Abstract not available.

Abstract not available.

One question that continues to occupy the minds of scholars of e-government is whether information and communication technologies (ICT) can transform public administration. General opinion on the subject is sharply divided: some believe that e-government can shape public administration, while others doubt that it can have this effect. At the empirical level, the testing of the influence of e-government on public administration has been largely ignored. Consequently, the fundamental question remains unanswered, as do the further questions of precisely how and with what effects might information and communication technologies be reshaping public administration. These are the questions that motivated the research presented here, which examines and describes the transformative powers of e-government by focusing on the use of information and communication technologies to transform a particular public agency, the Kenya Revenue Authority. The research used two main methods of data collection and construction: interviewing senior management at the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and reviewing documents obtained from the KRA and other public sources. A transformation change analytical framework was used to analyze the KRA before the implementation of ICT-enabled reforms as an organization needing change and after these reforms as a transformed organization. The results of the findings suggest that, although ICT has had some beneficial effects on the KRA, the changes produced to date fall short of being described as transformative. While the KRA has experienced significant improvements in performance in terms of revenue, it has yet to fully integrate its operations, change its organizational structure to achieve optimal efficiency, or transform the organizational behaviour and culture of its staff in ways that improve its operations or enhance its public image.

No description available.

This study is concerned with the effects of capital controls on long-term economic growth. At its conceptual core, the dissertation addresses weaknesses in neoclassical and Keynesian theory, viz. the problems of both market and state coordination, that preclude an adequate analysis of the use of capital controls. Investigated are (1) the problems associated with more traditional approaches to the analysis of the role of capital controls; (2) the explication of an alternative theoretical structure; and (3) the utility of that theoretical structure in the case analysis of two newly industrializing economies. The study makes use of theoretical, historical, institutional and empirical analyses. The study's investigation of capital controls within the context of overall stat economic planning is methodologically innovative in that it highlights a specific configuration on government interventions termed a "government intervention triad": government economic planning, capital control regulations and credit control systems. The findings from this study highlight and tend to resolve the inherent paradox between the practices of capital controls and conventional theoretical analyses. When analytic models capture and emphasize institutional and structural realities, such as unemployment, uncertainty and instability in financial markets, heterogeneous agents, multiple equilibria and differentials between social and private returns, a positive case for controls is often made. This may explain the widespread use of the strategy despite the generally negative projections from more traditionally prominent theories. Two case studies, of the Republic of Korea and the Federative Republic of Brazil, illustrate the ways in which a relatively consistent history of selectively imposed and well-enforced capital controls, used in conjunction with credit controls and development/industrial planning, helps to solve the problems of capital creation, preservation, productivity, coordination and discipline. In addition to the evidence from the case studies, empirical analyses reveal that both countries have low levels of estimated capital flight relative to similar countries. Econometric analysis of their capital flight suggests that standard regressions of the determinants of capital flight may not be particularly helpful when applied to countries with low levels of flight and with a history of consistent use of capital controls.

The primary purpose of this study was to develop a better understanding of the role and accomplishment of selected urban School Councils in pursuing the mandated goals and objectives of the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993. The study investigated the effectiveness of current policies and practices of School Councils in accomplishing the projected goals and objectives of the Massachusetts Education Reform Act in their school districts. Further, the study evaluated the perceptions of School Council members regarding the extent to which they are successful in pursuing the projected goals and objectives of the educational reform as a result of involvement in the development of a School Improvement Plan. The sample for the study included Council members of randomly selected elementary schools from four urban school districts in Massachusetts. The data for the study were collected through the use of a questionnaire validated by a panel of experts in the field of education and by conducting a follow-up personal interview with six of the respondents who volunteered to be interviewed. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were conducted to analyze the data collected for the study. The quantitative analysis was achieved by providing answers to the research questions through the use of certain descriptive statistics, as well as testing the research hypotheses through the use of appropriate inferential statistics. The qualitative analysis was pursued by classification and interpretation of the responses provided by the participating Council members to the open-ended items of the questionnaire as well as the resulting interviews. With regard to the scope of the study and in accordance with the resulting analyses, several conclusions emerged from a number of significant findings. Finally, in compliance with the significant findings of the study, a number of recommendations were made to those who are interested in evaluation of the role and accomplishment of School Councils. Future investigators are encouraged to replicate the study with a special focus on sampling representation and other methodological approaches to secure the generalization of the results.

