Revista Gestión y Análisis de Políticas Públicas GAPP
GAPP es la revista pionera y más significativa en España dentro de su especialidad. Editada por el Instituto Nacional de Administración Pública (INAP), desde sus comienzos, en 1994, se ha distinguido por impulsar los estudios interdisciplinares en la materia y el análisis de experiencias y casos de especial interés para los profesionales de las administraciones públicas. Con ello ha contribuido a dinamizar el debate sobre los modelos teóricos y empíricos de gestión pública, así como sobre los procesos de transformación de los escenarios de acción gubernamental. A partir del año 2009 ha emprendido una Nueva Época, buscando un mayor impacto y proyección internacional. No obstante, fiel a sus señas de identidad, continúa persiguiendo los objetivos de potenciar la reflexión analítica en el campo de las políticas públicas y de priorizar la aplicabilidad y utilidad de los estudios sobre las mismas.GAPP is, within its field, the leading and most influential journal in Spain. It is published by the National Institute of Public Administration (INAP). Since its debut in 1994, GAPP has successfully promoted interdisciplinary studies in the area and analysis of issues and cases of special interest to professionals in Public Policy and Administration. Accordingly, it has energized discussions about theoretical and empirical models of Public Management, and has contributed to debates about new processes to transform the scenarios for governmental action. Since 2009 it has started a new series by expanding its international appeal and impact. Nevertheless, GAPP remains loyal to its founding principles and continues to foster analytical thinking in the area of public policy, and to highlight practical and applied studies usefulness in the field.
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INSTITUTO NACIONAL DE ADMINISTRACIÓN PÚBLICA
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Phone: 912739162
Address: Centro de Estudios y Gestión del Conocimiento
INSTITUTO NACIONAL DE ADMINISTRACIÓN PÚBLICA
Atocha, 106, 28012 Madrid, España
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Revista Número 36 by Revista Gestión y Análisis de Políticas Públicas GAPP
Revista Número 35 by Revista Gestión y Análisis de Políticas Públicas GAPP
Resultados: el sistema de gobernanza de la política hidrológica española ha experimentado una complejización como resultado de la aplicación de la referida directiva, justificando, a nuestro entender, la expresión de «problema complejo» (wicked problem) para aludir a ella. Conclusiones: en ese contexto, las confederaciones han perdido capacidad, no tanto como consecuencia directa de la entrada en vigor de la normativa europea como de determinadas tomas de decisión en la Administración central acaecidas al mismo tiempo que se ha implementado aquella. / Objectives: This paper addresses the role of the hydrographic confederations in intercommunity basins in the context of the transformation of Spanish water policy since the implementation of the Water Framework Directive. To do so, we will analyse how such confederations, developing the function of basin organisation, have had to lead a complex governance system in which a greater number of institutional and noninstitutional actors with dissonant perceptions and discourses on the management of this common good have been integrated. Methodology: It is based on the fieldwork of a previous research project, consisting basically of in-depth interviews, to which a supplementary number have been added expressly for the preparation of this work. The study is also based on the analysis of official documentation and relevant bibliography. Results: The governance system of Spanish water policy has become more complex as a result of the application of the aforementioned directive, justifying, in our opinion, the expression «wicked problem» to refer to it. Conclusions: In this context, the confederations have lost capacity, not so much as a direct consequence of the entry into force of the European regulations, but rather as a result of certain
decisions taken by the central administration at the same time as the directive was implemented.
y comunidades locales no están siendo debidamente discutidas. Esto dificulta la cooperación, suscita algunas tensiones y perjudica la adaptación al cambio climático al Convenio. Conclusiones: la falta de una auténtica gobernanza multinivel y participación pública son dos aspectos clave que deberían ser potenciados para dinamizar la cooperación luso-española en la política del agua, así como para hacer
frente a los desafíos del cambio climático. / Objectives: This article briefly analyzes the 1998 Albufeira Convention –on cooperation for the protection of the Spanish-Portuguese basins –as well as the functioning of these cooperation bodies created to apply the Convention: analyze the more than 22 years of their effective operation and assess whether they have managed (or not) to adapt the AC to climate change, respecting the ecological flow required by the Water Framework Directive. Methodology: In this work, a review of all relevant legislation is carried out, at national
(Spanish and Portuguese), international and EU level, especially previous works carried out by the author and other relevant documents Results: As a consequence of the centralization of «cooperation Madrid-Lisbon» and the lack of real public participation, the water demands of some Autonomous Communities and local communities are not being properly discussed, which makes cooperation difficult, raises some tensions and makes adaptation to the climate change of the Albufeira Convention difficult. Conclusions: The lack of authentic multilevel governance and public participation are two key aspects that should be promoted to boost Portuguese-Spanish cooperation in water matters, as well as to face the challenges of the climate change.
2023, 368 pp.
Este artículo estudia la introducción y desarrollo en España del análisis de impacto normativo como herramienta de evaluación ex ante para la mejora regulatoria. Presenta la situación actual respecto a su aplicación a nivel de la Administración General del Estado y en varias Comunidades Autónomas, reflejando la disparidad de criterios y la confusión a la hora de realizar este tipo de evaluación. Y, finalmente, propone directrices para llevarlo a cabo de forma adecuada. / Since 2009, draft bills and regulations must be accompanied by the memorandum on the regulatory impact analysis. In addition, Act No. 26/2015 introduced the enforceability of regulatory impact analysis on families. However, it is not being properly performed. The main reason for this is the absence of a methodology guide with clear guidelines on sources, techniques and procedures to be used. Assessment tools and procedures are needed in order to guarantee valid and reliable analysis, as well as to tone down the burdens of the public administration professionals dealing with this task.
This paper examines the introduction and development of regulatory impact analysis on families in Spain, which is considered an ex ante assessment tool for better regulation. It gives an overview of the current situation concerning the implementation of regulatory impact analysis at Central Administration and Autonomous Communities level. Reflecting the confusion and disparity of criteria when it comes to perform this type of assessment. And finally suggests guidelines to properly carry out regulatory impact analysis on families.
En este marco, la propuesta del presente trabajo es analizar la situación del trabajo de cuidado no remunerado (TDCNR) en la coyuntura derivada del COVID-19. A tal efecto se recurrirá al auxilio de la metodología cualitativa a través del análisis documental y a fuentes secundarias de tipo estadístico producidas por organismos gubernamentales. / Throughout the history of humanity, crises marked a turning point, a rupture, a break from «normality». The crises force to question and challenge the prevailing reality and urge governments to rethink new strategies to circumvent or at least lessen its effects. In social terms, the current situation, characterized by the global health crisis caused by COVID-19, highlighted one of the main biases of patriarchal society: the permanence of immutable structures within homes. The social division of labor continues to rest on the dichotomy public men / domestic women, accentuating the overload of care work in women at the expense of better opportunities for an autonomous professional and occupational development of men. The exacerbation of this overload of unpaid care work and the lack of public policies with a gender perspective aimed at reversing it confirms once again the validity of the historical denunciation of feminisms about naturalization and gender blindness regarding this structural problem. In this framework, the proposal of this work is to analyze the situation of unpaid care work (TDCNR) in the situation derived from COVID-19. To this end, the aid of qualitative methodology will be used through documentary analysis and secondary statistical sources produced by government agencies.
that will go hand in hand with the adoption of behavioral economics by the Spanish public administration.
relación con intervenciones más clásicas, en situaciones que incorporan un nivel de complejidad creciente. Primero, me detendré en situaciones donde nos enfrentamos a problemas de decisión individual. Segundo, en situaciones que tienen en cuenta a otras personas. Por último, abordaré situaciones donde existe interacción social entre personas. / Behavioral policies, in general, and nudges, in particular, are part of the toolbox that allows us to improve the design and implementation of evidence-based policies. Proposals based on the new behavioral sciences are complementary to traditional incentive-based proposals. In this article, three examples of the
application of behavioral policies, as well as their relation to more classic interventions, are discussed in situations incorporating an increasing level of complexity. First, I will focus on situations involving individual decision-making problems. Second, situations in which the decision-maker considers other people. Finally, situations where there is social interaction with other people.
Based on this legal relevance of incentives, we then analyze specific issues relating to their impact on citizens from the perspective of the Rule of Law, the Social Rights and the Democracy.
se han presentado en la mayoría de los países. Su enfoque puede ser efectivo a la hora de lograr los cambios de comportamiento necesarios para reducir el número de contagios, como incentivar a la gente a quedare en casa o lavarse las manos de forma regular. / The present study explores the current situation of the use of nudges to face the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper presents theoretical and practical explanations for the use of nudges during a pandemic, as well as concrete examples, patterns and limitations of the approach. Nudges can be considered as a complementary behavioural tool to the restrictions that have been imposed in several countries. This
approach can be effective in bringing the behavioural changes needed to reduce the number of infections, such as encouraging people to stay home or washing their hands on a regular basis.
En este trabajo se realiza una comparación, por CC.AA de Régimen Común, de la normativa propia, que afecta a los impuestos cedidos que gravan la riqueza, analizando los elementos determinantes de éstos, con el objetivo de contrastar su evolución durante los periodos pre-electorales y post-electorales, en función de la configuración política del Parlamento de cada Comunidad. Asimismo, se analiza el impacto que implica dichas modificaciones en la deuda tributaria de los contribuyentes, en función de su domicilio fiscal y del ciclo político. / In Spain, wealth taxes (except property tax) are transferred to the Autonomous Communities, which have the regulatory capacity to modify the basic determinants of the taxpayer’s tax debt (exempt minimums, tax rates or tax credits). While in some Communities, the tax credits approved, in the last decade, have meant, in practice, the «suppression» of some of these taxes (eg, the Personal Wealth Tax or the Inheritance and Gift Tax) or a tax reduction (Tax on Capital Transfers and Documented Legal Acts), in other Communities, there has been a «recovery» or increase of them. Both cases have been closely linked to the political cycle. In other words, there has been an electoralist use of wealth taxes.
In this work, a comparison is made of the wealth taxes regulations in each Autonomous Community with the aim of analysing their evolution during the pre-electoral and post-electoral periods, taking into account the political configuration of each Autonomous Parliament. It also analyses the impact of these changes on taxpayers’ tax debt, according to their tax domicile and the political cycle.
Este artículo aborda el impacto que ha tenido la Convención de derechos humanos de las mujeres, CEDAW, en las políticas de igualdad de género en España en un momento de crisis del sistema de Derechos Humanos de Naciones Unidas. Para ello, se analiza tanto el contenido de las recomendaciones realizadas a España por el Comité CEDAW desde los ochenta como el recorrido, discurso y estrategias de los principales actores involucrados en la evaluación del Estado ante la CEDAW. El método empleado combina el análisis documental y entrevistas a informantes clave. Se sostiene que si bien la CEDAW ha servido de inspiración y legitimación internacional de las leyes de igualdad, y contribuido a la proyección internacional del movimiento feminista, la mayor complejidad y burocratización de la revisión periódica no se ha traducido en una implementación eficaz de las recomendaciones del Comité. El artículo finaliza con una discusión sobre las principales lagunas en la Administración española que obstaculizan la eficacia de la Convención en el avance de los derechos de las mujeres. / This article addresses the impact of CEDAW as International Treaty on women’s human rights on gender equality policies in Spain. This assessment comes at a time of crisis in the UN system of Human Rights. The article analyses both the content of the CEDAW recommendations to Spain since the eighties and the path, discourse and strategies of the main actors involved in the periodic review: State Party, experts of the Committee and feminist and human rights organizations. The research method combines document analysis and interviews with key informants representing the three main actors in this process. It will be argued that while CEDAW has served as an inspiration and international legitimization of gender equality laws, and contributed to the internationalization of the feminist movement, the increased complexity and bureaucracy of the periodic review has not meant further implementation of the Committee’s recommendations. The article ends with a discussion on the main gaps in the Spanish Administration that hinder the effectiveness of the Convention in the advancement of women’s human rights.
Se presentan nueve figuras sobre el número de empleados, el empleo femenino, el peso del empleo de las Comunidades Autónomas, la temporalidad en el empleo público, y el gasto de personal. Y por último, se plantean un conjunto de propuestas para mejorar la transparencia y la eficiencia del sistema de información del empleo y del gasto de personal en el Sector Público. / In order to describe the size of public employment and staff expenditure of the Spanish Public Administrations it is common to use several statistical sources based on administrative registers, data from National Accounting and also labor market statistics. This variety of sources and methodologies has led to a wide disparity in results. This article reviews and analyzes the Statistical Operations Inventory on Public Administrations to demonstrate that the image built on those salaries, size, characteristics of public employment and its remuneration, depends on the statistic used.
For this purpose, we show nine figures that measure number of employees, female employment, weight of public employment in Spain´s Autonomous Communities, level of temporality, and the total personnel expenditure. In the last section we listed a set of proposals to improve transparency and efficiency of the Spanish information system on employment and staff expenses in the Public sector.
Teniendo en consideración que el argentino es un Servicio Público de Empleo con apenas algo más de quince años de existencia, el camino recorrido por otros países puede ser un invaluable consejero para pensar adaptaciones de experiencias exitosas al caso local. En este compendio analítico, haciendo uso de una metodología de análisis de casos, se plantea un ejercicio que permite, en una primera instancia dimensionar el diagnóstico de situación local y luego, proyectar la potencialidad de adaptación de estrategias más efectivas de intermediación laboral para el acceso al empleo de personas en situación de exclusión.
