LECTURE 1: PUBLIC VS.

PRIVATE SECTOR

WHAT IS PUBLIC?
“The essential task of the public domain can now be interpreted as enabling authoritative public choice about collective
activity and purpose. In short, it is about clarifying, constituting and achieving a public purpose. It has the ultimate
responsibility for constituting a society as a political community which has the capacity to make public choice.
Producing a “public” which is able to enter into dialogue and decide about the needs of the community…”.

PUBLIC SECTOR PRIVATE SECTOR

ONWERSHIP Collective Entrepreneurs or shareholders

MOTIVE Social purposes Profit

FUNDING Taxation Fees paid by consumers

CONTROL Political forces Market forces

LECTURE 2a: THE STRUCTURE OF THE PUBLIC SECTOR

Goal: differentiate public sector entities.

- Territorial government entities: central governments and sub-national governments

- Non-territorial authorities and agencies: national and sub-national level
- Government-owned enterprises: national and sub-national level

THE GENERAL STRUCTURER OF THE PUBLIC SECTOR

1. TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT ENTITIES (LOCAL/ PROVINCIAL/ REGIONAL/ NATIONAL LEVEL)

• A territorial government is a general-purpose government.

• It is composed of all the people residing in its territory and exerting its authority on all animate and inanimate beings
located in its territory. The authority is reserved only for people or entities located in the specific territory.
• It usually has a legislature elected by the relevant population and executive. The main “boss” or responsible is
legislature elected in population, so at the top we found politicians (not technical or administrative stuff).
• A country´s constitutional arrangement will usually specify the “functions” to be performed by the public sector and
their allocation across tiers of government.
• They have a large portfolio of responsibilities.
• Ex: the municipality of Bergamo

2. NON-TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES AND AGENCIES

• They are very homogeneous in terms of legal status, degree of independence from territorial governments, sources of
funding. However, they generally share 4 features:
o They are established by, or at least closely related to, one or more territorial governments.
o They are special-purpose entities, in that they perform a limited range of activities delegated to
them by the relevant territorial government(s) (e.g., enforce antitrust legislation, administer public
pension schemes, provide health-care services).
o They are not run by directly elected politicians, but rather by boards of directors and/or general
managers appointed by the relevant territorial government(s).

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 o They do not sell their services for a price, but provide them free of charge at point of use, and must
consequently be funded by transfers from the relevant territorial government(s)
o Ex: universities, hospitals… Central governments: CNR, INPS; Regions: hospitals; Municipalities:
Instituto Autonomo Case Popolari.
o The responsibilities are limited and more focus (max. 1 or 2)
o The authority is not devoted only for those located inside the borders of the territory
o At the top level it often is not elected but appointed by territorial government entities.

3. GOVERNMENT OWNED ENTERPRISES: AT THE TOP LEVEL IT OFTEN IS NOT ELECTED BUT APPOINTED BY
TERRITORIAL

• Government-owned enterprises are similar to non-territorial government authorities and agencies:

* They are closely related to one or more territorial governments
* They are special-purpose entities
* They are run by political appointees as opposed to directly elected politicians
• Unlike non-territorial government authorities and agencies:
* they provide their services through market transactions, although their pricing policies are seldom intended to
maximize profits, but rather to achieve public- policy goals, and often do not even allow them to break-even.
* Their legal status is often (and increasingly) the same as private firms’. Many are established as joint-stock
corporations, with the relevant territorial government(s) owning the shares.
* They play a particularly important role in the network industries
• Ex: Central Government: FS, Poste Italiane, ANAS; Regions: Ferrovie Nord Milano; Municipality: ATB, SEA

Enterprises can be created in local or regional or provincial level.

Non-territorial entities are linked to territorial government entities and it can happen in the local, national or regional
level. So territorial government entities have often relationships with authorities (non-territorial) because they created
them. And also, they have relationships with government owned enterprises because this kind of enterprises are created
by territorial government entities in order to provide some specific services.

LECTURE 2b: PUBLIC SECTOR: ROLES AND ACTIVITIES

MARKET FAILURE AS THE BASIS FOR PUBLIC POLICY

Public goods:
• Non-rival and non-excludable (ex: defense)
• Merit goods (ex: education, health care) socially desirable, markets may not provide them optimally
Externalities:
• Market transactions often have effects in third parties or the environment
• Government can alleviate negative externalities
Natural monopoly:
• Some goods are characterized by declining marginal costs
• The most efficient number of firms in the industry is one (ex: telephones, water) - natural monopoly
• Government involvement (direct provision), ownership or regulation

Imperfect information
• When (usually) the buyer has no information or is less informed
• Government intervenes by regulating (ex: imposing the provision of information)

INSTRUMENTS OF GOVERNMENT
Who are public sector organizations?
How the public sector can intervene in the economy? What are the tools that they can use in order to play a role in the
economy? COVID-19
What methods the government uses to intervene?

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- Government provision of services
- Financial transfers
- Laws and rules
- Production of services sold in the market

Subsidy or financial transfers (monetary intervention): beneficiaries: given to citizens (poor people or the ones who
have low income) and companies (support those who were obliged to close or stop their activities).
Laws and regulations: curfews and entities and individuals. Specially the territorial entities are responsible for
adopting laws and rules that define duties and rights of individuals and entities.
This activity is the most directly for governments. It is mainly carried out by territorial entities.
Provided services: assistance to citizens (public hospitals. 2 kind of goods that are provide by public sector: public
goods and other goods.
- Public goods: are those goods that are non-arrivals and not excludable and there is no convenience for the public
sector to provide this kind of goods. People who can not pay for them can´t be excluded from benefiting for them. In
minimalist countries, the government only provide public goods. USUALLY EVERYWHERE.
- Other goods: (education, health care) some goods or services that in theory are enjoyed individually but they are
recognized as very important not only for individuals but for the community at all. In welfare state countries they are
also provided by the public sector. But they can be provided also by the private sector. It depends on the approach
that each specific country follow. Sometimes this good could be provided by a price, so there is an interest for the
public sector to provide them.
Production of services sold in the market: the State can decide to intervene in the economy also providing some
services that are sold in the market to play the same role as the private organizations.
- Difference between public and other goods (merit goods) and these products sold in the market: merit goods are
provided by the public sector and are founded by taxation. And the production of services sold in the market are
provided by the public sector, but they have a price (each individual pay for them a tariff or a specific price).

PHASES OF GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION

THE CLASSICAL MODEL
- Inspired in Adam Smith awn his advocacy of free market and reduced role for government (The Wealth of Nations,
1776)
- No significant direct intervention of the government in the economy (limited intervention)
- The main responsibility of the government is to issue law and regulation
- Main role of the government:
 To establish and enforce a system of fundamental rights and duties in order to regulate the relationships
among individuals, groups, institutions, and the community as a whole
 To provide some basics collective goods (non-rivalrous and non-excludable)
- Governments operate in a stable environment (less need for flexibility) reliance on bureaucratic principles
(Bureaucratic model according to some bureaucratic principles):
 Activities are split in standardized and repetitive tasks
 Control is on processes and on the compliance with preset and detailed rules
 Limiting politician discretion and preserving public servant neutrality
 Tight controls on the provision of public (ex: the army) or detailed procedures to ensure safety (ex: fire
brigades) which call for explicit, written sets and rules.

THE WELFARE STATE MODEL

- Government performs significant activities to alleviate some of the worst excesses of capitalism and provide citizens
with “economic rights”.
- Large intervention of governments, so governments intervene in the society through tools, they also transfer money
to other actors of the society and it also provide services to citizens in order to have a better and equal society
- Main role of the government:
 Income redistribution becomes more significant:
o Purpose: increase equity
o Means: increase of tax rates, tax system more progressive, increase of transfers to disadvantaged
families, direct production of goods and services (at low cost/free of charge)
 Economic policies become more interventionist:

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 o 2 purposes: spur development and reduce social and geographical imbalances in the distribution of
wealth and income
o Means: economic planning, higher spending, direct investments in industries and geographical
areas that private firms disregarded, financial incentives or support to private firms, acquisition of
bankrupt firms to prevent unemployment.
 Direct production and provision of goods and services extended from collective to private goods:
o Purpose: related to the other two roles (ex: redistribution, restructuring and rationalizing industries,
reducing geographical imbalances, stimulate the economy and reduce unemployment, control
strategic industries), to fix market failures such as natural monopolies and information
asymmetries, wider economic and managerial motivations (ex: earning profits to cross-subsidies
other activities), ideological motivation
o Creation of government authorities, agencies or enterprises
o Little regard to efficiency, effectiveness and cost containment

THE QUALITY-OF-LIFE MODEL

- It is the reaction to several problems raising in the welfare state model. The main problem is that expenses
systematically exceed revenues and often citizens were not happy with the quality and quantity of the services
provided by the state.
- Two major developments:
 The state decided to reduce its intervention in the economy, it is more selective: privatization, creation of
public-private ventures, contracting-out, regulation
 Governments directly provide services, but try to be more efficient and effective
- Reduction of general taxation towards higher fees and taxes on specific goods and services
- 2 variations:
 Government-as-service-provider: pursuit of internal efficiency and effectiveness
 Government-as-regulator: reduction of direct government intervention in the economy

LECTURE 3: THE TRADITIONAL MODEL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

MODELS OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

- Traditional model - Latter part of XIX century

- NPM - Late 1970s
- Public governance - Late 1990s

THE ADVENT OF THE TRADITIONAL MODEL OF PA

Before the traditional model: “amateurs bound by personal loyalties to leaders and politicians”.
Traditional model: “the task of administration become a professional occupation carried out by a distinct merit-based
public service, requiring the best people available to form an administrative elite and acting according to the law and
established precedents”.

THEORETICAL BASES
Max Weber:
- Theory of bureaucracy (*): a distinct professional public service, recruited and appointed by merit, politically
neutral.
- Public service as permanent (remain in office despite changes in government).
Woodrow Wilson:
- Politicians role: making policy
- Administration role: implementing policy
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Frederick Taylor:
- Principles of scientific management
(*) Weber and the theory of bureaucracy: 3 types of authority:
1. Charismatic: extraordinary leader, exemplary character of an individual person
2. Traditional: belief in the legitimacy of individual/s exercising authority
3. Rational/legal: authority of legal status and “traditionally created rules”, to be exercised by the modern “servant of
the state”

Bureaucratic principles:
- Authority derives from the law and from rules derived from the law.
- The hierarchical arrangement of offices and positions.
- The definition of written rules for carrying out the assigned tasks.
- The impersonality requirement, whereby every official in a given position must follows the same rules and norms of
conduct in her contacts with others inside and outside the organization.
- The selection and placement of officials according to their objectively determined technical competences.

THE INDIVIDUAL OFFICIAL

Recruitment and promotion are shaped by the “merit principle”: entails the appointment for any given job based on his
technical competence.
Position for life.
Fixed salary (based on “status” or “rank”, i.e. the function, and the length of service) and old age security (pension).
Following a career path within the hierarchy of the public service.
Discharge of specific office duties free from all personal considerations .... Decisions should be based on “calculable
rules” and “without regard for persons”.
- General aims: certainly, impersonality and efficiency.
- Specialization of functions to increase productivity.

WILSON AND POLITICAL CONTROL

Separation of politics from the administration...politics/administration dichotomy
- Politicians should make policy while public servants should implement it loyally, efficiently and effectively
Merit system against the spoils system:
- To avoid corruption
- To increase productivity
Political control:
- Clear accountability and responsibility (politicians decide policy and administrators carry out... the department or
agency advice the political leadership and manage resources in order to implement policies)
- Strict separation between matters of policy (politicians) and administration (public service)
- Administration is presumed to be anonymous, neutral, non-partisan

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Complementarity of dichotomy?

Taylor and public administration

Wilson and Weber: theoretical foundations of bureaucracy.
Taylor formulated the theory of scientific management.

Standardizing work: one best way of working + systematic control for the maintenance of all these
standards.

DYSFUNCTIIONS

It is especially the organizational need for control and the bureaucratic official’s impersonal attitude which have given
rise to criticism.

Different types of dysfunctions:

• Goal displacement (Merton 1949): Emphasis on the means of the organization (ex: discipline, rules, formal
procedures) may prevent adaptation to new situations; the means of the organization may displace its goals.
• Inability to pursue the institution’s goals (Gouldner 1954): as knowledge of minimum acceptable behavior increases,
workers tend to adapt to this minimum hampering the achievement of the institution’s. Consequently, direct and
personal supervision (control) will be stepped up, leading to increased interpersonal tension, demands for new general
and impersonal rules, etc.
• Rigidity (Crozier 1964). The impossibility of specifying a complete set of rules that anticipate all contingencies
creates interpersonal power around points of ambiguity. In an effort to resolve the resulting dysfunctions, new rules
are set, thus reinforcing the bureaucratic internal organization. The new regulatory system, however, will itself have
loopholes, around which new power relationships will develop, thus creating a vicious circle.
• Inefficiency (Crozier 1964). Bureaucratic organization is not able to correct itself by learning from its errors.
• Incentives against individual initiative and innovation (Crozier 1964).
• Maximization of choice by individuals (Niskanen 1971). Bureaucrats will try to maximize their own utility at the
expense of the goal of the organization. Public choice argues that it is illogical to expect that people are motivated by
higher ideals, such serving the community and the state.

