This article considers the reform of telecommunications regulation in three Caribbean countries, ... more This article considers the reform of telecommunications regulation in three Caribbean countries, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Barbados, as they responded to changes in the international regulatory environment and speci¢c domestic challenges. The three countries also adopted strategies to adjust their internal structures and to utilize international development aid. The article focuses on their e¡orts to establish embedded regulatory autonomy, considered along three dimensions: organizational capability, institutional design, and embeddedness within the regulatory space. Each country has taken a di¡erent approach to regulatory reform, which is re£ected in the respective outcomes. While Jamaica has made tentative progress towards regulatory autonomy, in the other countries progress has been limited. In Trinidad and Tobago, political gridlock has forestalled attempts at regulatory reform, while in Barbados the regulatory reform process has been dominated by the incumbent. The conclusion considers the challenges of establishing regulatory autonomy, particularly the process of embedding regulatory relationships. &CIRIEC 2002. Published by Blackwell Publishers,
The term governance has been used in many contexts and meanings. This paper assesses three logics... more The term governance has been used in many contexts and meanings. This paper assesses three logics of control widely associated with governance, namely multi-level governance, the 'regulatory state' and performance management. It questions to what extent these logics are present, are reinforcing or are mutually self-destructive in their effects. It answers this question by looking at the field of meat inspection as a critical aspect of the Europeanised food safety regime and concentrates on the cases of Denmark and Germany. The paper assesses the three logics of control across three levels and concludes that their effect is interactive and that far from being mutually reinforcing, the various logics are mutually self-destructive and destabilising.
The fields of political science and public administration are said to be drifting apart. This art... more The fields of political science and public administration are said to be drifting apart. This article argues that a focus on executive politics -the politics of the executive and of the execution of policies -offers a key avenue to maintain a useful conversation that focuses on perennial questions that are shared across research traditions. This conversation should concentrate on the 'administrative factor' in political life and the 'political factor' in administrative life. This article develops this argument in three steps. First, it defines the field of executive politics. Second, it considers the rationale why a focus on executive politics is pertinent at this particular time. Third, it discusses the challenges that a turn towards executive politics faces. This article concludes by considering the position of British public administration in the field of executive politics.
Rewards for high public office are at the heart of politics and public life. One of the central c... more Rewards for high public office are at the heart of politics and public life. One of the central concerns of such studies is the nature of financial rewards for former public officials after leaving public service. This paper considers one critical aspect of postcareer earnings: membership of corporate boards among former politicians and civil servants in Britain. It addresses three questions: who obtain post-career rewards in the corporate world after time in high public office, how well connected and remunerated are they in the network of interlocking directors, and do these former politicians and bureaucrats together constitute a distinct political class within the corporate network? The analysis uses data on corporate rewards in Britain for more than 700 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange and information on over 7500 directors and 1000 former high public officials. The results from network analysis of interlocking directors on corporate boards suggest that members of the political class are better connected in this elite network, but receive significantly lower compensations, even when controlling for industry sector, experience and board role. While social class and educational backgrounds are known to be important in sociological analyses of corporate networks, the influence of time in public office has not yet been considered; by filling that gap, this paper offers novel insight into interconnectedness of the public sphere and the corporate world.
Much has been said about the appeal of digital government devices to enhance consultation on rule... more Much has been said about the appeal of digital government devices to enhance consultation on rulemaking. This paper explores the most ambitious attempt by the UK central government so far to draw on "crowdsourcing" to consult and act on regulatory reform, the "Red Tape Challenge." We find that the results of this exercise do not represent any major change to traditional challenges to consultation processes. Instead, we suggest that the extensive institutional arrangements for crowdsourcing were hardly significant in informing actual policy responses: neither the tone of the crowdsourced comments, the direction of the majority views, nor specific comments were seen to matter. Instead, it was processes within the executive that shaped the overall governmental responses to this initiative. The findings, therefore, provoke wider debates about the use of social media in rulemaking and consultation exercises.