Entre los hallazgos principales, la evidencia internacional muestra por una parte, que las Políticas Activas de Mercado de Trabajo deben ser enmarcadas por una visión en la cual la inclusión sea considerada estratégica para el crecimiento de un país. Por otra parte, diversas experiencias de políticas de intermediación laboral pueden ser interesantes de adaptar e implementar a la realidad local. Es el caso del profiling, el acompañamiento reforzado, el aprovechamiento de herramientas tecnológicas, y la generación de alianzas con el tercer sector y con el sector privado. / Argentina poses a setting in which many people are either unemployed, involuntarily underemployed or working in the informal sector. Employment scarcity worsens due to the recruiting mechanisms, which are highly restrictive for vulnerable people, and lead to greater inequality in the access to the labor market.
Since the Public Employment Service has only been present for 15 years in Argentina, the path followed by other countries can become an invaluable advisor when it comes to adapting successful experiences to the local setting. Within this analytical summary, and using a model case study methodology, an exercise is proposed. Such exercise allows for the evaluation of the local diagnosis and the assessment of the adaptation potential that the most effective labor intermediation strategies have.
One of the main findings is that international evidence shows that the Active Labor Market Policies must be framed within a perspective which considers that inclusion is strategic for the growth of a country. Furthermore, it could be interesting to adapt and implement diverse policies of labor intermediation in the local framework. This is the case of profiling, reinforced guidance, the avail of technological tools and the creation of partnerships with the third sector, as well as with the private sector.
El estudio, metodológicamente basado en el análisis documental, se estructura en torno a una serie de ejes que son imprescindibles examinar de la AUHPS, entre ellos: los antecedentes regionales, el contexto previo a su surgimiento, los aspectos jurídicos normativos que la respaldan, los sujetos de derecho, las consideraciones y debates del feminismo y la mirada peyorativa de los sectores conservadores más reaccionarios que se manifiestan en contra de este tipo de política social que tiende a equiparar en derechos a los hijos e hijas de los trabajadores formales tanto con los de los trabajadores informales como con los de aquellos que se encuentran circunstancialmente desempleados. / The purpose of this paper is to analyze a particular policy of conditional transfer of income: Universal Assignment for Child for Social Protection (AUHPS), implemented in Argentina in 2009 by the then President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, through the Decree of Need and Urgency N ° 1602/09, as a non-contributory subsystem within the Family Allowances Regime instituted by Law No. 24,714 and under the jurisdiction of the National Social Security Administration (ANSES).
The study, methodologically based on the documentary analysis, is structured around a series of axes that are essential to examine the AUHPS, among them: the regional antecedents, the context prior to its emergence, the normative juridical aspects that support it, the subjects of law, the considerations and debates of feminism and the pejorative view of the most reactionary conservative sectors that demonstrate against this type of social policy that tends to equate in rights to the sons and daughters of formal workers both with those of informal workers as with those of those who are circumstantially unemployed.
Collective bargaining, as a constitutionally recognized source of law, determines the framework of labor relations in an area set by the interlocutors, based on their capacity and legitimacy, and includes, where appropriate, a set of obligations for the parties. The problem arises when the Administration recovers a service that previously has been outsourced and doubts arise regarding the agreement that had been ruling for the company that provides such service and its workers, while the Administration has not been a negotiating party of the company. A problem that goes from the subrogation of the personnel to the own specification of the group of rights and labor duties of such personnel. In this article, we intend to give the guidelines for specifying the collective agreement applicable in the aforementioned reversal cases in light of the current regulations and the most recent jurisprudence.
The article firstly draws an overall perspective on the urban age, a new global time where the cities play a central role as spaces which produce and reflect the key dynamics of the 21st Century. On this grounds, a second set of ideas are brought together: the common and proximity as possible answers to create collective projects of protection and recognition. In this sense, the article discusses the main challenge of empowering cities within systems of network multilevel governance. More concretely, the development patterns of local government in Spain are considered: three decades of democratic local government, the recent emergence of new urban movements, and the scenario after the 2015 local election. At this point the article deals with the shaping of a new municipalist model defined by a twofold dimension: a policy agenda committed with the right to the city, and a set of urban practices oriented to common-building. Finally, the Obra Social de la PAH is considered as a case study which allows the analysis of both aspects: the production of urban commons and the access right to affordable housing.
Local governments through smart cities try to position themselves before the challenge of attracting investment and improving public services. In order to be more efficient, participatory, and sustainable, the city must be transformed through the use of new technologies, offering a better quality of life for its inhabitants. The concept of smart cities is now fashionable, so its definition is ambiguous due to the plurality of approaches from which the urban context is analyzed (Holland, 2008). This multitude of meanings of the concept, translated into Spanish as an intelligent city, has generated very varied typologies and a very broad literature on the subject, which has been increasing during the last years focused on studies on sustainability, the environment, governance, mobility, housing, multiculturalism, energy and technology among others, although from a more theoretical than practical perspective. The objective of this article is to know the paradigm of smart cities in the framework of urban governance, understood as «a new way of governing (...) a new method according to which society is governed» (Rhodes, 1996: 652-653), and all this from a descriptive-deductive methodology providing a conceptual structure in its beginnings to progressively get to know the findings of the research. Thus, this proposal seeks to respond to the relationship between the smart city, also known as smart city, and urban governance in the face of future challenges of participation, public ethics, sustainability, effectiveness and efficiency, transparency and accountability. of counts. It is not surprising that the main conclusions of this research do not place technology and derivatives, as the great tool or contribution of smart cities, but rather, the use and application that is made of them to improve the quality of life of their citizens. We must not forget that technology is a means to an end, and the true smart city must make optimal use of it to achieve good urban governance.
Citizen initiatives bloom, aiming to manage alternatively public resources in Europe’s major cities, leads to reconsider the way to manage public policies. We are talking about a series of bottom-up initiatives that have completely changed the traditional way to manage cities, based until now on the traditional top-down approach. Lately, as a result of these initiatives, many governments are designing new urban development policies that involve citizens in the new management and design of the city and public spaces. These “new policies”, as well as scarcity of resources and capabilities to face as old as new challenges, seek to find alternative ways of managing public issues. It is the case of citizen consultation on investment by neighborhoods developed by the Valencia City Council. This paper aims to analyze problems of implementation this public policy has to face, as well as its positive and negative impacts, through an analysis of all phases of the citizen consultation process.
European society is mostly urban. However, metropolitan areas do not enjoy political recognition at European level and, in most cases, neither at a national level. In this article we make a comparative analysis of metropolitan governance models in Europe based on four variables: the territorial fragmentation, the powers of a metropolitan nature, the sources of financing and the type of political representation. In most European countries there are no metropolitan governments with exclusive competences and fiscal autonomy, although the recent reforms in Italy, England and France are framed in a greater recognition of the metropolitan reality. The absence of strong metropolitan governments contrasts with the evolution of the design of European funds, in which the urban dimension of policies has gradually been included. Nevertheless, the management of European funds by metropolitan authorities is a minority option, which poses a challenge for metropolitan governance.
In the last decades, urban policies have upsurged as one of the main axis in debates, innovation and changes around metropolitan territories. In this vein, urban gentrification processes have been one of the most importants features, especially in Madrid and Barcelona, where there have been two processes in Hortaleza and Poblenou that have upsurged as two models concerning changes around urban public spaces. From a perspective which stems from a critical review of the Regulation Theories and Legal Geography, and through a comparative research about urban renewal processes in Poblenou and Hortaleza, the aim of this work is to study how authorities affects these gentrification processes and, ultimately, in the arisen of both dynamics as key features regarding the production of globality in Madrid and Barcelona.
The long-lasting development of urban policies based on an integrated approach and aimed at disadvantaged neighborhoods' regeneration in the European framework has largely influenced the Spanish context (De Gregorio, 2012; González, 2011). However, the Spanish context has had its own evolution and characteristics, both in urban practice as in the legislative and administrative framework (Matesanz and Hernández, 2014). The present article seeks to analyze the evolution of the parameters linked to the integrated approach (areas, agents and urban integration) in the legal-administrative discourse of urban policies aimed at «regenerating» the consolidated city in Spain, especially the vulnerable neighborhoods. As a result of this analysis, variations are observed, not only in the intensity of the integration proposed in their plans and programs, but also in their approaches and objectives, inseparable from the type of projected performance and city model linked to it.
This paper carries out an in-depth analysis of four Spanish cities (Alicante, Cádiz, Córdoba and Coslada). These municipalities implement urban initiatives co-financed with European funds in the 2007-2013 call. The aim of this work is to clarify the gap between the design and the implementation of public policies. In this sense, the paper tries to identify the factors that would introduce inconsistencies between both phases of the public policy in each case. Starting from an extensive methodology the paper analyzes the design and implementation of urban regeneration policies in four Spanish cities through the development of in-depth interviews.
For years, the European Union has placed special emphasis on the promotion of the institutional capacity of administrations that, through various financing instruments, promote local and urban development programs. So far there are few works aimed at the analysis of institutional capacity among Spanish local administrations as a result of these initiatives. This work is intended to study the promotion of this capacity in Spanish cities that have implemented urban development programs, more precisely, the URBAN 2007-2013 initiative. Through the administration of a questionnaire among Spanish municipalities, the aim is to analyse the extent to which the institutional capacity has been developed, as well as the relationship between its level of development and other elements of the local context, such as the previous experience accumulated in similar programs and the management model within which the program is implemented, elements that will be revealed key factors in the degree of development of institutional capacity.
Current Integrated Sustainable Urban Development politics require a continuous and reiterative monitorization of the in-progress actions or proposed initiatives. Thus, a European countries-based consortium created and made available to the planners a tool specifically designed to evaluate the integrated vision of plans, projects and interventions devised and/or developed within small, medium or big cities all over Europe: The Reference Framework for Sustainable Cities (RFSC). This work aims to present the outcomes of the compared analysis between two strategic plans developed in Lucena, a medium-sized city in the South of Cordoba (Spain), focusing on their integrated vision. Medium-cities have been considered by the European guidelines as the urban category with the best qualities for urban-territorial sustainability.
The present monographic is the result of the coordination of Jaime Ferri Durá and Manuel Barroso regarding the investigation concerning provisions of local public services. In addition, Juan C. Cuevas Lanchares, Eduardo Guitiérez Díaz, Eliseo López Sánchez, Francisco J. Loscos, Luis Pérez Rodríguez as well as Tomás Villasante, Manuel Tamayo and Ernesto Carrillo after collaborating in the summer course of the UCM in San Lorenzo July 2016.
BOOK REVIEW: Luis Moreno y Raúl Jiménez, Democracias Robotizadas. Escenarios Futuros en Estados Unidos y la Unión Europea.
The research methodology has incorporated an empirical work applied on the Cuerpo Superior de Administradores Civiles del Estado, the only collective of the Spanish General State Administration with a generalist dimension who participates in the formulation and implementation of intergovernmental policies. Besides that, research offers interesting data about geographical origin of the senior public officials in Spain; the need of promoting multilevel public career; and the roles of these officials on the complex Spanish State.
Records management has a great impact on the improvement of transparency in public administration. Transparency by design refers to the inclusion of transparency duties stated by legislation, in the records’ life cycle in a way that it guarantees citizens effective access to public information. In this paper, one analyse changes that public administrations have to implement in their records management systems to improve public transparency and to guarantee an easy access to information. In particular, as a case study, provisions made by Law 19/2014, of December 29, on Transparency, Access to Public Information and Good Governance of Catalonia are explored.
In this article, the author aims to present an intergovernmental analysis on high public function of the Spanish State, based on the premise that senior officials are a critical actor for the governance of societies and they constitute too a good instrument to know basic aspects of the democracy of states.
The research methodology has incorporated an empirical work applied on the Cuerpo Superior de Administradores Civiles del Estado, the only collective of the Spanish General State Administration with a generalist dimension who participates in the formulation and implementation of intergovernmental policies. Besides that, research offers interesting data about geographical origin of the senior public officials in Spain; the need of promoting multilevel public career; and the roles of these officials on the
complex Spanish State.
The Spanish municipal plant is characterized by being a reality in permanent adaptation to the circumstances and exceptional departure from its heterogeneous structure. It is necessary to analyse the behaviour of the Local Administration in its normative and financial level during the last years; to verify if the objectives marked in the questioned local reform have been achieved; to see in what economic-financial situation the local plant is and what needs and challenges are posed for the future of these territorial entities.
Engagement can be defined as a psychological state in which an individual focuses all her attention and enjoys the activity she is doing. The literature highlights the importance of improving this in citizen participation by governments and administrations. However, to the best of our knowledge, the literature does not offer clues about how engagement in citizen participation can be improved. This paper aims to develop a theoretical framework of citizen engagement for citizen participation in the context of smart cities. To this end, we first provide a definition of engagement, and describe some of its main characteristics. Next, we present a review of the literature on citizen participation tools in smart cities, analyzing if such tools do influence engagement attributes. The main outcomes of the study are the elaboration of a theoretical framework that integrates characteristic attributes of engagement in the field of citizen participation, and the identification of participation tools analyzing whether they can be designed to increase citizen engagement levels.
