistant to change but will embrace it if that change ensures the continuance of their autonomy, within the context of being Crown possessions.

Notes: The resignations in 2002 of Stephen Byers and Estelle Morris (UK Secretaries of State for Transport and Education respectively) suggest the need to review the constitutional and political aspects of resignation. In both cases, ministers recognized that they had failed in the oversight or supervision of their departments and thus in the fulfilment of their ministerial role. Their resignations therefore provide evidence of a move away from ‘causal responsibility’, with its complication of the policy/operations and accountability/responsibility distinctions, towards ‘role responsibility’. In so doing, they raise the possibility that what are commonly understood as ‘departmental fault’ resignations may be more appropriately subsumed within an expanded category of personal fault. The resignations also challenge Finer's thesis on the conditions that need to be meet for a resignation to be forthcoming. In neither instance was the political party out for blood or the prime minister unbending. In both cases the press was relentless, suggesting that the media has become a prime actor in determining resignation, and the minister yielding, a recognition, perhaps, of constitutional principle over political pragmatism.

Notes: Rational choice is intimately associated with positivism and naturalism, its appeal to scholars of public administration lying in its ability to offer a predictive science of politics that is parsimonious in its analytical assumptions, rigorous in its deductive reasoning and overarching in its apparent applicability. In this paper I re-examine the ontology and epistemology which underpins this distinctive approach to public administration, challenging the necessity of the generally unquestioned association between rational choice and both positivism and naturalism. Rational choice, I contend, can only defend its claim to offer a predictive science of politics on the basis of an ingenious, paradoxical, and seldom acknowledged structuralism and a series of analytical assumptions incapable of capturing the complexity and contingency of political systems. I argue that analytical parsimony, though itself a condition of naturalism, is in fact incompatible with the deduction of genuinely explanatory/causal inferences. This suggests that the status of rational choice as an explanatory/predictive theory needs to be reassessed. Yet this is no reason to reject rational choice out of hand. For, deployed not as a theory in its own right, but as a heuristic analytical strategy for exploring hypothetical scenarios, it is a potent and powerful resource in post-positivist public administration.

Notes: Although there is a growing body of evidence demonstrating positive effects of ‘high commitment’ HRM practices on organizational performance, there is less evidence evaluating their effects on individual workers, especially within the public sector. Therefore the implications of applying ‘high commitment’ practices in the public sector needs to be considered. This paper seeks to address this gap by reporting the results of a staff survey and follow-up interviews conducted on a cross-section of  local government employees. The results showed that eight of the ten ‘high commitment’ practices had significant effects on worker attitudes. The results are discussed in light of HRM theory together with the implications for public sector managers.

Notes: The need for inter-agency collaboration between managers of mental health services has long been recognized, as has the difficulty of achieving and maintaining such relationships. Hudson et al. (1999) have developed a model for collaboration in the public sector and the current research has tested the model against attempts to achieve and maintain inter-agency collaboration between mental health managers in Wales. We find Hudson's model a useful analytical framework but our evidence suggests that it needs to be amended by giving greater emphasis to the importance of ‘uninterrupted . . . opportunities for interaction’ between key managers. Forthcoming changes to NHS structures in Wales (for example, the abolition of Health Authorities and the conversion of Local Health Groups into Local Health Boards) will not necessarily facilitate collaboration if the Local Health Boards are given the role of planning and commissioning mental health services without having the necessary ‘critical mass’ of knowledge, expertise and dedicated staff capacity for planning and commissioning mental health services.

Notes: The history of Danish political science is young, and public administration has from the beginning been part of the training of political scientists. This background reflects a double strategy: first, in order to ensure political scientists a position in the labour market, they were launched as a new kind of generalist, competing with lawyers and economists. Second, public administration has from the very beginning been seen as a subfield of political science. Even if the institutions engaging in PA research and training have varying profiles, the integration of the discipline in political science is still dominant. So far it has been a success, whether measured at the level of political science graduates in the civil service or the level of PA research. However, the paper argues that in a tougher labour market, generalists with a broad political science background face severe competition from lawyers and economists, and that this must have implications for the direction of research and training in public administration.

