Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Political Science, December 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.Phil.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 63-70). Also available in electronic version.

Past theoretical research has explored whether bribes paid by firms to government officials are greater under a decentralized bureaucracy where the firm faces numerous government officials or under a monopolistic one. Presumably, bribes are bid down in the former as officials compete for bribes. However, a tragedy of the commons could occur where decentralized officials "overgraze" and charge higher bribes than a single bureaucrat would. Using the BEEPS I, a firm level survey covering 24 transition countries, the chapter 1 examines whether reported bribe payments by firms are higher when firms face numerous officials or only a single one. We find that bribe payments are higher under a more decentralized bureaucratic structure. In chapter 2 we investigate the link between private market competition and bribery. Greater competition could lower profits thereby limiting the amount corruption since rents are lower but greater competition could also provide more incentives for firms to pay bribes to obtain advantages over their rivals. We consider bribes to obtain government contracts. Using the BEEPS III dataset on 27 transition countries and the Censored Quantile Regression methodology we empirically found that as the number of competitors increases the amount bribes paid tend to increase as well. We also found that this relationship follows an inverted U. The marginal effect increases with the amount of bribes paid up to a maximum, then decreases, but remains positive. We believe that this relationship is driven by more competitors raising demand for these contracts. In chapter 3 we investigate the association between corruption and two types of investment. Past research focuses only on the total level of investment. Using the same dataset as used in chapter 2, we obtain mixed results. Using a tobit model, we find evidence that corruption "greases the wheels" of physical investment but has no significant effect on the level of R&D investment. However, results from a probit model suggest that corruption does negatively impact whether or not the firm undertakes R&D. These findings indicate corruption can affect not only the level but also the decision of whether to invest. They also show that these effects might differ across the type of investment so that the "grease wheels" and "sand wheels" perspectives are not incompatible as most the studies using the aggregate level of investment tend to imply.