El artículo tiene como objetivo identificar qué aspectos tiene que tener en cuenta un gestor público para diseñar la evaluación ad hoc del valor público intangible que tiene su gestión. La metodología triangula el análisis conceptual con la observación empírica. Se identifican y exploran relaciones entre los planteamientos sobre la evaluación de las relaciones públicas y comunicación organizacional, bienes intangibles y la corriente denominada Public Value. Con las conclusiones de esta exploración se elaboran unos criterios para el análisis de casos prácticos, es decir, se realiza un meta-análisis de action-research. El análisis revela que evaluar la gestión pública con el enfoque del valor público intangible implica registrar tanto el comportamiento de la organización como la reacción de la sociedad y, por tanto, computar efecto acumulado, pudiendo así proporcionar medidas del impacto; facilita además calibrar la brecha que hay entre gestión real y gestión percibida, así como explorar sus causas. Por último y en consecuencia, se explicitan los niveles, áreas y enfoques que ha de tener en cuenta un líder público para evaluar su gestión.
What does public sector management provide to society and how can it be measured? This article aims at identifying what a public leader should take into account in order to plan an ad hoc assessment of the intangible public value of public management. Methodology combines theory analysis with empirical observations Conceptual relations are explored in the literature of assessment and evaluation in public relations and corporate communication, public sector intangible assets, and the stream of studies titled Public Value, in order to elaborate the criteria to analyze practical cases of public value creation in public administrations. The analysis reveals that assessing public management with the approach of intangible public value implies looking at both organizational behavior as well as at the society’s feedback; it also enables calibrating the gap that there might exist between real government performance and what people perceive of that performance, as well as exploring causes for this gap. Finally, and subsequently, the article elucidates the levels, areas, and foci that a public leader should take into account in assessing public management.
E-government is conceived as a tool to improve efficiency and effectiveness in the provision of public services. However, in spite of the efforts to achieve a widespread adoption of e-government, it has lower usage rates than expected. Although this fact has been studied from different viewpoints, in the present work the behavioral perspective is presented as an approach that may answer to this challenge. To get it, the relationship between different cognitive biases linked to the SQB (habit, inertia and resistance) with the intention (of use for users and continuation for users) is analyzed. The data were collected after a qualitative (two group sessions) and a quantitative work (923 questionnaires), aimed at two different samples of citizens (non-users and users of e-government). The results confirm the presence of the trend towards the status quo in the use of e-government. Besides, while in the case of non-users of e-government the cognitive biases analyzed are present, leading to delay its use, among the users of e-government habit lacks relevance, so they remain in use as a channel of access to public services.
The ideas of the New Public Management and the emulation of European policies have extended publicprivate collaboration as a horizontal governance instrument in the provision of welfare. However, the search for greater participation of the private sector in the management of certain public services presents difficulties. A clear case is the reform of labor intermediation carried out in Spain since 2013, whose final scope has been very limited due to factors such as the crisis, the multilevel government context and the ideology of governments. This article analyzes the specific case of the Valencia Region to try to understand the difficulties of reform of this public program and contribute to the literature with new empirical evidence on the importance of the factors cited in the degree of success of the reforms that seek to increase publicprivate collaboration in the sector of social policies.
The Atlas presents in a complete, systematic way the general elections held in Spain between 1977 and 2016, dedicating one chapter to each election, analyzing various variables and offering a general pre-electoral and post-electoral outlook. Some aspects susceptible of being improved are also highlighted here, such as the clarificaton of the criteria followed to consider an election as early election or not, or the utilization of a different model for one of the ellaborated maps.
Spain is among the West European countries that has achieved higher levels of decentralization in its Welfare State. The 1990s and 2000s witnessed an acceleration of this process, which has been accompanied by an expansion of social spending at the subnational level, especially by the Autonomous Communities (Autonomous Communities). This article aims to contribute to several debates regarding changes in the territorial dimension of governance in social policies and their explanatory factors. Specifically, it focuses on active labor market policies (ALMPs) and addresses the question of whether the reforms introduced in the field of activation in the context of the economic crisis have affected the exercise of political, financial and administrative authority by the different levels of government.
This article presents the vision that Santander, Valencia, Bilbao and Donostia have of the Smart City (SC). It also explores how local corporations interact with grassroots digital innovation experiences, understood as networks of individuals and organizations that generate innovation through the use of digital technologies for social and environmental purposes. For the analysis we have used a theoretical framework based on human development and the multi-level perspective of socio-technical transitions. The results show that the discourse of cities about SC wants to move towards a participatory vision, but is still far from it in its practice. This is palpable in the way that local administrations interact with the experiences of digital social innovation where a unidirectional and instrumental practice still predominates. Additionally, we have analyzed 21 experiences of grassroots digital innovation: their vision of SC and how they interact with local administrations. Their idea of SC is more aligned with the values of human development, whereas their strategies are very different: from initiatives that choose not to have relation with administrations to others that aim for influencing them.
In unequal societies, differences in access and quality of early child education and care services determine children´s opportunities. Considering that Argentina is not alien to this phenomenon, this article asks if the way in which child care is socially organized in the City of Buenos Aires operates as a mechanism of social stratification. To answer this question the article parts of a methodological strategy that combines descriptive statistics –means tests and simple comparison of means using per capita income per family and type of early child education and care services that children attend– and inferential statistic, through the application of a logistic regression model that allows to establish statistical significance in the correlation between attendance to early child education and care services and family income, and to ponderate the probability of attendance to these establishments according to the family income level. Overall, this article aims to contribute to the discussion about social stratification and segmentation prevalent in public services, such as child education and care services, in the region.
Governance in its various extensions and based on the usual theoretical resources presents observational operational limitations that are manifested in the political and administrative direction, and which are revealed in politics and territory. The hypothesis we hold is that governance at its operational level must be sustained in the functional changes of society manifested in different planes. The idea of «systemic governance» enables the conceptual capacity of the various operations in the areas of knowledge and opens up operational possibilities of integrating the administrative and political systems with the territory with the subjective one. We illustrate the limitations of political governance usually used with two cases: the constitutional referendum in Italy (2016) and a territorial plebiscite in Brazil (2011).
Since the last decade of the twentieth century, the Spanish port infrastructures cataloged of general interest has undergone a series of political, economic and social transformations that result in a significant change in the classic paradigms of port management. In this sense, port security has become one of the most relevant aspects of management. This article aims, from the descriptive analysis, to determine the configurator factors and dimensions of a singular scenario of public action, public security policies and port protection. This public policy has its special significance today, as it emerges and consolidates as a subspace that is strongly characteristic of public security policies and which, in turn, derives from a scope of post-governmental management of converging governance.
Public organizations have been incorporating distribution channels so that citizens can access to public services. Although there were high expectations regarding the adoption of e-government, the real effective rates of it between population are not reaching the desired levels. Nowadays researchers are working in omnichannel strategy approach, which suggests that channels should be evaluated on their ability to improve the participants use experience regarding every channel. Therefore, the present work analyzes the impact that on e-government intention to use have the citizens behavior (if they have been using telephone or face to face channels). After the application of a qualitative and a quantitative methodology, the research shows while in users of the telephone channel the intention to use e-government is explained by some of the facilitator factors (expectation of result and social influence), in the case of face-to-face channel, the model has a dual structure in which both facilitators (expectation of result) and inhibitors (inertia and habit) are relevant. The disparate structure of the models generates different ways of action to increase the use of e-government.
La experiencia de crisis nacionales (la política detrás de la crisis del Ébola, el terremoto de Lorca, el movimiento vecinal de Gamonal en Burgos, la huelga no autorizada de los controladores aéreos en 2010 o el accidente de tren en Angrois) muestran que la comunicación efectiva requiere una extensa preparación y este artículo presenta un trabajo empírico sobre la comunicación de crisis de las administraciones públicas en España. El objetivo de esta investigación es describir el estado de la práctica de la comunicación de crisis en la administración del Estado, comunidades autónomas y municipios, con el apoyo en las percepciones de sus trabajadores. Para lograrlo, realizamos un estudio a través de encuesta con referencias a casos de crisis gestionados por la Administración Pública española.
Catastrophes, earthquakes, pandemics, epidemic diseases, emergencies and the disruption of basic services are just a few of the unpredictable events which show how rapidly crises can develop and how important it is for governments and public administrations to manage their crisis communication effectively.
Experience from national crises (the politics behind the Ebola crisis, Lorca earthquake, the neighborhood movement of Gamonal in Burgos, the unauthorized strike by air traffic controllers in 2010 or the train crash in Angrois) shows that effective communication requires extensive preparation and this article presents one of the first empirical works on the crisis communication of public administrations in Spain.
This research aims to describe the state of the practice of crisis communication in the different levels of the Spanish Public Administration (State, Autonomous Communities and municipalities), based on the perceptions of its workers. To achieve this objective, a poll study was developed, with references to crisis cases managed by the Spanish Public Administration.
The close linkage between transparency and evaluation processes has been revealed, whit grater o lesser development and scope, by the regional transparency regulation adopted or remained in draft form. We examine the national scene and, specifically, regional government regulations for the purpose of making known the treatments associated with the evaluation. It starts with plans and programmes and concludes with public policies, sometimes including citizen participation. One way or another, evaluation legally has become an essential tool to ensure accountability.
«Better regulation» can be considered as an indispensable horizontal public policy that must action as an implementation`s premise of any public intervention in order to ensure that its main goals are achieved at minimum costs. Spain has made important efforts in recent decades to develop a culture of regulatory reform and to establish the main tools and principles of better regulation in the regulatory framework. However, there are remaining challenges that can be addressed effectively only if it remains a high political commitment. In this paper, we review the different Better regulation periods in Spain by stressing the main regulatory milestones and the possible room for improvement.
This work analyzes some structural reforms of public administrations implemented from 2012 in Spain, as a result of the economic crisis, and public policies implemented to achieve them, and if truly met the intended objectives (improve the quality and efficiency of services, transparency in public administrations and creating an Open Government). The work part of a brief diagnosis of the causes and consequences of the economic crisis, to tackle after reforms in public administration and in the model of Welfare State, especially in what refers to public employment, education, healthcare and the attention to the dependence. Finally, a brief assessment of the adopted solutions and its real impact on the current situation of the economy and the Spanish Administration is performed.
Enabling formulas that help to reduce quantitatively, qualitatively and to mitigate the virulence of conflicts of territorial nature, particularly in the autonomous Spain, is the aim of this paper. It will focus on exploring the possibilities that can result from mediation, arbitration, conciliation and strategies that encourage direct participation of citizens in public affairs. The framework is linked to global constitutionalism: the base of the transferability of results from private to public and from international to state levels. The essence of the conflict, territorial conflicts, and the main contributions of mediation and arbitration in the field of territorial disputes will be the essence. A special mention will refer the experiences of citizen´s direct participation as channels integrated into the negotiating and decision-making mechanisms in democratic and constitutional States.
The article is destined to make a tour of the common principles of transparency and access to information in Ibero-America, establishing the fundamental theoretical conditions that justify the existence of the treated right, beginning with the impact it has on space and public opinion and Through its close relationship with freedom of expression and addressing the principles that nourish the right of access to information and which are collected by all legislation throughout Latin America. The work deals with the guarantees for its exercise encompassing the concept of autonomy of the guaranteeing bodies that allow an adequate experience of the right of access as well as the procedures, responsibilities and sanctions of its execution in the different systems. In the same way, we show the particular Mexican case, based on the shortcomings that, for almost fifteen years, the access to information in that country meant and how it overcame various obstacles to propose a system that allows all citizens of the country to enjoy a standardization of Processes in all the competencies of the State and with that to promote in an equalitarian sense the right of access to the information.
The regulatory framework chosen by the legislator regarding the studies of the arts and music is based on a very singular educational policy. In the article below we will present some of the basics on which the teaching and qualifications of these disciplines are built, alongside with the teachers who teach them and the different options for the educational centres chosen for that purpose. Thus, we can identify the elements upon which this educational infrastructure lies, underlining the dysfunctional aspects created within the general educational system.
This paper shows the results of the evaluation of training transfer in the Spanish Public Administration with the aim of identifying the factors that influence it.
We analyzed 1475 answers and 69 courses organized by the Spanish Public Administration during the first semester of 2016. Direct transfer was evaluated through the Deferred Transfer Scale (CdE; Pineda, Quesada y Ciraso, 2011) while indirect transfer was evaluated through the Training Transfer Factors Scale (FET; Pineda, Quesada y Ciraso, 2013). The results show that trainee factors, organization factors, the orientation towards job requirements and the creation of a professional community all have a positive correlation with training transfer. However the duration of the training, the number of trainees and the number of instructors do not have a correlation with transfer. The time that laps until the trainees finally apply what they learnt in the training has an inverse correlation to transfer. The most important factor when it comes to predicting training transfer is the orientation towards job requirements.
The loss of legitimacy of the administrative-political system, as well as the demands of political regeneration by the citizens and political movements, has forced governments and public administration to give answers and (re) design models and logics of public leading. We have proposed an identification of emerging models and after 2007 in administration and public management around a proposition of the models of: continuity, transition and innovator. It articulates around the explanatory variables: the theoretical concepts and underlying ideas, and the practices. As conclusion, the emerging models aim a new conception of open Government and the innovators in new forms of management (not strategic).
The guidelines set by the European Digital Agenda that can be incorporated into the public social services system through the use of Information and Communication Technology (TIC) are presented. The objectives set in their plans intend to improve relations between citizens and the different public administrations.