Notes: Political and administrative analysis is today said to be taking a narrative turn: to learning by telling and listening to the different stories that constitute political life. However, this new approach to studying the decentring of politics and policy as multiple discursive practices carries a new grand narrative too. A new connection between political authority and political community is taking shape outside the spheres of modern government and representative democracy. Political authority is becoming increasingly both communicative and interactive in order for it to be able to meet complexity with complexity. It is employed for reforming institutions by opening them towards the culture and by tying them to the political attributes and capacities of self-reflexive individuals and to the transformation and self-transformation of their conduct. I call this development culture governance. Culture governance is about how political authority must increasingly operate through capacities for self-and co-governance and therefore needs to act upon, reform, and utilize individual and collective conduct so that it might be amenable to its rule (Bang 2003; Dean 2003). Culture governance represents a new kind of top-down steering; it is neither hierarchical nor bureaucratic but empowering and self-disciplining. It manifests itself as various forms of joined-up government and network governance and proclaims itself to be genuinely democratic and dialogical. This I shall show by a study of local Danish politics and policy in Copenhagen. Culture governance, I shall argue, constitutes a formidable challenge and threat to democracy, in attempting to colonize the whole field of public reason, everyday political engagement, democratic deliberation, and so on, by its own systems logic of success, effectiveness or influence. It seeks to take charge of the working of the more spontaneous, less programmed and more lowly organized politics of the ordinary in political communities, thus undermining the very idea of a non-strategic public reasoning as founding the practices of freedoms.

Notes: How are government policy commitments converted into legislation and what happens in the conversion? The role of civil servants in preparing legislation is far more important than is generally assumed. By looking at the work of four recent bill  teams in Britain – teams of civil servants given the task of developing Acts of Parliament – their crucial roles in initiating policies, placing them on the political agenda (even helping secure their place in a party manifesto), developing them, making sure they pass through parliament and enacting them once they have reached the statute books are assessed. The article explores the composition and working methods of bill teams. These teams work with considerable autonomy in developing legislation, but it cannot be assumed that they operate outside ministerial control. Teams see themselves as reflecting the priorities of the government in general and their ministers in particular. Yet ministers typically know relatively little about the law they are bringing in until they receive the submissions and briefings from their officials. Perhaps the biggest danger for democracy is not a civil service putting forward proposals which a minister feels forced to accept, but rather that ministers do not notice or fully appreciate what is being proposed in their name despite having the political authority to change it and a civil service which bends over backwards to consult and accommodate them.

Notes: This article will explore the proposition that cabinet government is dead by examining the different ways in which cabinet government is conceptualized and by suggesting that the lack of precision in the debates has undermined much of the criticism. It will seek to draw the strands of research together in a way that can emphasize how cabinet government has evolved while remaining at the core of government. The article will draw evidence from three countries, Australia, Canada and Britain, in each of which, despite the common heritage, cabinet has evolved in different ways.

Notes: Since the 1990s there has been a long-standing concern in government towards public sector accountability, management, efficiency and service delivery. A number of studies have attempted to analyse the multitude of individual changes and their manifestations through analyses based on a variety of institutional, policy and governmental distinctions. This paper attempts to specify the changes with particular reference to planning, and to consider the evolution of the public service ethic in planning towards more openness, scrutiny, transparency and efficiency with particular reference to the changing ethos of the professional employee. We first explore the  main impacts upon local government, the public service ethic and professional planning as a consequence of the Modernization agenda and freedoms and flexibilities initiative. We then look at how such changes have impacted upon the ethos and values in public service and planning. We draw on some evidence of Ombudsman cases to highlight issues of professional values in planning practice over the past decade before finally drawing these strands together in some conclusions. Our principal findings indicate that the much-trumpeted decline of services and standards may not have been as apparent as is sometimes portrayed and that internal professional attitudes and values towards the external changes may not have significantly altered over the same period.

