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Budget public hearings are spaces for transparency and social participation. These spaces can be considered synchronous accountability forums, where the rendering of accounts and the attribution of responsibilities can co-occur, raising concerns for the responsible parties about possible accountability models. This qualitative and interpretative research analyzed the dynamics of public budget hearings organized by Brazilian municipalities using semi-structured interviews with public managers. The results indicate that those responsible for public hearings adopt strategies minimizing reputational and accountability risks at different times: (i) in the preparation stage, with the definition of participation rules and the use of an informational filter; (ii) during execution, in the form of the presentation of information and in directing the public's attention; and, (iii) in the post-hearing stage, through low transparency and document manipulation. The research contributes to understanding hearings as forums of expected accountability, in which the expectation of the authorities can direct the dynamics of public hearings, transforming them into a theater performance. The results have implications for the courts of accounts and the legislative branch, which could exercise greater control and inspection of the hearings; for society, which could act in a more active and organized way; and also for the legislation in force, which could establish clear guidelines for holding hearings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the importance of future civil servants' business etiquette development as a component of their professional image. The aim of the article was to determine the role of future civil servants' business etiquette development as a part of professional image. The article examines the scholars' viewpoints on image, professional image and business etiquette. It has been noted that business etiquette concerns not only the norms and rules of behaviour, respect for others, but also speech culture. The courses of general and professional training are of great importance for the future civil servants' of business etiquette development, where a special place is given to the course "Image and Ethics in Public Administration". The authors note that in addition to lectures and practical classes, the students' independent work, the students' participation in scientific conferences, meeting with public figures (deputies, deputy mayors and territorial communities chairmen), the work of the academic group supervisor play and important role in future civil servants' business etiquette development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important facilitator in e-government and society in general, Open SDI merits an assessment of its characteristics and the monitoring of its development. The aim of the study was the proposal of the SDI openness assessment approach based on existing openness assessment frameworks, as well as the presentation of the Polish Spatial Data Infrastructure (PSDI) development towards openness. The results indicated that ten geodetic and cartographic databases fulfilled ten out of eleven criteria of data openness, according to the methodological assumptions, and reached a 3-star level of openness. The need for further development of the infrastructure towards sharing public administration data is recognized, as well as non-governmental data that meet the open data criteria, thus contributing to the openness of the SDI. The proposed assessment method, referenced to a five-level data openness system and providing clear scoring benchmarking for assessing SDI openness, may be used for comparative analysis of SDI openness in different countries, including EU Member States that draw on the experience of the implementation of the INSPIRE Directive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on leadership in the context of Brazilian public administration became relevant, as well as ethical, because it is clear that in recent decades the company undergoes many changes resulting from a new economic, political and social context. The objective of this study is to analyze the scientific literature on leadership in public administration, through a search and a systematic review on the basis of data from meetings of the National Association of Graduate Studies and Research in Administration (ANPAD), between the years 2004 and 2015. More specifically in the annals the meeting of the National Association of Graduate Studies and Research in Administration, the meeting of the Division of Public Administration ANPAD of Organizational Studies Meeting ANPAD and Meeting of People Management and Labor Relations ANPAD. It was possible to verify that the work on the leadership of the construct in the Brazilian public sector have been developed in theoretical foundation found in private management, with few exceptions, without proper understanding of the specifics of public administration. As a contribution, this research points to the need to build a theoretical framework on leadership, taking into account the specificities of the Brazilian government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study develops a context-grounded ideal about how citizens ought to communicate in legislative hearings about contentious issues. We begin with an overview of the dominant model of good citizen discourse, democratic deliberation, and argue why it is an inappropriate norm for public hearings in state legislative bodies. After overviewing grounded practical theory (GPT), the meta-theoretical approach used, and providing background on the demands of public meetings, we describe the public hearing that is the focal data. That hearing was the 18-hour, 2009 Hawaii hearing on a bill that proposed to recognize committed relationships of same-sex couples through civil unions. The analysis of citizen testimony evidences a discourse strategy, democracy-appealing partisanship, which speakers on both sides of the issue used to manage the challenges they confronted in speaking out. This strategy involved advocating strongly for one viewpoint as an appeal to either majority rule or minority rights and/or either freedom of religion or separation of church and state were made. In concluding, we describe the problem to which this strategy is responsive, justify the norm of democracy-appealing partisanship, and offer implications for future studies using GPT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the use of online social networks by local public officials in the U.S. It mentions that such networks allow public officials to connect with their constituents, but it has raised concerns over freedom of information, ethics laws, and open meeting laws. Meanwhile, it assesses the tools and behaviors from public choice theory and rational choice institutionalism that resulted to the emerging institution of civic social networks. It concludes that the use of such networks by the public officials is at par with the goals of ethic laws and open government.