LECTURE 4: THE LIMITS OF THE TRADITIONAL PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

THE MAIN PRECEPTS OF (TRADITIONAL) PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIONS… AND RELATED

LIMITS
Black: characteristics of the traditional model
Pink: dysfunctions of that pillars of the traditional model

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1. Bureaucracy: when government is involved in a policy are, the provision of services should be organized according
to the hierarchical bureaucratic principles along with several legal guarantees for civil servants and rules á la Weber.
Bureaucracy does not work well in all circumstances… today it is seen as obstructive and producing inertia and red
tape, rather than promoting efficiency. It encourages administrators to be rink-adverse rather than risk-taker and to work
for themselves and their own advancement.

2. One best way of working: detailed procedures á la Taylor (ex: based on the principles of scientific management)
formalized in comprehensive manuals for administrators to follow.
One best way leads to rigidity in operations… replaced by flexible management as it is recognized the need of tailoring
methods and actions to circumstances. There are many possible answers… there ir not only one way to reach an
outcome. Organizations are not machines.

3. Dichotomy between politics and administrations. When involved in a policy area, a government becomes the
direct provider of goods and services through the bureaucracy.
The dichotomy was a myth as they in reality are intertwined… political acts cannot be completely separated from how
they are implemented, with many inappropriate interferences.

New model after the traditional ——— The New Public Management

The New Public Management: government should be reinvented appealing to market and management improved by
the injection of business concepts, techniques and values.

THE RISE OF THE MANAGERIAL APPROACH

1970s-1080s: beginning of a more managerial approach to government in Anglo-American democracies, followed by
changes in other countries.
Main reasons:
* Governments were expiring some resource constraints: declining tax revenues but politics willing to avoid cuts in
actual service delivery- doing the same with less money and fewer staff (ex: improving productivity).
* Increasing dissatisfaction with governments and with their ability to offer appropriate services to citizens: public
made constant complaints about red tape and inefficiency.
Diffusion of public management (80s):
• UK, under the Thatcher Government (Thatcherism): widespread privatization, government cuts and load shedding.
• New Zealand, due to a serious economic crisis… Labor government interested in solving practical problems.
• US, inspired by the publication of “Reinventing Government”. The Gore Report set out 4 key principles aiming at
changing the culture American federal government, (1) cutting red tape, (2) putting customers first, (3) empowering
employees to get results and (4) cutting back to basics and “producing better government for less”.
• The OECD, World Bank, IMF, supported the introduction of new principles of public management of their member
nations.

THE THEORETICAL BASES OF NPM

2 main bases:
4. Economics (deductive perspective):
Assumptions: 2 opposing forms of organization (markets vs. bureaucracy) with bureaucracy less efficient and
effective.
 Public choice theory: politicians and bureaucrats are motivated by their own selfish interests (and no by the
public interests). As a consequence, markets tend to work better than governments. So, the remedy is to
inject competition.
 Principal agent theory: in the public sector, principals (the community) have no adequate means of (and
usually little interest in) making sure that agents (politicians and bureaucrats) carry out their wishes. Even if
there is an agency problem in the private sector (shareholders vs. managers), it is likely to be worse in the
public sector.
 Transaction cost theory: there are some transactions which would be less costly if contracted out to reduce
administrative costs and provide some competition.

5. Private management (linked to economics):

- Focus on results:
 Strategic planning (long-term objectives and priorities)
 Formal means of evaluation (ex: performance measurement) and improved information systems

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  Use of incentives and disincentives (ex: pay for performance, terminate staff easily)
- Flexibility in tailoring the organization to circumstances (ex: decentralization)

KEY FEATURES OF PUBLIC SECTOR (MANAGERIAL) REFORMS

Many cross-country differences in implementing NPM
Nathan paralleled. The entire “reinvention movement” to a “grab-bag”, from which “everyone who is interested gets to
pick his or her own particular purpose”.
Major components of NPM:
- Redefinition of the boundaries between the state and the market
- Reshaping the public sector´s macro-structure
- Redefinition of the operational rules
REDEFINITION OF THE BOUNDARIES BETWEEN THE STATE AND THE MARKET
Savas argues that there are 3 parties to service provision:
- Consumer: who takes benefits from the services
- Producer: who directly provide the service to the consumer
- Arranger: who maintains the ultimate responsibility for the satisfaction if the consumer´s need
Privatization: it occurs when the government relinquishes the arranger´s role to the private sector. So, the government
leave the responsibility of an specific activity. The government is neither producer nor arranger.
Externalization: it occurs when the government delegates production to the private sector while retaining the arranger
´s role. The government is arranger but not producer.

RESHAPING THE PUBLIC SECTOR´S MACRO-STRUCTURE

Preference for lean, small, specialized organizational forms over large and multi-functional forms because considered
more manageable and able to generate efficiency gains.
Van Thiel (2019) refers to it as the Politics of quangocracy.

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What Quangos are? Tripod model by Pollitt et al 2004.

Structural disaggregation: lean and single purpose organization

Autonomization: degree of discretion in managing the new entity
Contractualization: ex post control by the setting and monitoring of performance

Institutional decentralization: attribution of competencies to lower tiers of government within the public sector
(subsidiarity).

Osborne and Gaebler (1992): “unless there is an important reason to do otherwise, responsibility for addressing
problems should lie with the lowest level of government possible”

Goals of decentralizations:
- Greater responsiveness
- Higher accountability
- Handcraft solutions rather than one-size-fit-all programs

Negative side effects:

- Make it more difficult to accomplish structural changes
- Magnify interregional differences
- Overburden sub-national governments, especially if they have little experience in policy-making
- Create duplications and squander economies of scale
REDEFINING GOVERNMENT ENTITIES´ OPERATIONAL RULES
Injection of market-type mechanisms (MTMs) including competitive tendering, public competition, public sector league
tables, performance-related pay and various user-choice mechanisms.

Service orientation and an emphasis on treating service users as ‘customers’:

- Application of generic quality improvement techniques
- Citizens’ charters
- Customer-satisfaction survey
- Simplification of administrative procedures
Emphasis on managerial autonomy (letting managers manage) and from «neutral» to «fiduciary»
relationship with politicians => spoils system.

Introduction of private-sector styles of management practice, which are supposed to make unit managers more
responsible, accountable and more effective. These include:
- managerial budgeting
- accruals accounting
- performance measurement
- performance related-pay
- greater flexibility in hiring and rewards
- strategic planning and management with a longer-term perspective on what governments aim to achieve
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Public competition
Health care system: the Lombardy model:
• separation between purchaser and provider of health care and patient free choice
• the system is still tax-founded but the money in the internal market folles the patient’s choices
Citizens charters
Public agreements between citizens and service delivery providers that clearly codify expectations and standards in the
realm of service delivery.
Improve performance through accountability on service delivery standards, including timetables, fees for services and
channels for complaints.

Simplification of administrative procedures (one stop shop)

Single point of contact to obtain services (ex: constructions) that require the interaction of several offices to reduce
administrative burdens.

Patronage or Public appointments

Used as tools of good governance but also conducive to corruption.
It depends on procedural constraints in the process of public appointments that may be established trough several
organizational arrangements (Sancino, Sicilia Grossi 2016).

Standards and procedures:

• Transparency
• Media and public awareness
• Job descriptions with professional requirements

Who has the responsibility to make the appointments?

• involvement of local councilors
• involvement of local stakeholders in the public appointment process
• independent scrutiny by external experts

Cross-country differences

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 LECTURE 6: PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT AND MANAGEMENT

PERFORMANCE AND NPM

The adoption of performance measurement and management systems has played a central role in NPM reforms (Hood
1995; Pollitt and Bouckaert 2011)
Systems of performance measurement have been implemented worldwide in the expectation that they would produce
beneficial effects on organizational performance (OECD 1997; Hatry 1999; Verbeeten and Speklé 2015).

PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT VS. PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

Performance measurement refers to the process of defining, collecting and observing measures or indicators.
Performance measurement systems allow to “know at least a little more” about what and how is the measure of the
performance.

Performance management refers to the use of performance information for decision-making (ex: integrating
performance information into policy and management cycles (ex: policy making, budgeting and contract management)).
Performance management systems entails “acting upon performance information” about when/why/what performance
information is used, and which conditions affect uses.

THE DEPTH OF PERFORMANCE

Performance can be measured at different levels:
- Performance of systems (ex: central governments, regions, supranational governments such as the Eurozone or the
OECD countries).
- Performance of individual organizations or organizational units (ex: municipality, specific offices)
- Performance of individuals (ex: managers, employees)
- Performance of policies, programs, activities (ex: welfare services)

DIFFERENT TYPES OF PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT: the production model

It is very important in order to understand the different measures of performance in the public sector.
Performance measures: objective, quantitative indicators of different aspects of the performance of public organizations,
programs, etc.

Performance measures: objective, quantitative indicators, different aspects of the performance of public organizations,
programs, etc.

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 TYPE DEFINITION EXAMPLE (Local public
transport)
INPUT Resources used in the production of Number of employees
goods or services (ex: employees, Annual total budget
equipment, raw materials, money…)

OUTPUT The goods or services provided by the Number of passengers

organization Number of km/y of services
provided

INTERMEDIATE The external immediate effect of the Per cent of citizens satisfied with
OUTCOME outputs the service
FINAL OUTCOME Ultimate outcomes achieved. Highly Impacts on needs (decrease of
influenced by contextual variable pollution)

RATIO INDICATORS
TYPE DEFINITION RATIO-INDICATOR EXAMPLE
ECONOMY Minimizing the cost of inputs Input/Input Cost per employee
EFFICIENCY Maximizing the achievement of Input (costs)/Output Total number of the
the intended output in terms of year/number of passengers
input used. It refers to the costs of Total cost for public
inputs used per unit of output transports maintenance

EFFECTIVENESS Achieving the intended results of Outcome/Output Number of

the service/project passengers/Passengers
satisfied
COST- Maximizing the achievement of Input/Outcome Cost per passenger satisfied
EFFECTIVENESS public objectives in terms of
resources spent on them

PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT PROCESS

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ARGUMENTATIONS FOR TARGETING MEASUREMENT EFFORTS
Measurement prioritization depends on the planned used of performance information:
- Indications of problems
- Financial importance
- Societal visibility
- Feasibility
- Diffusion
- Cost of measurement
- Predetermined

SOME CRITETIA FOR GOOD PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

Performance indicators should be defined based on the specific needs of the public sector. They should be:
- Sensitive to change
- Precisely defined
- Understandable by users
- Documented (being recorded)
- Relevant
- Timely
- Feasible
- Comply with coordinated data processes and definition

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF DIFFERENT DATA SOURCES

 Internal data are produced by the organization itself
 External data are purchased or obtained from outside

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FOUNDATIONS FOR TARGETS
Time:
- Fit for unique policy initiatives (+)
- Fit for organizations that have no counterparts (+)
- Contextual variables may cause disturbance (-)
- Risk of stagnation, no innovative impulse from outside (-)
- Ex: trend in the number of elderly that are hospitalized (-)

Other organizations within the sector:

- Fit for comparing results of policies (+)
- Learning effects through confrontation (+)
- Controls for contextual variables (-)
- Ex: stress-index for personnel of different organizations, crimes in several cities
Other organizations outside the sector:
- Fit to compare management results (+)
- Learning effects through confrontation with other practices (+)
- Comparability is harder to achieve (-)
- Ex: absenteeism in the public vs private sector
Other countries:
- Fit for monopolists that have no national counterparts (+)
- Learning effects through confrontation with other practices (+)
- Difficulty to overcome cultural and structural differences (-)
- Ex: report published by OECD on the educational goals
Scientific standards:
- Highly recognized (+)
- Risk for technocracy (-)
- Ex: vaccination level population to eradicate a disease

REPORTING
Target groups:
- The general public
- Mass media
- Interest group
- Other governments
- Politicians
- Managers
Formats:
- Yearly or half-yearly reports
- Website
- Oral communications

USE OF PERFORMANCE
Who uses performance information?
How is performance info used?

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Why-Which factors affect the use of performance information?

WHO USES PERFORMANCE INFORMATION AND HOW?

