Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

From Data To Decisions In Local Government, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

Instability Of Government Revenue And Expenditure In Less Developed Countries, David Lim

Prof. David Lim

The governments of most less developed countries (LDCs) depend basically on their tax and non-tax revenues to finance their expenditure programmes. Unless countervailing action is taken, instability in government revenue will result in instability in government expenditure. The latter can add considerably to the complexity of fiscal management, which may then render ineffective development planning.1 It can also reduce business confidence and lead to the precautionary discounting of prospective investment returns and so a lowering of the investment level. This note does not attempt to verify the claim that expenditure instability has adverse effects on economic growth. Its aim is …

Government Recurrent Expenditure And Economic Growth In Less Developed Countries, David Lim

Prof. David Lim

There is not much support in less developed countries for the hypothesis that recurrent government expenditure is seen as consumption and hence more dispensable than capital expenditure. There is little evidence of a secular decline in recurrent expenditure for a group of 54 less developed countries over the period 1965–1973, nor is there strong evidence of greater instability in recurrent expenditure.

Using Social Norms As A Substitute For Law, Bryan H. Druzin

Bryan H. Druzin

Cloud Computing Data Breaches: A Socio-Technical Review Of Literature, David Kolevski, Katina Michael

Professor Katina Michael

As more and more personal, enterprise and government data, services and infrastructure moves to the cloud for storage and processing, the potential for data breaches increases. Already major corporations that have outsourced some of their IT requirements to the cloud have become victims of cyber attacks. Who is responsible and how to respond to these data breaches are just two pertinent questions facing cloud computing stakeholders who have entered an agreement on cloud services. This paper reviews literature in the domain of cloud computing data breaches using a socio-technical approach. Socio-technical theory encapsulates three major dimensions- the social, the technical, …

Using A Social-Ethical Framework To Evaluate Location-Based Services In An Internet Of Things World, Roba Abbas, Katina Michael, Mg Michael

Associate Professor Katina Michael

The idea for an Internet of Things has matured since its inception as a concept in 1999. People today speak openly of a Web of Things and People, and even more broadly of an Internet of Everything. As our relationships become more and more complex and enmeshed, through the use of advanced technologies, we have pondered on ways to simplify flows of communications, to collect meaningful data, and use them to make timely decisions with respect to optimisation and efficiency. At their core, these flows of communications are pathways to registers of interaction, and tell the intricate story of outputs …

'Loose Tweets Sink Fleets' And Other Sage Advice: Social Media Governance, Policies And Guidelines, Jane Johnston

Jane Johnston

While social media represents a broad range of benefits to organisations and institutions, such as enhanced brand engagement, it also presents challenges and risks to reputation and security, such as confidentiality breaches. Employee use of popular social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, both at work and about work has resulted in organisations developing social media policies and guidelines as part of contemporary governance practice. This paper investigates this recent approach to corporate governance by examining 20 social media policies and guidelines from a sample of corporate, government and third sector organisations that are active social media users. It …

Sustainable Local Development. The Revitalization Of The Town Of Adwa (Ethiopia) Through Community-Based Endogenous Projects, Asayehgn Desta

Asayehgn Desta

Over the years, either self-initiated or by funding from development agencies, a number of developing countries have implemented various programs to tackle poverty. This case study was inspired by the One Village One Product (OVOP) movement initiated in the Oita Prefecture region of Japan. Given the positive aspects of the OVOP, the purpose of the study is to transfer some aspects of the OVOP movement in order to revitalize the town of Adwa, Tigrai, Ethiopia. The case study therefore suggests some possible community-based endogenous projects that could revitalize the town of Adwa, Tigrai, Ethiopia. As a result of the initiative …

Government Rail Asset Sales, And Return To The Public Sector, In New Zealand And Tasmania, Philip G. Laird

Dr Philip Laird

The paper outlines the sale, with a track lease, in 1993 of the state owned New Zealand Railways Corporation to a consortium, TranzRail Holdings formed by the United States and New Zealand interests. It also notes increases in productivity and traffic levels to 1999 with subsequent problems leading to the New Zealand Government agreeing in 2003 to repurchase and rehabilitate the track. The paper then outlines transfer of effective ownership of the trains and related services in 2003 to an Australian company, and in 2008 back to the New Zealand Government at appreciable net cost.After a brief outline of railways …

Doing It Tough: Factors Impacting On Local E-Government Mmaturity, Peter Shackleton, Linda Dawson

