Search results for "Government"
showing 10 items of 1098 documents
WITHDRAWN: What is the role of Pôle Emploi? Crossed representations among job seekers and careers advisers: Between requests for help and types of su…
2020
Abstract Introduction Since 2008, Pole Emploi (PE), the French government agency responsible for handling unemployment matters and unemployment benefits, has undergone a major restructuring, influencing the work of careers advisers (CA) and the support and follow-up services provided to job seekers (JS). This study examines the representations of PE and support among both CAs and JSs. Objectives The aim of the study is to contribute to a reflection on CA training. Method In the first study, 84 CAs and 125 JSs responded to a questionnaire using a word association task (WAT). In the second study, interviews were conducted with 22 CAs and 19 JSs. The data were analyzed based on a lexicometric …
Don't Tell Us: The Demand for Secretive Behaviour
2009
The matter studied here is how, and with what implications, people may decide that they do not want to be let into secrets that concern them. They could get the information at no cost but they refuse to know. The reasoning is framed in terms of principals and agents, with the principals assumed not to want to know the agents' secrets. For convenience, the context chosen for the exposition is mainly that of voters as principals and the government or the office-holders as agents. After some exploration of the motivations underlying the attitude of the principals, the paper focuses on the case when neither total secrecy nor total disclosure prevails. The demand for partial secrecy is analysed …
The dynamics of privatization and regulation of water services: a comparative study of two Spanish regions
2013
As in other economic activities, privatization of water delivery has not resulted in the retreat of the public sector, but rather a change in the way in which the government intervenes in the water industry. This paper illustrates this situation by comparing urban water services in two Spanish regions, Andalusia and Catalonia. Water service delivery is structured very differently in these two regions with respect to private involvement, the degree of market concentration and, as a result, problems in competition. The characteristics of the two regions' respective regulatory agencies reflect the different paths taken to privatization: in Catalonia private firms have much more tradition and o…
The governments' doctors: the roles and responsibilities of chief medical officers in the European Union.
2010
The regular meetings of the chief medical officers (CMOs) from the European Union's (EU's) 27 Member States provide an important forum to address issues of common interest affecting Europe's populations. Yet there is no universally agreed role for a CMO. This article describes the findings of a study, based on interviews with key informants and documentary analysis that sought to describe their diverse roles. For the purpose of this article, CMOs are defined as those sent by their governments to the regular EU meetings of CMOs. Four broad categories of countries were identified: those whose CMO is the most senior doctor in the health ministry, in some cases with responsibility spanning all …
The Application of an Information System in the E-Government of Colombia to Improve Service to Citizens
2020
One of the main objectives of e-government is the use of data to improve processes, identify opportunities and make better decisions, this article describes a success story in the government of Colombia in building an information system that makes use of data exploitation techniques in one of the most important state entities in the country that guides, inspects, monitors and controls registry offices and notaries. The article describes the context and reasons why the project was carried out along with the architecture that was used to design and develop the information system that is currently used to monitor and control in a timely, clear, effective and efficient service delivery to citiz…
Digital Platforms for Restructuring the Public Sector
2018
Many technological innovations have led to the emergence of the platform economy in recent years. This development is changing the entire landscape of business in the era of digitalisation. However, the impacts of the platform economy on public services and government are not well known. In this article we study the potential for the digital platform economy to help restructure the public sector. Firstly, central features of the new platform technology are explored, pointing to an algorithmic revolution, big data and cloud computing. Platforms are used in coordinating market transactions in an extremely efficient way. In order to apply the platform concept to the public sector, an experimen…
The Spanish Case: The Housing Market Bubble and External Disequilibria
2013
The chapter recalls the major issues at stake in the Spanish economy since 1996, a time when financial markets started to discount the Spanish entry into the Eurozone. We start with a brief analysis of the most recent economic developments, and the current macroeconomic imbalances. As of 2007, the Spanish economy underwent its worst period in recent history, since the Stabilisation Plan was implemented in 1959. When 2008 came, however, what was most worrying was the sense of disarray that the Government projected: it simply took measures against the global financial crisis, as though this were the major, and indeed, the only crisis to cope with. Nevertheless, what affected the Spanish econo…
Prudential Supervisorss Independence and Income Smoothing in European Banks
2018
We investigate the role of prudential supervisors’ independence in affecting income smoothing behavior in European banks. Powerful national supervisors are predicted to influence the accounting practices of their supervised entities, shaping the properties of the accounting numbers they prepare. In particular, we study whether greater independence of powerful supervisors from the government and from the industry is associated with lower income smoothing. We use the mandatory adoption of a single set of accounting standards in Europe as a shock to the influence of prudential supervisors over national banks’ accounting practice. Our results confirm that political and industry independence of …
How simultaneity in time, contextual influences and constraints affect planning situations, and shape the capacity of participants to plan
2010
Abstract During the post-war years from 1945 the Labour Party in Norway obtained a unique possibility to realise its definite vision for a planned development of Norway. The result turned out to be a distinctively Norwegian form of long-term planning that throughout successive socialist and non-socialist governments lasted right up to 2005, when the government at that time let go of the idea of a long-term programme as a conceptual tool for comprehensive governmental planning and control. This article analyses the rise and fall of the Governmental Long-Term Programme in Norway. By developing an institutional approach to the study of governmental planning, implications are drawn with regard …
The Risk Society: Towards a new modernity
2009
The present review discusses one of the pioneer projects authored by Ulrich Beck, regarding risk perception issues, which was originally titled Risikogesellshaft, Auf dem weg in eine andere Moderne or in English The society of risk, towards a new modernity. This review is part of a broader project related to a Social Psychology doctoral thesis on fears of travelling in urban circumstances.