The social protection systems (social security, education, health and employment) have started this process making great improvements in care of the citizens needs. In Spain there are isolated experiences that can be taken as reference in the use of new technologies to improve social welfare with the implementation of care received by citizens. The TIC are transforming production systems creating a more globalized world without borders, and may even facilitate the social integration of people through access to information, education, employment, etc., and especially people with disabilities or dependency status both nationally and internationally.
The current problems derived of the accelerated growth urban and demographic that have experienced them main cities of Mexico, lead to the need of explore the close relationship that should exist between it planning metropolitan, the political public and it governance territorial. In the particular case of Mexico, the scarce collaboration level inter-governmental and intra-institutional to meet the challenges of the urbanization, is obligated to design horizontal and vertical coordination schemes that involve the participation of the social partners. By such reason, the present article contextualizes them origins and fundamentals conceptual of these dimensions, whose contributions allow perfect them instruments that it administration public in their different areas can apply to respond with efficiency and effectiveness to them complex demands of the population.
Conflicts to waterworks are a growing problem in Mexico. This paper addresses the following question: Why despite that in the public discourse is driven the need for prevention and/or resolution and to have an institutional and organizational structure, as well as different guidelines and manuals for it, they continue emerging, even with greater intensity? From a documentary review, newspaper archives and interviews with Mexican officials and key actors in a conflict by a hydric project, it argues that the issue of such conflicts, assuming and proving that they are a public issue, is denied on the Mexican government agenda.
In this article we analyze the budget programs of 43 departments of the Federal National Budget (Presupuesto de Egresos de la Federación, PEF) in Mexico in 2010-2015. The purpose is to know more about public policy by department in our country by the analysis of budgetary inertia. The above is carried out by three approaches. 1. Identification of the number of new programs generated by each department annually. 2. Analysis of the budget allocated to these new programs each year. 3. The total budget change per year by year based on the Le Loup and Moreland criteria (1978). Among the aspects to be highlighted, the five most important are: The most incremental departments are also those that concentrate the most important part of the budget in Mexico; secondly, the inertia observed in the health budget, especially in the IMSS, ISSSTE and Contributions to Social Security; third, the inertia observed in the budget of direct control entities and state enterprises; fourth, the innovation observed in the budget areas related to education, environment and territory; and finally, the absence of a redesign of the budget programs of the departments linked to results of evaluation and satisfaction of the users with the services.
The paper explores how the community kitchen program, part of a broad effort to combat food poverty in Mexico, is not measuring the impact of food on beneficiaries, we only know about the coverage of the program. Research through mixed methodology (qualitative and quantitative) interviews and surveys showed that the relation between the authorities and the beneficiaries was almost null, there is not a continuity of their health and nutrition because the indicators previously designed do not contemplate it. This is merely because there is an inadequate application of the Logic Framework Methodology marked by the proposals of the New Public Administration to push the government to maximize its efficiency, effectiveness and to develop systems for the measurement of results.
The connection between open government policies and public procurement has brought up open contracting as a new research field. This paper aims to explain how open contracting can contribute to prevent and fight against corruption. Firstly, the reflection of open contracting in public procurement, transparency and open government regulation is examined. Next, the main manifestations of corruption in public procurement are showed and the impact of open contracting in prevention and fighting against corruption is analyzed. Finally, from the shortcomings identified in Spanish regulation and in Spanish Public Administrations practices, there is a proposal of the elements that should be included in the future regulation of public procurement to facilitate that open contracting can collaborate to prevent and fight against corruption.
This study focuses on social innovation, emerging conceptual approach to shape and explain the relationships between the state, society and the market. In this sense, governments are beginning to include in their agendas social innovation programs with different approaches, but its implementation and evaluation still denote deficiencies due to the existence of certain structural barriers. The work is done from a governance approach, its novelty residing on the one hand, the treatment of social innovation itself, little studied in Spain and on the other, integration into analysis three elements; approaches to social innovation, their application in national policies, and social obstacles that inhibit social innovation in the public sector.
This article presents a model of verification indicators of excellence in the stewardship of the government with people with disabilities in all its manifestations; employees, suppliers, users and citizens in general. Public Administration to work towards excellence, optimizing its processes for their results and following standards of social responsibility, must undergo self-evaluation, monitoring and control of their policies, to ensure the achievement of the objectives and / or if necessary, redesign their policies so that they are truly efficient and effective. Four million citizens and their families encompass a sufficiently large population to determine a way to make governance and inclusive and represent all citizens.
Con la Teoría de las 3S se propone un proceso de reflexión y “adelgazamiento” competencial para que la subsidiariedad del Estado respecto a la sociedad civil sea real y efectiva, sin renunciar al Bienestar. La provisión de Bienestar social habrá de venir por otro camino que conducirá a la Sociedad del Bienestar. Individuos, asociaciones o empresas han de recuperar “la res publica”. Se trata de equilibrar el actual trade off de responsabilidades: la responsabilidad social “activa” (de implicación) del sector privado y del llamado “tercer sector” y la responsabilidad “pasiva” (de autolimitación) del Sector Público.
The crisis that began in 2008 has shown a number of structural problems at different levels of the global economic system and, in particular, in Spanish society. The American ‘subprime’ crisis first, and then the Eurozone crisis, the real estate bubble, etc., have shown some contradictions in Spain, especially in the development and provision of social welfare. This article introduces the so called “Burger’s metaphor” as a theoretical construct that explains the inefficiencies of the public sector and how the solutions fail because of their political and social characteristics. That failure, the demographic trends and the chronic deficits demand answers that guarantee political, civil and social rights. The solutions are summarized in the “3S Theory”: Suppressing public initiatives, Superseding public by private and Simplifying; that is, applying the principle of subsidiarity to the individual to be able to move from Welfare State to Welfare Society. In order to get this –considering the ‘classical’ literature on social policies, social status, the worlds of welfare, post-capitalism and pluralism of welfare– three questions arise: (i). What inefficiencies exist in public and social policies? (ii). Can Spanish society in the European Union context bear this chronic inefficiency? (iii). Does the Dutch way serve as an answer, as it was expressed in Prince’s speech on September 2013? The socio-political determinants in the public sector and its economic consequences cause its intrinsic inefficiency. The system itself hinders the solution, given the politician’s preference for the electoral revenue. Employment and spending patterns hobble the manager, and other sociocultural factors prevent the reform. Several modernization plans, administrative simplification programs and e-government actions etc. have not had any effect on efficiency. “3S Theory” proposes a process of reflection and “competencies’ thinning”, so the State’s subsidiarity towards civil society becomes real and effective, without sacrificing Welfare. The supply of social welfare will have to come from a different way that will lead to the Welfare Society. Individuals, associations or companies must recover the “res publica”. It is about balancing the current responsibilities’ trade off: “Active” social responsibility (of engagement) of private sector and the so-called “third sector” and “passive” responsibility (Self-limiting) of public sector.
1. Es posible aplicar a los adultos infractores las medidas alternativas a la prisión, desarrolladas con éxito en menores-jóvenes con medidas no privativas de libertad.
2. Se puede alcanzar la satisfacción psicológica de la víctima a cargo del infractor, y, además, es factible añadir a este fin marcado por la Ley un segundo objetivo fundamental para entender el proceso de mediación: la solución del conflicto.
La conclusión del trabajo es que la aplicación del modelo cognitivo-conductual a los infractores menos graves de edad adulta, facilita un recurso de carácter estable, posibilitador de la reparación, previniendo la reincidencia y comisión de nuevos delitos a través de un proceso educativo de toma de conciencia y asunción de responsabilidades.
This report aims to determine whether it is feasible to apply in adults over eighteen years old techniques of judicial conflict resolution alternatives to the denial of freedom, which have been developed successfully in minors. The authors intend to develop a model to apply the technique in adult offenders.
The methodology used was the study and comparison of the materials commonly accepted in the techniques of social research.
The main results are:
1. Alternatives to imprisonment, successfully developed in minors/young people on probation, can be applied to adult offenders.
2. It can be achieved the psychological satisfaction of the victim by the offender, and, moreover, it is feasible to add to this purpose marked by the Law a second fundamental objective in order to understand the mediation process: the solution of the conflict.
The report concludes that the application of the cognitive behavioral model to less serious adult offenders provides a stable resource, enabler of redress, preventing recidivism and commission of new crimes through a process of educational awareness and responsibility assumption.
This research analyzes the models and strategies used during the process of termination of public policies, topic that has been poorly studied so far. For this purpose, it has been decided to use an instrumental case of study: the extinction of Luz y Fuerza del Centro (LyFC) in Mexico, to determine an analysis framework through patterns of termination. The theoretical frameworks about termination of public policies and organizations in literature are well appropriated to explain the process of extinction of LyFC. It stands out the figure of the “terminator”, the compensation beyond the terms under normal conditions to all the affected by the policy, the media discrediting the opposition, the surprise element, the noninterference of the legislative, the creation of organizational divisions, the clarity of the following steps, and a clear strategy for the implementation of the termination plan. The model exceptions were the surprising use of the public force to take the LyFC installations, as the freezing of the LyFC union bank accounts due to the lack of “note record” and the collaboration of an adverse group to the LyFC union. Another meaningful learning is that it should be prevail the ethic in an exercise of the public function as in the interventions of the termination of the public policies and organizations, because the termination should not only be approached from a technical point of view but also from the understanding of the permanent human impact.
El modelo MEEL contempla diferentes niveles de evaluación: satisfacción, aprendizaje, diseño pedagógico, implementación y transferencia. Se usaron diferentes cuestionarios y listados de verificación, dirigidos a los participantes de las acciones formativas (n=323), a los formadores y a los responsables de las acciones formativas evaluadas. Los resultados de la evaluación muestran niveles de satisfacción y de aprendizajes medio-altos. Asimismo, el aprendizaje, a diferencia de la satisfacción, aparece relacionado con la transferencia; por lo que cuanto más aprendizaje se dé en una formación online, más transferencia se producirá en el lugar de trabajo. También se evidencian algunas barreras para transferir, ya observadas en otras administraciones públicas: el desajuste a las necesidades formativas, la poca coherencia con la estrategia organizativa y la falta de apoyo en el entorno laboral.
This paper presents the overall findings of MEEL (eLearning Evaluation Model) study, conducted in 2015 for the National Institute of Public Administration (INAP) in Spain. The aim of the study is to develop an integrated evaluation model of online training in the context of public administration. This model was implemented on seven online training activities, in order to improve the use of public resources.
The MEEL model includes different levels of evaluation: satisfaction, learning, instructional design, implementation and transfer. Different questionnaires and check-lists were used; these were addressed to the trainees (n=323), trainers and training managers. The evaluation results show medium-high levels of satisfaction and learning. Furthermore, learning, unlike satisfaction, is related to transfer; thus, the more learning occurs in an online training activity, more transfer will be produced in the workplace. Findings also highlight some barriers to transfer already observed in previous research on training at public administrations: lack of adjustment to the training needs, inconsistency with the organizational strategy and lack of support in the workplace.
En los últimos años, la Unión europea ha reactivado el proceso de la “agenda urbana”. El “mainstreaming” de la dimensión urbana en las políticas comunitarias (2009), la integración explícita de la “Política urbana” en la nueva Política de cohesión (2012) y la celebración de una consulta pública sobre la agenda urbana europea (2014) son algunos ejemplos que ofrecen un nuevo e interesante marco para los estudios urbanos europeos. Por tanto, este artículo aborda, por un lado, la evolución del proceso de la agenda urbana europea, que se basa en la consolidación del enfoque de “desarrollo urbano sostenible integrado” (DUSI). Por otro lado, analiza la cuestión de la europeización urbana en el marco de la nueva Política de cohesión 2014-2020. Los casos de Italia y España serán abordados con el objetivo de explorar esta tendencia.
En este artículo se presentan las principales conclusiones de un proyecto de investigación financiado por el Instituto Nacional de Administración Pública (INAP) en 2013 Este proyecto se orienta al análisis del funcionamiento, la dinámica y los resultados del trabajo de las Conferencias Sectoriales, así como a su papel como instrumentos de gobierno compartido. Para ello, se ha realizado un análisis empírico que, además del estudio formal de estos organismos, presta atención a elementos como el factor humano, el liderazgo, la ideología o la propia naturaleza de los temas tratados.
The territorial organization established in Spain since 1978 is located at an intermediate point between unitary and federal models. In this institutional framework, coordination of sectoral policies has been channeled through intergovernmental organizations such as the Sectorial Conferences, which aim to integrate the Autonomous Regions in the decision making processes of the State. Similarly, these conferences are channels to establish a horizontal coordination between Autonomous Regions in a context such as Spanish, where they have just had enough other development tools designed specifically for this purpose.
In this article are presented the main findings of a research project funded by the National Institute of Public Administration (INAP) in 2013. This project aims to analyze the functioning, dynamics and the results of work of the Sectorial Conferences, as well as their role as instruments of shared governance. To do this, there has been an empirical analysis that besides the formal study of these organisms, pay attention to elements such as the human factor, leadership, ideology or the nature of the issues.
In this article, the author analyses the implementation of gender mainstreaming in Catalan municipalities. The analysis highlights the difficulties and resistances to introduce gender mainstreaming in the local government and its public policies. Among those obstacles, special attention is given to the negative economic context and how it impacts on gender mainstreaming. Two questions structure this paper: Why the gender mainstreaming is not yet a reality in the Catalan municipalities? What changes need to be triggered and occur in the municipal dynamics for gender equality to be included in all policies? The article is based on the SWOT analysis from empirical data obtained in seven working groups with technical staff of the Catalan municipalities in the province of Barcelona. We argue that the institutional resistances to implement the cross-gender management influence the technical staff and hinder the work from the departments of equality.