Orientador: Pedro Laudinor Goergen / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Educação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-07T10:25:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 BarrosNeta_MariadaAnunciacaoPinheiro_D.pdf: 438545 bytes, checksum: ceb82f1394f2a464044f5c04335fd417 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / Resumo: Este trabalho tem por objetivo examinar a relação entre o pensamento de Max Weber sobre desencantamento do mundo, burocracia e a educação ocidental moderna da Europa, no período da Reforma protestante, Século das Luzes e da Revolução Industrial. A análise dos conceitos weberianos e de suas relações com a educação moderna européia, no período da Reforma protestante, Século das Luzes e da Revolução Industrial, permitiu as seguintes conclusões: Constatou-se que o desencantamento do mundo, no início de seu processo de racionalização, mostra-se relacionado, em boa medida, com a educação orientada pela Reforma, uma vez que a educação protestante, além de priorizar a razão humana para interpretar os princípios divinos, sem a ingerência do clero, repudia qualquer conhecimento ou atitude que se fundamente, ou mesmo lembre, a magia, a feitiçaria, a bruxaria, as superstições, as crenças, o dogmatismo e as tradições da Igreja Católica. Constatou-se também, boa vinculação entre a burocracia racional moderna e a educação, na medida em que esta se caracteriza pelo sistema de exames especiais, pelo ensino especializado e, portanto, demanda a formação de profissionais especialistas e técnicos administrativos. Por isso, a generalização mundial, sobretudo na Europa, do sistema de exames especiais. As instituições de ensino superior são marcadas por uma educação que determina etapas metódicas de exames, avaliações e especializações indispensáveis à burocracia moderna. Constatou-se ainda, que o desencantamento do mundo, num estágio mais secular, manifesta-se bem relacionado com a educação européia iluminista, principalmente nos seguintes aspectos: primeiro, a educação iluminista, em nome da racionalidade que determina o pensamento e a ação do homem moderno, promove a ruptura com a Idade Média e a emancipação de toda escravidão tradicional. Nesse sentido, a educação contesta todo conhecimento alicerçado na metafísica, nas religiões reveladas (católica e protestante), e rejeita todos os valores espirituais e eternos, referentes ao obscurantismo medieval; segundo, a educação iluminista passou a priorizar, não o ensino literário (valorizado pela tradição), mas o ensino fundamentado pela filosofia, pelas ciências naturais e sociais e pelas belas-artes; e terceiro, a educação é caracterizada pelo laicismo e totalmente controlada pelo Estado. Constatou-se, por fim, que a burocracia revela estreita ligação com a educação na Revolução Industrial, na medida em que o sistema escolar passa a desempenhar uma função indispensável no tocante à formação de indivíduos técnicos e profissionais em várias e diferentes especialidades visando suprir a demanda exigida pelo mercado de trabalho moderno. Por essa razão, foram construídas numerosas escolas: dentre outras, escolas práticas, escolas de comércio e de indústria, escolas profissionais e escolas de ensino técnico. Todas com o fim de qualificar o trabalhador (de todas as classes produtoras) em distintos campos de conhecimento, transformando, inclusive, a população formada por mulheres e crianças em mão-de-obra disponível para as necessidades do mercado / Abstract: The main objective of this research was investigate the Max Weber's thought and its connection with the world disillusion, the bureaucracy and the modern occidental european educational system during the Reformation, the Age of Enligtenment and the industrial Revolution. The analysis of Weber's concepts and their relationship with the european modern educational system, during the Reformation, the Age of Enligtenment and the Industrial Revolution, allowed to reach some conclusions: It was werified that the world disillusion at the begging of its process of rationalization is closely related to the education carried out by the Reformation, once the Protestant educational system had as priority the human rationalism to explain the divine principles, without regarding the influence of clergy. It was rejected any knowledge or attitude supported, or even that one which suggested any kind of relation to magic, sorcery, witchcraft, superstitions, dogmatism and the Christianity traditions. It was evident the straight relationship between the modern rational bureaucracy and the education, at the time this one is characterized for a specific examination system, a specialized teaching and, therefore, the requirement to graduate professional specialists and administrative technician workers. Consequently, it happened, specially in Europe, the world generalization of the specific examination system. The institutions responsible of the graduate education are organized based on an education determined for systematic levels of exams, evaluations and the indispensable specialization required for the modern bureaucracy. The world disillusion is still noticed, in a secularized stage, in relation to the encyclopedic European education: firstly, at the name rationalism, which determines the thought and the modern human action, a rupture with the Middle Age and liberation from the whole traditional slavery. As a result, the education refutes the knowledge based on the metaphysics, in the reveled religions (catholic and protestant), and refuses the whole eternal and spiritual values, related to the medieval obscurantism; secondly, the encyclopedic education gave priority to the teaching based on philosophy, natural and social sciences and belles-lettres, instead of the literary one (traditionally valued) and thirdly, the education is characterized by the laity and totally controlled by the State. Is summary, it was verified the bureaucracy shows a straight connection to the education of the Industrial Revolution, as soon as the educational system provides training and degrees for people in different and several areas of specialization, aiming to respond to the modern marketing demand. For that, numerous polytechnic schools were built to the aim of providing technical qualification to workers (from producer class) in different fields of knowledge, and even becoming women and children available working-class person to the market necessities / Doutorado / Historia, Filosofia e Educação / Doutor em Educação

This thesis deals with the reform theory of public administration called New Public Management, which is based on tools used in the private sector. The theoretical part provides a critical view of rational bureaucracy and seeks to highlight the benefits of using modern methods of management in the public sector. The practical part, mainly focused on the implementation of the New Public Management tools in the practice of public administration in the Czech Republic, is based on the results of empirical research.The survey results indicate use of particular methods of measuring the quality of public administration in the Czech Republic.

Migrationsverket’s National Service Centre in Sundbyberg is a borderscape displaced from the outer contours of the nation. This borderscape of the interior, perform bordering and difference-making functions in its deciding of who gets to become a citizen, who is to be considered a legitimate refugee and in a sense who you are. Asylum-seekers visiting the Service Centre attempt to make sense of the maze-like bureaucratic organisation they find themselves caught up in. This thesis engages with the materialization and realization of the border, narratives about emotions in the asylum process, and the sensebreaking qualities of the bureaucratic organization of Migrationsverket as a Kafkaesque institution through participatory, narrative and engaged ethnographic methodologies.