Different uses and purposes of performance information

- To evaluate: how well is the public agency performing?
- To control: how can the public manager be sure that stuff or partners are doing right thing?
- To budget: on what should the public manager spend public money?
- To motivate: how can stuff, partners, citizens and other be encouraged to do what it takes to improve performance?

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- To promote: how can the public manager persuade politicians and external stakeholders that the public agency is
doing a good job?
- To celebrate: what accomplishments are worthy of a celebration?
- To learn: why is this working and that not working?
- To improve: who should do what differently in order to improve performance?

TO LEARN TO STEER AND TO GIVE ACCOUNT

CONTROL
KEY QUESTION How to improve policy or How to steer and control How to communicate
management? institutions, public servants performance?
and activities?
FOCUS Internal Internal External
ORIENTATION Change/future Control/present Survival/past
EXAMPLES Strategic planning, Scorecards, performance pay, League tables, citizen
benchmarketing, risk performance budgeting charters, annual reporting,
analysis, BPR performance contracts

But there might be alternative uses:

- Enhancing power positions
- Symbolism (adoption of PM to be seen as rational, modern and gain legitimacy)

HARD AND SOFT USE

Tight coupling between performance information and judgement (ex:

sanctions in a performance contract)
Implication for the design of the measurement system:
compliance (what you measure is what you get)
HARD USE shirking (changing behaviours in a way that violates the purposes of the
performance indicators)
misrepresentation (leads to decision-making based on flawed
information)

Loose coupling between performance information and

judgement (ex: dialogue and interpretation mediate final
decision-making
SOFT USE implication for the design of the measurement system:
justification (opportunity to influence decision-making through
performance-based dialogue)

FACTORS AFFECTING THE USE OF PERFORMANCE INFO BY EUROPEAN PUBLIC

MANAGERS

1. Country
- Lower use in Germany and France
- Higher use in Italy and Estonia

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- Average use in Hungary and Norway

2. Policy field
- Higher use in employment service, justice
- Higher use of internal performance info in employment services, economic affairs, finance
- Higher use of external performance info in justice, public order and safety, employment services

3. Level of government: higher use in sub-national governments and agencies compared with central
government

4. Degree of implementation of PM: has the strongest effect on use

5. Respondents features (generally less important compared to organizational features): higher use for people
with private sector experience; lower education

WHICH FACTORS AFFECT THE USE OF PERFORMANCE INFORMATION?

Higher levels of public sector motivation is linked to a higher use of performance

information
INIDIVIDUAL Private sector experience
FACTORS Gender (inconclusive)
Education (not significant)

The availability of performance information and the extent to which it is tied to

management systems lead to a greater use of performance information
A developmental organizational culture fosters performance information use
ORGANIZATION decision flexibility leads a greater use of performance information
Budget official willingess to challenge the plans and actions of dept heads
AL FACTORS Capacity: availability of human and financial resources, degree of development of PM
systems
Managerial and political leadership
Political support

ENVIRONMENTAL Citizen participation affects performance information use

Professional influence (it does not matter)
FACTORS
Aglosaxon vs. neoweberian countries

SEVERAL DISTORTING EFFECTS

Tunnel vision: being too focused on what is being measured may distract attention from
the big picture and from other important aspects.
Sub-optimization: following narrow objectives rather than what is best for the organization as a whole.
Myopia: focusing on the achievement of performance targets in the short term may cause to neglect the longer-term
implications.
Convergence: while seeking to perform at a similar level to other managers or organizations, managers are not
motivated in improving their performance.
Ossification: linked to myopia and convergence, if performance targets are met, managers may not wish to further
improve.
Gaming: manipulating performance targets to get a strategic advantage.
Misrepresentation: submitting misleading or outright false performance data.

LECTURE 10: BUDGETING AND ACCOUNTING IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR

17
ACCOUNTING IN THE PRIVATE AND THE PUBLIC SECTORS
Accounting is “a purposive activity” and “must above all be useful”.

PRIVATE SECTOR PUBLIC SECTOR (TRADITIONAL)

ACCOUNTING “Financial accounting” or “Accrual “Cameral accounting” or “Budgetary accounting”
SYSTEM accounting” or “Cash accounting”
PRIMARY Measure financial position and “Authorize” spending
PURPOSE performance To ensure accountability over the raising and the
To support decision-making use of funds
MAIN Year-end financial report (Ex post) Budget approved by representative body
DOCUMENT Budget is a voluntary, non-binding (Parliament, Council) (“Legislative budget”) (Ex
management tool (“Managerial budget”) ante)
Year-end report is mostly intended to show
budgetary compliance

BASIS OF Accruals Cash, and/or

ACCOUNTING Commitment/Obligation/Encumbrance
BOOK-KEEPING Double entry (reflecting exchanges with Single-entry (reflecting unilateral raising and use
third parties) of funds) (recording only the final side of each
transaction)

ROLE BUDGETARY ACCOUNTING IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR

Key component of democracy:
 Key role in the transition from absolute to constitutional monarchies
 Generally regulated in the Constitution

A way of enforcing accountability towards the citizenry by justifying the raising of public resources and the purposes
for which they are used:
 “democratic control over the use of funds”
 “no taxation without consent”
 “no expenditure except in amounts and ways approved by Parliament”

BASICS OF BUDGETARY ACCOUNTING: RATIONALE FOR AUTHORIZATIONAL PURPOSE

- Lack of market discipline: budgeting as a way for govts to impose discipline upon themselves.
- Limited interdependence of financial inflows and outflows: outflows must be kept within available inflows, or
inflows must be raised until they fully cover outflows.
- Bureaucratic view of control: control inputs (& processes) instead of outputs & outcomes.
- Different distribution of sacrifices and benefits across constituents: budgeting is a way of reaching, formalizing, &
enforcing an agreement
- Need for central govt to impose fiscal discipline on subnational govts in order to reduce the need for bailouts.

BASICS OF BUDGETARY ACCOUNTING: TECHNICAL FEATURES

Main purpose: to ensure budgetary compliance.
Main tool: the budget.
How does budgetary compliance ensure?
- EX ANTE: generally required to “balance”. Expected expenditures = expected revenues
- DURING THE YEAR:  line item, expenditures  expected expenditures

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REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE OPERATIONS
Revenues:

Establishment of Authorization
Recovery
amounts receivable of recovery

Expenditures:

Commitment of Validation of Authorization

Payment
expenditure expenditure of expenditure

At the end of the financial period:

 Establishment of amounts receivable > Recovery:
o If the amount will be recovered in the future: establishments of a.r to be recovered
o If the amount will never be recovered (wholly or partially) in the future: establishment is cancelled
 Commitment > Payment:
o If the amount will be paid in the future: commitments to be paid
o If the amount will never be paid (wholly or partially) in the future: commitment is cancelled

CASH VS. COMMITMENT

Cash accounting
- In the budget, revenues and expenditures are expressed. Expected recoveries (cash inflows) and expected payments
(cash outflows).
- During the year,  line item, actual payments  expected payments.
- The year-end report is a statement of recoveries and payments.
Commitment accounting
- In the budget, revenues and expenditures are expressed as establishments of amounts receivables and commitments.
- During the year,  line item, actual commitments  expected commitments.
- The year-end report:
 Is a statement of actual establishments of amounts receivables and commitments
 May include cash recoveries and payments
 May consequently include establishments to be recovered and commitments to be paid

BASES OF ACCOUNTING

19
CASH AND COMMITMENT: PROS AND CONS
Pro cash:
- More objective
- Simpler to keep and read
Pro commitment:
- Better at constraining expenditures
Pro both:
- Consistent with the purpose of limiting spending
- In the public sector, it may be difficult to “match” revenues and expenses (non-reciprocal revenues: taxes)
- Limited complexity of government´s traditional activities
- Importance attributed to external, macroeconomic and non-economic effects of government activities
Against both:
- No info on capital and income
 Capital: assets and liabilities
 Income (relevant even for nonprofit organizations):
 Change in capital, thus change in assets and liabilities
 Is the organization living within its means?
Absence of bankruptcy threat, coercive powers (including raising taxes and issuing legal tender), presence
of politicians encourage short-sightedness
- No information on the resources used (as opposed to bought and paid for) to provide services
- Possible manipulations:
 Commitment: under -or over- reporting
 Cash: quicker or slower payments

BASICS OF BUDGETARY ACCOUNTING: TECHNICAL FEATURES

CLASSIFICATION OF ITEMS
- Revenues:
 By source
 Current: own taxes, current transfers and fee revenues
 Capital: capital transfers and sale of assets
 Borrowing
- Expenditures:
 By nature:
 Current: personnel, supplies, services, interest…
20
  Capital
 Debt repayment
 By destination:
 By function: (usually standardized) environment, social services, culture, healthcare, defense…
 By program: (usually entity) specific
 By organizational unit

BALANCES
Overall balanced budgets: budgeted revenues must cover budgeted expenditures.
Commitment-based:
Expected establishments of amounts receivables (+ surplus from previous year) = Expected commitments (+ deficit
from previous year)
Ex:

Cash-based:
Expected recoveries (+ initial cash fund) = Expected payments
Ex:

Commitment-based + cash based:

 line item, budgeted cashflow  budgeted appropriations + establishment of a a.r to be recovered/commitment to be
paid.

Several balanced sub-budget:

- Current budget: Current revenues = Current expenditures + Debt repayments
- Current budget: Excess current revenues + Capital revenues + Borrowing = Capital expenditures
Limits on borrowing?
- Caps: on stock of debt and on interest expenditures & debt repayment, as a % of current revenues
- Golden rule: borrow only to fund investment
THE BUDGET FORMULATION
Incrementalism: last year’s budgets are used to develop this year’s budgets by making marginal adjustments resulting
in stable patterns over time.
Incrementalism has been seen as a way to simplify budget decisions and to reduce conflict over decisions related to the
allocation of money, making budgeting more comprehensible and predictable, where the involved actors largely know
the results in advance (Andersen and Mortensen, 2009).

21
Although incrementalism has been considered as one of the most powerful descriptions of real-life budgeting processes,
it has been also significantly criticized as it may result in conservatism, short-termism and the support of existing
coalitions and policies (Rainey 2009, Rubin 1989).
Historically, there have often been efforts to make budgeting processes more rational and to improve the quality of
budget decisions by altering budget formats, providing richer information on financial and non-financial performance of
public programs and services, changing decision making processes and responsibilities as well as timeframes.

THE BUDGET CYCLE

Formulation: budgets are:
 Prepared by the executive and the bureaucracy
 Approved by the legislature/representative body
Execution:
 The executive and bureaucracy implement the policies reflected in the budget
 The budget may be modified within specific constraints in terms of amendments and prerogatives
(virements/transfers between different items of the budget)
Reporting:
 Actual revenues and expenditures are reported and compared with the budget
 Some kind of surplus/deficit is reported
 Reports are:
o Prepared by the executive and the bureaucracy
o Approved by the legislature/representative body

Ex: City of Milan 2020-22 budget summary

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THE BUDGET CYCLE
- Implementation of the budget (and of programs)
- The initial budget is not static
- Specific procedures exist to modify the budget during the accounting period
- Modifications are often significant and not as visible as initial approval
- Adjustment typologies:
 Use of new or higher than expected revenues (x)
 Virements (x)
 Use of reserve funds

THE BUDGET REPORTING

- The year-end budgetary report shows actual revenues and expenditures
- Actual expenditures cannot exceed budgeted expenditures
- Based on different “bases of accounting” two margins can be identified:
o Cash-based accounting: cash fund (initial cash + recoveries – payments)
o Commitment-based accounting: surplus (ex: “unspent” resources, saving, to be carried over the next
financial year)/ deficit (ex: “overspending”, loss to be recovered the next financial year, it is “systematic” or
not?)