Notes: Inspired by New Public Management, many countries have changed their central public apparatus from an integrated to a more segregated structural model. A central element in this process is structural devolution and the establishment of new or reorganized state-owned companies with increased business autonomy and new formal control systems. This paper focuses on how this development, as exemplified by the case of Norway, is affecting the role of central executive political and administrative leaders. The study, based on elite interviews, shows that corporatization has made the role of central leaders more complex and ambiguous and undermined traditional political control. We interpret this development from a transformative perspective, underlining how structural devolution is filtered through the dynamic context of environmental pressure and internal structural and cultural factors; in addition, experiences from New Zealand are used to contrast the Norwegian case.

Notes: Public management reforms at the local (community) and regional (canton) level in Switzerland almost all embrace elements of the new public management. In addition, in Switzerland, the merging of small communities as well as new developments such as electronic government are becoming apparent. The new public management model has been adapted for Swiss needs according to the perception of decision makers on problems that require solution in a Swiss context. NPM has developed, therefore, into rather different models in practice, aimed at the solution of these diverse problems. Foreign examples, such as the Dutch Tilburg Model and the German Neues Steuerungsmodell, played a major role at the start of this process, but have continuously lost their influence as actual models to be emulated. The most outstanding peculiarities of the Swiss reforms are an early and subsequent outcome focus together with the strong influence of direct democracy.

Notes: This article, part of a sequence of comparative articles on local government reforms in The Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany, describes and analyses the recent public management reforms at the local level of Germany. After an overview about the constitutional framework of local self government and the reform waves of the last decades, the paper concentrates on the ‘new steering model’ as the German variant of NPM. The article shows the short history of this reform movement, describes the main elements of the reform concept and explains some of the causes, forces and actors of implementation. It goes on to discuss the present status of implementation, explains several shortcomings of the concept, and presents the – very limited – empirical evidence of achieved results. Finally, the paper draws some conclusions from a comparative view on the similarities and differences of local management reforms in Germany and the two other countries.

Notes: Books reviewed in this article:B. Guy Peters and Jon Pierre (eds.), Politicians, bureaucrats and administrative reformHugh Atkinson and Stuart Wilks-Heeg, Local government from Thatcher to Blair: the politics of creative autonomyAlex Wright (ed.), Scotland: the challenge of devolutionChristopher Hood, Henry Rothstein and Robert Baldwin, The government of risk: understanding risk regulation regimesAlison Young, The politics of regulation: privatized utilities in Britain

Notes: The United States is commonly referred to as the last global superpower, exercising unrivalled political, economic, military and social influence. Yet, paradoxically, unlike any other nation, Americans were – and remain – radically antistatist. Until roughly the twentieth century the United States did not want, need, nor create a powerful administrative state to govern itself, let alone others abroad. This essay explores that peculiar paradox, namely how Americans govern as the last global superpower today, yet retain an inherently fierce hostility to government. The thesis that is developed argues that it is a deep–rooted reformist faith which ultimately shapes US statecraft as a unique style of reformcraft, with both benign and not–sobenign consequences.

Notes: To understand governance, we ask who is telling the story from within which tradition. We argue there is no essentialist notion of governance but at least four conceptions each rooted in a distinctive tradition. The first section of the paper describes the relevant traditions: Tory, Liberal, Whig and Socialist. The second section describes the different notions of governance associated with each tradition; intermediate institutions, marketizing public services, reinventing the constitution and trust and negotiation. We explain these distinct conceptions of governance as responses to the dilemmas of inflation and state overload. In the conclusion, we summarize how and why traditions change, concluding, there is no such thing as governance, but only the differing constructions of the several traditions.