The article reports that policy analysis is weakly institutionalized in Brazil. It states that a policymaking process is being constructed due to weak institutionalization of rational policy processes and introduction of participatory politics. It mentions that policymaking process blends to use rational and argumentative policy where rational policy includes use of federal mandates by public management and argumentative tradition includes policy councils and conferences and public hearings.

School districts are both big businesses and a form of local governance that is part of American democracy. When a crisis makes a district's democratic face relevant, the organization will experience a dilemma that does not occur in business-only organizations. This study examines the public meetings of a school board in the western United States as it confronted a multimillion dollar error. After reviewing the organizational crisis literature, background is provided on the district, the crisis, and the method - action-implicative discourse analysis. The district's crisis, the paper shows, was constructed through six discursive practices. Each is identified and illustrated. Because school boards are democratic bodies, they depend on having citizens willing to attend and speak out in public meetings, and they depend on a smaller set of citizens willing to run for and serve in these elected, unpaid school board positions. In crises, these two groups of citizens will have partially competing needs. As a result, local governance organizations will experience a dilemma regarding how to design their public participation. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research on organizational crisis and public meetings, and practical implications for citizens and elected officials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is currently a trend in democratic societies towards greater involvement of the public in the policy setting of official bodies. Numerous mechanisms have been developed to enable such involvement, ranging from traditional forms, such as the public meeting, to more novel forms, such as the consensus conference. This paper considers the use of modern technologies, particularly computer, or Internet-based, as the structural basis of novel engagement mechanisms. To many sponsors of engagement exercises, such technologies appear to provide solutions to specific public engagement problems. In this paper, however, we argue that a number of potential perils also await those who would use these technologies. We conclude with a call for more research into the effectiveness of technology-based engagement mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explains the difference between the concepts of Jewish public administration and American publican administration. Confusion in the understanding of public administration informed by the values of Judaism and Jewish practices from that of public administration that is dominant in the U.S.; Discussion on the concept of Judaeo-Christian values; Information on Judaism as a practice; Biblical basis of Jewish public administration.

The article focuses on the meetings of the Southwestern Social Science Association. The Southwestern Social Science Association was organized under the guidance of the staff of the Department of Government of the University of Texas in the winter of the 1918-19 school year. In the initial year, efforts were devoted largely to making known to teachers and public leaders in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, and New Mexico the aims and purposes of the Association. Those interested in its development expressed the intention of engaging in the cultivation and promotion of political science through the encouragement of research, public meetings, and lectures. The founders of the Association conceived of political science as comprising all fields of scholarship which relate to public life. Thus, economics, history, sociology, and law were viewed as components necessary to the complete understanding of political science. The first annual meetings featured only general sessions, at which specific political subjects were discussed from the various angles of economics, history, politics, and sociology. The founders of the Association hoped to bring into it public officials and social science teachers, especially those at the higher-education level, throughout the Southwest. The Southwest was delimited geographically as including Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Arizona.

Reports that the Appeals Court of Massachusetts has held that when university review committees which could be deemed governmental bodies do not consider or discuss public policy matters or arrive at decisions on any public business, they are not bound by the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law. Facts of the case 'Medlock v. Board of Trustees'; Purpose of the statute.

The author discusses the article by David Campt and Matthew Freeman about using audience response systems at public meetings to measure audience reaction to issues being discussed. The article cites a hypothetical town meeting that turns rowdy and disruptive and how an audience response system would have avoided that type of situation.