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BUDGETARY ACCOUNTING: PROS AND CONS
Pros:
- Emphasis on
- Decision and implementation
- Comparison budget/actual
- Limiting spending
- Balancing expenditures and revenues
Cons:
- Complex (long, detailed, difficult to read, confusing)
- Is comparison between budget and actual effective? Does it translate into decisions/evaluations?
- Myopia (no info on the medium and long-term impacts of decisions)
- Encourages excessive borrowing (borrowing is a source of cash inflows)
- Difficult to assess intergenerational equity (is a generation living “within its means”?)
- Limited usefulness for decision-making purposes
- Perverse incentives: budgetary compliance becomes an end in itself, organization units tend to use the full amounts
at their disposal, governments resort to creative accounting to hide budget overruns
- Inability to effectively constrain expenditures in the absence of favorable internal and external conditions

NEW PUBLIC FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

New Public Financial Management as the “technical lifeblood of NPM.
Key elements of NMFM:
- Budgeting reforms
- Introduction of accruals accounting

THE FUNCTIONS OF THE BUDGET

Identifying and forecasting revenues and expenditures

Accounting
Limiting the amount of expenditures to the amount of the revenues, to ensure balance

Allocative: definition of the role of the public sector in the economy

Economic Distributive: measures to partially redress inequalities in wealth and income
Stabilization: macroeconomic effects of fiscal policy

Budgetingas a way of reaching, formalizing and enforcing an agreement among competing

Political interests on priorities

External It stems from the separation between who pay taxes and who decide to spend the money raised through taxations
The deployment of the accountability function depends on the two main elements: the degree of accessibility to information and the
accountability degree of understanding of information provided

Planning: authorizing managers to incur expenditures; Measuring performance; Controlling;

Managerial Communicating; Motivating
Under NMP, generally exercised trough managerial budgets

NPFM BUDGETING REFORMS

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NPFM ACCRUALS ACCOUNTING
Supported by most academics and by international organizations (IMF, World Bank, OECD).
Implemented to very different extents:
- Across countries (fullest in NZ, AU, UK)
- Across types of government within the same country
- Between accounting and budgeting (fuller for the former)
Plagued by significant issues:
- Conceptual
- Of implementation
Recently accelerated by:
- Development of accrual-based International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS)
- EU´s explicit preference for accruals accounting
- Although not yet translated into mandatory adoption
EXPECTED BENEFITS OF ACCRUAL ACCOUNTING
 Identification of cost of services and political programs: emphasis on cost control, efficiency measurement,
and productivity; greater accountability on the use of resources
 Easier definition of public-service tariffs
 Greater attention to asset management
 More complete information on public organizations´ liabilities
 Possibility of measuring the impact of public policies on public organizations´ financial position and long-
term sustainability; focus on the long-term impact of decisions
 Emphasis on intergenerational-equity measurement
 Comprehensive evaluation of such choices as privatization, externalization, borrowing…
 Possibility for constituents to better evaluate public organizations´ performances

MAIN ISSUES
1. Inappropriate to critically transfer business accounting concepts and techniques to non-business settings
Objective of general purpose financial reporting (ex: fair value accounting).
Assumptions (ex: going concern) and qualitative characteristics (ex: conservatism)
Elements of financial statements: assets (ex: monuments, power to tax), liabilities (ex: pensions) and revenues
(ex: non exchange).
2. Necessary to mimic or replace cameral accounting´s purpose to authorize spending
In practice, budgeting basis remains cash or commitment.
 Fits the main purpose of public sector budgeting (ex: limit spending).
In the presence of accrual-based financial reporting, need to manage the mismatch of accounting bases within
the accounting cycle:
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  Reconcile the two basis?
o The “cohabitation” has proven problematic (either confusing or relegating accruals
accounting to being a mere formality)
 Attempt the transition to accrual budgeting
3. Impossible to receive comprehensive info about a government´s overall performance
Quantity and quality of services provided.
Their ability to meet the community´s needs.
Their consistency with taxes levied.
4. Practical implementation problems
Main issues:
 Produce initial balance sheet
 Acquire adequate software packages
 Acquire or develop professional skills
 Review organizational structures and procedures

IPSAS (INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC SECTOR ACCOUNTING STANDARDS)

Outputs of IPSASB:
- Conceptual framework
- Accounting standards
- Underway several new projects
Main characteristics:
- Accrual accounting
- Focus on reporting
- Initial approach: no need to “to reinvent the wheel for the public sector”
- In 2014, the conceptual framework for general purpose financial reporting by public

DIRECTIVE 2011/85/EU ON ACCRUAL ACCOUNTING

Art.3. and containing the information needed to generate accrual data with a view to preparing data based on the ESA 95 standard
Directive Art.16. By Dec 2012, the Commission shall assess the suitability of the IPSAS for the member states
2011/85

Eurostat Report: (1)IPSAS cannot be implemented in the EU member states as it stands currently, (2) IPSAS standards represent an
Task Force indisputable reference for potential development to EPSAS, based on a strong EU governance system
IPSAS/EPSA
S

E&Y: Overview and comparison of public accounting and auditing practices in the 27 EU member states
PwC: Collection of information related to the potential impact of implementation accrual accounting in the public sector and technical
Studies analysis of the suitability of individual IPSAS standards

Set-up in September 2015, to build on the work of the Task Forces and to establish a more permanent forum concerned with the
development, introduction and operation of EPSAS
The Working Group is a technical experts group. Discussion inform the Commission´s work concerning EPSAS and focus on
ESPAS unresolved issues. In particular, the Work Group should indentify the key issues for EPSAS governance and standards, and discuss
WORKING how to develop and introduce suitable EPSAS structures and requirements
GROUP Small expert groups, called cells, were set up: EPSAS "Cell on Governance Principles"; "Cell on First-Time Implementation"; EPSAS
"Cells on Principles related to EPSAS standards"

ACCOUNTING MATURITY
Accounting maturity reflects the estimated degree of compliance of the government´s accounting rules within an
IPSAS-based benchmark. Given that EPSAS do not exist yet, IPSAS have been taken as a proxy for EPSAS.

26
Eurostat had launched a screening exercise with the aim of assessing individual IPSAS standards against the draft
EPSAS Conceptual Framework, with the cooperation of contractor PwC and the EPSAS Cell on Principles related to
EPSAS Standards.

LECURE 12: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT: MANAGING THE FUTURE

Strategic management: process of examining both present and future environments, formulating the organization's
objectives, and making, implementing, and controlling decisions focused on achieving these objectives in the present
and future environments

Strategy: underlying approaches, patterns to accomplishing the mission- low cost, partnership, many services, few
services, centralized/decentralized.

STAR MODEL (GALBRAITH)

STRATEGIC PLANNING
It is the process by which the guiding members of an organization envision its future and develop the necessary
procedures and operations to achieve that vision.

27
It identifies and describes the approach(es) the organization should take to achieve its mission, balance the demands of
its stakeholders, exploit opportunities, and respond to threats given its resources.

Strategic planning: it is the heart of strategic change. It addresses the fit between the organization and the future
environment.
Tactical planning: process by which the organization develops the action and support mechanisms to implement the
elements of the strategic plan.
Operational planning: process by which an organization and its units maintain work flow and production.

ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE CYCLES

Growth and maturity Decline Rebirth

MULTIPLE PURPOSES
STRUCTURAL FRAME
Direction and priorities
Basis of resource allocation
Production alignment
Performance measurement
Basis for structure, jobs, roles
Basis for compensation, awards, accountability
Stability/Prediction/Control

HUMAN RESOURCE FRAME

Participation, motivation, inspiration
Team-building, community, belonging
Ownership/alignment with personal vision
Achievement/self-actualization

POLITICAL FRAME
Vehicle for:
- Negotiating with sponsors
- Building relationships with customers
- Building relationships with governing bodies
- Controlling agenda, expanding power and resources
SYMBOLIC FRAME
Symbols for revitalization and control
Games to justify expenditures
Rituals for interaction
Advertisements/investment brochures for the organization

STRATEGIC PLAN COMPONENTS

Mission, Vision, Values, Theory of change (Foundations)
Analysis:
- Environmental
- Internal capabilities
28
- Program viability
- Current culture and strategies
- Stakeholder and constituent preferences
Operational vision (vision of success) (what will we be at the end of the plan)

New strategies
Goals/Objectives/Measures of success
Actions

MISSION
Defines the organization´s identity and purpose. The following questions are a guide:
- Who are we?
- What are we?
- What do we do?
- Whom do we serve?
- Why do we exist? Provides social/political justification, points to desired outcome, helps define measurement of
success.

ANALYSIS: INSIDE AND OUT

How is the context changing? how do we stand?
How good are we in the present? What are core strengths, “competitive advantage”, culture? What are factors that could
prevent our future success? (inside)
What would constituents, stakeholders, the organization like to change? (outside and inside)

ANALYZING THE ENVIRONMENT

PEST

Types of trends:
- Demographic
- Political/legal
- Technological
- Ethical
- Economic
- Sociocultural
- Global trends
- Environmental

INTERNAL ANALYSIS
Assessment of current values/culture
Assessment of current capabilities
Assessment of viability of programming
Assessment of employee satisfaction
Assessment of strategies and performance

STAKEHOLDER MAP

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“SWOT” ANALYSIS
Tool to assess internal strengths and weaknesses; external opportunities and threats.
What is good in the present is a strength, good in the future is an opportunity; bad in the present is a weakness and bad
in the future is a threat.
Leverage strengths to minimize threats, take advantage of opportunities.
Can be used independently or as a way of capturing data gathered with other tools.

HOW

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Strategy: “the creation of a unique and valuable position, involving a different set of activities” that are best to produce
varieties of services, meet all needs and access all customers.
Typical strategies address cost (low-high), differentiation (from competitors).
Simply put ways an organization accomplishes the mission.
Example: in 2000, what trends were affecting McDonald’s (opportunities and threats)? How did the mission guide
strategies? How did the internal capabilities restrict strategies?

UNIQUENESS
What differentiates you from others?
- How are your distinctive competencies directly linked to meeting your mandates, mission, goals, desired outcome
indicators and the stakeholder requirements you choose to meet?
- How are you going to create value in a sustainable way that is viewed as important to stakeholders?

STRATEGIC ISSUES
Given the analysis, what are the most important issues to address?
Three elements of strategic issues:
- The issue should be framed as a question that the organization can do something positive to answer
- What makes the issue a fundamental challenge for the organization?
- What are the consequences of failing to address the issue?

STRATEGIC ACTION
 Change markets
 Change services
 Seek revenue
 Partner with external organization
 Restructure organization

GAPS AND GOALS

What are the gaps between where we are today and where we want to be? What are the issues we face in moving from
our current state to the future?

How do the gaps/issues fall into goal areas?: smart objectives/strategic measures
- Specific
- Measurable
- Assignable
- Realistic
- Time-related
Example: goal: reduce risk for cardiovascular diseases through a community-wide initiative. So, begin smoking
cessation programs (action plan).

PERSONAL VISION
“Organizations intent on building shared visions continually encourage members to develop their personal visions. If
people don’t have their own vision, all they can do is sign up for someone else´s. The result is compliance, never
commitment. On the other hand, people with a strong sense of personal direction can join together to create a powerful
synergy”.

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IMPACT OF PERSONAL ALIGNMENT

Every manager´s job: organizational alignment

Strategy is constantly developing:

32
 LECTURE 13: FROM BUREAUCRATS TO ENTREPRENEURS TO NETWORKERS,
EMPATHS, AND ADVOCATES

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT?

Personnel function for recruiting, selecting, compensating, assessing, disciplining, retiring?
How employees are managed?

"OLD" PA NEW PUBLIC "NEW" PA/NEW PUBLIC

(WEBERIANISM) MANAGEMENT SERVICE

IMAGE The bureaucrat The manager/emtrepreneur The networker/advocate/empath

PROFILE Implementer ("rowing") Leader ("steering") Servant (and mediator and

Politically neutral Politically responsive: upwards advocate)
Legal and technical to elect officials, and Politically "creating" and
expertise downwards to customers responsive laterally and
Leadership skills downwards to citizens
"Relational" skills

VALUES “Bureaucratic" values "Market" values "Demographic" values, social

33
 equity

MOTIVATIO Proffesional ethic (PSM) Economic incentives Professional/democratic ethic

N (PSM) - inside and outside the
organization

SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES

 Psychologically “safe” teamwork
 Design, facilitation and evaluation of collaborative regimes (networks)
 Cultural competence
 Outward-facing and inward-facing relational skills
 Values-based, feminist, servant, soft skills leadership
 Public Sector Motivation

KEY REFORMS/MILESTONES IN HRM SYSTEMS

OPA NPM NPA
KEY ACTS European then US Pendelton Global Reforms-Reinventing No key reform acts?
Act awards (1850´s) Government (EEOA; directives; CSRA
goals; court decisions)
INSTITUTIONA Centralized merit-based Decentralization of HRM to Representation: minority
L AND POLICY recruitment (expertise) agencies and increased groups, anti-discrimination;
FEATURES Extensive protections from manager discretion employee representation
political interference (lifelong Weakening of protections through labor
tenure; fixed pay scales) (broadbanding, P4P, EAW) unions/relations
PS HR Personnel administration; Strategic HRM, support “Soft” changes: employee
FUNCTION legal/procedural issues managers and organizations satisfaction, new approaches
in achieving goals to staff engagement and
Privatization of some development (NPM), new
functions (payroll…) skills

EMBEDDING NPA DEEPER IN PUBLIC SECTOR HRM

OPA NPM NPA/NPS
HR GOALS Merit-based recruitment Align HR with organizational Enable organizations create and
and protection from goals demonstrate public values
politicization Adequately reward and Create an environment that
incentivize performance fosters intrinsic motivation
(PSM) and democratic ethos for
staff
HR FUNCTION Personnel administration Strategic HRM Sustainable/socially responsible
Legal compliance HRM
HR POLICIES Centralization of HR Decentralization to agencies Policy - and support role for
AND policies Weakened protections central HR agency
INSTITUTIONS “Merit” protections Balance flexibility with
protections/ move away from
P4P

HR FUNCTION

34
 Additional role of the HR function Core responsibilities

"Outward-facing"/citizen voice Additional strategic goals (social)

Sustainable/Socially responsible Recruiting for public sector motivation
Activist "Sustainable" employee and
management development
New measures and incentives for
performance success
"Meaningful" job design
Employee and stakeholder engagement

MANAGEMENT APPROACHES?
Task (utilitarian instrumentalism) vs. Relationship (developmental humanism).
Theory X vs. Theory Y

MOTIVATION APPROACHES

- Extrinsic: external incentive to engage in activity (typically rewards, pressures, punishments)

- Intrinsic: performing an activity for its inherent satisfaction rather than for some separable outside consequence.

