Studying administrative reforms through textual analysis: the case of Italian central government accounting

This paper contributes to the literature on public-sector reforms by proposing textual analysis as a useful research strategy to explore how reform archetypes and related ideas are deployed in the parliamentary debate and regulations advancing reforms. Public Administration (PA) (Wilson 1887; Weber 1922), New Public Management (NPM) (Hood 1991, 1995; Dunleavy and Hood 1994; Ferlie et al. 1996) and Public Governance (GOV) (Osborne 2010; Rhodes 1997) can be depicted as three different archetypes providing characteristic administrative ideas and concepts (i.e. interpretive schemes) and related tools and practices (i.e. structures and systems) which lead reforms. We use textual analysis to look into more than twenty years of Italian central government accounting reforms and investigate how the three administrative archetypes have evolved, intertwined and replaced each other. Textual analysis proves a useful tool to investigate reform processes and allows highlighting that in neo-Weberian countries, such as Italy, NPM and GOV, far from being revolutionary paradigms, may represent fashionable trends that did not leave significant traces in the practice and rhetoric of reforms. These results also suggest interesting implications for practitioners and policy makers.

The impact of organisational factors and government policy on psychiatric nurses family focused practice with parents who have mental illness, their dependent children and families in Ireland

Government policy and organizational factors influence family focused practice in adult mental health services. However, how these aspects shape psychiatric nurses’ practice with parents who have mental illness, their dependent children and families is less well understood. Drawing on the findings of a qualitative study, this article explores the way in which Irish policy and organizational factors might influence psychiatric nurses’ family focused practice, and whether (and how) family focused practice might be further promoted. A purposive sample of 14 psychiatric nurses from eight mental health services completed semi-structured interviews in 2013. The analysis was inductive and presented as thematic networks. Both groups described how policies and organizational culture enabled and/or hindered family focused practice, with differences between community and acute participants seen. The need to develop national and international policies along with practices to embed information and support regarding parenting into ongoing care is implicated in this study.

Proton acceleration enhanced by a plasma jet in expanding foils undergoing relativistic transparency

Ion acceleration driven by the interaction of an ultraintense (2 × 10²⁰ W cm^-2) laser pulse with an ultrathin ( nm) foil target is experimentally and numerically investigated. Protons accelerated by sheath fields and via laser radiation pressure are angularly separated and identified based on their directionality and signature features (e.g. transverse instabilities) in the measured spatial-intensity distribution. A low divergence, high energy proton component is also detected when the heated target electrons expand and the target becomes relativistically transparent during the interaction. 2D and 3D particle-in-cell simulations indicate that under these conditions a plasma jet is formed at the target rear, supported by a self-generated azimuthal magnetic field, which extends into the expanded layer of sheath-accelerated protons. Electrons trapped within this jet are directly accelerated to super-thermal energies by the portion of the laser pulse transmitted through the target. The resulting streaming of the electrons into the ion layers enhances the energy of protons in the vicinity of the jet. Through the addition of a controlled prepulse, the maximum energy of these protons is demonstrated experimentally and numerically to be sensitive to the picosecond rising edge profile of the laser pulse.

Justifying accounting change through global discourses and legitimation strategies. The case of the UK central government.

Accounting has been viewed, especially through the lens of the recent managerial reforms, as a neutral technology that, in the hands of rational managers, can support effective and efficient decision making. However, the introduction of new accounting practices can be framed in a variety of ways, from value-neutral procedures to ideologically-charged instruments. Focusing on financial accounting, budgeting and performance management changes in the UK central government, and through extensive textual analysis and interviews in three government departments, this paper investigates: how accounting changes are discussed and introduced at the political level through the use of global discourses; and what strategies organisational actors subsequently use to talk about and legitimate such discourses at different organisational levels. The results shows that in political discussions there is a consistency between the discourses (largely NPM) and the accounting-related changes that took place. The research suggests that a cocktail of legitimation strategies was used by organisational actors to construct a sense of the changes, with authorisation, often in combination with, at the very least, rationalisation strategies most widely utilised. While previous literature posits that different actors tend to use the same rhetorical sequences during periods of change, this study highlights differences at different organisational levels.

Inside the tent: Community and government in refugee camps

Refugee camps are increasingly managed through a liberal rationality of government similar to that of many industrialized societies, with security mechanisms being used to optimize the life of particular refugee populations. This governmentality has encompassed programmes introduced by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and various non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to build and empower communities through the spatial technology of the camp. The present article argues that such attempts to ‘govern through community’ have been too easily dismissed or ignored. It therefore examines how such programmes work to produce, manage and conduct refugees through the use of a highly instrumentalized understanding of community in the spatial and statistical management of displaced people in camps. However, community is always both more and less than what is claimed of it, and therefore undermines attempts to use it as a governing tactic. By shifting to a more ontological understanding of community as unavoidable coexistence, inspired by Jean-Luc Nancy, we can see how the scripting of and government through community in camps is continually exceeded, redirected and resisted. Ethnographies of specific camps in Africa and the Middle East enable us both to see how the necessary sociality of being resists its own instrumentalization and to view the camp as a spatial security technology. Such resistance does not necessarily lead to greater security, but it redirects our attention to how community is used to conduct the behaviour of refugees, while also producing counter-conducts that offer greater agency, meaning and mobility to those displaced in camps.