Public Policies are embodied through programs implemented by different organizations. When several agencies are responsible for carrying out a program, this set of organizations may take the form of an inter-organizational network. Structural analysis make possible to assess this kind of structures so that the results of the evaluation has a positive impact on the outcomes of the initiative developed by the network. In this paper we present the potential of Social Network Analysis (SNA) to assess inter-organizational networks which develops intervention programs. To introduce the key elements to develop a structural evaluation, the paper is divided in four sections. First section is devoted to show antecedents in which inter-organizational network analysis is used to assess programs. In the second section we review the core points to design a structural analysis. The third focuses on expose different measures that can be used to assess inter-organizational networks. In the last section we reflect on the potential of SNA in the evaluation of public policies. Finally, emerging techniques which may improve the outcomes of the evaluation process are reviewed.
The main objective of this paper is to show the current status of the civil service managerial function within the specific field of the General Administration of the State. Basically, its reality is characterized by the lack of a specific legal regime what means that it lacks a set of elements to accurately define what a managerial civil servant is, how this person is selected, and which his or her peculiarities are in relation to the rest of public service employees.
This paper contains a number of reflections on the managerial civil servant selection process and, in particular, on the importance that it is carried out according to merit-based criteria. Reference is made to an example of comparative law that is highlighting the benefits that, for the improvement of the quality of the services, are obtained from the fact that the managerial staff selection is carried out by an independent body (the CReSAP of Portugal), as an essential way to achieve the civil service managerial function professionalization.
Social enterprises have had an important development in the production of goods and services that complement the state and the market in meeting the needs of the population in sensitive areas such as health, education, food production, support for the elderly etc. Our research aims to model the business patterns of social enterprises and to identify key variables that make social innovation possible, in an attempt to understand new governance mechanisms in the production of public goods and services.
This essay presents, explains and analyses the impact of the development and application of both public and sectoral policies which have revolutionized and transformed the Colombian tourist industry. The application of different regulations and public policy and the socio-economic impact of tourism is presented chronologically. Finally, this essay closes describing the current situation and discussing future challenges facing the industry in Colombia.
For years the issue of citizen participation has generated important interest. Both academia and international organizations have generated numerous studies concerning models and participatory processes, evaluations of public policies with participatory approach or considering participation as an explanatory variable for their success or failure. However it is difficult to find evaluations of public policies that include participation among other value criterion. The problem to be addressed in this article is how to evaluate public participation in comprehensive evaluation processes, and therefore address the full policy cycle using multiple value criteria.
The comprehensive growth experienced by the public services in Spain in the last thirty-eight years, parallel to the structuring of public administrations, to the process of decentralization of powers and to the development of the welfare State; It has become apparent the importance of its coverage not only for public administrations, as managers, but for citizens as co-owners of such services. Under support theoretical that provide the budgets of the paradigm of the New Public Service, put in value the notion of citizenship, as well as the rights inherent thereto, by placing the citizen at the centre of public debate. To achieve these objectives, administrations must put in place, mechanisms that allow them to know the expectations and satisfaction of citizens with the services provided. Do this and taking into account the theoretical and empirical background in this area, has been designed a theoretical proposal, the rate of coverage of services (ICS), that allows to analyze in a comparative way, through the establishment of thresholds for coverage, the level of coverage of the public services at the municipal level.
This article aims at explaining and analyzing how Autonomous Communities have defined their different educational models and policies for secondary education from an ambiguous legal framework in central State, culminating in the Organic Education Law in 2006. We have selected three particularly relevant and different cases, which allow us to contrast as the regional educational models are configured: the Basque Country, Andalusia and Madrid Region. The analysis focuses on key elements of State legislation, such as the management autonomy of high schools, the role of stakeholders involved in this policy, the outsourcing contracts with the private schools and the adaptation of policies to social differences between Autonomous Communities. Based on Zahariadis' multiple streams model, this article concludes by pointing out the importance of the social environment context and its impact on the policies, the relevance of the ruling party's ideology in each Autonomous Community and the involvement of stakeholders in the implementation of secondary education policy.
This paper aims to present a analysis, based on a case study to corroborate aspects already discussed by other authors regarding the relationship between transparency and corruption. To this end the Mexican case is analyzed and it will be argued that normative reforms which facilitate the access to information are not enough to positively influence the relationship between transparency and corruption which, due to its complexity, should consider other variables in order to really contribute the context indicated.
There are numerous investigations related to school violence, most of them are about psychosocial and educational aspects. Nevertheless, there are not enough articles that tackle administrative and legal aspects. This article is part of a more extensive research, which begins with a revision of the legal framework, and in which the aspects which require more attention and the possible causes of non-compliance with the rules have been verified. The documentary analysis of the disciplinary reports and sanction files in a high school, show the existence of numerous errors in the procedure. When schools must adopt sanctioning measures it is important that the procedure is not invalidated or denounced in the courts of justice. A survey that was answered by the teachers revealed that they do not feel qualified perform this function. From the results obtained we suggest carrying out the adaptation of the school internal regulations in the course of its duties with the participation of all sectors of the educational community, and to make specific those aspects which made the education centre a coexistence place, optimizing the resources within the legislative framework. Finally, conclusions related to the necessity to facilitate the schools protocols of action and to address specific teacher training processes are offered.
The purpose of this study is to propose an outline for federal public policy in the context of the debate of the recently approved General Water Law in Mexico. It started from a statistical diagnosis and is analyzed the public policy process from agenda setting to evaluation, including the problem definition, design and implementation. The lessons of the article are that the main challenges of the integrated water resources management in Mexico are located locally and it is necessary that the federal policy emphasizes the strengthening of the organizations at basin and municipal level. It is put-forth that the public corporate governance can be an alternative to the local institutional strengthening.
The integral rural development requires of the involvement of the different agents who interact within a territory, because it makes possible the advantage of its potentiality in favor of a greater economic and social development. In this sense the participative planning it becomes an important tool for the reach of this goal. The present study shows how the participating processes for the forage-milk production, in Tulancingo's area, have allowed generating strategies to consider the central problematic of productive linking inexistence of the milky sector. Thus there were three strategic axes in common: increased quality and yield, the profit margin recovery, and focalization of government programs. Besides providing adequate road infrastructure and equipment, foment the collaborative work and quality training. This methodology made possible the design of strategies of productive chains from down to the top, in a short and long term, but mainly, it allowed the recognition of the management responsibility that assumes the different actors for a coordinated and inclusive development.
The implementation of an employee portal in Public Administration is a process whose success depends on a number of factors ranked in five critical areas: information and data, technology, organizational elements, institutional elements and finally context. This article identifies key factors in each category for the implementation of a public education employee portal. Additionally, we establish an order of priorities, distinguishing those key factors from the beginning of those to be developed in later phases.
The study focuses on the search of the balance between administrative transparency and data protection after the Law 19/2013, of December 9, of transparency, access to the public information and good governance. The existing tension between the public interest that demands the maximum transparency and accessibility to the public information and the particular interests in the protection of the personal information must be solved safeguarding as much as possible the one and others. Recently, reached the approval of the new basic state regulation, the Autonomous Communities have approved quickly legal regulation about transparency. But also the municipalities must do it. In this context Saragossa has come developing an intense activity of modernization stimulating the electronic administration and the new pioneering ordinance of transparency. The recent approval of the ordinance, which develops and stimulates the application of the basic regulation, constitutes a magnificent example to check the efficacy of the legal answers to the search of the balance between transparency and privacy.
In the last years, western societies have experienced deep changes with different implications. The current context is characterized by a dynamism, complexity and diversity that must be approached from the different spheres of society. In this scenario, traditional, hierarchical and centralized governments are not enough nor suitable to face new problems and contemporary challenges. Here lies the importance of contemplating the ideas and foundations of the democratic governance approach, which intends to address the new demands and public policies that current social transformations require. The analysis will be developed, focusing on the case study of the Chilean housing policy, specifically the Fondo Solidario de Vivienda Program (FSV). The main purpose of our research was to analyze the type of network coordination that is developed during the implementation phase of FSV housing projects in the Metropolitan Region (Chile) during the years 2006-2010, from a democratic governance and public policy networks approach.
Trust, informal institutions and public policies, a complex pendular relationship Scholars have point out the complex and bidirectional relationship between trust, informal institutions and public policies. The effective implementation of public policies depends on the level of social and institutional trust and on informal institutions, at the same time that trust and social practices are affected by public policies. This paper analyse this pendulum relationship on Latin America through the results of two researches: the effects of policies on social trust in Argentina and the influence of informal institutions in the decentralization of Colombia. It concludes by pointing out the relevance of this subject for public policy studies in Latin America, due to the great differences between formality and informality and the low rates of social trust in the region.
Older people, although preserving all their rights, have to deal with obstacles caused by their status and a lesser social integration. Because an institutional framework to protect such age group is missing, the Mexico City Government has enacted several laws that constitute a remarkable advancement in this regard. This legal framework both anticipates the increasing elderly population in Mexico City and supports programs and activities that are being undertaken by the Ministry of Social Development of the Mexico City Government, through the Institute for the Care of Older Adults in Mexico City. Both programs and activities are aimed at promoting social inclusion, as well as improving the welfare of the elderly.
In this paper the technical efficiency of urban public transport companies in Spain during the period 2008-2011 is analyzed. The study is conducted globally and also segmented by size of business, using a nonparametric approach (DEA). To this end, based on the financial information of these companies the inputs and outputs are selected to apply an input oriented variable returns to scale model. The results show that few companies are at the efficient frontier, and that the most efficient firms are not only larger.
The aim of this paper is the illustration of the potential of the Differences in Differences Model (DiD) for the evaluation of various public policies in the territory and using aggregate data. For this purpose, has made an overview on alternative evaluation of public policies and reviewing the implementation possibilities of a wide range of policies implemented in the País Vasco. Herein are included, the basic methodology of the differences in differences models and two alternative applications, one being local, Programa Izartu and the other regional, Programa Euskadi to promote the information society in order to illustrate the potential and limitations of the methodology proposed. The article concludes with a section on the assessment of the results and a proposal for correction of identified major methodological problems associated with the fulfillment of the condition of parallel trend.
The analysis of public action in the various Spanish political and administrative levels seems not exceed selective, sectorial or anecdotal, when it is not merely a political speech. The development of analytical models and policy approaches reflect very different positions and at par the great difficulty of carrying them out, which invites us to think that this is another speech, this time scientific-academic. Furthermore the theoretical analysis when used are mainly descriptive and generally reflect the political and institutional factors play that prevent or improvable make optimal way, and rarely how they could be improved. In turn normative theoretical models are difficult or very complex bill. Is it possible to break this dynamic or have to start looking for new analytical tools?
The current economic situation has reopened the debate on the reform of public administration, particularly from the perspective of the expenditure carried out and the type of services that must continue being offered or not. Several studies and reports have been also tackling the discussion on the viability of certain public bodies in order to achieve better efficiency and avoid duplications. We focus our study on three institutions that comprise the institutional frame of labour relations in Catalonia (Labour Relations Board, the Labour Court of Catalonia, Economic and Social Council of Catalonia), models will be designed using " MOE " 's methodology (Strategic Orientation Models) in order to explore alternative institutional frames that may fit properly in economic and labor current context and also respond to requirements for more efficient organizational structures.
The study deals with the relation between Law (administrative law) and the rest of social sciences. On one hand, the study underlines the existence of a legal tradition strongly influences by formalistic approaches. On the other hand, , simultaneously, there is a lack of conscience of the importance of legal inputs in the daily public management as well as in relevant points of view from the academy in the area of political science and other social sciences. The work emphasizes the necessary epistemological and methodological renewal of the legal jurisprudence which should look at the key of the public activity in a distinct way: the use of discretionary powers. In that sense, the role of law not should be only an instrument of control purely negative but also a tool of orientation of this discretionary exercise looking for the good administration and the good government. In that approach, law and other social sciences should work together, avoiding reciprocal dissolutions. But in any case, the element that distinguishes law is that courts of justice have the last word on the conflicts that can generate the development of public policies.
In Argentina, the years following the 2001-2002 economic crisis had been characterized by the growing importance of State intervention on welfare production. This paper looks into the inclusion policies implemented by the Argentine government in the area of social protection for people aged 65 and older. Traditionally, Argentine pension system had been contributory and had operated on a ‘pay as you go’ basis. Economic crises of earlier decades, and 90s regressive reforms, caused a decline in coverage and real income transfers. Consequently, in the early 2000s, a significant share of the older people was excluded from any pension system. In order to address this situation, the government developed a set of measures that favored inclusion extending the coverage of the pension system and improving the purchasing power of benefits. However, these were only temporal solutions since they have not solved the structural problems of the social protection system. In particular, the persistence of a dual labor market prevents the proper functioning of contributory institutions in the Argentine welfare State.
Palabras clave Competencias, sistema educativo, estrategia, alineación estratégica, valor público, políticas públicas, administración pública.
