Good Governance

W Europie mamy trzy rodzaje państw: państwa członkowskie Unii Europejskiej, państwa aspirujące do członkowstwa  w Unii Europejskiej oraz… Bośnię i Hercegowinę (BiH). Casus BiH jest na tyle specyficzny, że „zwykła” analiza przebiegu procesu akcesyjnego i problemów z nim związanych pokazywać będzie tylko część rzeczywistego porządku rzeczy w tej byłej jugosłowiańskiej republice. Proces akcesyjny bowiem przeplatany jest problemami natury fundamentalnej – postępującej erozji instytucji państwa, ale przede wszystkim, braku konsensusu Serbów, Chorwatów i muzułmanów bośniackich – Boszniaków,  w sprawie samego istnienia państwa. Celem pracy będzie zatem próba pokazania szeregu czynników stanowiących o specyfice państwa BiH - czynników wpływających na  jej obecny instytucjonalny iegzystencjalny kryzys, ipso facto, na przebieg procesu integracji z Unią Europejską.

As early as 1992, the Treaty of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) already included a commitment to human rights, democracy, and the rule of law as governance standards in its member states, but it was in 2001 that SADC significantly broadened its efforts at governance transfer. SADC focuses in particular on standards related to gender, (socioeconomic) human rights, and (electoral) democracy, which are promoted and protected through various instruments including military interventions and sanctions in the framework of security cooperation. While the rule of law and good governance have also gained a more prominent place on the agenda since 2001, standards and instruments are less developed. Overall, there is a significant gap between the prescription of standards and policies on the one hand and the implementation of measures on the other. The suspension of the SADC Tribunal in 2010 following its rulings on human rights issues clearly shows the limits of SADC as an active promoter vis-à-vis its member states.

"¿Es posible la existencia de administraciones públicas patrimonialistas que brinden políticas públicas de calidad? ¿La calidad de las políticas públicas se puede explicar, en parte, por las características organizacionales de las administraciones? ¿Gobiernos locales con administraciones que padecen buropatologías se constituyen en motores del desarrollo?
El modelo burocrático weberiano en América Latina pareciera que alcanzó una instalación incompleta. Joan Prats (1999) afirmó que “si la reforma administrativa fracasó no fue porque el modelo burocrático que se trataba de implantar no era el adecuado. De hecho el modelo ha dado y sigue dando rendimiento excelente en muchos países desarrollados. En América Latina… no llegó a institucionalizarse sino parcial y excepcionalmente el sistema que Weber llamó de dominación racional-legal encarnado en la burocracia… lo que se desarrollaron mayormente fueron “buropatologías” que en el mejor de los casos se aproximaban al sistema mixto que Weber llamó “burocracias patrimoniales””.
Así, la presente ponencia es un avance de la tesis doctoral que pretende explicar la relación entre los modelos de administración pública (variable dependiente) y las dimensiones de la calidad de las políticas públicas locales (variable independiente). Para ello, la variable dependiente es analizada a partir de la presencia o ausencia de ciertas características de tres modelos teóricos de organización de las administraciones: a) modelo patrimonialista, b) modelo racional – legal y c) modelo post-burocrático (nueva gerencia pública y/o governance) y la variable calidad de las políticas públicas es analizada a parir de nueve dimensiones: a) estabilidad, b) adaptabilidad, c) coordinación y coherencia, d) implementación, e) orientación al interés público, f) eficiencia, g) participación social, h) grado de planificación y finalmente i) evaluación. "

""Summary
In this article the author attempts to operationalize the good governance concept to the level of the management system of local administration office. The starting point is to present this concept in a new perspective and make recommendations in the management system area.

Keywords:  good governance, public administration, local government, the management system
""

Valorization and protection of cultural patrimony as a tool for socio-economic development. Community awareness: a way to protect the cultural heritage to be considered as shared patrimony. International stakeholders active in risk analysis and emergency initiatives: the experience of UNISDR, Blue Shield, ICRC, ICCROM and UNESCO. Risks factor to cultural heritage protection in emergency and conflict times: vandalism, illicit diggings, looting and illicit trafficking. Cultural relics inventory as a tool for fighting illicit trafficking: the experience of Carabinieri and INTERPOL. The activity of the Italian Civil Defense as a model to respond to emergencies that affect the cultural heritage.