Notes: The article explores the evolution of competing views on state, administration and governance in Germany from an historical perspective, with an emphasis on the last five decades. To understand the governance discourse in Germany one has to start from different notions of the state. The first part therefore offers a brief, somewhat polemic, overview about different state traditions in Germany in the twentieth and twenty–first centuries. The second part looks at how discourses about the proper role, the appropriate structures and processes of the public sector and its interactions with its environment have changed during the history of the Federal Republic. The analytic focus is on the different narratives about administrative policies, understood as the various scenarios, assumptions and arguments on which competing policy–suggestions for the public sector have been based. The article argues that it is not sufficient to interpret the ups and downs of different discourses and Leitbilder as more or less erratic, post–modern fashions and fads. Instead, the line up of the central catch–phrases, from democratic via active and lean to the activating state, reflect learning processes, driven above all by the political competition creating a continuous demand for ‘better’, more appropriate narratives to guide and explain current policies.

Notes: This article explores the basic traditions of governance in contemporary France and the narratives of public sector reform associated with them. It should be stressed right from the outset that this article does not aim to describe the set of public sector reforms that have been implemented in France in the last ten years or so. Instead, the aim is to demonstrate the similarities and differences between the narratives of the left and the right with regard to these reforms and to show how these narratives help to explain the types of reform that have been enacted. The basic argument is that there is a certain commonality to both the left and the right with regard to their narratives of public sector reform. At the same time, though, there are differences of emphasis both within each tradition and between the two main traditions themselves. Except where indicated, all translations are the author's own.

Notes: This article revisits the country case studies and seeks to answer two questions. What are the strengths and weaknesses of an interpretive approach? What lessons can we draw from our analysis of public sector reform? To assess an interpretive approach, we discuss: the issues raised in identifying beliefs; the meaning of explanation; how to select traditions; the shift from prediction to informed conjecture and policy advice as storytelling. To assess the lessons, we outline our preferred story of public sector reform. We seek to show that an interpretive approach produces insights for students of public administration. We argue it remains feasible to give policy advice to public sector managers by telling them stories and providing rules of thumb (proverbs) to guide managerial practices.

Notes: Compared to other continental European countries, especially Germany and Switzerland, which have experimented with New Public Management (NPM) in local government, The Netherlands has been relatively quick in following trends stemming from Anglo-Saxon management thinking, but also relatively quick in redressing its course. The rise of the New Public Management in Dutch local government has been relatively swift and strong but also relatively superficial and non-committal. The dominant picture that emerges is one of an administrative system that, while responsive to the latest trends, is also surprisingly stable. Management reforms, forcefully advocated in the 1980s, were decisively revised and redressed in the 1990s, with the city of Tilburg, celebrated for its ‘Tilburg Model’, a case in point. The Werdegang of NPM (that is, how things developed) in Dutch local government, detailed in this article, can be understood only partially as a result of changing economic and budgetary constraints. The article shows that endogenous features of the Dutch politico-administrative system – more specifically: the compact, dense and decentralized pattern of the intergovernmental network, the administrative tradition of pragmatism, dynamic conservatism and the comparatively technocratic character of local government – have also strongly influenced the reception, effect and correction of NPM in Dutch local government.

Notes: The current UK government emphasizes the importance of mechanisms of accountability that involve the planning and public reporting of performance. One example of this is the Best Value performance plan. However, there has been little evaluation of the quality of the information provided in this type of document. This paper draws on literature on stakeholding and user needs to identify the data required for accountability. It then assesses whether the plans produced by Best Value pilot authorities in Wales provide appropriate information. The analysis shows that very few of the plans contained the relevant material. Interviews in the pilot authorities highlighted two key reasons for the poor level of data: a lack of performance indicators prior to Best Value and limited staff expertise in performance measurement. The evidence suggests that documents such as performance plans currently make little contribution to the accountability of public organizations.

Notes: The computerization of the medical record has important implications for the governance of health care, and the importance of health care means that changes wrought there are indicative of changes in government as a whole. This paper draws on work in public policy, medical sociology and studies of science and technology, as well as on cross–national empirical research in Britain and France. It describes the recent development of information policy in health care as an exercise in state–building, realized specifically in the governance of the health professions. The paper concludes with a discussion of what is both new and not so new in the form and extent of state power which emerges.