From the thought to the action…, creating public value. Strategic management tools for the integration of skills in the education system
Abstract The evolution of education systems in the last decades, changes have been implicit in places, in the media, on objectives, but especially in the process. This evolution in the process will be linked in the coming years to the development of competency-based education, which involves the development of learning via experimentation, and that enables people, be who can and will become. This new vision of learning was described by Confucius, five hundred years before our era, " ... I was told and I forgot I saw it and understood it, I did and I learned ... " But obviously now the necessary competences to integrate and develop in society have changed, as did the goals, means and needs. In this paper, we propose the use of tools and models of quality management for integrating competence education throughout the education system, from the perspective of strategic management, aligning the goals of current educational policies, to improve the system quality, economic development and social cohesion, with a management methodology such policies, so that the improvement of basic, professional and interpersonal competencies are the way to achieve these objectives through public policies that guarantee effectiveness, efficiency and effectiveness in the management of available resources in the administration, to generate public value for citizens and society as a whole.
The different approaches to absenteeism that have been made from different branches of science: economic, legal, medical and psychosocial, don't help to define the concept and also they contribute to generate confusion. Multiple invocations of the term move on a ladder of generality at which most intension negatively correlated with the extension. Because when any absence from work is assimilated to absenteeism, almost everything fits; but the concept becomes vague and it fates in a jumble of adjectives that do not allow advance to their understanding. However, if we call absenteeism only the behaviors that have the basic attributes, many of the definitions we have discussed will not focus on absenteeism , but in return , we have a conceptual reference from which to study and to approach the phenomenon on public administration. For us, there are three necessary conditions, but not enough by themselves, they can face the phenomenon of absenteeism as a political science interest: the absence, lack of enabling cause and unproductive.
Este estudio analiza y evalúa la nueva política pública de recursos hídricos de Brasil, cuyo marco normativo es la Ley Federal nº 9.433, del 8 de enero de 1997, promulgada en pleno período de Reforma del Estado Brasileño (1995). Esta política trajo importantes innovaciones en la gestión del agua, considerada bien público bajo el control de la Unión y de los Estados Federados por la Constitución Federal de 1988. El aspecto innovador de esta política es su sistema de gestión, basado en los Consejos Nacionales y Estaduales de Recursos Hídricos y los Comités de Cuencas Hidrográficas. La gestión participativa se basa en la participación de representantes del Poder Público, de los usuarios del agua y de la sociedad civil, cuya opinión se recogió mediante entrevistas en profundidad. Esta nueva política pública se implantó de forma desigual en todo el territorio nacional y es reflejo de las características y peculiaridades de cada región brasileña. Este trabajo analizó las experiencias regionales a partir de los enfoques teóricos de la gestión participativa y las relaciones multinivel en la gobernanza del agua, teniendo en cuenta las particularidades del federalismo brasileño. Los resultados de la investigación reflejan que la sociedad civil confía en esta forma de gestión de los recursos hídricos y tiene grandes expectativas de que podrían lograrse mejores resultados fortaleciendo la democracia brasileña. La recuperación de la ciudadanía, la participación en la ejecución de las políticas públicas, y la deliberación rápida de conflictos sobre el uso del agua han sido algunos de los principales logros de esta nueva forma de gestión de los recursos hídricos.
In the context of economic crisis in our society, this paper discusses the need and desirability of implementing in the management of public sector human resources performance evaluation techniques individually, in order to achieve greater efficiency. After a study of the performance evaluation tool in the private sector, the analysis explores the possibilities and limitations that the implementation of this technique in the public sector, with reference length in the Civil Service Basic Statute makes the performance evaluation. Finally we suggest future research in this area.
The article analyzes citizen participation in local urban planning (Plans d’ordenació urbanística municipal) approved in Catalonia. The results confirm, despite progress in Catalonia’s urban legislation, that there is a great disparity in the application of this legislation in different municipalities. Significant deficiencies have been detected in terms of participation planning, informational activities and in the conducting of collaborative workshops, especially in the municipalities of less than 10,000 inhabitants. In general, we find poor quality and minimum participation in the most of plans; the models that look for a more collaborative and deliberative planning are still a minority.
The main objective of the reform of the Vehicle Registration Tax (IEDMT) in Spain, which came into force in January 2008, was to encourage a gradual change in the Spanish fleet towards less polluting vehicles. This research estimates the economic and environmental effects of the new configuration of IEDMT using econometric techniques. The tax reform had a positive and significant effect on the reduction of CO2 emissions of new registered vehicles.
The current adjustments from fiscal consolidation that are the Spanish government have been beaten to force a weak institutional framework: public employment of local governments in our country, explained both by the lack of effective institutionalization of a system merit as well as weak of management mechanisms. In this context, and after five years and economic crisis is to account using aggregate data from a study conducted in the framework of the SAIS-AMV (“social and environmental sustainability in metropolitan areas: the case of the metropolitan area of Valencia”) how, through what strategies and what public policy adjustments have occurred in the field of human resources at the same time it attempts to explain on the adjustment path.
Recent research on the labor market in Argentina highlights the positive effects of the recovery phase and initiated economic growth from 2003 to 2009. The specific literature on the subject point emphasizes the context of overall economic recovery after the crisis and devaluation of 2001-2002, both in terms of growth in economic activity, measured from GDP growth, as the conditions in the labor market due to the sustained recovery in employment levels and progressive restructuring of labor income. In this phase of economic expansion, there was a reduction in labor costs. This paper analyzes the main features of the labor market in Argentina since the recent neoliberal transformations and specifically after the collapse of the Convertibility regime in order to consider their differential effects on low-income households. From this analysis it intends to reflect on the challenges of the features of the present workforce in poor families, for the design and implementation of social policy and employment income support.
This article analyzes the Spanish Policy of Cooperation for the Development in democratic governance, pointing some of the features of the cooperation track in this sector in the last decade, and also analyzing the factors that explain its own transformations, which concern both the evolution of the institutional frame where it has been executed, and to the strategic and programmatic development that sets it. Moreover, the evolution of the programs and projects in this area is analyzed. This analysis seeks to contribute to identify what were the essential changes in development policy in this sector, as well as the agents that explain these changes and the bounds of them. All of it with the purpose of drawing apprenticeship from the recent past which help to ameliorate the actions to develop hereafter in this sector.
La crisis económica ha puesto en cuestión la Gestión de Calidad como estrategia en las Administraciones Públicas, para las que se proponen nuevas líneas de modernización que, en muchos casos carecen de la oportuna perspectiva integral de la gestión y que abordan el proceso de modernización de una manera fragmentaria.
Los autores, llevan a cabo una aproximación al análisis de la implantación de la Gestión de Calidad en los tres niveles de la Administración, aunque más centrado en la AGE en la que disponen de fuentes primarias, para realizar un balance acerca del grado de desarrollo de esta cultura de gestión en las Administraciones Públicas Españolas.
La conclusión del mencionado análisis es que la estrategia de implantación de la Gestión de Calidad en las Administraciones Públicas españolas, no solo sigue teniendo plena vigencia sino que constituye un paso necesario para abordar los nuevos retos que plantea la modernización en el ámbito público desde una perspectiva racional y en concordancia con las necesidades y expectativas de la ciudadanía.
Institutionalizing Quality Management in Public Administrations of Spain was developed during the 2000s in the context of the New Public Management. The process served to strengthen the quality management as the main strategy of modernization of public administrations in Spain as well as to promote cultural change and drive the opening of government to the new challenges of modernization today: transparency and good governance, sustainability and innovation and new challenges for smart government.
The economic crisis has called into question the Quality Management Strategies in Public Administration. In this time new lines are proposed for modernization, but in many cases, they lack a comprehensive management perspective and focus on the process of modernization in a fragmentary way.
The authors analyzed the implementation of Quality Management at all three levels of the Spanish government, but more focused on the national administration, where primary sources of information are available. The article offers a perspective on the level of development of this management culture in the Public Administrations of Spain.
The conclusion is that the strategy of implementation of Quality Management in the Spanish government not only remains full valid but is a critical need to confront the new challenges of modernization in the public sphere from a rational perspective and consistent step with the needs and expectations of citizens.
Analysis of the policies for the Elderly from both an International and Spanish scope. With particular attention to the development of Legislation, Plans and Administrative structures, as well as the available Social Services.
The lack of independence is a frequent problem faced by the elderly population. In order to combat this situation, the Spanish Dependent Persons' Law decrees that benefits for elderly people be managed by the private sector and/or local government. Among the Spanish regions, Castilla and León being a region with one of the highest number of elderly citizens in the Spanish state, has a vested interest in providing adequate coverage for the elderly. The current economic climate has led to severe cuts in public spending. Spending on Dependent Persons' benefits has been particularly affected. As the result of a concurrent increase in the cost of those services contracted in this area, the public funds available are no longer sufficient to meet demand. Consequently, it is a matter of need that a study of complementary options is undertaken. The Dependent Persons' Law grants a universal right of benefits to citizens whilst also providing the necessary framework for the provision of private services in order to satisfy this universal right. This paper suggests that in accordance with central government and regional government laws, the development and application of financial and actuarial products might ameliorate the differences in coverage between the different Spanish regions.
The dependent population recognized by the Autonomous Communities and their distribution by grade is one of the controversial issues regarding Autonomy and Dependency Care System. This paper analyzes the volume of that population in Spain and the Autonomous Communities, comparing with the potentially dependent population. The latter is estimated through the Dependency Rating Scale. The research methodology used in this paper has been to apply the criteria and standards from the Scale to the Spanish population whose disabilities are known from the EDAD survey microdata. It also analyzes to what extent there has been an overrepresentation of more severe dependent, both at national and regional levels. Finally it examines the effect that the new Rating Scale of 2011 has on the dependent population. The results show that there is a greater volume of population than the one recognized by spanish authorities. There has been dependent overrepresentation of the third degree of dependency, a trend that has lessened over time, although it persists in some regions. The new Scale does not affect the overall number of dependents.
From the mid 1990s a number of EU initiatives have enabled the implementation of urban regeneration programmes in Spain. In this context, in the framework of URBANA (2007-2013) several programmes targeted at small and medium sized cities have been implemented since 2007. To date, research on these public policies has focused on the analyses of case studies and, more precisely, on various specific factors common to these European programmes. Therefore no comprehensive analysis carried out from a comparative perspective has been set forth thus far. This is precisely the target of the present work: to conduct the analysis of local policies for urban regeneration carried out in Spain, from the basis of a multidimensional analytical model – which computes the main features with regard to public policies – and within the framework of the new European budget in this field.
Only a few months after its victory in the elections to the Galician Parliament, the Popular Party dismantled the program of nursery schools named " Galescolas " , which had been launched by the previous bipartisan government formed by the Socialist Party of Galicia, and the Galician Nationalist Bloc. Within the context of research on termination of public policy, this paper examines the end of the program. However, despite being a case study, the analysis progresses in developing a new conceptual framework from variables already used by the specialized literature. As a result, this paper presents the application of this conceptual framework for the completion of the program of " Galescolas " , and its subsequent replacement by another named " Galiña Azul ". Beyond the conclusions for the case analysis, the article demonstrates the explanatory power of the proposed scheme that is presented as a starting point for developing hypotheses in future research.
This paper describes the process of improving the evaluation instruments of the Diversity and Citizenship Policy Service of the Barcelona Provincial Council, process that was held as part of the institution adaptation to the new demands of local governments. Thus, we analyze the evaluation instruments of the Service detecting a number of shortcomings. In particular, we observe the need to adapt the system of indicators to new budgetary reality; the need to define the indicators to allow the study of the temporal trend of the activities carried out; the need to improve the information given that the information collected so far did not reflect properly the reality of the Service, and the variables used given that they did not have a precise definition of their composing elements. To overcome these shortcomings we present a proposal of performance indicators appropriate to the Service management with particular reference to the design, definition and internal management of those indicators.
The evaluation of the successful experience of inter administrative collaboration called VEXCAN (One stop shop for Canary Islands' foreign trade), is the foundation of the present work. We intend to show how the "smart" evaluations became of great use. This kind of evaluations assess the quality of services, are developed just in time, are focused in a process of continuous improvement (planning, implementation, evaluation and improvement), and make possible the identification and replication of good practices. All these aspects are very significant for multilevel governments as Spanish one. Moreover, these evaluations enhance the necessary learning for developing more complex evaluations.
Based on the use of heuristic test and e-mystery user techniques, the article presents the results of a study conducted in 2011 about the variety and effectiveness of web-based communication devices laid by the Spa-nish regional governments in order to provide health services to citizens. The results show that the websites operated by regional governments offer much higher technological capabilities than those required by the narrow range of benefits currently offered to users of health services. Also, data collected highlights serious shortcomings in the supply and management of communication devices, especially those that encourage citi-zens' feedback through their active participation. Results depict a panorama still far from a reasonable use of an e-health 2.0 model.
In trying to achieve their goals in the last decades, Public Administrations have created a great variety of organizations (enterprises, foundations, consortiums, etc.) with the aim of completing or developing, through organizations under its total control, part of its policies. In this line, it is emphasized that the new management models literature concerning sectors such as health or education has been analyzed since several years ago. It is also emphasized that instrumental organizations have been created for reaching the goals of the different administrative levels through a great diversity of public policies. Using comparative analysis, this article examines the different types of instrumental organizations created by Public Administrations to carry out the policies of innovation. It focuses on High Performance Computing Centers for comparing centers located in Spain with those which exist abroad taking into account the most used benchmarking tools in this field.
The outsourcing consists of a leaseback to the specialised providers in one part of the business. It is a phase detected in the 80's in Spain, which has also been extended in the environment of the regional public televisions. This paper shows a comparative study between the management structures of different regional public televisions, which have been chosen as an external production model, and the public operators, that have maintained a conventional television model.
