Download or read book Democratic Accountability for Outsourced Government Services written by Rebecca L. Keeler and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 494 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Public administration scholars have raised serious concerns about loss of democratic accountability when government services are outsourced to private forprofit businesses because of the very different values and missions of the two sectors. Particular concern for democratic accountability arises when administrative discretion is delegated to governments' private sector agents. Furthermore, if contractors may adversely impact individual rights or interests, or may adversely impact vulnerable populations, special democratic responsibilities arise. It is these three features of outsourcing transactions that constitute the elements of the proposed framework used in this research in order to assess need for heightened attention to democratic accountability. Some scholars argue for application of constitutional and administrative law norms to some government contractors. Public service ethics and transparency requirements found in administrative law are heavily value-laden and mission-driven. If applied to certain government contractors, they can help to bridge the sectors' mission and value differences, thus enhancing democratic accountability for the services performed by governments' private sector agents. This research offers an analytical framework for identifying features of outsourcing transactions that call for enhanced democratic accountability measures such as ethics and transparency requirements, and explores the application of ethics and transparency requirements to governments' contractors. Contracts and laws governing three Florida local government service categories were subjected to close systematic textual and legal analysis: residential trash collection, building code inspection, and inmate health care. The analysis revealed circumstances calling for greater attention to democratic accountability in that the selected outsourcing transactions delegated to contractors the authority to exercise police power, make public policy, and commit expenditures of public funds. Contracts and laws haphazardly required contractors to abide by public service ethics and transparency requirements, thus beginning to adapt the mission and value system of their private sector agents to those of government.
Download or read book Government by Contract written by Jody Freeman and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-02-28 with total page 550 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The dramatic growth of government over the course of the twentieth century since the New Deal prompts concern among libertarians and conservatives and also among those who worry about government’s costs, efficiency, and quality of service. These concerns, combined with rising confidence in private markets, motivate the widespread shift of federal and state government work to private organizations. This shift typically alters only who performs the work, not who pays or is ultimately responsible for it. “Government by contract” now includes military intelligence, environmental monitoring, prison management, and interrogation of terrorism suspects. Outsourcing government work raises questions of accountability. What role should costs, quality, and democratic oversight play in contracting out government work? What tools do citizens and consumers need to evaluate the effectiveness of government contracts? How can the work be structured for optimal performance as well as compliance with public values? Government by Contract explains the phenomenon and scope of government outsourcing and sets an agenda for future research attentive to workforce capacities as well as legal, economic, and political concerns.
Download or read book Outsourcing US Intelligence written by Damien Van Puyvelde and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2019-05-03 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 21st century, more than any other time, US agencies have relied on contractors to conduct core intelligence functions. This book charts the swell of intelligence outsourcing in the context of American political culture and considers what this means for the relationship between the state, its national security apparatus and accountability within a liberal democracy. Through analysis of a series of case studies, recently declassified documents and exclusive interviews with national security experts in the public and private sectors, the book provides an in-depth and illuminating appraisal of the evolving accountability regime for intelligence contractors.
Download or read book Government Accountability for Outsourced Services written by R. Mulgan and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Partnership for Democratic Governance Handbook on Contracting Out Government Functions and Services in Post Conflict and Fragile Situations written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2010-11-29 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This handbook is a tool to help government officials assess whether contracting out might be a possible way forward – either temporarily or over a longer period of time – for delivering a core service or a government function.
Download or read book Outsourcing Sovereignty written by Paul R. Verkuil and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2007-12-19 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reliance on the private military industry and the privatization of public functions has left our government less able to govern effectively. When decisions that should have been taken by government officials are delegated (wholly or in part) to private contractors without appropriate oversight, the public interest is jeopardized. Books on private military have described the problem well, but they have not offered prescriptions or solutions this book does.
Download or read book Government accountability for outsourced services written by and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 19 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Private Security Public Order written by Simon Chesterman and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2009-11-05 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Private actors are increasingly taking on roles traditionally arrogated to the state. Both in the industrialized North and the developing South, functions essential to external and internal security and to the satisfaction of basic human needs are routinely contracted out to non-state agents. In the area of privatization of security functions, attention by academics and policy makers tends to focus on the activities of private military and security companies, especially in the context of armed conflicts, and their impact on human rights and post-conflict stability and reconstruction. The first edited volume emerging from New York University School of Law's Institute for International Justice project on private military and security companies, From Mercenaries to Market: The Rise and Regulation of Private Military Companies broadened this debate to situate the private military phenomenon in the context of moves towards the regulation of activities through market and non-market mechanisms. Where that first volume looked at the emerging market for use of force, this second volume looks at the transformations in the nature of state authority. Drawing on insights from work on privatization, regulation, and accountability in the emerging field of global administrative law, the book examines private military and security companies through the wider lens of private actors performing public functions. In the past two decades, the responsibilities delegated to such actors - especially but not only in the United States - have grown exponentially. The central question of this volume is whether there should be any limits on government capacity to outsource traditionally "public" functions. Can and should a government put out to private tender the fulfilment of military, intelligence, and prison services? Can and should it transfer control of utilities essential to life, such as the supply of water? This discussion incorporates numerous perspectives on regulatory and governance issues in the private provision of public functions, but focuses primarily on private actors offering services that impact the fundamental rights of the affected population.