Competency, a long-standing concern with the skills and capabilities of bureaucrats and bureaucra... more Competency, a long-standing concern with the skills and capabilities of bureaucrats and bureaucracies, has recently attracted renewed attention for public service reformers and consultants. This study explores three questions about the recent fashion for competency ...
'Competency'is a word that seems to have crept into the language of public administrati... more 'Competency'is a word that seems to have crept into the language of public administration and policy relatively recently, although largely under the radar of academic scholarship in Europe. This article introduces a symposium of papers that address key questions about ...
Among the most widely used stereotypes in the contemporary literature on public management reform... more Among the most widely used stereotypes in the contemporary literature on public management reform is to portray German administrative policy as that of a slow-moving 'tortoise'in contrast to the fast-moving reform 'hare'. Taking civil service competency as a ...
Grid-group cultural theory has attracted considerable interest in the study of risk regulation. T... more Grid-group cultural theory has attracted considerable interest in the study of risk regulation. There has, however, been a lack of a systematic interest in its claims and in methodological issues. In this paper, we present five claims that are drawn from cultural theory and assess them in the light of one single case: failure in meat inspections in Germany. These claims are assessed through the analysis of argumentation as recorded in newspapers. In the light of its empirical findings, this paper argues that the claims and the methodology employed offer a promising avenue for further work to investigate the usefulness of this particular theoretical approach.
ABSTRACT Kai Wegrich is a professor of public policy and administration at the Hertie School of G... more ABSTRACT Kai Wegrich is a professor of public policy and administration at the Hertie School of Governance, Berlin. His main research areas are in executive politics and public management reform. He can be reached at [email protected].
The era of public management change is said to challenge traditional "command and control" modes ... more The era of public management change is said to challenge traditional "command and control" modes of governance, encouraging a move toward either more informal forms of (co-) governance or markettype incentives and competition. Regardless of whether these claims are made by reform advocates or by more sceptical observers within the wider governance debate, less attention has been paid by either side on the mechanisms that are supposed to facilitate the spread of new forms of control. This article seeks to advance this state of affairs in two ways. First, it utilizes the notion of institutional isomorphism to explore the nature of change of modes of control. In particular, it assesses the mechanisms for change, whether control mechanisms are changing due to coercive, mimetic, or professional mechanisms. Second, it explores the impact of these mechanisms in the federal context of Germany in two policy domains, prison and local government supervision (in the field of building administration). Finally, this article suggests that cultural theory offers considerable insights for the study of institutional isomorphism by emphasizing conflicting worldviews and the diversity of related policy ideas as driving forces of change in modes of governance.
Globalisation is claimed to have altered the capacities of states to regulate. Small developing c... more Globalisation is claimed to have altered the capacities of states to regulate. Small developing countries, in particular, are said to have lost boundary control over their national economies. This, combined with policies of privatisation and public sector reform more generally, has led scholars to suggest that we are living in the age of the 'hollow','defective'or 'diminished'state. 1 At the same time, the term 'globalisation'has been widely applied and abused, and debates between 'hyperglobalists','sceptics' and 'transformationalists' may ...
Accountability has long been both a key theme and a key problem in constitutional scholarship. Th... more Accountability has long been both a key theme and a key problem in constitutional scholarship. The centrality of the accountability debates in contemporary political and legal discourse is a product of the difficulty of balancing the autonomy given to those exercising public power with appropriate control. The traditional mechanisms of accountability to Parliament and to the courts are problematic because in a complex administrative state, characterized by widespread delegation of discretion to actors located far from the centre of government, the conception of centralized responsibility upon which traditional accountability mechanisms are based is often fictional. The problems of accountability have been made manifest by the transformations wrought on public administration by the new public management (NPM) revolution which have further fragmented the public sector. In this article it is argued that if public lawyers are to be reconciled to these changes then it will be through recognizing the potential for additional or extended mechanisms of accountability in supplementing or displacing traditional accountability functions. The article identifies and develops two such extended accountability models: interdependence and redundancy.
