ruiz
Prof. Jeremy Lewis delivers the keynote address to the international seminar in St. Petersburg, Russia
St. Petersburg 2015: Keynote address
Key terms for St. Petersburg seminar June 2015
St. Petersburg 2015: Word cloud poster

St. Petersburg 2015: Governance panel
St. Petersburg 2015: Governance and Policy seminar images from Leonid Smorgunov; album for the web by Jeremy Lewis

IPSA RC 48: Research Committee on Administrative Culture

RC 48 home page | Members contact list | Panel Descriptions 2016 | Abstracts 2016

Abstracts confirmed by RC 48 Administrative Culture for the IPSA World Congress 2016


Administrative Culture in Programs to Reduce Inequality and Promote Transparency [28 July at 13:30-15:15]
Panel Description
Engaged Governance and Digital India Initiative: A Strategy for Inclusive Growth
Dr. Nittam Chandel

Engaged or effective participation by different stakeholders has come to be viewed as a necessary condition for promoting good governance worldwide. In fact, ‘inclusive, sustainable and resilient development’ within the new post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals, rests on the effective participation of an active government, private sector and citizens. The Digital India is a new initiative of Government of India which engages different stakeholders to transform the governance in the country, making it more transparent, accountable, accessible and participative. The programme includes various projects on education, health development of infrastructure etc. and linking all local institution in the country with high speed internet with a goal of transforming the country into a digitally empowered economy. The application of technology has been considered a vital tool for rural development, delivery of public services, providing real time information and data to people, transferring benefits of government schemes directly to the people and expansion of financial services in India. The digital India will not only empower the citizens but will also be supportive in achieving the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals setup by United Nations and adopted by country as it engages different stakeholders in a new era of digitized democracy. Thus, the new approach of governance ‘is open, direct and deliberative and facilitates greater participation’ of government, private sector and citizens. The present paper analyzed the digital India initiative and also highlights various issues and challenges associated with this programme.

Exploring the Determinants of Transparency of Slovak Municipalities
Dr. Emilia Beblava, Mr. Matus Sloboda and Mr. Martin Kollárik
Openness and transparency of the public sector have been studied by several scholars. Among others Klitgaard (1998) perceive transparency as one of the important tools for controlling corruption. Is is also essential for informed decision making and for guaranteeing a minimal accountability (Gavazza, Lizzeri 2009).

Openness and transparency of the 100 biggest Slovak local municipalities have been measured by Transparency International Slovakia since 2010. So far the measurement has been conducted three times. The paper departs from this measurement and adresses the different results of the municipalities and possible incentives for their change. It examines the effect of the selected variables on the state and the change in the transparency level of the Slovak communities. It looks at the political (political orientation of the municipality mayors and local parliaments, political competitiveness, incumbent effect), structural (size of the municipality, region, level of education), economic (GDP, unemployment rate) and other control variables (gender composition of executive and legislative bodies, age of the mayor).

The paper relates to the main theme of the conference as it points out unequal access to information in the Slovak local communities and provides explanations for the given state of affairs.

Family Allowances Implemented by Administrative Agencies in Argentina to Address Poverty and Inequality. Analysis of their impact in the country in comparison to Latin America
Prof Erica Gorbak

The first Conditional Cash Transfer Programs have been implemented in Latin America in the mid 90´s particularly in Brazil, Honduras and Mexico and were lately disseminated throughout the region becoming in the beginning of the 21st century the main instruments to address poverty reduction.
After the 2001-2002 and the 2009 crises, in Argentina we experienced an expansion of family allowances as a main component of public policy to tackle poverty and widespread inequality in the country. Some of them led to the establishment of a non contributory system (i.e. Universal Child Allowance (AUH)). While presenting similar characteristics to conditional cash transfers so common in Latin America they represent a different model from the traditional policies constituting a genuine reform to the objectives and work of some administrative agencies of government. From an economic point of view they encompass efficiency goals and they tend to correct market failures. From a broader perspective they also tend to protect the future of our children and empower women in the region.
Despite the improvements and reduction in numbers of poverty rates it has not been traduced in an effective social inclusion and disparities and regional inequalities still remain.
In this paper we will examine the diverse family allowances, its coverage at the national and regional levels, its main features in comparison to traditional contributory family allowances and the effects and perspectives they signify on poverty and inequality reduction at the same time as analyzing the implication they may represent for other national/regional systems.

Open Government and eGovernance – Collaboration or Inequality?
Prof. Jeremy Lewis

This research compares progress on two leading trends in comparative administrative culture.
EGovernance is the growing practice of serving citizens and organizations online and interactively where feasible; it includes interactive development of public policy via wikis or discussion forums, and interactive applications for official services or benefits.
Transparency covers a multitude of initiatives to publish official records, regulations and decisions; to permit requests by the public for official records; or to place entire databases online for adaptation by external organizations, and watchdog institutions (such as ombudsmen, commissioners and inspectors-general) have opened up scrutiny of maladministration in various polities.
Some nation states have proceeded further with one of these than the other; some lower level governments have proceeded further than others. In some cases political systems find less resistance or more value in egovernance, while in others they find them in transparency.
This paper will explore whether different types of system, and different levels of government, find more net progress (and perhaps net benefit) in egovernance or transparency provisions. We hypothesize that liberal democracies have made more of both egovernance and transparency. However, since transparency laws are found in more than 100 countries, we are prepared for some surprises. Egovernance is a newer phenomenon, practiced in fewer systems; we hypothesize also that is more found in liberal democracies, but probably with a more mixed pattern and is more likely unequal among cities and nation states.