In the context of the current reduction of public budgets devoted to culture, the debate has emerged around the need to increase the sustainability of cultural facilities. However, the authors argue that this requires a modernization of public management model of culture, similar to that being developed in other areas of go-vernance: the agencification and performance contracting between the public and cultural facilities. From the analysis of two countries in this process, England and France, the article focuses on the comparative analysis of the modernization of the management of cultural facilities in the Autonomous Community of Madrid and the Catalonia. The conclusion is that the differences between these two communities are due to differences in political-administrative and management model of cultural policy. And in both cases, the challenge of modernizing the public administration of culture should not only involve changes in economic management but a change of custody and the mission of these facilities, more oriented to the creation of public value.
In today's society, the information has become the most valuable intangible for any organization willing to achieve its objectives in terms of efficiency. This article focuses on how important is for contemporary public local administrations to have proper information of its actions in order to improve its intervention strategies on the territory. Moreover, the article includes conclusions about which are the main difficulties in generating knowledge about the processes of socioeconomic development. Facing this scene, we present our contributions to the local development model of the permanent information system of the socioeconomic reality of the City Council of Catarroja (Valencia, Spain). This model shows how local development agencies are able to become an observatory of the territory in which they act and one of the main sources of information for the institutional, economic and social agents.
Governance structures and processes in environmental policies: actors network in the Basque Country Abstract In this paper we analyze the policy network of environmental policies in the Basque Country. Our starting point will be the approval of Law 3/1998 on environmental protection as it set up a new participative focus which changed governance structure. In order to do this, we have examined the functioning of formal and non-formal mechanisms of participation, through documental analysis and in-depth interviews. Our conclusions lead us to stress the value of knowledge as a condition for every actor to find their place in the network.
Over the last decade a new political and regulatory framework has taken shape emphasizing the introduction of quality systems and intensive usage of ICT in the public management sector. These two concepts are key in the process of modernizing public administration within the context of governance. In response to an open society and it´s complex needs, the Galician School of Public Administration has launched a new strategy to modernize management in the public sector. This strategy focuses on the alignment of new technologies and quality procedures that become the axis on which change management models are developed. It will be described how the combination of these two key concepts can be found in every single project launched by the EGAP. While focusing on continual improvement, these concepts not only aim at satisfying users' expectations and supplying services of the highest quality, but also have a grander scope of moving towards a more accountable , open and efficient Public Administration.
Participatory Budgeting (PB) is an innovative methodology of public budget management. It includes the common citizen in decision-making process, which does not happen in traditional budget processes. PB emerged in Brazil in the last two decades of the last century (Porto Alegre's experience is the best known model) and spread to several countries since then. The spread of the practice has produced significant changes in relation to the original proposals, requiring the efforts of analysts to identify them in different situations, carried out by different political actors, with different objectives. Pires and Pineda (2008a) proposed a typology of PB sought to contemplate the experiences from the simplest to the most daring and less sophisticated to the pretentious, so as to allow assessment of the maximum number of cases. In this article the Spanish experiences of PB are characterized from this typology, highlighting its most relevant aspects. It is a useful study to understand the evolution of PB in Spain, but also to continue the effort to better define what is and can become the participatory budget as a possible tool for improving the management of local public finance and democracy.
This article aims to present the systems of professional classification, professional career and remuneration for the personnel of a public organism whose law of creation forms it as an Entity of Public law with organic and functional autonomy. From the information contained in the flowchart of the institution and in a report elaborated for this one by the Operative Consultancy of Services of the Department of Public Administrations there is realized an analysis of functions that gives place to fifteen positions type which are ordained in groups, levels and professional categories, constituting this way the picture of professional classification. Applying a methodology of Analysis and valuation of Positions, the coefficients of level classification (α), category (β), position type (γ) and of horizontal career (δ), that are the base on which there are sustained the systems of horizontal and vertical promotion and the remunerative one that they propose. The principal advantage of this method is that the values of the coefficients have character atemporal what means that once determined the value of each one of them, would not have to be modified.
The role of communication as a tool for Public Administrations to manage crisis situations Abstract Within a crisis context public administrations play a key role when it comes to managing resources. During the drought period lived in Catalonia between the years 2007 and 2008, legal instruments where passed setting the grounds for the promotion of communicative campaigns directed toward the implication of consumers in the rational use of water, guaranteeing the domestic supply in order to cover vital needs. The article focuses on the analysis of the communicative activities promoted by local and regional administrations. The functioning, the effects and the resulting environmental impacts are analysed in terms of population's behaviour changes as well as in quantitative terms of domestic water savings. Furthermore, it will be determined which are the key elements for an efficient institutional communication when aiming to promote a governance that encourages complicity with citizens, increases the efficiency of the activities promoted within the sustainability context and is used for legitimating public administrations' intervention regarding private areas such as consumption, in favor of the promotion of sustainability and the rational use of scarce and finite natural resources.
From a non academic perspective of participant observation, the author describes a set of policies undertaken by the Justice Department of Catalonia's Generalitat, which he led during the years of President Maragall's government (2003-2006). With this insight, the text highlights the complexity of the unique scenario resulting not only from the policies implemented, but also from the characteristics of both the governmental and the intergovernmental framework of the period. This approach shows key aspects, factors and actions which are rarely introduced into "classical" political analyses. This text is an abridged version of a book's chapter published by the author in 2008.
This article analyzes the legislative agenda of four regional governments – Andalusia, Catalonia, Galicia and the Basque Country– from 1982 to 2007. The goal is to explain to what extent changes in the prioritization of issues are related to institutional factors, such as changes in the distribution of competences and Europeanization, or political factors, like party preferences. The analysis illustrates that from the early nineties regional governments are increasingly paying attention to different issues, and that this process can not only be explained by taking into account the formal distribution of competences between central and regional governments. The delegation of power to the European Union does not contribute either to an increasing convergence of regional legislative agendas, not even for those issues more Europeanized. The institutional context constrains government's capacity to regulate specific issues, but party preferences are important to understand why there are similarities or differences among regional agendas.
After 35 years of authorised gaming in Spain, May 2011 saw the enactment of Spain's Gambling Regulation Act. In an explanatory study of the transformations focusing on the emergence of this new legislative framework, after examining the historical background of the regulation of gambling and analysing the complexity of the current scenario, the author takes the view that public policy on gambling over the years has been fearful and inadequate because while pretending to defend moral values, in reality these policies aspired to preserve the interests of revenue collection. In addition, governments have failed to foresee the impact of the Internet. The articles examines the consequences of this failure: the entry into Spain of unregulated operators, the emergence of new and strong collateral interests and unfair competition with licensed operating companies of physical gaming establishments. This has ultimately prevented the Treasury from collecting the taxes and charges that this new activity should have accrued.
From an "intergovernmental" interpretation of public policies, this paper examines the trends towards differentiation and standardization. It uses a comparative case study, the cultural policies of France and Spain, with quite relevant models of similarities and differences. To do it, develops an analytical framework that combines five axis of governmental analysis: the institutional settings, the instruments of intervention, the distribution by levels of government, the lobby capacity of actors and logics, and the priorities, objectives and values of cultural policies. One hypothesis is that the twin trends towards differentiation or toward standardization is not limited to dialogue / tension between states and supranational bodies, but up to all interactions with sub-national levels, and therefore beyond the federal or unitary state. The second hypothesis is that at every level of government there are tendencies toward differentiation and standardization. The analysis of the arguments of legitimacy and efficiency to a set of observations enables contextualized hypotheses.
Considering the weight of history –i.e. policy continuity and stability– this article analyses change of public service broadcasting (PSB) policies in European political systems. This analysis focuses on PSB television policies implemented by the BBC. The United Kingdom's case is relevant because the BBC is a global paradigm of PSB independence and self-regulation and it has been traditionally a model and engine for PSB television policy change in both European Union Member States and the global sphere. An original combination of theories and concepts for change analysis within the predecision stage of the policy-making process –problem definition and agenda-setting processes–, along with the necessary introduction of the europeanization of public policy approach as a methodological challenge to the study of change, let us complete British political system dynamics from 1979 to 2010. This research period has been selected because the BBC public service broadcasting has experienced the deepest changes in history, including those where the European integration process could have had an impact.
This article focuses on the implementation level of gender equality policies in the Galician public administration. With this goal, the main concepts and strategies related to gender and institutional feminism will be briefly discussed, setting the basis for addressing afterwards how gender equality policies have been set up in Galicia. Such an analysis intends to answer the following questions: what kind of actions in the field of equality has been set up within the Galician Autonomous Community?, Which organizational changes and new institutions stem from the adoption of a gender perspective in this level of government?, Is it possible to consider Galician institutional efforts in gender policies as mature and well-established?, Which degree of influence have policies and equality bodies in this Community had in the decision-making process?, Has political ideology influenced any changes in and the evolution of gender policies in Galicia?, Are current Galician institutional resources for equality a guarantee for the future?
What can we expect from citizen participation processes in local policymaking? Is it reasonable to expect significant political transformations? In this article, we identify the conditions that theoretically determine the transformation capacity of citizen participation. Such theoretical discussion gives place to a framework for the assessment of participative practices, which we use to analyse 11 cases of participatory budgeting in the province of Barcelona. The analysis puts in evidence the limits of this kind of participative practices, which are linked to three main factors: their peripheral institutional position; the scarce decision margin that is given to the citizens; and the lack of social mobilization. However, the cases analysed reach a good performance in two important aspects: the impact of citizens' proposals on public decision-taking and the transformation of the attitudes of local authorities, the public employees and the citizens themselves towards public participation. The assessment framework proposed helps us to identify critical aspects for the improvement and the strengthening of the transformation capacity of participative processes.
Analysis of the 2005 regularization process immigration policy: initial authorizations and subsequent renewals Abstract The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of the 2005 Spanish government's immigrant regulariza-tion policy, examinating whether that public policies were successful and analyzing their results up to now. The analysis is based on the migratory flows assessment taking as a starting point the initial residence and employment permissions released in 2005 and their renewals in 2006 and 2008. We can affirm that the process was successful according to the management and the achievements: it was the largest process showing up irregular economy in Europe in the last 40 or 50 years, allowing, in the short term, the labor integration of more than half a million workers. Sixty six percent of these workers succeeded in keeping their jobs up to 2009, despite of the current economic crisis.
The joint management constitutes a device that associates the employer and trade union representatives to assure jointly a mission of general interest in the labour world. He knows an important development in the institutions of social protection that are started from the postwar period. The joint management is a product of the contractual practice and of the decisions of the political power that illustrates the paradoxical institutionalization of the French system of labour relations. It is a question of a procedure that tries to structure, across the combination of different and organized interests, the relation between capital and work to associate the representation and the production of collective goods or to establish rules in the attainment of the general interest. Because of the historical presence of the State in the management of the social Safety and his increasing intervention in the UNEDIC, certain observers consider that it is increasingly an illusory joint management.
Mexico has acute problems of poverty and inequality being confronted by its governments, who select different approaches to social policy, and consequently, to the evaluation of their programs. In this selection, the social policy of the Mexican Federal Government is characterized by the targeting of its conditional transfers, while that of the Federal District’s Government promotes universal criteria and an approach based on human rights. With regards to evaluation, also the organizational and methodological difference of the two governments stands out. This is specially the case in the positivist and experimental emphasis of the first government and the constructionist approach of the latter.
Decentralization and citizen participation brought into spotlight: a complex-future scenario Abstract It is time for citizen participation. Local governments are committed to the promotion of participatory processes in response to the demands of social and neighborhood groups, who demand channels to influence the decision making process. Some claims that in some cases, local governments have channeled through processes of decentralization using the neighborhood or district as an area of participation. In this context, our main objective to analyze the results of these processes in the five boroughs, displaying the possibilities and obstacles in the definition of the three models we have created: traditional and institutional, deliberative, and innovative institutional and institutional. The results are clear. In all three models are displayed realities common obstacles to enhance the plurality of discourses about the difficulty of integrating the excluded sectors of society in these processes. In turn, show deficiencies in the quality of the deliberation of decision-making process and finally, the results tend to respond to public policies, low profile with little citizen involvement.
In nowadays societies many realities interact, supposing the coexistence of different problems and needs; which treatment goes further the traditional public policies. This emphasizes the need to think about new management models which could improve the coordination of policies and resources. A management model based on institutional cooperation among key actors is earning its place among public administrators; becoming a new governance model at a local scale. In this article are summarized some challenges and clues to evaluate initiatives based on institutional cooperation; considering the theory available and the professional experience of the authors; like the evaluation of institutional nets created in the framework of the Equal Initiative in Andalucía. Three elements are emphasized: the criteria that traditionally orientate the evaluation processes, the new aspects in which the evaluation has to focus on in order to analyze institutional networks and the methodologies that support this kind of evaluations.
This paper analyses the use of the evaluation results and the process carried out in the evaluation of a rural development evaluation programme focused in a participatory evaluation model. To do this, it is used the experience of the mid-term evaluation of the Sustainable Rural Development Plan 2000-2006 in the Basque Country. The core premise of the evaluation team was that stakeholder participation would enhance evaluation use, promoting its utilisation in the decision making process in future policies. The paper is structured into two main parts: The first one describes the adequacy of the participatory evaluation model to the interest and purposes of our evaluation. The second part examines the impact of this evaluation model on the evaluation utilisation. This assessment has given us the opportunity to draw lessons that can help to improve the utility of evaluation in multi - actor contexts, favouring thus the development of governance.