This article considers the reform of telecommunications regulation in three Caribbean countries, ... more This article considers the reform of telecommunications regulation in three Caribbean countries, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Barbados, as they responded to changes in the international regulatory environment and speci¢c domestic challenges. The three countries also adopted strategies to adjust their internal structures and to utilize international development aid. The article focuses on their e¡orts to establish embedded regulatory autonomy, considered along three dimensions: organizational capability, institutional design, and embeddedness within the regulatory space. Each country has taken a di¡erent approach to regulatory reform, which is re£ected in the respective outcomes. While Jamaica has made tentative progress towards regulatory autonomy, in the other countries progress has been limited. In Trinidad and Tobago, political gridlock has forestalled attempts at regulatory reform, while in Barbados the regulatory reform process has been dominated by the incumbent. The conclusion considers the challenges of establishing regulatory autonomy, particularly the process of embedding regulatory relationships. &CIRIEC 2002. Published by Blackwell Publishers,
The term governance has been used in many contexts and meanings. This paper assesses three logics... more The term governance has been used in many contexts and meanings. This paper assesses three logics of control widely associated with governance, namely multi-level governance, the 'regulatory state' and performance management. It questions to what extent these logics are present, are reinforcing or are mutually self-destructive in their effects. It answers this question by looking at the field of meat inspection as a critical aspect of the Europeanised food safety regime and concentrates on the cases of Denmark and Germany. The paper assesses the three logics of control across three levels and concludes that their effect is interactive and that far from being mutually reinforcing, the various logics are mutually self-destructive and destabilising.
The fields of political science and public administration are said to be drifting apart. This art... more The fields of political science and public administration are said to be drifting apart. This article argues that a focus on executive politics -the politics of the executive and of the execution of policies -offers a key avenue to maintain a useful conversation that focuses on perennial questions that are shared across research traditions. This conversation should concentrate on the 'administrative factor' in political life and the 'political factor' in administrative life. This article develops this argument in three steps. First, it defines the field of executive politics. Second, it considers the rationale why a focus on executive politics is pertinent at this particular time. Third, it discusses the challenges that a turn towards executive politics faces. This article concludes by considering the position of British public administration in the field of executive politics.
Rewards for high public office are at the heart of politics and public life. One of the central c... more Rewards for high public office are at the heart of politics and public life. One of the central concerns of such studies is the nature of financial rewards for former public officials after leaving public service. This paper considers one critical aspect of postcareer earnings: membership of corporate boards among former politicians and civil servants in Britain. It addresses three questions: who obtain post-career rewards in the corporate world after time in high public office, how well connected and remunerated are they in the network of interlocking directors, and do these former politicians and bureaucrats together constitute a distinct political class within the corporate network? The analysis uses data on corporate rewards in Britain for more than 700 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange and information on over 7500 directors and 1000 former high public officials. The results from network analysis of interlocking directors on corporate boards suggest that members of the political class are better connected in this elite network, but receive significantly lower compensations, even when controlling for industry sector, experience and board role. While social class and educational backgrounds are known to be important in sociological analyses of corporate networks, the influence of time in public office has not yet been considered; by filling that gap, this paper offers novel insight into interconnectedness of the public sphere and the corporate world.
Much has been said about the appeal of digital government devices to enhance consultation on rule... more Much has been said about the appeal of digital government devices to enhance consultation on rulemaking. This paper explores the most ambitious attempt by the UK central government so far to draw on "crowdsourcing" to consult and act on regulatory reform, the "Red Tape Challenge." We find that the results of this exercise do not represent any major change to traditional challenges to consultation processes. Instead, we suggest that the extensive institutional arrangements for crowdsourcing were hardly significant in informing actual policy responses: neither the tone of the crowdsourced comments, the direction of the majority views, nor specific comments were seen to matter. Instead, it was processes within the executive that shaped the overall governmental responses to this initiative. The findings, therefore, provoke wider debates about the use of social media in rulemaking and consultation exercises.