Notes: This article analyses the ‘partnership principle’– which is of particular importance for multilevel governance interpretations of European integration – as it evolved in EU regional policy–making. After sketching in the crucial analytical lines of the current debate on ‘partnership’ on the example of the implementation of the EU structural policy in Germany, I examine how it functions. A closer look at two important sub–fields of ‘partnership’–‘societal participation’ and ‘policy evaluation’– reveals that theoretical expectations regarding its transforming potential, in terms of pitting supranational and subnational actors against central state authority and thereby circumventing the latter, have not materialized. On the contrary, recently rising resentment and out–and–out conflict between the European Commission and regional authorities so far point to theoretically unexpected limitations of ‘partnership’, calling into question whether it is an appropriate and sustainable inter–administrative co–ordination device – at least when viewed from the perspective of the EU multilevel governance thesis. In the light of the reported insights into the practice of ‘partnership’, this ‘new mode of EU governance’ thus needs to be reassessed.

Notes: The report describes the flow of manuscripts and the contents of the journal before briefly surveying each section of the journal. It ends with a résumé of changes during the year and a thank you to the many people who have helped.

Notes: Drawing on insights from grid–group cultural theory the article argues that New Labour’s approach to government units beyond Westminster and Whitehall rests on a fatalistic reading of its environment that specifies its key features in terms of low–trust relationships and a lack of predictability about the success of a range of potential reforms. New Labour’s response in these circumstances resembles that of strategy based on the principles of a lottery. The strategy has allowed a plethora of decentralization units and reform initiatives to find favour but none to dominate. The article explores the nature of this strategy, how it was established and the prospects for its maintenance. The key point is not that New Labour’s polices have been ad hoc or even that they have been confused. Rather, its policies are a chosen course of action aimed at searching for the right reform formula and creating a dynamic for change by encouraging instability but also space for innovation among the institutions of devolved governance. The strategy is aimed at an overarching goal of developing an enabling state form. The adoption of the strategy, in addition, reflects political contingencies. Moreover, the lottery strategy has helped New Labour sustain its coalition of supporters and manage tensions between different reform approaches.

Notes: Analyses and policy statements about publicly funded services frequently distinguish ‘demands’ from ‘needs’. The distinction has been challenged, calling into question the coherence of formulating welfare policy and evaluating public services in terms of needs. This paper explicates the conceptual distinction between demands and needs in terms of derived demand and information asymmetry. ‘Needs’ can be defined as ‘rational demands’, where ‘rational’ means ‘consistent and evidence–based’, and ‘demands’ as ‘desires’ rather than ‘effective (i.e. economic) demand’. On that basis, practical demand management in needs–based public services would require:1. Knowledge of users’ demands for services;2. Content analyses of users’ demands to identify any misinformed demands;3. Conversion of any misinformed demands into evidence–based specifications of needs;4. Formulating coherent, evidence–based demands on behalf of users who cannot to do so themselves.A study of English NHS Primary Care Groups explores the problems which authorities responsible for publicly funded services face in undertaking these activities. Demand management receives low priority in terms of the incentives and intellectual resources applied to it. Needs assessment has higher priority but is regarded as a branch of evidence–based professional practice, controlled by professionals rather than responsive to users. This separation tends to defeat the purposes of needs–based public services.

Notes: As one means of dealing with an increasingly interdependent or shared power ‘noone in charge’ world (Bryson and Crosby 1992) and adapting the public sector to the demands of the global economy, successive administrations in the UK have aimed to develop a more strategic approach to public procurement by emphasizing inter–departmental co–ordination and establishing long–term partnership relations with suppliers. This has proved to be a difficult task, however, as the operating framework and culture of the public sector have hindered the development of interorganizational relationships and trust. By focusing on the co–operative processes and interaction within central government departments and between departments and the private sector, this paper aims to analyse and identify the obstacles to, and opportunities for, implementing long–term supply relations and facilitating departmental co–ordination. While the paper argues that partnership relations can build social capital, it also shows that these resources can have both positive and negative effects for public procurement. To conclude, lessons for developing collaborative arrangements in public procurement are identified.

