Download or read book The Executive Agency Revolution in Whitehall written by O. James and published by Springer. This book was released on 2003-09-16 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book length assessment of the executive agency revolution in UK central government, part of the New Public Management, with 65 per cent of civil servants now working in agencies. The 'Next Steps' reformers' public interest view suggested value for money improvements. However, original analysis of budgets, performance data, documents and interviews reveals some support for an alternative 'bureau-shaping' perspective from rational choice, with officials using the reform to protect their welfare and substantial performance problems, especially in 'joining-up' government.

Download or read book Envoy written by Nicholas Barrington and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2013-12-13 with total page 702 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nicholas Barrington began his dramatic diplomatic career with a post in Afghanistan at a time the country was barely known to the world's headline writers. The narrative of his 37 year career in the British Foreign Office is woven with compelling insights on the countries to which he was posted and which are focal points of international attention: Afghanistan, Iran, Egypt and Pakistan. Serving in Iran during the political storm of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, he had to navigate his way through the drama of a new political order, while his time in Cairo coincided with the assassination of President Sadat. In his rich and varied career, Barrington served as High Commissioner to Pakistan, a subject on which he writes authoritatively. Exploring the complex power relations between Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif and examining the multifaceted conflicts in Kashmir and Afghanistan, this book sheds an invaluable new light on the interaction between Islam, the West and British Foreign Policy in the 20th Century. With erudition and wit, these unique memoirs will prove essential reading for those seeking to understand the political tensions and international issues of the post-war world.

Download or read book Ministers and Parliament written by Diana Woodhouse and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1994 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In constitutional theory the convention of individual ministerial responsibility ensures the accountability of ministers to Parliament. In practice it is frequently used by government to limit rather than facilitate accountability. In this book Diana Woodhouse examines the divergence betweentheory and practice.She analyses the situations in which ministers resign, the effectivness of resignation as a means of accountability, and the abdication by ministers of responsibility. She also examines the powers and limitations of Select Committees, the effect of the new Next Steps Agencies on individualministerial responsibility, and draws comparisons with mechanisms of accountability adopted by other countries operating under the Westminster system of government.The inclusion of detailed case studies of the resignations, actual and threatened, of Lord Carrington, Leon Brittan, Edwina Currie, David Mellor, James Prior, and Kenneth Baker make this book especially pertinent to our understanding of the current political scene and to recent institutional changeswithin Parliament and government. By highlighting the present deficiencies and possible future failing in public accountability Dr Woodhouse's study provides an essential complement to recent debates about constitutional reform.

Download or read book Managing Early Departures in Central Government written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-08-30 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 2010 Spending Review required most departments to make cost savings, which would require staff reductions. Departments have reduced their number of employees to around 35,000 in 2011, nearly 18,000 of which have been achieved through early departures. If these staff reductions achieved and planned, are to be sustainable then they will need to be supported by a redesign of the way business is carried out. The Committee is not convinced that all departments are putting in place the fundamental redesign in working practices that is needed to operate permanently with a lower number of staff and this with the pace and scale of reductions means that there is a real risk to departments' ability to deliver services. And there concern about the lack of clear information to track the extent to which this risk is materialising. Without this information it is difficult to know to what extent services are being adversely affected by staff departures. The efficiency of early departures has been hampered by poor management information. Departments are considering individuals' performance when making decisions on staff departures. But the quality of data in performance appraisals has not been detailed enough to support this decision-making. The Committee considers that improving the quality and consistency of performance appraisal arrangements would bring both efficiency savings and better decision-making about the management of the workforce. The Treasury is responsible for signing off any individual exit payments that exceed the terms of the compensation scheme. It was discovered that the Treasury does not keep proper records of such requests and the Committee expects to see this rectified. The Cabinet Office estimates that around half of the required headcount reduction is yet to come and this is likely to be more challenging as the more achievable cuts have already been made and future cuts are likely to involve more compulsory redundancies.

Download or read book Human Rights written by Great Britain. Foreign and Commonwealth Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2004 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This seventh annual report covers the 12 month period until the end of July 2004. The human rights report is designed to provide detailed information for Parliament and for other interested parties on the FCO's activities to promote human rights, democracy and good governance abroad. These activities cost over £12 million in 2003-04. The key human rights issues in some 20 countries, ranging from Afghanistan to Iraq and Zimbabwe, are described. The report also covers the course of international debate on human rights. Specific chapters deal with: human rights and conflict; economic, social and cultural rights; human rights and the rule of law; democracy, equality and freedom; women's rights and child rights.