Download or read book Outsourcing Government written by Paula Clancy and published by . This book was released on 2006-01-01 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This research from TASC looks at untangling the "fog index" that exists around how Government works. TASC authors Paula Clancy and Grainne Murphy identify important issues of transparency, accountability and freedom from political/elite patronage."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book Democratic Accountability Political Order and Change written by Johan P. Olsen and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume examines the theorization of democratic accountability and what accountability processes tell us about political order and orderly change.
Download or read book Holding Power to Account written by R. Mulgan and published by Springer. This book was released on 2003-10-22 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a general overview of accountability, a key concept in modern democratic governance. Richard Mulgan draws on examples and analyses from the United States and the United Kingdom as well as other 'Westminster' countries. Major topics discussed include the contrast between accountability in the public and private sectors, the effects of public management reforms on accountability, accountability for collective actions, accountability in networks and the limits of accountability.
Download or read book Outsourcing War and Peace written by Laura Anne Dickinson and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This timely book describes the services that are now delivered by private contractors and the threat this trend poses to core public values of human rights, democratic accountability, and transparency. --
Download or read book Partnership for Democratic Governance Contracting Out Government Functions and Services Emerging Lessons from Post Conflict and Fragile Situations written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2009-12-21 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second volume of the Partnership for Democratic Governance Series investigates whether ‘contracting out’ core government functions and services has been conducive to capacity development. Case studies discusses the evidence and emerging lessons of contracting out.
Download or read book The Responsible Contract Manager written by Steven Cohen and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 2008-10-01 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contract management is a critical skill for all contemporary public managers. As more government duties are contracted out, managers must learn to coordinate and measure the performance of private contractors, and to write contract requirements and elicit bids that obtain important services and products at the best possible price and quality. They must also learn to work in teams that include both public and private sector partners. The Responsible Contract Manager delves into the issues of how to ensure that the work done by private sector contractors serves the public interest and argues for the necessity of making these organizations act as extensions of the public sector while maintaining their private character. Government contract managers have a unique burden because they must develop practices that ensure the production advantages of networked organizations and the transparency and accountability required of the public sector. The Responsible Contract Manager fills a major gap in public management literature by providing a clear and practical introduction to the best practices of contract management and also includes a discussion of public ethics, governance and representation theory. It is an essential guide for all public management scholars and is especially useful for students in MPA graduate programs and related fields.
Download or read book Democratic Accountability in Service Delivery written by Helena Bjuremalm and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 91 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Rethinking Democratic Accountability written by Robert D. Behn and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2004-05-26 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traditionally, American government has created detailed, formal procedures to ensure that its agencies and employees are accountable for finances and fairness. Now in the interest of improved performance, we are asking our front-line workers to be more responsive, we are urging our middle managers to be innovative, and we are exhorting our public executives to be entrepreneurial. Yet what is the theory of democratic accountability that empowers public employees to exercise such discretion while still ensuring that we remain a government of laws? How can government be responsive to the needs of individual citizens and still remain accountable to the entire polity? In Rethinking Democratic Accountability, Robert D. Behn examines the ambiguities, contradictions, and inadequacies in our current systems of accountability for finances, fairness, and performance. Weaving wry observations with political theory, Behn suggests a new model of accountability—with "compacts of collective, mutual responsibility"—to address new paradigms for public management.
Download or read book The Palgrave Handbook of the Public Servant written by Helen Sullivan and published by Palgrave Macmillan. This book was released on 2021-06-01 with total page 1737 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Palgrave Handbook of the Public Servant examines what it means to be a public servant in today’s world(s) where globalisation and neoliberalism have proliferated the number of actors who contribute to the public purpose sector and created new spaces that public servants now operate in. It considers how different scholarly approaches can contribute to a better understanding of the identities, motivations, values, roles, skills, positions and futures for the public servant, and how scholarly knowledge can be informed by and translated into value for practice. The book combines academic contributions with those from practitioners so that key lessons may be synthesised and translated into the context of the public servant.