Notes: This paper examines the Beacon Council Scheme as a distinct policy element within the UK government’s wide–ranging local government modernization agenda. The aim of the Beacon scheme is two–fold. First, reward for high performing councils and second, the achievement of substantial change by sharing ‘best practice’ from identified centres of excellence. The scheme presupposes an implicit theory of organizational change through learning. The Beacon Council Scheme is based on the assumption that the organizational preconditions exist which will facilitate learning, and through its application to practice, improve service delivery. The paper analyses the presumed and possible conditions which facilitate or impede interorganizational learning and service improvement through the scheme. The paper then examines empirical data from 59 local authority elected members and officers about their attitudes towards and motivation to take part in the Beacon scheme during the first year of its existence. The data indicate that there are differing motivations for participation in the scheme and that these reflect different learning needs. The experiences of local authority participants suggest that the formulators of the dissemination strategy at the heart of the scheme have not yet given sufficient consideration to the processes of interorganizational learning, the conditions that support such learning between authorities and the embedding of new understandings, practices and organizational cultures in the receiving authority. This suggests that the underlying theories of organizational learning and cultural change may be insufficiently developed to create and sustain the kind of transformational change that is intended by central government.

Notes: This paper seeks to examine some aspects of the early operation of the Northern Ireland Assembly and in particular the role of the Statutory Committees. The particular issue that is used to explore these matters is the review of student finances which the Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment Committee (HFETEC) undertook as its first major investigation. It should be noted here that the Department of Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment changed its name to the Department of Employment and Learning during 2000. The Committee also changed its name to the Employment and Learning Committee. Since the issues discussed took place prior to these changes the original name has been used here. Specifically, the paper examines the Review of Student Finances launched by the Department of Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment (DHFETE), how the Committee tackled the issue, tensions within the Committee, the relationship between the Committee and the Minister, between the Minister and the Department, the public debate, how the Committee Report was subsequently dealt with in the Assembly and the Minister’s response. It is suggested that this example provides some insights into the operation of the distinctive devolved institutions in Northern Ireland and some early evidence of how such Statutory Committees may develop.

Notes: In 1991 eight polytechnics offered a BA in public administration while five universities provided the degree with either public or social policy. Currently, no higher education institution in Britain offers a BA degree solely entitled ‘public administration’. The subject area is, however, offered in 16 higher education institutions under a variety of names that include, in any order, the words ‘public’, ‘management’, ‘policy’ and ‘administration’. This paper analyses the reasons for the transformation during the 1990s in undergraduate courses for the public sector. It is argued that these changes do not so much derive from academics, employers or students taking on board an enthusiasm for new public management but are as much the consequences of deregulation of student choice and an expansion in student numbers that has not been matched in financial terms. The consequence has been to increasingly move this sector towards business and management teaching geared to private sector interests and away from its more political and social science roots.

Notes: This paper presents the detailed results of an empirical survey on tele–democracy in 31 European cities covering 14 states. It shows that progressive city–administrations in Europe are early adopters of tele–democracy with a diffusion rate of 72 per cent. Analysis of the survey results illustrates that cities are using tele–democracy to improve service access and the quality of services. This research shows that electronic or Internet voting is a priority for only a minority of cities. The paper suggests a typology of tele–democracy and makes wide–ranging policy suggestions. In the debate over whether information and communications technologies will have a beneficial or detrimental effect on the quality and legitimacy of local government, this paper takes an optimistic stance based on the evidence of the survey.