Download or read book In Victory Magnanimity in Peace Goodwill written by Richard Mayne and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume tells of the secret interrogation camp Wilton Park's history and the extraordinary life of Heinz Koeppler, its founding father.

Download or read book The Pity of War written by Miranda Seymour and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2014-10-30 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1613, a beautiful Stuart princess married a handsome young German prince. This was a love match, but it was also an alliance that aimed to meld Europe's two great Protestant powers. Before Elizabeth and Frederick left London for the court in Heidelberg, they watched a performance of The Winter's Tale. In 1943, a group of British POWs gave a performance of that same play to a group of enthusiastic Nazi guards in Bavaria. Nothing about the story of England and Germany, as this remarkable book demonstrates, is as simple as we might expect. Miranda Seymour tells the forgotten story of England’s centuries of profound connection and increasingly rivalrous friendship with Germany, linked by a shared faith, a shared hunger for power, a shared culture (Germany never doubted that Shakespeare belonged to them, as much as to England), and a shared leadership. German monarchs ruled over England for three hundred years—and only ceased to do so through a change of name. This extraordinary and heart-breaking history—told through the lives of princes and painters, soldiers and sailors, bakers and bankers, charlatans and saints—traces two countries so entwined that one German living in England in 1915 refused to choose where his allegiance lay. It was, he said, as if his parents had quarreled. Germany’s connection to the island it loved, patronized, influenced, and fought was unique. Indeed, British soldiers went to war in 1914 against a country to which many of them—as one freely confessed the week before his death on the battlefront—felt more closely connected than to their own. Drawing on a wealth of unpublished papers and personal interviews, the author has uncovered stories that remind us—poignantly, wittily, and tragically—of the powerful bonds many have chosen to forget.

Download or read book Public Sector Management written by Norman Flynn and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2012-03-26 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The highly-anticipated sixth edition of Norman Flynn's Public Sector Management continues to provide students with an insightful, jargon-free description, analysis and critique of the management of the public sector by the UK government. New to the sixth edition: Fully updated to take account of the coalition government and the impact of the financial crisis on public spending. Four new chapters on managing public finance, e-government, regulation and public-private partnerships. Expanded learning features including:, additional boxed examples, annotated suggestions for further reading and suggestions for discussion topics and references to journal articles. New companion website with free access to full-text journal articles, policy documents, links to useful websites, and relevant multimedia and social media resources. www.sagepub.co.uk/flynn6 Public Sector Management will prove invaluable reading for students studying public sector management as part of a business, management, social policy, politics or sociology degree.

Download or read book Parliamentary Democracy written by Nicholas Hopkinson and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title was first published in 2001. With the collapse of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe, the legitimacy of one-party, and often one-person rule in other parts of the world has been fundamentally challenged. It appears that for the first time parliamentary democracy has become the universally accepted model to adopt or to be perfected. Newer democracies have started to build the institutions and capacity necessary to sustain democracy, while established democracies continue to refine their democracy, sometimes introducing full-scale reforms. This book examines whether elements of the perfect democracy can be identified and how democratic structures and practices can be improved.

Download or read book Supply and Appropriation Anticipation and Adjustments Act 2012 written by Great Britain and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-03-14 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Royal assent, 8 March 2012. An Act to authorise the use of resources for the years ending with 31 March 2012 and 31 March 2013; to authorise the issue of sums out of the Consolidated Fund for those years and for the year ending with 31 March 2011; and to appropriate the supply authorised by this Act for the years ending with 31 March 2011 and 31 March 2012

Download or read book Supply and Appropriation Anticipation and Adjustments Act 2013 written by Great Britain and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-04-02 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Royal assent, 26 March 2013. An Act to authorise the use of resources for the years ending with 31 March 2010, 31 March 2011, 31 March 2012, 31 March 2013 and 31 March 2014; to authorise the issue of sums out of the Consolidated Fund for the years ending with 31 March 2013 and 31 March 2014; and to appropriate the supply authorised by this Act for the years ending with 31 March 2010, 31 March 2011, 31 March 2012 and 31 March 2013