In 2013, the United States is becoming increasingly racially and ethnically diverse.  With these demographic changes, attitudes and approaches toward representation are likewise shifting. Public administration scholarship and practice can continue to contribute to this dynamic process of defining representation and crafting initiatives to meet the needs of the public. To do this, social injustices of the past must be addressed through the recognition and valuation of historically-underrepresented groups in public organizations. Yet, much public affairs discourse and numerous policy decisions are rooted in multiculturalism.  The central question this research explores is whether multiculturalism is detrimental to theorizing and to enacting a representative bureaucracy, and if so, why. To answer this question, the work begins with a critical review of the representative bureaucracy, affirmative action, and multiculturalism literatures.  Then, linking these reviews to practice, the study performs a critical discourse analysis of several executive orders and guidance documents from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management to trace how views of representation in U.S. national government agencies changed between 1998 and 2011.  This research finds that a shift from "Affirmative Action" to "Multiculturalism" occurred.  EOs 13078, 13163, and 13171 were heavily rooted in the Affirmative Action approach, while the 2000 OPM Agency Diversity Guide, EOs 13518 and 13583, and the Government-Wide Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan 2011 were anchored in the "Multicultural" approach.  Ultimately, this study concludes that multiculturalism poses significant challenges for representative bureaucracy as a result of its lack of clear and explicit definitions and its treatments of differences, especially group-identity classifications.  Rethinking the relationship between representative bureaucracy and multiculturalism and focusing on historically-underrepresented groups hold the potential to contribute to the further attainment of normative goals of bureaucratic representation. / Ph. D.

The concept of decline has variously been applied to businesses, organizations, groups, and government (Levine 1978; Lorange and Nelson 1987; Whetten 1980). The term decline has also been used to describe various government agencies such as NASA. It is the theory put forth presently that decline in its traditional form in the literature does not apply to government agencies. Decline has been previously characterized as a time of decreasing or restricted resources, conflict, a decrease in innovativeness, a decrease in organizational size, a decrease in income or profits, and an organization's inability to adapt (Cameron, Whetten, and Kim; Weitzel and Jonsson). These characteristics, however, are not applicable to individual government agencies; an agency's tasks, form, and functions are usually set and defined through legislation, its budget is tied to the budget of the rest of the US government, and policy is usually generated at the top. Because of these pitfalls, I propose a new model of operations at the government level: the government agency decline model. This model posits that an agency's operations are in constant flux depending on the nature of the US economy at any given time and a number of other variables. Pursuant to this, I propose that there is a strong relationship between budget, agency performance, and power; more money in an agency's accounts contributes to bettering their performance, better performance leads to more power, which can lead to an increased budget. Therefore this cycle can begin and be interrupted at the money stage depending on the state of the American economy. Findings show that there are relationships between economy, budgets, performance, and power leading to an enhanced explanation of NASA's yearly budget. Recommendations for further research include examining a wider array of government agencies and developing better ways to measure power.

No description available.

In this study I utilize ethnographic research to explore how professionals working within non-profit organizations in the field of aging implement and navigate shifts in old age policy. I consider how these shifts are informed by changes in the political economy as well as the construction of knowledge about older adults through mainstream gerontology and the media. I explore how groups, such as older adults and caregivers, are produced and reproduced through policy, defined both as an exercise of power and the everyday practice of practitioners. This study is based on a combination of methods, including a year of participant observation and semi-structured interviews with members of an elder advocacy organization in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Participant observation took place primarily in the offices of this organization. I attended meetings and events in other locations in Philadelphia, which usually dealt with other non-profit or government groups. Thirteen interviews with staff members at this organization, as well as with individuals in additional organizations in the field of aging, provided insight into the constraints and opportunities created by federal and state aging policy for those that work "on the ground." The interviews explored the goals of these programs, organizational understanding of the target population, and external factors that affect the trajectory of these programs. I argue that, (1) aging is increasingly depoliticized through the concept of "successful aging," which professionals alternately reproduce and resist; (2) this process facilitates the roll-back of social welfare programs, and; (3) that this "aging system" creates constraints and contradictions for those who work within it, which are rooted in the effort to simplify and define population groups or make them "legible," in order to utilize government and private resources. / Anthropology