The article first describes characteristics of major infrastructure projects. Second, it documents a much neglected topic in economics: that ex ante estimates of costs and benefits are often very different from actual ex post costs and benefits. For large infrastructure projects the consequences are cost overruns, benefit shortfalls, and the systematic underestimation of risks. Third, implications for cost–benefit analysis are described, including that such analysis is not to be trusted for major infrastructure projects. Fourth, the article uncovers the causes of this state of affairs in terms of perverse incentives that encourage promoters to underestimate costs and overestimate benefits in the business cases for their projects. But the projects that are made to look best on paper are the projects that amass the highest cost overruns and benefit shortfalls in reality. The article depicts this situation as ‘survival of the unfittest’. Fifth, the article sets out to explain how the problem may be solved, with a view to arriving at more efficient and more democratic projects, and avoiding the scandals that often accompany major infrastructure investments. Finally, the article identifies current trends in major infrastructure development. It is argued that a rapid increase in stimulus spending, combined with more investments in emerging economies, combined with more spending on information technology is catapulting infrastructure investment from the frying pan into the fire.

"Purpose: To investigate the effect of the ‘transfer’ process on relationships between employees’ perceived organizational support and affective and continuance commitment within the context of the move to a new employment relationship as part of a Public Private Partnership.

Design/methodology/approach: Eight semi-structured interviews informed the design of a questionnaire, which was distributed to facilities management employees of a United Kingdom NHS hospital who had been seconded to a private-sector management company.  This resulted in 101 effective responses (33 percent).

Findings: In new forms of employment relationship, employees’ perceptions of the ‘transfer’ process influence significantly their perceptions of the management company and their commitment to it. Positively perceived organizational support from the management company significantly increases affective and continuance commitment to the management company, particularly amongst those who feel positive about the transfer process.

Research limitations: This research focuses upon employee commitment to the management company.  Further research is proposed to investigate different foci of commitment as well as the influence of the psychological contract.

Practical implications: The effect of fairness in the ‘transfer’ process is far reaching, lasting beyond the initial transfer.  Both parties should work together to enable a smooth employee ‘transfer’ process, supervisors particularly having a strong influence on employees’ attitudes and behaviour.

Originality/value:  There is a lack of research regarding the antecedents and consequences of commitment of employees, who are managed by one but employed by a different organization.  This study begins to address this gap.


Keywords: Employee commitment, public private partnership, organizational justice, social exchange theory, perceived organizational support
"

"It is widely believed that the state in developing countries is weak. The public sector, in particular, is often regarded as corrupt and dysfunctional. This book provides an urgently needed corrective to such overgeneralized notions of bad governance in the developing world. It examines the variation in state capacity by looking at a particularly paradoxical and frequently overlooked phenomenon: effective public organizations or “Pockets of Effectiveness” in developing countries.
Why do these pockets exist? How do they emerge and survive in hostile environments? And do they have the potential to trigger more comprehensive reforms and state-building? This book provides surprising answers to these questions, based on detailed case studies of exceptional public organizations and state-owned enterprises in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America and the Middle East. The case studies are guided by a common analytical framework that is process-oriented and sensitive to the role of politics. The concluding comparative analysis develops a novel explanation for why some public organizations in the developing world beat the odds and turn into pockets of public sector performance and service delivery while most do not.
This book will be of strong interest to students and scholars of political science, sociology, development, organizations, public administration, public policy and management."

"Streszczenie: W niniejszym artykule autor podejmuje się próby dokonania operacjonalizacji koncepcji good governance do poziomu systemu zarządzania urzędem administracji samorządowej. Punktem wyjścia jest przedstawienie koncepcji w nowym ujęciu, a następnie sformułowanie zaleceń w obszarze systemu zarządzania.

Summary: In this article the author attempts to operationalize the good governance concept to the level of the management system of local administration office. The starting point is to present this concept in a new perspective and make recommendations in the management system area."