IS THE PUBLIC SECOTR EMPLOTYEE DIFFERENT? PUBLIC SECTOR MOTIVATION

1. Rational/instrumental: policy, advocacy, personal identity
2. Norm-based: social equity, service, duty
3. Affective: love for citizens, love for country, for regime values

PS MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

- Interviewing
- Job design
- Communication
- Performance assessment (“crowding out”)
- Transformational leadership
- Collaboration

CONCLUSION
Theory check: old or new PA?
Fragmented paradigm, but:
- Political responsiveness vs. neutrality
- Merit redefined to add values
(Implied) changes in the “bureaucracy” itself:
- Citizen voice in agency mission vs. customer satisfaction
- Upward and downward accountability
35
Reality check
Core tension:
- NPA values and behaviors with NPM institutional structures
Political consensus on NPA:
- Lack of trust and respect for the public sector/dominance of private sector model
- Increased politicization
- Low motivation and morale
Hope?
- New(ish) organizational forms changing the bureaucracy itself

LECTURE 16: THE CHANGING NATURE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: FROM

GOVERNMENT TO PUBLIC GOVERNANCE

The administrative state:

- Administration and civilization are inseparable and forever intertwined
- Almost all of the triumphs and all of the tragedies of civilization can be traced to administration
What is public administration?
No agreed upon definition
- The field is concerned with:
 Public authority
 Public processes
 Public policy making, execution, and enforcement
 And more…
- “the academic study and professional practice of management, politics, and law”
The tools of government
What government does:
- Direct administration: when government provides the good or service (ex: social security ckecks, drivers’ licenses,
tax collection, policing…)
- Indirect administration: when government contracts with other organizations to provide the good or service (ex: road
construction and maintenance, social services provision, weapons construction, prison management…)
In the United States, more than 70% of the work of government is carried out trough indirect means

THE SHIFT FROM GOVERNMENT TO PUBLIC GOVERNANCE

- Government: the group of people and organizations with the authority to govern a country or state

36
- Governance: how actors use processes and make decisions to exercise authority and control, grant power, take
action, and ensure performance
- Public governance: processes and institutions for public decision making and action that include actors from
government and from other sectors.

GOVERNMENT PUBLIC GOVERNANCE

Single actors, unitary action Multiple actors, multilateral actions
Hierarchical model: Horizontal model:
- Command and control - Collaboration and negotiation
- Rowing - Steering
- Managing operations - Managing processes

Supervising people and programs Organizing people, programs and resources

The ”how” of agency operations The “how, why, what, and with what
consequences” of governmental activities

THE GOVERNMENT PARADIGM

Globalization, technology, “wicked” problems, citizen expectations, and other issues are putting pressure on
governments around the world and at every level.
This is driving a new approach to public administration that centers on governance rather than government.

Governance generally refers to how complex public problems are addressed through:
- Horizontal integration (across agencies)
- Vertical integration (across levels of government and sectors like markets)
- Civic engagement strategies

WHY PUBLIC GOVERNANCE?

- “Fragmented and disarticulated state”

- Blurring of jurisdictional, sectoral, and organizational boundaries
- Redefinition of what it means to be “public”
- Internal and external public management reform
- Digital revolution
- Citizen/consumer demand
- Rise of “wicked” problems

WHAT IS A WICKED PROBLEM?

A problem that is:
- Illusive or difficult to pin down and define
- Influenced by complex social and political factors, some of which change during problem solving processes
- Characterized by social, technical, and other types of complexity and uncertainty
- Of interest to multiple stakeholders who view the problem (and its solution) differently
- Interrelated with other problems
- Centered on and involves trade-offs among competing values and norms

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THREE APPROACHES TO PUBLIC GOVERNANCE

Inter-organizational Extra-organizational
public governance public governance

Public
Networks
participation

Collaborative

NETWORKS
Networks: interdependent structures involving multiple autonomous organizations, or the parts thereof, where one unit
is not the formal subordinate to the others.
- Historical perspectives
- Modern perspectives
 “Hollow government”
 The Information Age
 Diversity and integration
- Rationales: flexibility, innovation, specialization, speed
Types of networks:

Public management networks Multi-sector networks

Service implementation Service contract

Information diffusion Supply chain
Problem solving Ad-Hoc
Community Capacity Building Channel partnership
Information Dissemination
Civic switchboard

Challenges of network management:

38
 ISSUES NEEDS
Service implementation Service contract
Lack of goal congruence Strategy
Contored oversight Design and activation
Communication anc coordination information technology
problems Performance integration
Poor baseline data Human capital
Government is the "Elephant is the
room"
Accountability, responsibility
responsiveness

Understanding networks:

COLLABORATIVE GOVERNANCE
What is collaboration?
- Collaboration: to co-labor, to work together.
- Collaborative Governance: the processes and structures of public policy decision making and management that
engage people across the boundaries of public agencies, levels of government, and/or the public, private, and civic
spheres to carry out a public purpose that could not otherwise be accomplished.
- Collaborative Governance Regime (CGR): a particular mode of, or system for, public decision making in which
cross-boundary collaboration represents the prevailing pattern of behavior and activity among autonomous
participants who have come together to achieve some collective purpose defined by one or more target goals.
Interactive framework for collaborative governance

Three formative CGR types:

- Self-initiated: participants come together after being inspired galvanized by a set of core stakeholders (ex:
community-based collaboratives, ad hoc working groups, planning committees, informal partnerships)
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- Independently convened: an autonomous third party assembles participants and designs processes for interaction (ex:
independent fact-finding commissions, community visioning processes, bipartisan policy coalitions, PCI Public
Solutions model)
- Externally directed: outside entities with sufficient authority or resources incentivize or mandate participants to work
together in a preset manner (ex: federal advisory committees, grants requiring collaboration, regional planning or
operating authorities, legislative-mandated collaborations)

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
Public participation: it is an umbrella term that describes the activities by which people´s concerns, needs, interest and
values are incorporated into decisions and actions public matters and issues.

- Indirect participation: people (the public) select representatives or intermediaries who engage in decision making and
problem solving for them (voting and donating money)
- Direct participation: people (the public) are personally involved and actively engaged in providing input, making
decisions, and solving problems (conventional participation, thin participation, and thick participation)

PUBLIC GOVERNANCE
Public governance requires new knowledge, skills, and abilities and capacities.
Public governance skills: “Orchestration”
- Activating people and building relationships
- Spanning boundaries and network management
- Setting strategic direction and managing operations
- Process design and management skills for addressing conflict, facilitation, negotiation

2030 AGENDA FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

- Universal
- Integrated and indivisible
- Focus on effective governance and means of implementation
- “No one is left behind”
- National reporting and rigorous follow-up and review

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL 16

“Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build
affective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels”.
Core Institutional Principles:
1. Effectiveness
2. Transparency
3. Access to information
4. Accountability
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 5. Anti-corruption
6. Inclusive decision-making
7. Non-discrimination in laws and policies

Principles of effective governance for sustainable development:

United Nations Committee of Experts on Public Administration (CEPA) provides “practical, experts guidance to
interested countries in a broad range of governance challenges associated with implementation of the 2030 Agenda.
11 principles with associated strategies and practices:

Competence
Effectiveness Sound policymaking
Collaboration

Integrity
Accountability Transparency
Independent oversight

Leaving no one behind

Non-discrimination
Inclusivenss Participation
Subsidiarity
Intergenerational equity

LECTURE 17: UNDERSTANDING COLLABORATION

WHAT IS A WICKED PROBLEM?

A problem that is:
- Illusive or difficult to pin down and define
- Influenced by complex social and political factors, some of which change during problem solving processes
- Characterized by social, technical, and other types of complexity and uncertainty
- Of interest to multiple stakeholders who view the problem (and its solution) differently
- Interrelated with other problems
- Centered on and involves trade-offs among competing values and norms
Wicked vs. tame problems

CHARACTERISTI TAME PROBLEM WICKED PROBLEM

C
The problem A clear definition yields a logical No clear definition, and each solution changes
solution the problem
The role of Driven by experts using scientific and Many stakeholders all of whom have different
stakeholders technical data ideas about the problem and its causes
The “stopping rule” The task is complete when the problem The ”end” is determined by stakeholders,
is solved political forces, and/or resource availability
Nature of the The problem is “like” others; there are The problem is unique, and solutions must be
problem data, protocols and tested solutions tailored. Solutions are based on stakeholder
“judgements”; there are no “best practices”

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COMPLICATING FORCES
 Social complexity
 Technical complexity
 Cognitive uncertainty
 Strategic uncertainty
 Institutional uncertainty

TYPICAL ORGANIZATIONAL PROBLEM SOLVING

- Study and “tame” the problem by:

 Locking down the problem definition
 Asserting that the problem is solved
 Specifying objective parameters by which to measure the solution’s success
 Casting the problem as “just like” a previous problem that has been solved
 Giving up on trying to get a good solution to the problem
 Declaring that there are just a few possible solutions, and focus on selecting from among these options
- Apply a rational decision making model

ADDRESSING WICKED PROBLEMS

- Don’t use traditional, expert-driven or managerialist approaches

- Do use a planned, structured, collaborative, and deliberative process among a diverse set of stakeholders
 Consider the complexity of the problem from both scientific and stakeholder perspectives
 Create coherence (shared meaning and understanding about terms, concepts, issues, and roles, and shared
commitment to the effort
 Build trust and legitimacy among stakeholders

QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT WHEN TACKLING WICKED PROBLEMS

1. Have multiple stakeholders been meaningfully engaged?
2. Are we using a process grounded in thoughtful consensus building?
3. Are we mindful that change is a normal part of the process?
4. Are we establishing mutually agreed upon markers for progress?
5. Are we framing those benchmarks in realistic timelines?
6. Do we have an integrated system for monitoring progress?
7. Is communication between all stakeholders transparent?
8. Are communications carried out in an atmosphere of mutual respect and trust?

COLLABORATION AND COLLABORATIVE GOVERNANCE

WHAT IS COLLABORATION?
Collaboration: to co-labor, to work together
Collaborative governance: the processes and structures of public policy decision making and management that engage
people constructively across the boundaries of public agencies, levels of government, and/or the public, private, and
civic spheres to carry out a public purpose that could not otherwise be accomplished.

UNDERSTANDING COLLABORATIVE GOVERNANCE

Collaborative governance is not a uniform phenomenon, it occurs:
- Within and across organizations
- Within and across sectors
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- With like-minded or homogenous and diverse partners
- Among those with shares and different goals
- When it is mandatory and when it is emergent or voluntary
- With and without broader public participation
- On highly contentious issues and less controversial ones
- With and without professional facilitators and mediators
- With large and small numbers of actors

WHY COLLABORATION?
Sometimes collaboration is mandated, sometimes it is voluntary. Regardless, it is an increasingly common a reality of
XXI century governance.
Collaboration can help:
- Build understanding
- Make wise decisions
- Build support for decisions
- Get work done
- Develop agency capacities
- Build community organizations
- Foster community and social development
WHEN NOT TO COLLABORATE (MAYBE)
Collaboration may be unwise when:
- There are fundamental disagreements over values
- Organizations want to establish precedent or influence law
- Going to court, lobbying, or seeking legislative assistance may produce better outcomes
- There are large power imbalances among parties and stakeholders
THE CHALLENGES OF COLLABORATION
Collaboration can be difficult because of
- Institutional and structural barriers
- Attitudes and perceptions
- Process problems
How do you overcome these issues?
- “Lengthen the shadow of the future?
- Create rewards and incentives for cooperation and reciprocity
- Pay attention to interactions and relationship building
- Pay attention to interactions and relationship building
- Focus on common goals and build a shared vision
- Have a clear process, effective communication, and agreed upon rules of behavior
COLLABORATIVE GOVERNANCE AND CGRS

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 Potential benefits Potential challenges

Improved ability to address problems Weak ministerial capacity

Greater understanding and support Institutional barriers
Better decisions Legal barriers
Better work processes Lack of leadership around issue
Improved agency capacities Poor attitudes and perceptions of
Development of community organizations collaboration
Development of community and social Lack of skills and knowledge about
capacities collaboration
History of conflict

COLLABORATIVE GOVERNANCE REGIMES (CGRs)

CGRs: a particular mode of, or system for, public decision making in which cross-boundary collaboration represents
the prevailing pattern of behavior and activity among autonomous participants who have come together to achieve some
collective purpose defined by one or more target goals.

