Voluntary Agencies as Development Organizations: Theorizing the Problem of Efficiency and Accountability

Co-operatives, NGOs and community groups are being increasingly used as development agencies by policy-makers, because they are thought to provide more accountable, effective and equitable services in many areas than public or private agencies. This article attempts to consider some of the theoretical and practical implications of this growing role by treating them as ‘value-driven’ organizations, and asking how this differentiates them, in terms of efficiency and accountability, from public or private agencies. It notes the lack of developed theoretical models capable of dealing with this question, and examines the relevance of existing theories (neo-classical economics, public administration and especially varieties of organization theory including the New Institutional Economics) in dealing with agencies which claim to be dominated by motivations based on democracy and altruism rather than self-interest. The author looks at problems associated with the measurement of efficiency and enforcement of accountability in organizational life and at the need for effective incentives and sanctions which provide a stable basis for maintaining commitment. He then considers the issues involved in the enforcement of accountability to ensure the efficient use of resources in producer co-operatives on the one hand and service delivery NGOs on the other. In the former, the focus is on the strengths and weaknesses of market competition and the costs of collective management; in the latter on the varied relationships between ‘principals and agents' involved in the production and management of services.     

Conveying Mission Through Outcome Measurement: Services to the Homeless in New York City

This paper outlines the policy decision to implement a performance incentive program in a large social services agency. Specifically, it describes the evolution of services to homeless people in New York City, including the creation of the New York City Department of Homeless Services, the privatization of a majority of the shelter system, and the redefinition of the role of government in the provision of homeless services. It explains how performance measurement is an integral part of this evolution, and the numerous challenges that this initiative has presented to management of the Department.     

北魏均田制下产权制度变迁分析

结合新制度经济学的有关理论,对我国历史上的均田制进行分析是很有意义的。作为国家强制性的制度变迁形式,均田制依靠国家的力量得以推行,为国家建立税收基础,以实现国家租金收入的最大化。但是,在均田制实施的过程中,却遭遇到了来自下层的变通与退出力量,使得均田制度的演进过程又呈现出既定利益结构下的诱致性变迁。     

Introduction: The gendered geographies of ‘bodies across borders’

This paper introduces the articles that comprise the themed section ‘bodies across borders’ which investigates how the social and spatial dynamics of healthcare provision are being transformed by both neo-liberalization and globalization. The articles demonstrate how the central tenets of neoliberalism: the promotion of individual autonomy as realized through the instrument of consumer choice, the privatization, outsourcing and off-shoring of core competencies and service provision, the production of highly ‘flexible’ labour are at work in re-shaping access to, and delivery of, services in the domains of reproductive health, organ donation and globalized healthcare. In paying special attention to the ways in which these practices are cut across by class, gender and ethnicity, these accounts will hopefully encourage us to reject totalizing and homogeneous narratives of medical travel in favour of those that offer more nuanced understandings of the positionality of the individuals at the heart of them.     

In the Public Interest

In today's economic and political climate, there is a growing trend toward less governmental intervention in the economy and more reliance on the private sector for the delivery of a variety of services. Deficit politics, airline deregulation, and the prospect of a windfall of cash has prompted many local units of government that own and operate airports to consider selling or leasing these facilities to private investors. Airport privatization has emerged as a contentious issue, with weighty arguments on both sides of the debate. This article examines these arguments and presents several models of airport privatization. The authors suggest that the most aggressive form of privatization–full divestiture–is unlikely to produce the benefits advertised by its proponents. However, less radical forms of privatization serve as useful models for future airport ownership and operation. The authors conclude that, given the great variation in the types of airports in the United States system, no single model is sufficient.     

The Privatization of Health Care Cleaning Services in Southwestern British Columbia,Canada: Union Responses to Unprecedented Government Actions

This paper analyzes the political dynamics between a newly elected, right‐leaning provincial government and a left‐leaning public sector union that resulted in the privatization of 4000 health support housekeeping jobs in southwestern British Columbia in less than a year. The article documents how government set the stage for privatization, the struggle that ensued when the union resisted concessionary bargaining, and the new challenges that emerged for both union and management once housekeeping and other support services were taken over by multi‐national service corporations. This case is significant because the size and scope of this privatization and the legislation that facilitated it are unprecedented in Canadian history.     

