Towards holistic governance : the new reform agenda / Perri 6 ... [and others].

Format:

Book

Contributor:

6, Perri, 1960-

Series:

Government beyond the centre

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Public administration--Great Britain.

Public administration.

Great Britain.

Great Britain--Politics and government--1997-2007.

Politics and government.

Physical Description:

x, 272 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York : Palgrave, 2002.

Summary:

The search for a more holistic approach to policy and management looks set to be as much a hallmark of public service reform in the early twenty first century as the changes introduced under the rubric of 'new public management' or 'reinventing government' were in the closing decades of the twentieth. "Towards Holistic Governance presents an authoritative assessment of successes and failures to date and a new framework for analysis and implementation based on extensive research both in the UK - where the New Labor government has been an early enthusiast and pathfinder for 'joined-up government' just as its predecessors were for privatization and contracting out - and elsewhere.

Contents:

1 Holism Past and Present 9

Previous initiatives in holistic governance 9

The cyclical pattern behind interest in holistic governance 14

Explaining the rise and fall of holism: centrist politics 16

The roots of the New Labour agenda for 'joining up' 19

The New Labour holistic governance programme 22

2 Understanding Holistic Governance: Towards a Conceptual Framework 28

Dimensions of holistic governance: what is to be integrated? 28

Understanding key terms 30

Wicked problems 34

Fragmented governance and its roots 36

Holism rests on a view that something can be done 43

The goals of holistic governance 46

Measuring the depth of integration 47

Mechanisms, or what gets done 49

Types of holistic governance 49

3 The Case For and Against Holistic Governance 55

Trade-off(s) 55

The case against integration 57

The case for holistic governance 61

If the case for holism is accepted, when and where is it appropriate? 70

4 Lessons From Theory: How Coordination Can Work 72

The tropes of interorganisational coordination: commonsense responses? 72

Explaining the dominance of tropes 77

Developing the framework: is reconciliation possible? 79

Tropes of coordination and the deployment of tools for holistic governance 84

5 Designing a Reform Strategy 89

A framework for thinking about integration risk 90

Failures in practice: key lessons for national government - the British case 95

'Top-down or bottom-up'? 101

Organisational innovation in general: a game of two halves with compulsory extra time 102

6 Interorganisational Relations and Practice 118

Building trust: a key ingredient for holism 118

Obstacles 121

Tactics for overcoming obstacles 124

Skills for integration 128

Overcoming obstacles: answering the fatalist 139

7 Information Systems 142

Service provision 143

Governance 150

Sifting the evidence on the impact of e-governance 155

Integration and privacy 162

8 Accountability 168

Understanding accountability 168

Searching for accountability in holism 171

Design principles for holistic accountability 176

Focus on the executive structure or on the legislature? 179

Central-local relations: accountability, devolution, decentralisation and local governance 186

Democracy and public accountability 189

9 Finance 194

A review of experience 196

Types of holistic budget strategy 203

Weak tools are needed to supplement, balance and give context to holistic budgets 206

Conclusion: budgeting in its place 210

10 The Prospects for Holistic Governance 212

The challenge 212

Institutionalisation and institutional change 216

Sufficient conditions for institutionalisation of paradigms of public management 219

How strong are the forces for the institutionalisation of holism? 233.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 243-263) and index.

ISBN:

0333928911

033392892X

OCLC:

48517411