An integrative framework for CG

Regime formation
- Initiating leaders: grassroots, grassroots, or boundary spanning organizations
- Assembling participants: mandatory or voluntary?
 Who are the “right” participants?
 Why will they come together?
o Influence decision making? Accomplish a shared vision?
o What are the costs and benefits of participating (transaction costs, resources, time, power
sharing, effort)?
 Representation and diversity
 Return to drivers (consequential incentives)

FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE: INITIATING AND IMPLEMENTING COLLABORATIVE

GOV.
CGR FORMATION
1. Initial assessment
Assessment: an analysis of a situation or conflict made by gathering information and talking with others to get their
perspectives.
- Sponsor´s analysis
- Participant analysis
Collaboration is more appropriate when:
- High priority issue, opportunity for action, need for solution

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- Actors recognize need for involvement, agreement, buy-in
- Solution requires integration of responsibilities, authorities, policies, programs, and resources
- A sponsoring agency has authority, but not power, to make and implement a decision
- The resources exist to support a collaborative process
- Political leadership support processes
- Timing is ripe
Collaboration is less appropriate when:
- Low concern or interest in issue
- Emergency situation
- Sponsor won´t commit to implementing a collaborative agreement
- Lack of resources for support
- Party(ies) won´t participate because issue is one of rights or principles
- High level of polarization; face-to-face discussion not possible
- A key party has been options
All collaboration unfolds in a dynamic system context:
- Numerous, layered, and interrelated attributes of broader environment:
 Resource or service conditions
 Policy and legal frameworks
 Socio-economic and cultural characteristics of community
 Network characteristics
 Political dynamics and power relations
 History of conflict
Drivers of collaboration:
- Uncertainty
- Interdependence
- Consequential incentives
- Initiating leadership
Roles in forming collaboration:
- Sponsors
- Conveners
- Neutrals
- Participant
Making the go/no-go decision:
- Testing a “go” decision:
 Mission test
 Financial test
 Political test
 Feasibility test
 Relationships test
 Timing test

2. Identify and engage participants

Ask the following questions to identify stakeholders:
- Who are the key individuals?
- Whose cooperation will definitely be necessary at this stage?
- Whose may be necessary at this stage?
- Who can block the accomplishment of our goals?
- Who can support the accomplishment of our goals?
- Who might block? Why?
- Who might support? Why?
Stakeholder mapping tool: for each stakeholder assess:
- Power/authority/influence?
- What is at stake?
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- What is in it for them? Fears?
- What is their blocking capacity? How to neutralize?
- Hot buttons?
- How to engage?
- Use direct/indirect approach?
- What are their relationships?
- Who are their allies?
Tool: shuttle diplomacy
Group size: 12-20 people
- Working groups of subcommittees
- Attendance of observes
- Additional reporting/discussion meetings
Inviting participants:
- Sequencing matters. Think about who to invite first
- Get senior leadership and resources
- Demonstrate your passion and enthusiasm
- Identify and talk about the values involved and why they matter
Some tips:
- Personal invitations
- Substitutions
- Emphasis of invitations
Political rules for collaborative leaders:
- Learn who the veto holders are; find out their interests and concerns
- Keep the gatekeepers informed and involved
- Find out whether any key stakeholdes are rivals; use that knowledge when deciding who to involve and how
- Never surprise the key stakeholders
- Avoid any appearance that the lead organization is in this to grab power or resources
- Connect the collaborative initiative to the agendas of key senior leaders; make it clear how the initiative can help
them
- Keep timing in mind
- Remember that people gain influence when they share influence and credit

3. Plan and organize the process

It´s time for the sponsor/convener to “set the table”:
- Identify and provide the needed resources
- Address information needs
- Help participants prepare
- Create a climate for collaboration
- Establish communication channels with leaders and constituencies
- Provide staff and logistical support
- Develop and draft ground rules
- Develop a work plan and a process map
- Plan and hold an organizational meeting
Convener: (well-known) leader with credibility and stature who brings people together for the collaborative initiatives.
1. Be inclusive
2. Establish a neutral meeting place
3. Be impartial as to the solution
4. Frame the meeting and the issue
5. Direct the discussions (don’t dominate)
6. Keep people moving and working together
7. Demonstrate ongoing visible commitment

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 8. Make sure there is an outcome
Collaboration dynamics: it is the progressive and iterative cycling of 3 components (principled engagement, shared
motivation and capacity for joint action) that takes place over time among CGR participants and between participants
and their parent organizations.

- Principled engagement:
 Underlying principles:
o Fair and civil discourse
o Open and inclusive communications
o Balanced representation of interests
o Informed by perspectives and knowledge of all participants
 Four behavioral elements:

- Shared motivation:
 Highlights relationship and social capital issues elements
 Is an initial outgrowth of principled engagement, but also reinforces principled engagement
 A self-reinforcing cycle
 Four interpersonal elements:

- Capacity of joint action:

 Focuses on structures to do work
 Highlights the need to generate desired outcomes that could not be accomplished alone
 Is an outcome of principled engagement and shared motivation, but also reinforces them
 Four functional elements:

Shared Theory of Change: the strategy developed during collaboration dynamics for achieving the collective purpose
and collective goals of the CGR.
Collaborative Actions:
- Instrumental purpose of collaborative governance is to implement actions to address an issue
- Collaborative Actions are intentional efforts taken by the CGR to achieve its collective purpose and target goals
- Actions should be specified in the theory of change developed during collaboration dynamics
- Actions:
o Securing endorsements
o Enacting new policies, laws, regulations or practices

47
 o Marshalling external resources
o Deploying staff
o Siting and permitting
o Building or cleaning up
o Monitoring implementation
o Enforcing compliance
Outcomes:
- Outcomes the intermediate changes in conditions necessary to reach target goals and the end outcomes of
accomplishing those goals. “The results on the ground”
- Alteration(s) to a pre-existing or projected condition that has been deemed undesirable or in need of change
- Established as goals and theories of change during the collaboration dynamics
- Outcomes:
o Physical
o Environmental
o Social
o Economic
o Political
o Technological
o Specific, discrete, short-term or broad, cumulative, and long-term
Adaptation: it refers to the transformative changes, or small, but significant adjustments in response to the outcomes of
collaborative actions.
Adaptations can occur in the:
- System context
- Collaborative Governance Regime
- Participating organizations
CGR IMPLEMENTATION
1. Plan meetings and discussions
The first meetings should:
- Shine a light on the problem or challenge
- Create and open, credible tone to build trust
- Discuss the process for working together
- Develop a project plan (as well as communication plans and MOUs)
- Play to the strength of the partners (skill and experience matrix)
- Invite members to take on initial tasks and decide on how they will be accountable
- Shine a light on success and recognize contributions
How to run a good meeting:
- Meeting process

- Responsibilities of meeting leaders

- Responsibilities of meeting participants
Sample agenda for first meeting:
- Purpose of meeting and the initiative
- Introductions
- Ground rules for group
- Explanations of importance of initiative
- Group discussion (how to others see the problem or challenge?)
- Explanation of goals and desired outcomes
- Group discussion (initial reactions)
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- Next meeting date (and work to be done)
Ground rules should address:
- The purpose and scope of the discussions
- How decisions will be made
- Participants’ roles and responsibilities
- Procedural requirements, including how to address relevant laws or requirements
- Guidelines for conducting meetings
- The timeline and schedule
- Outreach and communication with the public and media
- The facilitator´s role and responsibilities
2. Manage collaboration dynamics
- Principled engagement: discovery, definition, deliberation, determinations
- Shared motivation: trust, understanding, internal legitimacy, commitment
- Capacity for joint action: procedural and institutional arrangements, leadership, knowledge, resources
Collaboration dynamics by type:

SELF-INITIATED INDEPENDENTLY EXTERNALLY DIRECTED

CONVENED
Principled Internally generated, grounded Facilitated by third party Constrained or enabled by
engagement in social-relations neutral preset terms
Shared Created with demonstration Contingent on incentives or
Centered on common interests
motivation of good faith mandates
Capacity for Key = Procedural/Institutional
Key = Leadership Key = Knowledge
Joint Action arrangement & resources

Self-initiated CGRs: challenges for CGR design and management:

- Timing pressures
- Connecting and engaging with authorities
- Sustaining voluntary participation
- Leadership turnover and burnout
- Long-term viability
Leverage the initial shared motivation around common interests.
Focus on building principled engagement and capacity for joint action.
Independently convened CGRs: challenges for CGR design and management:
- Dealing with complexity and conflict
- In-group factions and coalition formation
- Coordinating with decision makers and authorities
- Implementation
Leverage principled engagement.
Focus on fostering shared motivation and building capacity for joint action.
Externally directed CGRs: challenges for CGR design and management:
- Strategic design required
- Creation of appropriate incentives, mandates, structures, and agendas
- Participant buy-in
- Subsequent resource dependence
Leverage capacity for joint action.
Focus on building principled engagement and shared motivation.

3. Reach and implement agreements

Tools and techniques for reaching agreements:
- Recognition of differences
- Interpersonal communication skills
- Interest based problem solving
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- Consensus building
- Provide for implementation in the agreement
Moving from “me” to “we”:
- A collaborative team has to meet the needs of:
1. The individuals at the table
2. The team as a whole
3. The home organizations that the individuals represent
- Four questions individuals ask before joining a team:
1. Do I have something to contribute?
2. Is this project important to me and my organization?
3. Are we making progress? What are the chances for success?
4. How will this project support or threaten my (and my organization´s) core needs and interests?
Stages of group formation (Tuckman):

 Forming: direct the team and establish objectives clearly; might negotiate a team
charter.
 Storming: establish process and structure; work to smooth conflict and build
good relationships; provide support; remain positive and firm in the face of
challenges.
 Norming: step back and help the team; take responsibility for progress towards
the goal; arrange a social or a team-building event.
 Performing: delegate; have a “light a touch”; start focusing on other goals and
areas of work.
 Adjourning: celebrate achievements.

CGR MAINTENANCE
1. Manage institutional arrangements
- Ensure accountability
- Maintain commitment
- Manage conflict
- Maintain legitimacy
- Establish an on-going governance structure

2. Assess collaborative performance

- Process performance
- Productivity performance

LECTURE 18: COLLABORATIVE GOVERNANCE

Collaborative governance: the process and structures of public policy decision making and management that engage
people across the boundaries of public agencies, levels of government, and/or the public, private, and civic spheres to
carry out a public purpose that could not otherwise be accomplished.

SYSTEM CONTEXT
System context: the broad and dynamic set of surrounding conditions that create opportunities for initiating and
sustaining CGRs.
- Public service or resource conditions
- Policy and legal frameworks
- Socio-economic and cultural characteristics
- Network dynamics and power relations
- History of conflict
DRIVERS
Drivers help propel the creation of a CGR.
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- Uncertainty: situations of doubt and limited information about future conditions, events, availability of resources, or
decisions by other actors.
- Interdependence: the acknowledge necessity of mutual reliance among groups and organizations for accomplishing
desired goals.
- Consequential incentives: internal issues, resource needs, interests, or opportunities, and external situational or
institutional crises, threats, or opportunities that must be addressed to mitigate risk or advance desired conditions.
- Initiating leadership: the presence and actions of a person or core group who stimulate interest in and instigate
preliminary discussions about creating a collaborative endeavor.

THREE FORMATIVE CGR TYPES

1. Self-initiated: participants come together after being inspired and galvanized by a set of core stakeholders. (Ex:
community-based collaboratives, ad hoc working groups, planning committees, informal partnership).
2. Independently convened: an autonomous third party assembles participants and designs processes for
interaction. (Ex: independent fac-finding commissions, community visioning processes, bipartisan policy
coalitions, PCI Public Solutions model).
3. Externally directed: outside entities with sufficient authority or resources incentivize or mandate participants to
work together in a preset manner. (Ex: federal advisory committees, grants requiring collaborations, regional
planning or operating authorities, legislatively- mandated collaborations).