政府委托旅游规划合约的改进:一个交易成本的视角

本文选取具有代表性和主导性的政府委托旅游规划合约作为研究对象,采用新制度经济学的交易成本分析方法,通过梳理政府委托旅游规划合约的委托代理关系,剖析了这类合约低效率的根源所在,并从政府委托旅游规划合约的委托方与代理方角度探寻交易成本的来源;最后,从降低合约交易成本的角度,提出防范委托风险和代理风险的政府委托旅游规划合约改进的对策建议.     

How Much Privatization?

Although it is widely assumed that there has been a surge in the use of alternative service delivery methods, few empirical studies have examined the degree to which privatization actually has increased. This study examines the levels of privatization in cities over a 10–year period. The findings suggest that the use of privatization increased significantly between 1982 and 1992 for the 596 cities included in this inquiry.     

Airport Privatization

In today's economic and political climate, there is a growing trend toward less governmental intervention in the economy and more reliance on the private sector for the delivery of a variety of services. Deficit politics, airline deregulation, and the prospect of a windfall of cash has prompted many local units of government that own and operate airports to consider selling or leasing these facilities to private investors. Airport privatization has emerged as a contentious issue, with weighty arguments on both sides of the debate. This article examines these arguments and presents several models of airport privatization. The authors suggest that the most aggressive form of privatization–full divestiture–is unlikely to produce the benefits advertised by its proponents. However, less radical forms of privatization serve as useful models for future airport ownership and operation. The authors conclude that, given the great variation in the types of airports in the United States system, no single model is sufficient.     

Lessons From Privatization Task Forces

This study provides evidence on an aspect of privatization that is increasing in popularity yet rarely considered in the literature: the effect that private-sector task forces have on privatization efforts. It uses case studies from Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina, to provide evidence on the role of task forces in reengineering government and suggests how future privatization efforts can benefit from this knowledge. Specifically, it suggests that task forces need to establish realistic timetables, understand that there are fundamental differences between the public and private sectors, and work without predetermined biases to achieve desired ends. In addition, they need to identify services that are appropriate for privatization, understand the nature of privatization, and accept both the strengths and weaknesses of it. While the results of privatization endeavors may vary, they may be enhanced by adopting a new awareness of how private-sector task forces influence privatization efforts.     

线上和线下生活服务设施可达性及其协调关系——以生鲜果蔬店铺为例

作为智慧城市的重要组成部分,“新零售”得到蓬勃发展,提供当日配送服务的“新零售”深刻影响了城市生活服务的可获取性和时空可达性。本文以南京中心城区为例,运用两步移动搜索法、耦合协调度模型等方法,探究提供当日配送生鲜果蔬服务的店铺和传统生鲜果蔬实体店空间分布特征,分析线上和线下生鲜果蔬店铺的可达性及空间协调关系。研究发现,线上生活服务遵循技术扩散假说,强化了中心城区的生活服务集聚,同时线上生活服务集聚和可达性仍受实体地理空间约束;线上生活服务有悖于效率假说,对传统生活服务的空间分异具有加强作用,整体上没有提高生活服务的供给效率和空间公平性。研究结果可为新零售影响下城市生活服务设施的配置优化提供科学依据。     

Adapting (Municipal) Form to (Provincial) Function: City–County Separation and the Introduction of the Consolidated Municipal Service Manager System in Ontario,Canada

In 1998, the province of Ontario introduced the Consolidated Municipal Service Manager (CMSM) system, which effectively downloaded the responsibility for delivery and partial funding for a range of social services to municipalities. Separated cities and counties—a unique system of municipal organization in Ontario that draws a sharp institutional distinction between urban and rural areas—were given a particularly wide range of discretion over the implementation of these services. A number of these jurisdictions experienced an array of problems reaching a local solution. Some even wound up in arbitration. This article examines the implementation of the CMSM, focusing specifically on the unique institutional arrangement found in counties with separated cities, finding that the provincial government overlooked the institutional design of city–county separation, hindering the policy downloading process. Overall, it is argued that the local institutional environment is key when shifting policy responsibility from central to local actors.     