Buffered high charge spectrally-peaked proton beams in the relativistic-transparency regime

Spectrally-peaked proton beams of high charge (E_p ≈ 8 MeV, ΔE ≈ 4 MeV, N ≈ 50 nC ) have been observed from the interaction of an intense laser (>10¹⁹Wcm^-2) with ultrathinCHfoils, as measured by spectrally-resolved full beam profiles. These beams are reproducibly generated for foil thicknesses 5-100 nm, and exhibit narrowing divergence with decreasing target thickness down to ≈8° for 5 nm. Simulations demonstrate that the narrow energy spread feature is a result of buffered acceleration of protons. The radiation pressure at the front of the target results in asymmetric sheath fields which permeate throughout the target, causing preferential forward acceleration. Due to their higher chargeto-mass ratio, the protons outrun a carbon plasma driven in the relativistic transparency regime.

Ion acceleration and plasma jet formation in ultra-thin foils undergoing expansion and relativistic transparency

At sufficiently high laser intensities, the rapid heating to relativistic velocities and resulting decompression of plasma electrons in an ultra-thin target foil can result in the target becoming relativistically transparent to the laser light during the interaction. Ion acceleration in this regime is strongly affected by the transition from an opaque to a relativistically transparent plasma. By spatially resolving the laser-accelerated proton beam at near-normal laser incidence and at an incidence angle of 30°, we identify characteristic features both experimentally and in particle-in-cell simulations which are consistent with the onset of three distinct ion acceleration mechanisms: sheath acceleration; radiation pressure acceleration; and transparency-enhanced acceleration. The latter mechanism occurs late in the interaction and is mediated by the formation of a plasma jet extending into the expanding ion population. The effect of laser incident angle on the plasma jet is explored.

Corrupção e poder local: transparência dos sítios web: estudo de caso

O presente trabalho versa sobre a temática da corrupção como fenómeno global e a sua influência nas mais diversos setores da atividade politica, social e económica. A sua prevenção e combate tem sido objeto das mais variadas intervenções a nível mundial, através da criação de organismos e mecanismos legais. No contexto nacional, esta problemática tem feito parte das políticas governamentais de vários governos, através da adoção dos vários mecanismos internacionais ratificados e transpostos para o ordenamento jurídico interno português, ao abrigo dos quais foram criados mecanismos de foro institucional e legislativo, como forma de tornar a sua atuação cada vez mais transparente. Entendemos realizar este estudo na perspetiva do poder local (municípios) e respetivos sítios web e tendo em conta que a informação é o pilar de uma Administração aberta e transparente aos cidadãos, quer na sua atuação, quer na sua responsabilização. Propõe-se neste estudo observar como se refletem as diversas imposições legislativas em matéria de informação (produção e publicidade) e demais mecanismos, na atuação dos municípios, sob ponto de vista da sua implementação nos sítios web. Para tal recorremos à vasta matéria legislativa existente e delineamos a nossa investigação ao abrigo da questão principal formulada, para qual propusemos algumas hipóteses de investigação, que nos propusemos aferir pela observação e análise on-line ao sítio web definido. As conclusões indicam que as questões de transparência e informação são o objetivo primordial de qualquer Administração aberta e responsável, cujo objetivo seja a prossecução do interesse público. Para além disso, constata-se que os diversos mecanismos legislativos constituem forte comprometimento na sua implementação, bem como condicionam a atuação dos decisores públicos em termos de desvios de comportamento e responsabilização.

Working Paper: Open Government Data

In diesem Working Paper sollen wesentliche Erkenntnisse und Forderungen aus der - bisher vor allem englischsprachigen - Diskussion über die webgerechte Freigabe öffentlicher Daten zusammengefaßt werden. Das Paper versteht sich als Ausgangspunkt für Diskussion und Strategieentwicklung, ohne letztere selbst leisten zu können. Die Entwicklungspotentiale von Open Government Data (OGD) sollen zunächst aus der Sicht verschiedener Beteiligter dargestellt werden. Mit den in den Sebastopol-Prinzipien formulierten grundlegenden Anforderungen an OGD wird der Begriff schließlich definiert. Anhand von Veröffentlichungen des W3C kann schließlich die Bedeutung der Verwendung und (Weiter-)Entwicklung offener Standards für OGD gezeigt werden, daneben aber auch die Hauptprobleme eines entsprechenden Change Managements im öffentlichen Sektor. Abschließend werden einige modellhafte Beispiele für die praktische Umsetzung von OGD angeführt.

Review of state government motor vehicle resources

The LAC was requested to review state motor vehicle resources and make recommendations. It focused on three statewide objectives posed by the committees: (1) Determine if any wasteful duplication exists among state-owned vehicle maintenance facilities. (2) Identify any waste or inefficiency in the use of state owned vehicles. (3) Identify unnecessary or personal use of state-owned vehicles.

The First Government of Northern Ireland, Education Reform, and the Failure of Anti-populist Unionism, 1921–1925

This article examines education reform under the first government of Northern Ireland (1921–5). This embryonic period offered the Ulster Unionist leadership a chance to construct a more inclusive society, one that might diminish sectarian animosities, and thereby secure the fledgling state through cooperation rather than coercion. Such aspirations were severely tested by the ruling party’s need to secure the state against insurgency, and, more lastingly, to assuage the concerns of its historic constituency. The former led to a draconian security policy, the latter to a dependency on populist strategies and rhetoric. It is argued here, however, that this dependency was not absolute until July 1925. Before that, the Belfast government withstood growing pressure from populist agitators to reverse controversial aspects of its education reforms, only relenting when Protestant disaffection threatened the unity of the governing party and the existence of the state.