*Stakeholder: any person, group, or organization that can be positively or negatively impacted by or cause an impact on
the actions of a company, government, or organization.
- Primary stakeholders
- Secondary stakeholders
- Key stakeholders
Stake and influence/expertise grid:

LECTURE 19: UNDERSTANDING INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

THE SHIFT FROM GOVERNMENT TO PUBLIC GOVERNANCE

GOVERNMENT PUBLIC GOVERNANCE
Single actors, unitary action Multiple actors, multilateral actions
Hierarchical model: Horizontal model:
- Command and control - Collaboration and negotiation
- Rowing - Steering
- Managing operations - Managing processes

Supervising people and programs Organizing people, programs and resources

The ”how” of agency operations The “how, why, what, and with what
consequences” of governmental activities
Tools: self-assessments:
- Meyers Briggs
- Leadership behaviors: Tasks vs. relationship
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- Four-frames Leadership Orientation

MEYERS BRIGGS
Dichotomies
Dichotomies: relating to the world for ideas
 Extraversion (E)
o Draw energy from action (talk…)
o External thinkers
o Quick
o Need people, can devour them
 Introversion(I)
o Draw energy reflection (thin, act, say)
o Internal thinkers
o Take time
o Requires less of the external world; rich inner life
Dichotomies: gathering information
 Sensing (S)
o Practical
o Tangible, realistic
o Present-oriented
o Fact-based
o Linear
o Distrust hunches
o Meaning in data
o Likes routine
 Intuitive (N)
o Innovative
o Abstract, conceptual
o Future-oriented
o Rely on insights, ingenuity
o Meaning in how data relates to pattern & theory
o Bored with routine, burst of energy
Dichotomies: decision-making
 Thinker (T)
o Logic and rationality
o Stands outside
o Impersonal
o Fact, procedure-based
o Premium on fairness
o Critique, analysis
o Principles
 Feeler (F)
o Empathy
o Get inside
o Personal
o Implications for people, harmony
o Judges on likes and dislikes
o Values
Dichotomies: how we live
 Judging (J)
o Matters closed
o Task-oriented
o Appears concrete
o Likes being organized
o Decides quickly
o On-time, deadline
 Perceiving (P)
o Always more to learn, open to suggestions

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 o Appears abstract
o Flexible about opinions
o Agonizes over decisions
o Wait

Four temperaments
1. Catalyst
NF: visual, future, ideas, and people oriented, seek great ideas and significance for people, diplomatic, search for
meaning and self-awareness, relationships.
- Mobilizers, crusaders, prophets
- As leaders: charisma, sees possibilities for people and organization, natural communicator, patient with complexity,
democratic, supportive, spokesperson, cheerleader
12% US population- counselors
2. Visionary
NT: visual, future, ideas, results; needs options and reflection, logic, strategic, power, self-critical, self-oriented
- Directed, architects, designers, inventors, strategists
- As leaders: uses intellect, enjoys complexity, avoids mistakes twice, high standards, architect of change, systems
12% US population- lawyers
3. Beachmaster
SP: auditory, present, tactical, realistic, urge to do, test limits, crisis, free to act, process -oriented
- Performers, promoters, salespeople
- As leaders: crisis manager, seeks change, but uses what is there, changes what can be changed, spurs to action, sees
problems, natural negotiator, unfettered by past
38% US population
4. Stabilizer
SJ: Present, logistical, preserve and serve, detail-oriented, caretaker, hierarchy, serious
- Administrators, conservators, inspectors
- As leaders: establish policies, structure, sop; social responsibility and tradition, obligation, decisive, planful,
impersonal
38% US population- police, auditors, judges

Dichotomies and temperaments: 16 types

ENFJ: Teacher
- Leaders of groups, charisma
- Communicate caring and concern; fluent
- Knows motivations of others
- Trustworthy, even-tempered, values harmony
- Handle complexity
- Like things settled and planned ahead
INFJ: Counselor
- Focus on possibilities
- Values-oriented
- Drive to contribute and help others
- Deep and complicated
- Vivid imaginations
- Talent for communication and language
- Enjoy problem solving
- Can work alone or with others
ENFP: Champion
- Authenticity and spontaneity
- Intense emotional experience vital
- Pursuit of the novel, what might be
- Enthusiastic, charming
- Solve problems but need to be their efforts
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- Extensive networks
INFP: Idealist
- Care deeply, values driven, sense of honor
- Adaptable, welcome new ideas
- Deal with complexity, bored with routine
- Facility for language
- Make sacrifices for the good
- May be seen as shy
ENTJ: Commandant
- Need to lead
- Give structure through policies and goals (vs. procedures)
- Must be a reason
- Have vision and communicate it
- Organize into systems, with plans and goals
- Devoted to work
- Reduce inefficiency, impersonal
INTJ: Builder
- Have ideas, make decisions
- Supreme pragmatists
- Accept authority if it makes sense
- Reality is possible ideas, ideal brainstormer
- Drive to completion, single-minded
- Respond to challenge with creativity
- Entrepreneurs- make theory practical
- Mover of mountains
ENTP: Inventor
- Exercise ingenuity
- Enjoy improvisation
- Good at analysis
- Enthusiastic
- Look for a better way, optimistic
- Value adaptability and innovation
- Conversationalist (talkative and motivating)
- Enjoy politics, one-up-Manship, nonconformists
- Avoid routine
INTP: Architect
- Search for relevant and pertinent, precise
- Logic not positional authority has weight
- Persevere in analysis until issue comprehended; then move on to new idea
- It is essential that the world is understood
- Intellectual, theoretician
- Work alone
ESTJ: Responsible
- Pillars of the community
- Organize procedures, detailed rules and regulations to get the job done right
- Evaluate by SOPs
- Realistic, curious about processes, not theories
- Loyal, do not shirk duty
- Punctual

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- Need effort to remain open to others and new ideas
ISTJ: Pillar of strength
- Decisive
- Guardians of institutions
- Quiet and serious, persevering and dependable, thorough
- Handle detailed figures
- Patient with work and procedures, coordinators (not as much with people)
ESFJ: Harmony
- Sociable, nurture institutions
- Enjoy rituals and status (should and should nots)
- Personalize relationships
- Loyal
- Duty and service oriented
- Outgoing
- Natural salespeople
ISFJ: Service
- Desire to serve
- Sense of history and traditions; adhere to established way; enjoy exercising routines
- Dependable, satisfied when serving needs
- Discomfort of others are not following rules
- Use status to advantage
- May try to do too much
ESTP: People of action
- Resourceful
- Friendly, socially sophisticated
- Masters of cues and motivations of others, negotiator, can sell ideas
- Ends justifies means
- Turn-around leaders
- Entrepreneurs, new ideas
- Live in the moment
- Bored by follow-up detail
ESFP: Performer
- Fun, generous, optimistic
- Active jobs with people
- Relies on personal relationships and common sense for decision making
- Accurate data on people
- Immediate knowledge for utility
ISTP: Battle leader
- Artful action
- Self-leading
- Authority superfluous
- Fearless
- Mastery of tools
- Impulsive
- Communicate through action
- Battle leaders
- Loyal to equals
ISFP: Artisan
- Caught up in the action, here and how
- Optimistic and cheerful
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- Egalitarian
- Risk-taking
- Attuned to concreteness and specificity (artist)
- Unconditionally kind
- Reserved

LEADERSHIP BEHAVIORS: TASKS VS. RELATIONSHIP

Two leadership behaviors
- Task-orientation:
 The degree to which you help others by defining their roles and letting them know what is expected of them
 Lead by emphasizing the job to be done
- Relationship-oriented:
 The degree to which you try to make subordinates feel comfortable with themselves, each other, and the
group itself
 Lead by emphasizing the people involved
Four-frames leadership orientations
Four Frames Model (Bolman & Deal 1990): “the truly effective manager and leader will need multiple tools, the
skills to use each of them, and the wisdom to match frames and situations”.
The four frames are windows into leadership and management. They provide mental models to help you understand and
navigate a situation.
The 4 frames are: structural, human resource, political and symbolic.

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 LECTURE 21: PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Public participation: it is an umbrella term that describes the activities by which people´s concerns, needs, interests,
and values are incorporated into decisions and actions on public matters and issues.

- Indirect participation: people (the public) select representatives or intermediaries who engage in decision making and
problem solving for them.
 Voting
 Donating money
- Direct participation: people (the public) are personally involved and actively engaged in providing input, making
decisions, and solving problems.
 Conventional participation
 Thick participation
 Thin participation

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CONVENTIONAL PARTICIPATION
The most common form of participation, including public meetings, public hearings, advisory committees and similar
mechanisms:
- Agenda is pre-set by officials
- No discussion outside the agenda
- Public comment segments (3 minutes at the mic)
- Goal is to get comments in the record
- Easy to disrupt
- Physical layout reinforces power

HOW CAN WE IMPROVE OUR PUBLIC PARTICIPATION INFRAESTRUCTURE?

1. Give good process! Treat citizens like adults
Give them respect, recognition and responsibility
- Information and choices
- A chance to tell their stories
- A sense of political legitimacy
- Opportunities to take action
- Participation experiences that are enjoyable, easy, and convenient
2. Better understand thick and thin participation (and how to combine them)
- Thick participation: it empowers groups and can lead to more effective problem solving
 Proactive, network-based recruitment to attract a diverse, critical mass
 Small-groups discussion with impartial facilitators
 Information sharing and issue framing to give views and options
 Decision making and/or action planning
- Thin participation: it empowers individuals and can inform effective problem solving. Many new thin opportunities
allow us to:
 Affiliate with a cause
 Rank ideas
 Donate money/crowdfund
 Play serious games
 Provide discrete data on public services/problems
- Combining thick and thin participation: sustaining community actions

3. Empower and activate participation leaders and networks

Leaders:
- Elected official
- Public servants
- Civic participation
- Participation professionals
Networks:
- Schools, colleges, universities
- Businesses
- Nonprofits and foundations
- Community and youth groups
- Social service agencies
- Unions
- Media
- Homeowner/neighborhood associations
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 4. Assemble the building blocks of participation

Disseminating information: this is the most basic building block. Technology has made it easier than ever.
- Traditional media
- Social media
- Websites
- Texting systems
- Dashboards and apps
- Serious games
- Robo calls
- Town halls and tele-town halls

- Interactive community apps

Gathering input and data: citizens can also provide information. Consider: is there a “civic upsell” form one opportunity
to the next?
- Surveys, polls, interviews, focus groups
- Crowdsourcing, competitions
- Apps for identifying problems
- E-Petitions
- Wikis
- Impact assessments and rating
- Geo-technologies
- Face-to-face exercises
Discussing and connecting: the social aspects of participation are critical for building relationships. Relationships are
key to a sustainable infrastructure.
- Wired, welcoming physical spaces
- Online forums and networks
- Fairs, festivals, celebrations and other social events
- Text-enabled small group dialogue
- Face-to-face deliberative events
Enabling small-scale decision making (individuals, families, groups, neighborhoods): citizens want to make day-to-day
decisions, and need thin and thick opportunities.
- Participatory public meetings
- Meetings and interactions with professionals
- Online tools and technologies
- Fairs and social events
- Neighborhood associations and councils, HOAs
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- Walkshops, tactical urbanism
Enabling large-scale decision making (communities, cities, regions, state & federal government): citizens want to
influence policy decisions. This requires building participation into the regular functioning of government.
- Deliberative events
- Participatory budgeting
- Participatory meetings of “official” decision making bodies
- Advisory boards and councils
- Community coalitions
- Policy conferences
- Ballot initiatives and referenda
Encouraging public work: a strong participation infrastructure will encourage citizens to expend time, energy, and sweat
equity.
- Volunteer coordination and mini-grant programs
- Apps and platforms for teams and tasks
- Collaborative approach to maintaining public resources
- Service opportunities connected to problem-solving
5. Provide systemic supports
- Incentives for participation leaders
- Training and skill development
- Financial and other resources
- Policies and procedures
- Evaluation measures and benchmarks

CONNECTING THE BUILDING BLOCKS FOR PARTICIPATION

Some “universal pieces” that can support and connect participation infrastructures:
- Hyperlocal and Local Online Networks
- Buildings that are Physical Hubs for Participation
- Youth Councils
- Participation Commissions (or Advisory Boards)
 Can advise on the design, implementation, and evaluation of specific participation tactics
 Can focus on building an embedding a sustainable participation infrastructure

ENVISIONING STRONGER PARTICIPATION INFRASTRUCTURE

 Make participation a cross-sector priority
 Use plainer, more compelling language
 Encourage progressive and conservative visions
 Use visual aids, like charts and maps
 Encourage artistic expressions of democracy

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 LECTURE 22: DESIGNING PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

PLANNING FOR PARTICIPATION

DECISION ANALYSIS
Clarify the decision being made
Decide whether and why public participation is needed
Specify the planning or decision making steps and schedule

PROCESS PLANNING
Specify what needs to be accomplished with the publoc at each step of the decision making
process
Identify the internal and external stakeholders
Identify techniques to use at each stage of the process
Link the techniques in an integrated plan

IMPLEMENTATION PLANNING
Plan the implemeentation of individual public participation activities

EVALUATION PLANNING
Plan the evaluation of multiple aspects of the participation activities

CORE VALUES FOR PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

- The public should have a say in decisions that affect their lives.
- Organizers should seek out and facilitate the involvement of those who are potentially affected by a decision.
- The public's input should influence the decision. How the public’s input will affect (or has affected) the decision
should be communicated.
- The participation process should focus on the interests and needs of participants.
- Participants should be given the information they need to participate in a meaningful way.