Services and the New Economy: elements of a research agenda

In developing and advanced economies job creation continuesto be led by various services. A New Economy is being created,which is challenging the geography of the Old Economy. The OldEconomy has been dominated by corporations headquartered disproportionatelyin the ‘Global Cities’ and large agglomerations.The New Economy is being built around smaller enterprises distributedin a much more dispersed geography. The New Economy has jobcreation centered in services, but relies on the Old Economyfor physical capital and a portion of demand. The location ofbusiness activity in the New Economy can be much more contingenton the desires of entrepreneurs, and is far less tied to thecost-based logic that has shaped and reshaped the distributionof industrial capacity in the Old Economy. The New Economy reliesto a growing extent on telephonic-based networks for productionand delivery, but it also has leading-edge layers that requireface-to-face human contact in the production process. At thesame time the Old Economy is becoming ever more directed byproduction processes less tied to localized human skills, andin the process is shedding labor demands. The New Economy isexploding in its industrial composition, challenging researchersto define its new industries (such as establishments with only.com, .org, .gov, or .edu Internet addresses), and the extremelyrapid division of labor in unstandardized services such as managementconsulting and software engineering. The Old Economy is clearlyresponding to these developments in the New Economy, and restructuringis occurring globally. Research is needed speaking to these trends, and the primarypurpose of this paper is to issue a call for work of this type.The paper identifies priority needs from a theoretical perspective,as well as describes badly needed empirical work on the NewEconomy.     

Elaboration of a settlement system: the New England village in the federal period

Contemporary New England villages arose as nineteenth-century central places. The emergence of these commercial places reflected not the creation of something new out of whole cloth but an elaboration of an existing settlement system, a legacy of the colonial period and a manifestation of long-standing cultural habit. Town centers, more or less equally spaced and comprised of little more than a meetinghouse and a tavern, served as foci for town activities, as auxiliary central places. Most of the considerable localized economic exchange that characterized the colonial period occurred at dispersed places. The emergence of true central places about colonial town centers in the federal period marked a shift in scale or a general and widespread development of extra-local exchange, division of labor, and provision of centrality—the ability of a place to provide goods and services beyond the needs of its residents. Central places became accretions of full-time nonfarmers, of storekeepers, artisans, and professional people. Moreover, these places were interlinked to form a system of central places and, although a sorting process took place, the system was both a material manifestation of contemporary economic experience and an elaboration of the colonial settlement system.     

The Budget of the European Union and its Contribution to Finance Programmes for Health and Consumer Protection

The objective of this paper is to shed light on the dynamic financial aspects of the European Union's (EU's) strategy towards financing the programmes for health and consumer protection. Also it presents the perspectives of the new community approach to public health, while it recognizes that although EU's efforts, member states remain responsible for the organization and delivery of health services and medical care. Therefore, community's actions simply complements national policies. The paper analyses also aspects of the budgetary data provided by the European Commission Concerning the allocation of funds in all the areas and activities of the EU's budget focusing the attention on EU health programmes. The paper underlines the need for an integrated, transparent and proactive public health at all levels in the EU while, it emphasizes the need to promote, in European and national level, a broad strategy on public health to meet the key responsibilities and new challenges.     

Hospital restructuring in smaller urban Ontario settings: unwritten rules and uncertain relations

Important changes are underway in the management and provision of welfare service activities in advanced capitalist societies as governments scale back their responsibilities and commitments to social security and health care. In order to understand the processes by which the reform imperatives of the central state are implemented at the local level, it is necessary to account for particular organizational and place-based contingencies which influence decision making and strategic response. This paper presents a framework for understanding the context of executive decision making in the human services sector and uses the framework to illustrate issues of locally designed hospital restructuring in smaller urban centres in the province of Ontario, Canada. Specific experiences of the Chief Executive Officers of two non-metropolitan hospital settings are examined to explore the unwritten rules of hospital conduct and the relations of uncertainty that characterize efforts to restructure hospital services through formal arrangements with other independently governed hospitals and health care delivery organizations.     