Notes: Books Reviewed:Stephen P. Osborne (ed.), Public–private partnerships. Theory and practice in international perspectiveNeill Nugent, The European CommissionAnne Stevens with Handley Stevens, Brussels bureaucrats? The administration of the European UnionMichelle Egan, Constructing a European market – standards, regulation and governanceR.A.W. Rhodes, Control and power in central–local government relationsSteve Ludlam and Martin J. Smith (eds), New Labour in governmentHuw T.O. Davies, Sandra M. Nutley and Peter C. Smith (eds), What works? Evidence–based policy and practice in public services

Notes: Emphasis on ‘globalization’ within academic literature is reflected in the contention within public administration that the prescriptions of the New Public Management are an inescapable fact of life from which states have little scope for resisting. However, variation persists both between and within countries. Since 1997, devolution within the UK and novel intergovernmental structures occasioned by the Belfast Agreement for Northern Ireland have transformed the territorial governance of the UK and the wider British Isles, providing further evidence of the differential impact of NPM. In seeking a better understanding of these differences, examination of the administrative arrangements of small communities or micro states can offer fascinating comparative insights into the workings of larger states, especially those with whom they enjoy a direct relationship. Frequently, however, small communities are overlooked in favour of studies of countries with more political weight. The micro states of the British Isles (namely, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands) illustrate the point. However, with a few notable exceptions, relatively little is published. To correct this deficiency, this article seeks to explore developments in the Isle of Man, specifically its civil service. In so doing, the article aims to broaden our understanding of the changing governance not only of the Isle of Man, but also of the UK and beyond.

Notes: This article summarizes a study of the political, bureaucratic and economic elites in Spain, from the Franco regime through the democratic transition to the socialist governments of the 1990s. Data on the people holding posts in one or more of these elite groups were used to test and extend the theory of elite circulation first formulated by Vilfredo Pareto. The data confirms that Spanish elites became more open to others in the democratic period. Up to the present time, they continue to be integrated through multi-positionality – many bureaucrats also hold political or economic posts – though to a lesser extent than in the past. Our empirical findings enable finer distinctions to be made about the different modes of elite circulation. These results show the changing nature of the networks that form when posts in different sectors become associated through multiple post-holding. These networks are an important component of the social fabric in Spain and elsewhere and deserve further investigation.

Notes: This article reviews ‘corporatization’ and ‘marketization’, shorthands for privatization, in the Chinese economy. In particular it concentrates upon the most recent round of state-owned enterprise reforms, the Modern Enterprise System and Group Company System, aimed at transforming China’s largest state-owned enterprises into internationally competitive corporations. This represents a partial privatization, given that the state will retain majority ownership, while acquiring domestic and foreign capital via sharelistings and foreign and domestic joint ventures.Drawing upon interview material from a five-year study of state-owned enterprises, the authors will indicate that such part privatization has been pragmatic and relatively slow. It has been constrained and circumscribed by broader economic and social reform programmes and accompanied by political decentralization and reforms. Ultimately, the reform and pace of reform is shaped by the desire to avoid political and social unrest which could, potentially, threaten the harmony of the Chinese central state apparatus.

Notes: David McKay, Designing Europe – comparative lessons from the federal experienceHellmut Wollmann and Eckhard Schröter (eds), Comparing public sector reform in Britain and Germany: key traditions and trends in modernisationChristopher Pollitt and Geert Bouckaert, Public management reform – a comparative analysisMichael Moran, Governing the healthcare state: a comparative study of the United Kingdom, the United States and GermanyRobert Hazell (ed.), The state and the nations: the first year of devolution in the United KingdomLuc Rouban (ed.), Citizens and the new governance: beyond new public managementNeal D. Finkelstein (ed.), Transparency in public policy: Great Britain and the United StatesGraeme A. Hodge, Privatization: an international review of performanceJohn Stewart, The nature of British local governmentRichard A. Chapman (ed.), Ethics in the public service for the new millenniumClive Gray, The politics of the arts in BritainKenneth Dyson, The politics of the Euro-Zone: stability or breakdown?Roger Levy, Implementing European Union public policy