• Understanding National Administrative Styles and Their Impact Upon Administrative Reform: A Neo-Institutional Model and Analysis ( 294Kb)
  Michael Howlett
  
  Abstract: Students of organizational behaviour have always been concerned with understanding the manner in which complex organizations – including systems of public administration – tend to have distinctive organizational cultures and the impact these cultures have upon their activities and outputs, including their prospects for reform. Recently, neoinstitutional accounts of social and political life have provided a new entry point to the analysis of administrative cultures and administrative reform. For neo-institutionalists, the institutional structure of an organization is seen as creating a distinct pattern of constraints and incentives for state and societal actors which define and structure actor’s interests and channel their behaviour. The interaction of these behaviour and structure generates a particular administrative logic and process, or “style”. However, since institutional structures vary, a neo-institutional perspective suggests that there will be many different kinds of relatively long-lasting administrative style – each pattern being defined by the particular set of formal and informal institutions, rules, norms, traditions, and values of which it is comprised – and many different factors affecting the construction and deconstruction of each pattern. Following this neo-institutional logic, this paper examines several relatively recent efforts to identify and classify administrative styles. On the basis of these assessments, a multi-level, “nested,” model of national administrative styles is developed and applied to the question of observances of patterns of convergence and divergence in administrative reforms in many jurisdictions over the past several decades.
  
  Citation: Howlett, M. 2002. ‘Understanding National Administrative Styles and Their Impact Upon Administrative Reform: A Neo-Institutional Model and Analysis.’ Policy and Society 21 (1): 1-24.
  

• Open or Closed Boundaries?Attitudes towards Sovereignty Issues in Australia
  ( 322Kb)
  Clive Bean
  
  Abstract: This paper considers data from Australia on two dimensions related to the concept of sovereignty, namely public attitudes concerning the maintenance of economic boundaries and attitudes related to the social, economic and cultural impact of immigration. The data suggest that in general Australians are inclined to favour economic protection rather than openness but at the same time they tend to emphasise the benefits rather than the costs of immigration. Various theoretical propositions are tested concerning the social and attitudinal predictors of these dimensions. Despite some differences between the two dimensions, the most important variables prove to be occupational status, birthplace and education, plus attitudes towards multi-national companies and general feelings towards immigrants. These results imply that, other things being equal, public attitudes on both the immigration and economic dimensions are likely to become more open over time.
  
  Citation: Bean, C. 2002. ‘Open or Closed Boundaries?Attitudes towards Sovereignty Issues in Australia.’ Policy and Society 21 (1): 25-48.
  

• The Changing Role of Consultants in Canadian Policy Analysis ( 324Kb)
  Anthony Perl and Donald J. White
  
  Abstract: This article explores the Canadian government’s trend toward outsourcing policy analytical and advisory services over the 1980s and 1990s. We test three (not mutually exclusive) hypotheses about why such policy consulting has increased. A combination of New Public Management values and knowledge expansion are shown to drive this trend. In the late 1990s, the federal government significantly decreased the number of in-house operational and administrative support workers. These reductions enabled the government to contract out more while a managerial and administrative cadre remained in place to manage the contracts. The main implication is that contracting out analytical and advisory services does not necessarily lower costs, but does aid government in pursuing other objectives. The growth in Canadian policy consulting corresponded with a stabilization of public service personnel expenditures, a focus on leaner government, and an ability to rely on outside specialists for objective, expert advice.
  
  Citation: Perl, A., and D.J. White 2001. ‘The Changing Role of Consultants in Canadian Policy Analysis.’ Policy and Society 21 (1): 49-73.
  

• Globalisation, Institutions And Interests: Comparing Recent Changes in Industrial Relations Policy in Australia And New Zealand ( 176Kb)
  Nick Wailes and Gaby Ramia
  
  Abstract: This article explores the possibilities for an integrated theoretical framework which is capable of explaining similarities and differences in national industrial relations policies in the context of globalisation. The first half of the article reviews three theoretical frameworks that can be used to compare industrial relations developments in different countries- simple globalisation, the new institutionalism and a material interest approach to political economy. It argues that whilst institutionalist arguments tend to dominate analysis of the effects of globalisation on national patterns of industrial relations, a model which combines institutionalist and material interest approaches can overcome some of the anomalies attendant in institutionalist analysis. The second section demonstrates the benefits of an integrative theoretical framework for explaining patterns of industrial relations reform in Australia and New Zealand during the 1980s and 1990s. The article concludes by examining the implications of this discussion for broader debates about relationship between globalisation and national patterns of public policy.
  
  Citation: Wailes, N., and G. Ramia. 2002. ‘Globalisation, Institutions And Interests: Comparing Recent Changes in Industrial Relations Policy in Australia And New Zealand.’ Policy and Society 21 (1): 74-95.
  

• Medical Regulation in Malaysia: Towards an Effective Regulatory Regime ( 324Kb)
  Nik Rosnah Wan Abdullah
  
  Abstract: This paper assesses the functioning of the regulatory system of the Malaysian medical profession. It demonstrates that the regulatory bodies of the medical profession do not reflect the interest of the users adequately. Their composition mostly represents the medical practitioners and medical organizations and their regulatory processes do not provide clear channels through which users can voice complaints.
  
  Citation: Abdullah, N.R.W. 2002. ‘Medical Regulation in Malaysia: Towards an Effective Regulatory Regime.’ Policy and Society 21 (1): 96-124.