Search

To authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.2009.01763.x Byline: R.A.W. RHODES (1), JOHN WANNA (2) Abstract: We challenge the usefulness of the 'public value' approach in Westminster systems with their dominant hierarchies of control, strong roles for ministers, and tight authorizing regimes underpinned by disciplined two-party systems. We identify two key confusions: about public value as theory, and in defining who are 'public managers'. We identify five linked core assumptions in public value: the benign view of large-scale organizations; the primacy of management; the relevance of private sector experience; the downgrading of party politics; and public servants as platonic guardians. We identify two key dilemmas around the 'primacy of party politics' and the notion that public managers should play the role of platonic guardians deciding the public interest. We illustrate our argument with short case studies of: the David Kelly story from the UK; the 'children overboard' scandal in Australia; the 'mad cow disease' outbreak in the UK; the Yorkshire health authority's 'tea-parties', and the Cave Creek disaster in New Zealand. Author Affiliation: 1R.A.W. Rhodes holds a joint appointment as Professor of Government in the School of Government at the University of Tasmania and Distinguished Professor of Political Science in the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University. 2John Wanna is the inaugural Sir John Bunting Chair of Public Administration at the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University and Director of Research for the Australian and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG). Article History: Date received 9 March 2007 Date accepted 23 April 2008

To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.2007.00694.x Byline: R. A. W. RHODES, BILL JENKINS, WALTER KICKERT

To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.2006.00627.x Byline: R.A.W. RHODES, BILL JENKINS, WALTER KICKERT

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.

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.

The role of the state is changing under the impact of, for example, globalization. The changes have been variously understood as the new public management (NPM), the hollowing-out of the state and the new governance. This special issue of Public Administration explores the changing role of the state in advanced industrial democracies. It focuses on the puzzle of why states respond differently to common trends. This introductory article has three aims. First, we provide a brief review of the existing literature on public sector reform to show that our approach is distinctive. We argue that the existing literature does not explore the ways in which governmental traditions shape reform. Second, we outline an interpretive approach to the analysis of public sector reform built on the notions of beliefs, traditions, dilemmas and narratives. We provide brief illustrations of these ideas drawn from the individual country articles. Finally, we outline the ground covered by all the chapters but we do not summarize and compare their experiences of reform. That task is reserved for the concluding article.

This article provides a personal interpretation of the key findings of the Economic and Social Research Council's Whitehall Programme. I tell the distinctive story of 'governance' - of fragmentation, networks, unintended consequences and diplomacy - challenging the dominant, managerial account of change in British government since 1979. I present a view of the world in which networks rival markets and bureaucracy as ways of allocating resources and co-ordinating policy and its implementation.

This article introduces a symposium based on the findings of the ESRC's Whitehall Programme. It describes the Programme's origins, covering its objectives and themes. It provides a summary of the Programme's activities and publications. It allows the Programme Director to identify some of his personal highlights under the headings: from government to governance; publications; interdisciplinary work; international links and elite seminars. In the conclusions I identify four broad topics for future research: network steering, decentralization, anti-foundational epistemology and methods, and comparing Westminster systems. Finally in Appendix 1, I list all the programme publications so far and, in Appendix 2, I provide a list of projects along with the contact details for the principal investigator., This article introduces a symposium based on the findings of the ESRC's Whitehall Programme. It describes the Programme's origins, covering its objectives and themes. It provides a summary of the Programme's activities and publications. It allows the Programme Director to identify some of his personal highlights under the headings: from government to governance; publications; interdisciplinary work; international links and elite seminars. In the conclusions I identify four broad topics for future research: network steering, decentralization, anti-foundational epistemology and methods, and comparing Westminster systems. Finally in Appendix 1, I list all the programme publications so far and, in Appendix 2, I provide a list of projects along with the contact details for the principal investigator.

Government practitioners are often attracted to bestselling management literature which actually contain inadequate theories, methods and evidence. They fail to search for other literature which may not be as strong in the market but which do offer sound management theories. Such literature fail to be bestsellers due to several factors such as the marketing capability of publishers, use of jargon, cultural barriers and literature trends.