Associate Professor Linda Dawson

As growing numbers of citizens seek to use the Internet to do business, governments across the world have moved into the area of electronic service delivery. For the last decade significant advancements have been made in the area of e-Government. Today, e-Government is often assumed to be wellestablished. However, ongoing support is often missing, particularly at the local government level. The multi-level nature of government often means that citizens are frustrated when accessing services that span many levels of bureaucracy. This paper describes an empirical study which explores the factors influencing local egovernment maturity and identifies the barriers, enablers, priorities …

Who's Driving The Asylum Debate: Newspaper And Government Representations Of Asylum Seekers, Natascha Klocker, Kevin M. Dunn

Natascha Klocker

The welfare and future of asylum seekers in Australia have been very contentious contemporary issues. Findings based on content analysis of media releases in 2001 and 2002 reveal the unrelentingly negative way in which the federal government portrayed asylum seekers. While the government's negative tenor was constant during the study period, the specific terms of reference altered, from 'threat' through 'other', to 'illegality' and to 'burden'. The negative construction of asylum seekers was clearly mutable. Analysis of newspaper reporting during the same period indicates that the media largely adopted the negativity and specific references of the government. The media dependence …

The Infant Imaginary: Consent, Citizenship, And Pedagogy In Early America [Book Review], Elizabeth Dillon

Elizabeth Maddock Dillon

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Research And National Social Policy: An Academic Practitioner's Perspective, Ronald G. Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] Society has limited resources and many competing uses for them. I therefore take it as being an almost obvious proposition that at any point in time policy makers should strive to maximize the social benefits produced by the available funds they have to spend. This proposition implies that evaluation research should be undertaken either by or for government agencies. Policy makers need to know what benefits are being produced by each social program and the resource costs involved. They need to know which aspects of which programs are working and which programs need to be replaced.

The Impact Of Government Policies On Access To Broadband, James Prieger

James E. Prieger

With a new focus for federal universal service programs on broadband and the NTIA BTOP funding for broadband adoption projects, recent years have been “exciting times” for those interested in broadband policy aimed at stimulating adoption. While most of the recent programs are still too new to be evaluated rigorously, lessons from older academic study can inform our expectations and lend guidance toward evaluating program success. In this brief work, I review what we know from the last decade and a half of literature on the impact of regulation on broadband adoption, discuss the (mostly woeful) attempts at evaluating adoption …

How To Create American Manufacturing Jobs, John D. Gleissner Esquire

John D Gleissner Esquire

No abstract provided.

Statistical Indicators For Local Government Areas: A Case Study Of The Shoalhaven Lga, 1997, Nell Stetner-Houweling, David Steel, Greg Pullen

Professor David Steel

Decision makers and planers need to have relevant and reliable information to give a picture of how different areas are developing economically and socially. However, there is a perceived lack of timely and easily accessible data at the Local Government Area (LGA) level. This study produced a statistical profile of the Shoalhaven (LGA) by developing a conceptual framework, which represents the key economic, social, and population characteristics of the LGA. The statistical data available from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) at the level of the LGA, was investigated and summarised. Other sources of information available to create a statistical …

Rudd's Way: The Alp In Government And Its Policies Toward The South Pacific, Charles M. Hawksley

Charles M Hawksley

As Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd made critical statements on the approach of the Howard government to the Pacific Islands. He called for a new approach from Australia, particularly toward the Melanesian states of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Fiji. Now as Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has the opportunity to put the rhetoric into practice. There is certainly a more positive story about the Pacific being articulated by the Australian government, and this is being well received in the Pacific Islands. There has been a flurry of activity and much talk of "Pacific Development Partnerships", "mutual respect" and a "new …

Interative Discussion Leader (Idt) @ Futuregov Forum Queensland On The Theme Of "Mobile Government", Katina Michael, Erica Fensom

Professor Katina Michael

Mobile Government Briefing: Provide services anywhere any time: - Transact to enable in-field data collection, request processing, order management, approvals, edits, updates and execute actions. - What are the implications for the incorporation of rich multimedia content on devices to better serve staff and citizens? - Addressing the security challenges of various risks around data access, data transmission, and data storage for BI architecture and mobile devices

The Changes In The Republican Presidential Candidates' Wikipedia Articles Leading Up To Super Tuesday 2012, Matthew R. Cox

Matthew R. Cox

Throughout its more than 11 years of existence, many librarians, professors, and teachers, among countless others, have been wary of Wikipedia due to its seemingly unregulated nature and the fact that anyone can make changes to its articles. Although many of these justifiably skeptical professionals have become more accepting of Wikipedia as a good source for finding a general overview of a topic, there continues to be a great deal of distrust in the site’s accuracy. Articles on politicians and controversial issues are often seen as even less reliable than other types of articles since they are thought of as …

Benchmarking In The Non-Government Sector, Peter Kelly, Frank Deane, Trevor Crowe, Carla Morgan

Trevor Crowe

[extract] A Question to Ponder - How does your service compare to other similar services in the industry? How would knowing this help your organisation?