For the past several decades the role of the superintendent has been that of educational manager. With the advent of educational reform the superintendent's role has changed. Since the 1956 Gross study of the Massachusetts superintendency, it has been unclear how and in what directions the superintendent's role has evolved. This study was designed to clarify the process and substances of this evolution. The primary purposes of this study were to examine the emerging roles and issues of concern for the Massachusetts superintendent. Personal and professional profile data on the superintendency in Massachusetts were reported. This information was generated through the analysis of a survey questionnaire instrument administered to superintendents in Massachusetts and the conducting of in-depth interviews with eight superintendents from separate communities in Massachusetts, followed by interviews of two minority superintendents. These data about the Massachusetts superintendency were then compared and contrasted to state data obtained in the 1956 study. The author examined data obtained from the 1992 Glass national study of the superintendency. The study took place in Massachusetts during 1996. Those serving as “full” school superintendents in Massachusetts, a population of 275 full-time superintendents, participated in the descriptive study which consisted of a 45-item questionnaire. Additionally, eight superintendents in Massachusetts participated in the in-depth interview study, as well as two minority superintendents. General categories of questions from the survey were reflected in the in-depth interviews. The following primary conclusions were drawn. The role of the Massachusetts superintendent is changing to meet current societal impacts on public education. Massachusetts superintendent profiles vary in their personal, professional, educational, and experiential factors. Massachusetts superintendents display an identifiable profile in relation to role expectations and current issues of concern. Massachusetts superintendents reflect an identifiable profile concerning superintendents' perceptions on the impact of education reform. Comparisons can be made between Massachusetts superintendents and superintendents nationally on the issues of minorities, women, and preparations for the office of the superintendent.

Unlike the vast majority of privatization studies that examine efforts at the state and local levels, this dissertation focuses on national privatization policy by examining the actions of the Reagan and Clinton administrations. The paper begins with a review of the political and academic movements toward privatization that have occurred during the last thirty years. The volume then explores the small amount of privatization that took place during Reagan's time in office, despite his own forceful statements for privatization and public anti-government sentiment during his presidency. The Reagan administration seemed unaware of the political ramifications of its primary privatization effort, the attempted sale of numerous United States public lands, apparently believing that its anti-government ideology alone would bring political success. By contrast, the Clinton administration chose not to turn the privatization question into one of “big versus small” government, and instead sold the privatization-friendly Federal Activities Inventory Reform (FAIR) Act as a politically neutral management reform, thereby achieving what it wanted on the legislation. While there are potential implementation pitfalls in the law, the FAIR Act established a process that encouraged political debate regarding government's legitimate functions. The volume concludes that such dialogue is the only path to a political understanding regarding the privatization issue.

This dissertation undertakes a critical cultural policy analysis of the 1996 Telecommunications Act and subsequent federal government policies, initiatives and mandates affecting the U.S. commercial radio industry. The intellectual traditions of political economy of communication are employed to assess the consequences of historic telecommunications reform on the creation and availability of radio programming. The financial activity and programming practices of radio stations are compared across multiple radio markets, diversified by geographical region, ownership structure, size and musical format. The central analysis of these data sources spans six years, from January 1995 to December 2000. This dissertation puts forth two major findings: First, the U.S. commercial radio industry experienced massive consolidation both locally and national, changing the manner by which radio is managed. Second, programming on independently owned or small group stations is significantly more diverse than programming on large, super group radio stations. Given these findings, this dissertation proposes several policy recommendations to foster cultural variety and to democratize citizen access to media.

The dissertation considers the decentralization of some economic activities, mostly in consumer services, to municipal governments in Cuba since the mid-1970s, and popular participation in municipal governments and services through the system known as Popular Power. The consumer service sector is considered one of the most inefficient in Cuba, as in many of the formerly centrally-planned socialist economies, and a source of widespread dissatisfaction despite being the sector most open to the mechanisms of popular participation. Comparisons are drawn with the social services, also decentralized but under different conditions and with very different results, and with productive sectors of the economy that remained under central control. The study focuses on municipal enterprises in Cuba and addresses three key questions. First, to what extent have the municipalities been able to self-manage the municipal enterprises, given the degree of centralization of the economy? Second, how effectively have they been able to use whatever power they have to self-manage? And third, how participatory or representative is the management of these enterprises with respect to the community as a whole? Findings include problems of excessive centralization and rigidity, disarticulation from broader structures, internal problems of incentives, bureaucracy, and hierarchy, and severe limits on the forms, scope, and effectiveness of popular participation. Three periods are considered: one of relative stability and central planning from the beginning of the Popular Power system in the 1970s through the 1980s, another of economic crisis beginning in the early 1990s, and the current period of recovery and restructuring since the mid-1990s. Changes in the structure and functioning of the municipal enterprises and governments are examined in the context of a changing national and international context, including the growth of legal and illegal private actors in many of the same services provided by the municipalities and the increasing reliance on markets and hard-currency transactions. A case study involving interviews, data collection, and participant observation in the municipality of Regla is presented as a complement to analysis of official documents and use of prior investigations and case studies by Cuban and foreign researchers.