DECISION ANALYSIS
 Why do you want/need public participation?
 What do you hope to learn or accomplish?
 Why is public input necessary for this decision?

If you can´t answer these questions, you must be able to articulate clear reasons for using public participation.

VARIATIONS IN PUBLIC PARTICIPATION DESIGNS

Participation processes vary in a number of ways:
- General purpose & objectives
- Size
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- Participant recruitment
- Participation tactic
- Interaction mode
- Communication plan
- Participant preparation
- Locus of action
- Specificity of recommendations
- Recurrence and interaction
- Connection to policy and decision making

PLANNING FOR PARTICIPATION: KEY QUESTIONS TO ANSWER

Four of these variations are critical for immediate participation needs and stronger infrastructures.
These variations are best understood as strategic questions:
1. Who should participate and how will participants be recruited?
2. How will participants interact with each other and with decision makers?
3. What information do participants need to be prepared?
4. How will participation impact policy decisions, problem-solving efforts, or other kinds of public action?
When answering the four key questions, participation leaders must also consider:
- Contextual issues: goals; timing; mandates, laws, rules, regulations; organizational conditions and constraints
- People´s positions and interests on the issue(s)
 Position (what a person or group wants; the demand(s) being made)
 Interests (why a person or group wants something; the needs, values and concerns underlying a position)
- The level of concern or controversy about the issue(s)
 Low stakes (most people are unconcerned and do not have fixed positions)
 High stakes (many people are concerned and hold strong positions)

1. WHO SHOULD PARTICIPATE AND HOW WILL PARTICIPANTS BE RECRUITED?

- Getting the “right” people to the table is important. This depends on what leaders are trying to do and the stakes
surrounding the issue
- Who is (potentially) affected by the issue?: the general public, citizens, community members, residents, or some sub-
set of these categories
- What are the stakes and level of controversy?: high/hot, low/cold, or mixed
- The more people affected and the greater the controversy, the more important inclusion and diversity are; thus more
time and energy must be devoted to recruitment

Recruitment is one of the most difficult tasks:

1. Broadcasting announcements through the media (“voluntary self-selection”)
o Cheap and easy
o You get the “usual suspects”
o Generated “participation bias”
2. Proactive Network-Based recruitment (“targeted demographic recruitment”)
o Map networks and extent personal invitations
o More challenging and resource-intensive
o Requires relationships and trust
o Can decrease participation bias
3. Random selection
o Pick participants “by lot”
o Resource intensive
o Produces a microcosm of larger population
o Decreases participation bias

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 4. Offering incentives
o Monetary incentives (per diems, gift cards)
o Nonmonetary incentives (food, music)
o Transportation, childcare, translation/interpretation, or other services to remove immediate barriers to
participation

2.HOW WILL PARTICIPANTS INTERACT WITH EACH OTHER AND WITH DECISION MAKERS?
- Participation leaders must consider how people will communicate with each other
- one-way communication: unidirectional flow of information (fast and easy, but doesn´t allow feedback or negotiation)
- two-way communication: reciprocal flow of information (allows feedback and negotiation, but no in-depth
consideration)
- one- and two-way communication are usually position-based, and useful only for low-stakes issues
- deliberative communication: multi-directional flow of information among people who have equal opportunity to speak
o Participants reflect on a matter, weigh strengths and weakness of options or solutions, and make decisions or
judgements using facts, data, values, and emotions
o Time-consuming and intensive, but encourages interest-based discussion
- Deliberation is useful, and sometimes essential, for high-stakes issues

3.WHAT INFORMATION DO PARTICIPANTS NEED TO BE PREPARED?

- Participants’ input improves when they are given high-quality information that provides context and history, is
neutral and objective, and includes all perspectives
- Whether information is needed, and what kinds of materials are appropriate, depends on the complexity of the issue
and the stakes involved
o Simple, low stakes issues: no preparation or information trough websites, infographics, newspaper articles,
short presentations, or expert or panel discussions
o Complex, high stake issues: issue guides, discussion books, online resources, available issue experts

4.HOW WILL PARTICIPATION IMPACT POLICY, PROBLEM-SOLVING, OR PUBLIC ACTION?

- This is usually the most difficult question to answer
- An adapted version of the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2) Spectrum provides a useful way to
think about impact

 Inform
 Goal: to provide the public with balanced and objective information to assist them in understanding
the problem, alternatives, opportunities and/or solutions.
 Promise to the public: we will keep you informed
o Static and interactive websites
o Facebook, Twitter, Social Networking Sites
o “311” call centers
o Open Meeting Webcasts
 Consult
 Goal: to obtain feedback on analysis, alternatives and/or decisions
 Promise to the public: to listen to and acknowledge concerns and aspirations, and provide feedback
on how public input influenced the decision
o Citizen surveys (mail, phone, electronic)
o Notice and Comment Procedures
o Focus groups and public hearings
o SeeClickFix.com
o FixMyStreet.com
o Love Lewisham
 Involve
 Goal: to work directly with the public to hear, understand and consider their concerns and ideas

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  Promise to the public: we will work with you to ensure that your considerations and ideas are
directly reflected in the alternatives developed
o Wikiplanning (citizens work online to suggest, revise, and rank proposals for community
planning and development)
o Deliberative Polling (process where citizens are polled about an issue, then deliberate about
the issue and are polled again)
 Collaborate
 Goal: to partner with the public throughout decision making, from development of alternatives to
identification of preferred solution
 Promise to the public: we will seek your advice and ideas and incorporate them into the decisions to
the maximum extent possible
o Advisory boards (volunteer/appointed citizens study a specified issue, take public testimony,
conduct research, and make recommendations)
o Virtual ward panels (online and face-to-face panel identifies crime and safety priorities
 Empower
 Goal: to give public decision-making authority
 Promise to the public: we will implement what you decide
o Participatory budgeting (100-20.000 citizens deliberate over how to distribute public
resources, used in a geographically defined area for one day or throughout budget cycle)
o Pandemic flu vaccinations (citizens deliberated over distribution of vaccines in pandemic flu
outbreak)

WHAT LEVEL OF PARTICIPATION IS RIGHT?

It depends:
- What is your goal?
- How complex is the issue?
- How timely, controversial, and pressing is the issue?
- What kind of participation is required for legitimacy?
- What is the mandate?
- What are the political realities?
- What is the budget?
Need to consider the issue of reciprocity.
What will citizens want and be willing to do?

RETAINING AGENCY AUTHORITY

Regardless of the level of participation, the agency gets the last word because it must:
- Abide by mandates
- Operate within the limits of the law
- Meet contractual obligations
- Pay for the costs
- Balance competing needs and interests
- Retain accountability

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PARTICIPATION SKILLS: TEN KE TALENTS FOR ENGAGING CITIZENS
Ten skill-sets are valuable for immediate participation challenges and building participation infrastructures:
1. Building coalitions and networks
2. Recruiting participants
3. Communicating about participation
4. Managing conflict
5. Providing information and options
6. Managing discussions
7. Helping participants generate ideas
8. Helping participants make group decisions
9. Supporting action efforts
10. Evaluating participation
Logistical and project management skills are also needed.

LECTURE 23: PARTICIPATORY BUDGETING

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PREMISE
SPECTRUM OF PARTICIPATION

Coproduction
Two way
Joint action

DEFINITION
- Participatory budgeting: process that actively involves citizens in making decisions about allocating at least a
portion of budgetary resources
Participatory budgeting as a form of co-planning and co-design, which entails the direct involvement of citizens in
the allocation of public resources to different public programs, services, and investments (Bovaird, 2007; Bovaird &
Löffler, 2012)
- Existence of a variety of experiences in which the degree of participation and involvement to decisions related to
public resources allocation and the types of processes of participation vary widely
 Public hearings or community meetings (e.g., proximity participation and consultation on public finance)
where citizens are informed about government priorities and asked to express their opinions→ Weak co-
planning and co-design due to consultative nature, the proposals put forward by citizens do not constrain
elected representatives who can decide autonomously about the budget.
 Citizens can be invited to develop projects related to specific areas identified by the governments either
individually or in organized groups, and even decide whether to fund specific projects→. Higher power of
citizens in influencing budgetary decisions

THE PARTICIPATORY BUDGETING PROCESS

- No standard model
- How, who and when are citizens involved
- How, what projects are implemented

WHY SHOULD CITIZENS ENGAGE?

FACTORS AFFECTING CITIZENS´ WILLINGNESS TO COPRODUCE
- Trust
- Goal congruence (identifying with an organization´s goals)
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- Resource availability
 Knowledge (ex: understanding the functioning of the public sector)
 Time availability (ex: having child, work schedules)
- Demographic features, including age, gender, education, employment status, location, and national culture
- Representativeness (ex: the extent to which “the agency´s workforce reflects the demographics of the clients or
citizens it serves”)
- Individual and psychological attitudes
 Monetary reward
 Solidarity needs, such as socializing, conviviality, sense of belong to a group, or status
 Normative commitment (“citizens are guided by their base values”)
 Perceived self-efficacy (ex: the feeling that a citizen can make a difference and can impact results)
- Personal and more specific issues (ex: having lost the right to vote in the past)
- Ease of activities and easy access (ex: limited access to transportation)
- Service saliency (also in terms of durability)

THE POINT OF VIEW OF CITIZENS

- Supporter in theory, but doubtful in practice
- Worried about the trade-off between consensus and creativity
- Supporter of a community approach
- Aware of the importance of citizens

CONDITIONS FOR SUCCESSFULLY IMPLEMENTING PARTICIPATORY BUDGETING

- Inclusiveness:
o Openness of the political system and the degree of members’ participation
o Participation of traditionally excluded groups and citizens to decision-making (ex: young, ex-prisoners)
o People can share information from different perspectives and interests
o Inclusiveness is also a condition to ensure a wider representation
o Examples:
 Bring together people from different backgrounds who might not normally meet, enabling them to
pool knowledge, views and experience, in order to tackle local issues
 Encourage participants to get more involved in their communities, as shown by rising
memberships in local organizations following Participatory Budgeting events
 Improve inter-generational understanding, as young and old come together to discuss their own
needs and common issues
 Act as a spur to people to build local voluntary and community organizations
- Interaction
o Establishment of a two-way channel of communication, continuously adjusted over time, between the
public administration and its citizens
o Participatory budgeting not as a symbolic “exercise in styles” but a process where the budget is actually
“constructed” in an interactive way
o Boosting learning processes
o Examples:
 Enhancing transparency
 Increase people´s trust in local service providers

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  Improving individuals’ and organizations’ self-confidence in tackling neighborhood issues and in
negotiating with public sector organizations
- Representation
o The extent to which different interests, views and power positions have voice in the process
o Ensuring that voice and views are expressed, avoiding or reducing conflict
- Responsiveness
o The attitude of projects presented to address and answer not only to parochial needs but also to the
collective needs and expectations
o The institutionalization of PB experiences may enhance collaborative behaviors
o Importance of making information available

MAJOR IMPACTS OF PB
PB in Puerto Alegre:
- Almost full water and sewer coverage
- Increase in the number of children in municipal schools
- Reduction in infant mortality
- Significant increases in the number of new housing units provided to needy families
- Increase in roadbuilding, particularly in the favelas
- Increase in Porto Alegre’s expenditures in certain areas, such as health and housing, compared to the national
average
- A redistributive regime that is fiscally responsible and that has remained transparent
Improvement of public services based on the citizens’ proposals:
- PB has contributed significantly to improving basic service provision and management, with projects that are usually
cheaper and better maintained because of community control and oversight
- In most cases, PB improves governance and the delivery of services, even if it does not often fundamentally change
existing power relations between local governments and citizens

30 YEARS OF PB… AND IT STILL MATTERS

Participatory budgeting
Why is it so relevant?
- Need for cities to be more financially resilient
- Decrease of trust in politics
- The crisis of democracy
- PB supporting movements for social change
- Past and future austerity
- Sharing power of money
- PB for sustainable development (Agenda 2030 ONU)

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