The United Nations And War In The Twentieth And Twenty-First Centuries, Robert Weiner

Robert Weiner

The United Nations was created in 1945 to prevent another world war. It was designed, as the Preamble to the Charter states, to eliminate the scourge of war. The failure to agree on a permanent UN international army meant that the UN had to improvise in dealing with wars. Peacekeeping, which is not mentioned anywhere in the UN Charter, had to be invented. This study investigates how peacekeeping has evolved through four “generations,” culminating in Unsanctioned multinational forces consisting of “coalitions of the willing.” The study also stresses how one of the greatest peacekeeping failures of the UN in the …

State Aid And City Needs: An Examination Of Residual State Aid To Large Cities, John P. Pelissero

John P. Pelissero

Dye and Hurley's (1978) conclusion that the states are somewhat more responsive to city needs than the federal government was questioned on methodological grounds by Ward (1981). The point of contention was Dye and Hurley's use of per capita measures of state/federal aid and urban needs. The research reported here examines state aid to the forty seven largest U.S. cities, and employs residual measures of state aid allocations before and during the urban crisis. Multiple regression of residual state aid on social, economic, or fiscal need indicators shows the states to have been very responsive to city needs over time, …

Local Government Fiscal Burden In Nonmetropolitan America, Kenneth M. Johnson, John P. Pelissero, David B. Holian, Michael T. Maly

John P. Pelissero

Rising fiscal pressure on local governments in rural areas of the United States is documented in this study. The level of fiscal burden on taxpayers to support local governments in nonmetropolitan areas is found to be higher than that in metropolitan areas between 1977 and 1987. Using a model from the urban fiscal literature, the level of fiscal burden in nonmetropolitan areas is found to be influenced by a combination of demographic, socioeconomic, intergovernmental, and historical factors. Intergovernmental revenue transfers from the state and federal government play a critical role in determining the level of fiscal burden rural taxpayers bear. …

Regional Development And Local Government: Three Generations Of Federal Intervention, Andrew H. Kelly, Brian Dollery, Bligh Grant

Bligh Grant

Contemporary Australian local government faces several daunting problems, not least escalating financial un-sustainability and local infrastructure depletion. The main response of the various state and territory governments has taken the form of a series structural reform programs, with a strong emphasis on forced amalgamation. However, widespread dissatisfaction with the consequences of these compulsory consolidation programs has led to a search for alternative policy solutions based largely on shared services and various types of regional co-operation between local councils. This paper seeks to place proposed ‘regional’ solutions to contemporary problems in historical perspective by providing a comparative account of three distinct …

War In The Age Of Intelligent Machines And Unintelligent Government, Ian Buchanan

Ian M Buchanan

The 2004 US election must have caused hearts to sink everywhere in the Third World. The bloody insurgency in Iraq only strengthened the position of the 'War President', giving him greater license to continue his campaign of terror. Atthe time of the election the death toll of US soldiers was nearing a thousand with the number injured seven times that. To which toll one must add the haunting fact that of the 500 000 plus US servicemen and women who served in theFirst Gulf War some 325 000 are now on disability pensions suffering a variety of acute maladies generally …

Benchmarking In The Non-Government Sector, Peter Kelly, Frank Deane, Trevor Crowe, Carla Morgan

Frank Deane

[extract] A Question to Ponder - How does your service compare to other similar services in the industry? How would knowing this help your organisation?

Migrant Remittances, Financial Sector Development And The Government Ownership Of Banks, Arusha V. Cooray

Arusha Cooray

This study investigates the influence of migrant remittances on twodimensions of the financial sector, namely, size and efficiency. Evidence suggests thatmigrant remittances contribute to increasing the size and efficiency of the financialsector. The study, in addition, examines the impact of remittances on financial sectorsize and efficiency through the government ownership of banks channel. While theresults suggest that remittances lead to larger increases in financial sector size incountries in which the government ownership of banks is lower and increases inefficiency in countries in which the government ownership of banks is higher, thegovernment is found to play an important role in promoting …

Benchmarking In The Non-Government Sector, Peter Kelly, Frank Deane, Trevor Crowe, Carla Morgan

Peter Kelly

[extract] A Question to Ponder - How does your service compare to other similar services in the industry? How would knowing this help your organisation?

Contracting Out To Private Military And Security Companies, Nikolaos Tzifakis

Nikolaos Tzifakis

No abstract provided.

Evolution Of Australian Government Industry Statement: Building A Competitive Australia, Robert Castle

Robert G. Castle

No abstract provided.