1.An investigation of New Public Management reform for its change and continuity with post-war Traditional Public Administration paradigms in the UK新公共管理體制改革與戰(zhàn)后傳統(tǒng)公共行政范式的變遷與連續(xù)性研究

When we consider traditional public administration, collectivism and welfare policies force us to think about the role of the state and its guarantee of welfare services for all. But in the new public management model, it is the individualistic and competitive ethos which dominates the paradigm, for its quasi- market mechanism as well as for its customer choice making principles (Clarke et al., 2007, pp2-3). From the Thatcher period, making decisions from the choice of the welfare state ideology of former public administration discourse or from the goal of achieving the improvement of efficiency of government has become an issue facing the government. Since Thatcher’s governance, a new public management paradigm has been introduced into the research of public administration. The difference between new public management and traditional public administration also needs us to deliberate today in order to find the best method of public administration. Through the research process, this essay will identify the different doctrines of these two paradigms and attempt to find the answer to the question about what has been changed by public management reform and what has not been changed. It will also evaluate which transformations are valuable and which changes are questionable. How has the state organisation of public service provision been changed? Has the regulation framework been abandoned with market introduction? How have questions about democracy been influenced by reforms? This essay will investigate these questions at the same time and also address the principal-agent accountability issue for the new relationships between different actors in the decentralized governance of new public management. To be precise, the old public administration model referred to in this essay is the context of the post-war British welfare state period, while the new public management doctrine created by the Thatcher Conservative governments since 1979 can be extrapolated to the late 1990s before the election of New Labour in 1997. But New Labour’s similar representation of new public management stratagems may also be included in this analysis, although its intentions for government and language may be different (Massey &Pyper, 2005, pp8-9).

It should be clarified from the beginning what the definition of public administration is and what these two theoretical streams are. Firstly, from the state perspective, public administration is necessarily involved in assisting and promoting national sovereignty by dealing with the routine policy implementation, government financial transactions and internal order maintenance (Lynn, 2006, p20). Its performance parallels with the rules of constitutional (unwritten or written) democracy in building and consolidating the formation of civil society. In Britain, the development of modern public administration did not emerge until the late nineteenth century (Ibid, p21).  The development of traditional public administration in the post-war period of UK is manifested by discourse about the welfare state. It emphasized a high level of state control and command in order to promise distribution of collective goods for all. It was a one-way top-down authority policy implementation and bureaucracy of service delivery following rigorous procedures. In comparison, new public management since Thatcher’s recession in 1979 was a change of public services towards management and efficiency of service provision (Lynn, 2006, p24).  

Bibliography (selected)注解

Albalate, D., Bel, G., and Fageda, X. (2009) Privatization and Regulatory Reform of Toll Motorways in Europe.
Barlow, J and Rober, M. (1996). Steering not rowing: coordination and control in the management of public services in Britain and Germany.

2. Essay Question: How have accounting/financial management techniques been adapted to control or report on partnership working between the public sector organisations and those in the private/voluntary sector in (your choice of country, region or sector)? How do these techniques appear to have influenced the development and operation of these public-private partnerships? Have these effects been beneficial or detrimental to the delivery of public services? What evidence is available and how do you draw a conclusion on these matters?2.作文問題：如何具備會計/財務(wù)管理技術(shù)被用于控制或在公共部門組織之間的伙伴關(guān)系工作的報告中（您選擇的國家，地區(qū)或部門）的私人/志愿部門？如何這些技術(shù)似乎已經(jīng)影響了這些公共 - 私營伙伴關(guān)系的發(fā)展和運作？有這些效果是有益或有害于公共服務(wù)的交付？有什么證據(jù)可以和你如何借鑒這些問題的結(jié)論呢？

The Private Financial Initiative in British NHS --- risk and uncertainties

Although it is inevitable to have omissions of some uncertainties, majority of uncertainties can be measured and predicted by defined risks through accounting and finance techniques (Broadbent, Gill & Laughlin, 2008, p41). The accounting data analysis and financing system for calculating costs and benefits in terms of value for money in project approval is the basic risk measurement process of Private Financial Initiative. It focuses on the outcomes of the project's financing base following the government required and defined service specifications in the contracting. However, there is also inevitability of neglect in the prediction for certain uncertainties and risks because of their collisions with the approved existing accounting methodologies. In the Scholar Broadbent, Gill and Laughlin's research article analyzing the risk measurement and related problems within the Private Financial Initiative (PFI) system in the British National Health Service, they found out the complexity, dynamicsand some problems of this accounting system and process. Following their studies, in this essay, I will evaluate the accounting and financial techniques used in decision makings of Private Financial Initiative capital projects to analyse their effect to the public program and service outcomes. The actual performance and financing results can be both good and bad. 