Competency, a long-standing concern with the skills and capabilities of bureaucrats and bureaucra... more Competency, a long-standing concern with the skills and capabilities of bureaucrats and bureaucracies, has recently attracted renewed attention for public service reformers and consultants. This study explores three questions about the recent fashion for competency ...
'Competency'is a word that seems to have crept into the language of public administrati... more 'Competency'is a word that seems to have crept into the language of public administration and policy relatively recently, although largely under the radar of academic scholarship in Europe. This article introduces a symposium of papers that address key questions about ...
Among the most widely used stereotypes in the contemporary literature on public management reform... more Among the most widely used stereotypes in the contemporary literature on public management reform is to portray German administrative policy as that of a slow-moving 'tortoise'in contrast to the fast-moving reform 'hare'. Taking civil service competency as a ...
Grid-group cultural theory has attracted considerable interest in the study of risk regulation. T... more Grid-group cultural theory has attracted considerable interest in the study of risk regulation. There has, however, been a lack of a systematic interest in its claims and in methodological issues. In this paper, we present five claims that are drawn from cultural theory and assess them in the light of one single case: failure in meat inspections in Germany. These claims are assessed through the analysis of argumentation as recorded in newspapers. In the light of its empirical findings, this paper argues that the claims and the methodology employed offer a promising avenue for further work to investigate the usefulness of this particular theoretical approach.
ABSTRACT Kai Wegrich is a professor of public policy and administration at the Hertie School of G... more ABSTRACT Kai Wegrich is a professor of public policy and administration at the Hertie School of Governance, Berlin. His main research areas are in executive politics and public management reform. He can be reached at [email protected].
The era of public management change is said to challenge traditional "command and control" modes ... more The era of public management change is said to challenge traditional "command and control" modes of governance, encouraging a move toward either more informal forms of (co-) governance or markettype incentives and competition. Regardless of whether these claims are made by reform advocates or by more sceptical observers within the wider governance debate, less attention has been paid by either side on the mechanisms that are supposed to facilitate the spread of new forms of control. This article seeks to advance this state of affairs in two ways. First, it utilizes the notion of institutional isomorphism to explore the nature of change of modes of control. In particular, it assesses the mechanisms for change, whether control mechanisms are changing due to coercive, mimetic, or professional mechanisms. Second, it explores the impact of these mechanisms in the federal context of Germany in two policy domains, prison and local government supervision (in the field of building administration). Finally, this article suggests that cultural theory offers considerable insights for the study of institutional isomorphism by emphasizing conflicting worldviews and the diversity of related policy ideas as driving forces of change in modes of governance.
Globalisation is claimed to have altered the capacities of states to regulate. Small developing c... more Globalisation is claimed to have altered the capacities of states to regulate. Small developing countries, in particular, are said to have lost boundary control over their national economies. This, combined with policies of privatisation and public sector reform more generally, has led scholars to suggest that we are living in the age of the 'hollow','defective'or 'diminished'state. 1 At the same time, the term 'globalisation'has been widely applied and abused, and debates between 'hyperglobalists','sceptics' and 'transformationalists' may ...
Accountability has long been both a key theme and a key problem in constitutional scholarship. Th... more Accountability has long been both a key theme and a key problem in constitutional scholarship. The centrality of the accountability debates in contemporary political and legal discourse is a product of the difficulty of balancing the autonomy given to those exercising public power with appropriate control. The traditional mechanisms of accountability to Parliament and to the courts are problematic because in a complex administrative state, characterized by widespread delegation of discretion to actors located far from the centre of government, the conception of centralized responsibility upon which traditional accountability mechanisms are based is often fictional. The problems of accountability have been made manifest by the transformations wrought on public administration by the new public management (NPM) revolution which have further fragmented the public sector. In this article it is argued that if public lawyers are to be reconciled to these changes then it will be through recognizing the potential for additional or extended mechanisms of accountability in supplementing or displacing traditional accountability functions. The article identifies and develops two such extended accountability models: interdependence and redundancy.
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Papers by Martin Lodge