There is no doubt about the potential of evaluation for decision making. Yet, it is not clear what the real evaluation information use is. Its relevance depends on the relation of evaluation approach to the decision making model and their coherence with their context. In 1996, EU evaluation was first oriented towards efficient expenditure management. Years later, the European Governance acknowledged evaluation as a main instrument for transparency, participation, coherence, accountability and effectiveness of EU policy making. EG was justified not only to cover the democratic deficit but also a coordination deficit. Furthermore, an evaluation deficit has been identified due to the weak development of an evaluation approach able to tackle the complexity of the European context. The relevance of evaluation and its use in the EU would increase significantly if evaluation efforts were reallocated towards a decision model coherent with complexity.
Economic governance has become a priority in Community policies and more today, before the crisis, which confers a unique unpredictability of the future of the European economy. Examination of the crisis has highlighted several weaknesses in the governance of the European Social Model. The various policy instruments of governance in ESM (directives, Integrated Guidelines, OMC, social dialogue, mutual learning and community programs) should be reviewed to make them relevant in the current situation. The capacity of the EU and its MMSS to foresee, anticipate and match the required skills and the needs of the labour market is a sine qua non in developing effective policies in employment, education and training and the optimal personal career choices. The evaluation can provide useful tools for developing of EU governance capacity. In this article we examine the existing capacities within the EU to achieve an appropriate strategy for cooperation between MS in order to meet current needs of labour market.
This paper derives from an evaluation carried out by the author and several of his colleagues (From Euréval and Rambøll Management) for the European Commission in 2007. The evaluation applied to the coordination of national policies in the areas of economic growth and employment. The main conclusion of the report (<http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/>) is that the soft coordination approach is effective in fostering mutual learning, enlarging consensus among stakeholders, reinforcing reform promoters' legitimacy, and finally pushing reforms upward on the political agendas. The instrument has had a small incremental impact in a majority of Member States, something which was assessed as a success since nothing more could reasonably be expected from such a soft mechanism. The evaluation however shows that the instrument does not work exactly as it was assumed to work.
During the last three decades, there have been two major innovations in the field of government affairs, New Public Management (managerial or post-bureaucratic mode), Governance or New Governance (post-governmental mode). Likewise, the new push of program and public policy evaluation, is due in part to reforms that governments have undertaken –by conviction or by force-during these last years, which have modified governmental practices, concepts and assessment criteria. This article discusses how "governance" as a new process of government and administration has taken place, and recognizes its presence and importance as a directive process, and also the need and convenience of evaluating its activities and results. Thus, it investigates on the potential relations between evaluation and governance and the mutual benefits both governance and evaluation might have when their respective contributions are jointly considered.
The Bologna process of European convergence assigns evaluation a key role, as a system for quality assurance of grades, in order to increase the mutual trust among different national education systems. However, current evaluation models neither have been revised to include such a legitimistic perspective, nor have assumed the criteria for internationalization included in the official goals of Bologna declarations. The paper describes, through the opinion of academic staff, a metaevaluation of the evaluation system of grades used in the Andalusian universities. A questionnaire was administered to 81academics, chosen because of their previous experience as members of self-evaluation committees. . The questionnaire included 82 criteria for judging the quality of evaluation stages and key elements. Results show the valued characteristics that any evaluation system should fit. Academics have a certificationist conventional perspective over evaluation, rejecting a political alternative perspective and the opportunities added by evaluation in supporting the efforts of internationalization and European convergence.
Is it possible to influence or to produce positive changes in the public policy by means of self-evaluation procedures about the performance of organizations which offer public services? Under the premise that self-evaluation promotes “intelligent organizations” (who learn and change from their own experiences) such way is strategic and possible, although not the only one. This article reports the processes and results of the implementation, during the period 2007 - 2009, of an Instrument for self-evaluation of educational quality (Instrumento para la Autoevaluación de la Calidad Educativa - IACE) in primary schools of Argentina. It was carried out within the institutional framework of UNICEF Argentina in agreement with the Center for the Support of Local Development (Centro de Apoyo al Desarrollo Local - CEADEL), Argentinean Non-Governmental Organization who works in public policies, and mainly in evaluative interventions. The self-evaluation turned out an effective strategy to influence educative public policies, therefore the traditional top-down directionality in making decisions and defining policies processes was replaced by a complementary bottom-up alternative, where school’s human resources and students’ families outlooks and suggestions about future actions are reflected.
The main aim of this paper is to contribute to the knowledge of public policies evaluation at the macro level. It presents the synthesis of an evaluation performed by the National Agency for Public Policies Evaluation (AEVAL), demanded by the Spanish Cabinet. The report is available at the Agency website. This evaluation examines the particularities of the evaluation at the strategic and operative levels of government, and presents the difficulties found to evaluate large clusters. Lessons learned are presented following the concept of the Agency about the evaluation process: analysis of the demand, planning, implementing, and results.
The past 30 years has seen a gradual internalisation of program and policy evaluation into the machinery of government. This happens either through the evaluation function being taken on by administrators themselves, or by those administrators stipulating and proscribing how the evaluation is conducted and for what purposes. This poses important questions for democracy and for the citizen. This article examines the consequences of this 'capture' by the administrative system by looking at two examples: one, taken from the field of international development; the other from a government agency commissioning of an evaluation of one of their programs.
International studies aimed at evaluating educational achievement, started in the mid-20th century and extensively developed in the two last decades, had a two-fold purpose: On the one hand, they intended to support a rigorous comparison of results achieved by students in different education systems, providing as a result a valuable set of data which has improved our knowledge about educational achievement. On the other hand, they intended to contribute to the explanation of educational achievement through the settlement of relationships between the main factors identified. This paper analyses the latter issue, focusing on the possibilities opened by these studies and their contributions to such an explanation, and the limits and difficulties found for explaining the effect of the main factors influencing achievement. Two main sets of variables are identified. A first group includes some external factors to education systems, and a second group focuses on internal variables related to educational organisation and activities. Taken into account the macroscopic perspective adopted by those international studies, it is argued that the information provided for that kind of explanation is forcefully limited. Granted that conclusion, they should be complemented by additional research and evaluation studies allowing more detailed analyses.
Evaluation practice, as a formal activity, has been and is still characterized by three key elements: (i) the supremacy of a way of reasoning based on criteria and standards, (ii) the promotion of the use of tests and other quantitative techniques and (iii) the idea of quality as an intrinsic attribute of programs. Training in evaluation has followed the same line and it has mainly focused on models and methodological approaches. As Stake points out, many problems arise with such a perspective when identifying the effectiveness of an educational system. Another (often devalued) kind of analytical thinking is also needed: that of episodic thinking, which emphasizes (i) that program should be properly contextualized and (ii) that program quality depends greatly on who experiences it. Both kinds of thinking are required. They must be combined as if they were two sides of the same coin. Therefore, "binocular vision" is the best option (commitment) for evaluation.
RESUMEN
Las instituciones europeas ocupan un lugar importante en los procesos de
reforzamiento de la dimensión social de las economías europeas. Este artículo analiza algunas de las potencialidades, pero también las limitaciones del proceso de europeización de la cuestión social que promueve el Modelo Social Europeo (MSE). Se realiza una evaluación formativa de carácter institucional de la europeización con el fin de tomar el pulso al proceso de supra-nacionalización, y a los avances y frenos que conlleva. Se presta
especial atención al carácter dual y ambivalente del Modelo Social Europeo integrador de crecimiento económico y cohesión social, y que se sustenta en un sistema axiológico que valora lo social en igual medida –cuando menos– que lo económico.
This article researches the autonomic capacity to build policies for integration of immigrants. For this reason, the research analyzed the approaches and implementation of the transversal plans that the autonomies had on this subject in the period from 2000 to 2005, as those represent the instruments of realization of these policies. The article is divided in two parts: the first one analyzes the institutional network of subjects involved in the integration policies and it shows that the theoretical models of management -based on the plans- and decision taking -based on the Forums- are an a priori approach of what happens in reality. The second part shows that, in practice, the structure of the coordination and evaluation processes of the plans for integration of immigrants shows remarkable differences between what have been planned and the accomplished goals. The autonomic integration policies are based upon the fact that those Administrations have the competencies on management, monitoring and evaluation of the raised actions, but the ability of external influence is limited.
The paper carries out an evaluative approach to the Spanish regional programmes of Minimum Income for Insertion (RMI) as a whole. These programmes offer a means-tested guaranteed minimum income oriented to the social insertion of their beneficiaries. The work starts focusing on the special processes carried on by the Spanish regional governments (CCAA) for the implementation of these programmes and their subsequent trajectories. These processes explain in a great extent the difficulties to accomplish an overall evaluation. By using available evidence (budget effort, intensity and coverage indicators) it is however feasible to assess that the reforms followed by RMI programmes during the last decade have increased their heterogeneity and fragmentation far from improving protection against poverty risks. The conclusion points out that the support and harmonization of RMI protection and the coordination among different stakeholders will improve the fight against poverty and social exclusion in Spain.
The program of 0,52% of Income tax was regulated by Law 33/1987 and it has been put in practice since 1989. It continues working at present and its development is taking place in parallel to the expansion of social action from beginning of the nineties. The program of 0,52 (0,7% from 2009), still valid since 1989, is a national and public program which is strengthening the entities of Social Action Third Sector and the synergies between the public sector and the social non profit sector specially in the area of services provision. To reflect such a development we will start with a historical and institutional approaching of the program analyzing the most relevant changes in its main basics. Afterwards, we will analyze the evolution of entities, programs and amounts granted since it was created in 1989. Finally, we will focus on the socioeconomic impact of the program on the social entities without forgetting the limitations of this program.
We analyse firstly the general context of the European Social Model in order to understand the main developments and tendencies of long-term care European systems. Secondly, we describe the Spanish social protection system for dependency, which started in January of 2007, and its main institutional pillars. Thirdly, we make a very general approach and assessment of social protection pillars: accessibility, system of social benefits, government of the system and financing and control of the quality of services. We conclude emphasizing the main problems for the application of this long-term policy that will be formally evaluated by State in 2010 according to the Spanish law.
European institutions are paramount in the processes of upholding of the social dimension of the European economies. This article analyses some of the potentialities and limitations of Europeanisation of the social dimension which promotes de European Social Model (ESM). An institutional formative evaluation of such a development is carried out with the aim of assessing the process of supra-nationalization and of its advances and restraints. The axiological bases of the ambivalent and dual character of the ESM, which integrates growth and cohesion, are regarded as crucial for the combination of both the economic and the social.
From a quantitative perspective, this article analyses the policy networks that promote Information Society in Catalonia and Euskadi. It aims to map and to clarify what actors are perceived as influential, the relationships that are established between these actors and the interests that prevail. With all this information it will be examined if differences or similarities exist between Catalonia and Euskadi, and it will allow to discuss in what measure the public policies guided to the promotion of the Information Society in both regions are (or not) conditioned by the forms and structures of the policy networks.
This paper focus on the European Cohesion Policy in the regional level at its programming stage. It argues that Structural Funds have been very influential in shaping regional development policy-making. Europeanization of the regional policy in Spain has involved an increasing role for regional governments, which have adopted a set of homogeneous practices and procedurals as regard to cohesion policy programming and implementation. However, empirical evidence drawn from Murcia and Galicia’s regions related to the programming financial period 2007-2013 (ROPs) highlights the configuration of different regional policy networks to deal with such programming tasks. Also, different features of social capital among the network’s actors arise for both regions. These findings suggest that their policy processes are quite different –in spite of similar formal procedures-, and raise new questions about the sources of such variations.
The goal of this article is to give an explanation about how and why the regulation of the pharmaceutical sector changes for the last decade. The underlying assumption is that institutional frameworks are a key variable to explain the dynamics of policy change as anticipated by the policy network literature and the punctuated equilibrium model developed by Baumgartner and Jones. The adoption of a new policy paradigm –the rational use of medicines– cannot only be understood as a direct response to a crisis situation, changes in the political system or/and the consolidation of ideas introduced by active policy entrepreneurs as the policy windows model suggest. The way power relations are institutionalized (or policy networks) is important in order to explain why changes in the pharmaceutical policy are quite smooth and gradual. By the same token, this article argues that a redefinition of the policy image involves a transformation of the policy network. In 2008 the politics of the rational use of medicines are managed by a more open policy network in which policy experts play a more important role than before.
This article is about the multi-faceted adaptation processes of business associations caused by changes in their politico-economic environments. It is argued that technological innovations, accompanied by high economic growth rates have led to the establishment of new business associations in the information and communications sector. The incorporation of these newly founded associations into existing structures of interest representation is mediated by the inclusiveness of membership in national peak associations. It is argued that the Spanish peak association CEOE has adopted a generous stance towards the inclusion of new affiliations thereby facilitation the consolidation of the newly developed system of organized business interests.
Recent transformations in the European Union have been putting significant pressure on the management function of the European Commission. Examining its brokerage position in policy networks, this article asks what kind of role does the Commission have in the political interactions in Brussels after the year 2000. Developing a conceptual framework about brokerage roles in EU policy, the article uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative data in an empirical analysis of two extreme cases where the Commission has been embattled the past years. The article argues that previous reports of the Commission’s demise are much exaggerated, because it continues playing a leading role in managing interaction between multiple actors at different levels of governance. The empirical results show that the Commission is a resilient central network broker.