Download or read book U S public diplomacy State Department expands efforts but faces significant challenges report to the Committee on International Relations House of Representation written by and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Cabinet Office written by Great Britain. National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Capability Review programme was launched in 2005 to assess and compare systematically, for the first time, individual departments' organisational capabilities and ability to deliver their objectives. This National Audit Office report finds that the programme has led to evidence of greater capability in departments, but departments have yet to show that the programme has had an impact on outcomes in delivering public services. Action to tackle weaknesses in capability is now a prominent feature of board business and every department has a board member leading its review response. However, there is some uncertainty in departments about whether, or how, the programme will continue, risking a loss of momentum. The first-round reviews found common weaknesses in board leadership, determining the best way for delivering public services and staff skills. There is now evidence of improved capability, particularly in boards' visibility and cohesion. The report also finds: Capability Reviews are encouraging departments to work together while at the same time sharpening their focus on comparative performance; Capability Reviews focus on departments, but services are often implemented by external agencies which are not covered directly by reviews; and there is no benchmarking of departments' capabilities against external organisations, which might offer examples of best practice.

Download or read book God and the EU written by Jonathan Chaplin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-12-14 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The current political, economic and financial crises facing the EU reveal a deeper cultural, indeed spiritual, malaise – a crisis in ‘the soul of Europe’. Many observers are concluding that the ‘soul of Europe’ cannot be restored to health without a new appreciation of the contribution of religion to its past and future, and especially that of its hugely important but widely neglected Christian heritage, which is alive today even amidst advancing European secularization. This book offers a fresh, constructive and critical understanding of Christian contributions to the origin and development of the EU from a variety of theological and national perspectives. It explains the Christian origins of the EU, documents the various ways in which it has been both affirmed and critiqued from diverse theological perspectives, offers expert, theologically-informed assessments of four illustrative policy areas of the EU (trade, finance, environment, science), and also reports on the place of religion in the EU, including how religious freedom is framed and how contemporary religious (including Muslim) actors relate to EU institutions and vice versa. The book fills a major gap in the current debate about the future of the European project and will be of interest to students and scholars of religion, politics and European studies.

Download or read book Appropriation Act 2006 written by Great Britain and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-04-04 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Royal assent, 30th March 2006. An Act to authorise the use of resources for the service of the years ending with 31st March 2005 and 31st March 2006 and to apply certain sums out of the Consolidated Fund to the service of the year ending with 31st March 2006; and to appropriate the supply authorised in this Session of Parliament for the service of the year ending with 31st March 2005 and the further supply authorised in this session of Parliament for the service of the year ending with 31st March 2006.

Download or read book The Foreign Office and British Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century written by Gaynor Johnson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-09-13 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the evolution of the Foreign Office in the 20th century and the way in which it has responded to Britain's changing role in international affairs. The last century was one of unprecedented change in the way foreign policy and diplomacy were conducted. The work of 'The Office' expanded enormously in the 20th century, and oversaw the transition from Empire to Commonwealth, with the merger of the Foreign and Colonial Offices taking place in the 1960s. The book focuses on the challenges posed by waging world war and the process of peacemaking, as well as the diplomatic gridlock of the Cold War. Contributions also discusses ways in which the Foreign and Commonwealth Office continues to modernise to meet the challenges of diplomacy in the 21st century. This book was previously published as a special issue of the journal Contemporary British History.

Download or read book The Changing Nature of Religious Rights under International Law written by Malcolm Evans and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2015-03-19 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief, as proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1981, is the only universal human rights instrument specifically focusing on religious intolerance and discrimination. However, recent years have seen increasing controversy surrounding this right, in both political and legal contexts. The European Court of Human Rights has experienced a vast expansion in the number of cases it has had brought before it concerning religious freedom, and politically the boundaries of the right have been much disputed. This book provides a systematic analysis of the different approaches to religious rights which exist in public international law. The book explores how particular institutional perspectives emerge in the context of these differing approaches. It examines, and challenges, these institutional perspectives. It identifies new directions for approaching religious rights through international law by examining existing legal tools, and assesses their achievements and shortcomings. It studies religious organisations' support for international human rights protection, as well as religious critique of international human rights and the development of an alternative religious 'Bills of Rights'. It investigates whether expressions of members belonging to religious minorities can be considered under the minority right to culture, rather than the right to religion, and discusses the benefits and shortcomings of such a route. It analyses the reach and limits of the provisions in the 1981 Declaration, identifies ways in which the right is being eroded as a concept, and suggests new ways in which the right can be reinforced and protected.