Bibliography注解

Alcock, P., May, M &Rowlingson, K. (Ed.) (2008). The Student’s Companion to Social Policy. Oxford: Blackwell
Baldock, J., Manning, N. &Vickerstaff, SA. (Ed.). (2009). Social Policy. Oxford: Oxford University Press

3. Essay Question: Are monopoly always bad and what are the policy solutions for dealing with natural monopolies?作文問題：是否壟斷總是不好的，，什么是處理自然壟斷的政策解決方案？

Economics is used to explain, interpret and translate principles in order to serve and facilitate the industrial production of society and social well-being. Therefore, the efficiency manifest of the whole market resource allocation and the utility of the use of a certain economic product from the consumer’s perspective both construct the economic benefit (Stiglitz, J.E., 2000, pp57-67). For both of those, the price of the firms’ products in the market is a predominant criterion. It manifests a firm’s advantage or disadvantage in the process of benign market competition, as well as for evaluating the whole market’s competitive situation within a certain industry. It is described in economics terms as whether it is within “perfect competition” as no one firm in the market could set price hurdles or make price dominant to influence other participators (Ibid, pp77-78). Whether the price setting of a firm’s product is too high to guarantee the customer’s benefit in concern with its quality level and its position in the whole market will certainly be taken into consideration by the consumer.

Bibliography注解

Bartle, I. (2002). When Institutions No Longer Matter: Reform of Telecommunications and Electricity in Germany, France and Britain. Retrived May 3, 2010, from
journals.cambridge.org/production/action/cjoGetFulltext?
Becker, G.S. (1998) The Unnatural Death of Natural Monopoly.

4. History歷史

The Raj refers to the British colonizing stage of India from 1857 till the end under direct ruling of parliament which replaced former East Indies Company’s conquering governance backed by commercial exploitation. This new era was mostly the consequent reconfiguration facing the earlier prominent Indian Mutiny against colonial confrontation and cultural misleading. It led to profound reorganization and new adjustment of the bureaucratic and martial composition, amelioration of nomocracy, institutionalization of Indian cultural traditions and religious diversification, amplification of legislation as well as the construction of patronage network and colonial collaborators. Direct Rule under monarchy commenced the consolidation of Council of India within the imperial government in London which shouldered the scrutiny and expertise advising mission to the spending and colonial policy in India in line with one cabinet member commissioned as Secretary of State for India to initiate constitution or with final urgent decision power as mediator over local executive Viceroy who started to represent the Crown in India. Later as the inefficient decision making routine to the collective council, executive councils were created involving each member responsible for different departmental routine business. Furthermore, the executive councils could also be magnified to be larger legislative councils for constitution of new laws, which both included voting British officials and advisory Indians and settled Britons. As the impulse of 1857 mutiny, British officials realized the importance of learning Indian opinions and responses to colonial rule which led to gradual appointment of Indians for consultation and routine execution in government and civil service which was also useful for stabilization of mass attitudes . After the rebellion, the Raj whittled and constrained Indian proportion to British in the army and promoted masculine and sturdy Punjabi and Pathan Muslims holding high loyalty value to acquire unbalanced percentage  in the army compared with the perceived delicate Hindus who on the other hand received intellectual privileges from Raj forming elite layer in colonial india. Gurkhas from Nepal, Indian members of Sikhs and Baluchis started to compose the new regiments .

Bibliography注解

Arnold, David., and Robb, Peter., ed., 1993. Institutions and Ideologies: A SOAS South Asia Reader, London: Curzon Press Ltd. pp 165-185

Bailkin, Jordanna., 2006.The Boot and the Spleen: When Was Murder Possible in British India? Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol.48, no.2, pp462-493

5. Assessment of strategic management and its adaptation to public sector---- An Investigation of strategic management issues facing NHS and the strengths and difficulties in its applied practice戰(zhàn)略管理并使其適用于公共部門----的NHS面臨的戰(zhàn)略管理問題的調(diào)查研究，并在其應(yīng)用實踐中的優(yōu)勢和困難的評估

Introduction 介紹

Strategic management requires public sector managers not only to be able to implement and deliver policies from upper level politicians and authorities, but also to be flexible in thinking of the external environment of their agencies, political bodies and organizations for their long-term sustainable development by using feasible and best adaptive resource allocation manners (Kearns, K. P., 2000, 3-31). This is the major difference of traditional conceptualization about public managers’ roles and tasks with nowadays’ increasing demand for the managerial format of new public management, especially within the context of blurred boundaries between public and private sector (Horton, S. and Farnham, D., 1999, p68, 75). As the complexity and ambiguity of public sector performance configuration today in accompany with advocacy of partnership working for mixed economy provision of welfare, there is more uncertainty, volatility and blandishment in the external environment when a public organization performs its task and catch up with public value. This engenders more rigorous requirement to the strategic version and strategic arrangements for public organizations’ managers. In health care field, there are many challenges and strategic issues in facing National Health Service of Britain. NHS challenges lie in the partnership working between different service providers from local government, private sector to informal agencies and families themselves, the intractable issues that manifested in health service user involvement, leadership function and workforce arrangement, engagement with community civil society, as well as the change of organization system for its culture for example. How the managers should balance between different stakeholders, how they prioritize one activity and task over another in the performance and organization operation under public value standard and sector specific service quality requirement, and how they initiate objective plans with concern of impact of and relationship with the “internal market” within NHS is the question faced in their strategic management (Ibid, p61-70).

Bibliography注解

Alford, R. (1975). Health care politics, ideological and interest group barriers to reform. Chicago, U.S.A: Chicago University Press.
Baggot, R. (1997). Evaluating Health Care Reform: the case of the NHS Internal Market. Public Administration, 75 (2), 283-306 

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