The State as the Arbitrator in the Conflicts of the Inequality
Prof. Lidiya Timofeeva

Being the universal organization, the state acts as the arbitrator of the conflicts in society arising by an inequality. The role of the state arbitrator is connected with asymmetric structure of society because various groups (social, economic, religious and others) have various interests quite often not in coincident with common interests in general. Feature of state arbitration consists of control on behalf of all society interests. Often it depends of from not only the legislation of this country, but also of the idea of social justice: socialist, social democratic, liberal and so on.
But the state on the practice protects the interests of ruling class and the dominating ideology. For example, in the USA the state stands from liberal ideology and defends the interests of the "middle class" which interested in political stability (it consists 70% of the white population and 20% of black Americans).
Carrying out arbitration, the state usually provides certain guarantees to one (for example, a grant to jobless or large families) and sets restrictions for others. These measures soften the contradictions arising between various social groups of society. The modern social states try to avoid the distortions, to maintain balance of interests in society. The dissatisfaction of reasonable claims can lead to the serious conflicts to the state. It is important that measures which will be undertaken by the state for this alignment were lawful and legitimate.


Administrative Culture in Different Cultural Contexts: Comparative Analyses. [28 July at 15:30-17:15]

Panel Description
Administrative Culture and Post-Liberalization Governance Reforms: Indian Experience with Equity and Fairness
Mr. Arunoday Bajpai and Dr. C.K. Gautam

Administrative culture consists of all those norms, values, attitudes and orientations, which underline the pattern of administrative behaviour in a given society. The final shape of governance emerges from the interplay between reform measures and prevailing administrative culture. Motivated by the global environment in post-liberalization era, India introduced many good governance reforms like strengthening local governance (1993), Citizen Charter (1997), right to information (2005), e-governance plan (2004), Lokpal (Ombudsman) Act (2013) and many others to ensure transparency, equity and fairness, accountability, and citizen-friendly orientation in the administrative processes and behaviour. The Second ARC (2005-2009), has also submitted 16 lengthy reports to ensure good governance.
These reforms could not succeed in the prevailing administrative culture of political patronage, misuse of public authority for personal gains, lack of accountability and responsiveness, elitism, secrecy etc. The reforms suffered from 'formalism', devoid of substance, akin to Riggs's notion of formalism. Yet, the reforms too made some dent on the administrative culture of elitism. This paper seeks to analyze the interplay between administrative culture and good governance reforms in India with focus on equity and fairness. It highlights how corruption promotes elitism and undermines equity and fairness. The findings may be generalized in the entire South Asian context. The paper is closely related with the Congress theme. The methodology is analytical with facts, collected from news papers, government, and scholars on the subject.

Emergence of Institutional Islamophobia: The Case of the Charity Commission of England Wales
Mr. Ismail Patel

This paper will focus on the structural changes to the Charity Commission exploring the impact of the Charities Act 2006 on accountability. The singular 'Charity Commission' replaced the 'Charity Commissioners' who existed pre-2006. The role of the Charity Commission, it is argued, has become politicised and the appointment process dependent on the political ideology of the incumbent government. Where British Muslim charities are concerned, the Charity Commission is expected to implement anti-terrorism strategies such as the government's Prevent strategy.
This paper will begin with a genealogy of the Charity Commission through various legislative measures, and explore its expanding remit over time and argue that it has become institutional Islamophobic. It will attempt to discern if the disproportionate scrutiny of Muslim registered charities, which is at 38 per cent, is related to pressures from anti-terror legislation. It will employ the concept of governmentality to explore power relations and investigate whether the Charity Commission fits into a matrix of power being exercised on British Muslim communities/charities and the impact of restrictions on banking facilities. The context of 'charity' from within the Muslim traditions will focus on 'Zakah'.

Defeating the Self and Others: Post-industrial Capitalism in South Africa
Dr. Gideon van Riet

This paper explores the institutionalization of Disaster Risk Management (DRM) in South Africa as a form of post-industrial capitalism. The discussion is situated within the politics of inequality in South Africa subsequent to democratization. It is based on an extensive literature study of various facets of South African politics, economics and society, supplemented by qualitative interviews with DRM practitioners. The analysis draws on a variety of theoretical tools. Most significant however are the work of Michel Foucault, in particular his work on governmentality, and on Adorno and Horkheimer’s Dialectic of Enlightenment. The paper argues that DRM practitioners - constituted through various discourses in a context of neoliberal governmentality - as well as the intended beneficiaries of DRM are subjected to multiple dystopias, as the labours of knowledge-work are rendered largely impotent and general conditions of structural violence at best persist and at worst are partially reinforced by DRM.

Governability of Public Policy and Inclusive Growth in the BRICS
Prof. Leonid Smorgunov

The paper concerns the political institutions for inclusive development in the BRICS. Although the theory of economic growth affirmed the incompatibility of efficiency and fairness, many researchers now say that intensive economic growth without equity is not a measure of modern development. The relationship between economic growth and equity describes the concept of inclusive development. In this respect, justice and quality of life is becoming one of its key factors and stimulating cause of long-term economic development. The concept of equitable (inclusive) growth strategy, developed in this paper, is based on the premise of the unity of governability, competitiveness and fairness. An important associations of governability, competitiveness and fairness are the development institutions. Three of them are crucial: multi-level governance institutions (institutions of subsidiarity); institution for policy of interoperability (institutions of "seamless government") and the cooperation between the state institutions, business and civil society (institutions of "open government"). The paper, using process tracing methodology for the analysis of the BRICS politico-administrative transformations, demonstrates process of building capacity to construct the inclusive institutions for citizen ingagement in public policy.


 
This page revised on 5 July 2016 by Jeremy Lewis