Book Reviews

Books Reviewed: Peter Isard, Globalization and the International Financial System: What's Wrong and What Can be Done Matthew Odedokun (ed.), External Finance for Private Sector Development: Appraisals and Issues Sunanda Sen, Global Finance at Risk: On Real Stagnation and Instability Susanne Soederberg, The Politics of the New International Financial Architecture: Reimposing Neoliberal Domination in the Global South Anne Marie Goetz and Rob Jenkins, Reinventing Accountability: Making Democracy Work for Human Development Patricia L. McCarney and Richard E. Stren (eds), Governance on the Ground: Innovations and Discontinuities in Cities of the Developing World Michael Carley, Paul Jenkins and Harry Smith (eds), Urban Development & Civil Society: The Role of Communities in Sustainable Cities David Potts, Patrick Ryan and Anna Toner (eds), Development Planning and Poverty Reduction Feargal Cochrane, Rosaleen Duffy and Jan Selby (eds), Global Governance, Conflict and Resistance Pranab Bardhan, Scarcity, Conflicts, and Cooperation: Essays in the Political and Institutional Economics of Development Lyuba Zarsky (ed.), Human Rights and the Environment: Conflict and Norms in a Globalizing World Krishna B. Ghimire (ed.), The Native Tourist: Mass Tourism within Developing Countries Donald G. Reid, Tourism, Globalization and Development: Responsible Tourism Planning Rosaleen Duffy A Trip Too Far. Ecotourism, Politics and Exploitation Kees Jansen and Sietze Vellema (eds), Agribusiness and Society: Corporate Responses to Environmentalism, Market Opportunities and Public Regulation Ashok Gulati, Ruth M. Dick and K. V. Raju, Institutional Reforms in Indian Irrigation Robin Clarke and Jannet King, The Atlas of Water: Mapping the World's Most Critical Resource Janelle Plummer and John G Taylor (eds), Community Participation in China: Issues and Processes for Capacity Building Tunde Zack‐Williams, Diane Frost and Alex Thomson (eds), Africa in Crisis: New Challenges and Possibilities     

The Politics and Administration of Privatization

Privatization grows out of the theoretic constructs of public choice theory. Through the nurturing efforts of those such as E. S. Savas, privatization has been transplanted from the academic greenhouse to the fields of practical government Against the field of fads–empowerment, total quality management, reengineering, strategic planning, and benchmarking–privatization stands out.
Privatization has endured and spread. To many, privatization restores the dynamic balance of government and individual freedom. To others, privatization, like kudzu (initially a solution to soil erosion in the South), threatens to crowd out all other forms of "public" service delivery.     

Access Orders and the ‘New’ New Institutional Economics of Development

This article examines the Access Order theories of development that have emerged as the latest reformulation of New Institutional Economics by Douglass North and his associates. These scholars claim that Access Order theory represents a radical break from previous models of institutional change in developing countries. They argue that at the heart of development is the problem of controlling organized violence. Two distinct social orders, the Limited Access Order and the Open Access Order, have emerged as solutions to the problem of endemic violence. This article traces the evolution of these new ideas within North's institutional theory and examines how violence is treated within the new framework. The article evaluates the underlying economic model on which the theory is based and argues that the conceptual device of the Open Access Order preserves key features of the neoclassical approach within North's work. The article contrasts the Access Order approach with the political settlements framework. To conclude, the article argues that the Access Order approach serves to strip the progressive potential out of development by ignoring how controlling violence may affect human capabilities, rights and freedom.     

Patronage or Participation? Community‐based Natural Resource Management Reform in Sub‐Saharan Africa

This article examines the institutional factors that account for the outcome of efforts to decentralize control over natural resources to local communities. It focuses on the political nature of institutional processes associated with decentralization in sub‐Saharan Africa through a comparative analysis of wildlife management reforms in seven east and southern African countries. Institutional reforms are largely dependent on state authorities' patronage interests, which in turn are shaped by the relative economic value of wildlife, the degree of central control over commercial utilization, and the accountability of governance institutions. Our findings have a range of practical implications for the design of CBNRM initiatives and institutional reform strategies.