---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: IRSPM panel on public services in developing countries
From: "William Mccourt" <
willy.mccourt@manchester.ac.uk>
Date: Tue, August 17, 2010 2:40 pm
Cc: "Richard Batley" <
R.A.Batley@bham.ac.uk>
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Dear colleagues
Please see conference panel/PMR Special Issue Call below. We hope it will
be of interest. (As always, apologies for any cross-posting.)
Yours sincerely
Richard Batley
Willy McCourt
IRSPM Header
XV IRSPM Conference
Value, Innovation and Partnership
Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
The politics and governance of public services in developing countries
This IRSPM panel will feed into a Special Issue of Public Management
Review (PMR), scheduled for 2012 (see below).
Chairs/joint editors
Willy McCourt (Institute for Development Policy and Management,
University of Manchester)
Richard Batley (International Development Department,
University of Birmingham)
Panel/Special Issue rationale
For most of the 1980s and 90s, public services as a specific form of
developing and transitional country state activity got somewhat lost
within public management theory and practice, as the New Public Management
and the World Bank/IMF-sponsored 'Washington model' of public reform
captured the attention of scholars and, forcibly, governments. Practical
initiatives and debate focused on managerial devolution, contracting and
the ubiquitous civil service reform and downsizing programmes (Batley and
Larbi, 2004; McCourt and Minogue, 2001).
However, the first decade of the twenty-first century has seen a revival
of interest and a host of service delivery initiatives in response to
policy developments which include:
* The importance of public services for the achievement of the Millennium
Development Goals
* The World Bank's World Development Report 2004: Making Services Work for
Poor People
* The problem of under-investment in infrastructure following the
international financial crisis of 1997/8
* Fragile and conflict-affected states, state-building and the role of
services in state legitimation
We adopt a broad definition of public services. It encompasses security
services (e.g. policing) and infrastructure (e.g. water and sanitation) as
well as personal services like education and health. It also encompasses
services provided by both public and private agencies, whether for profit
or not for profit (as long as there is at least a degree of 'publicness'
in the benefits that the service confers).
Panel/Special Issue focus
We have a particular interest in two aspects of service delivery:
* The politics of public service delivery, including the way in which
public services contribute to building and legitimising states, and issues
of corruption and patronage
* The governance and organisation of services, including new
understandings of provision by the state; the role of for-profit and
not-for-profit providers; service delivery networks and partnerships
(including public-private partnerships); and co-production between
producers and consumers
We also welcome submissions on other aspects of service delivery in
developing and transitional countries, including:
* Contributions to a theoretical understanding of service delivery
* Accountability relationships and provider responsiveness
* The impact of public services on different groups of citizens in terms
of poverty, gender, ethnicity etc.
* Financing of service delivery, particularly as this affects consumers'
access, and producers' accountability and performance
* The relevance of OECD countries' experience to developing and
transitional countries, and vice-versa
* Case studies of innovation in service delivery
* Evidence of the effects of decentralisation on service delivery
Contributors on these topics are encouraged to take account of any
implications that their studies have for the politics and governance of
services. That will create the possibility of dialogue between papers in
the conference panel and in the Special Issue.
Submitting to the Panel and the Special Issue
Submissions should be sent to Willy McCourt (address below). Contributors
should indicate whether they are interested in being considered for the
IRSPM conference panel, or the Special Issue, or both.
Submissions for IRSPM and PMR Special Issue:
1 October 2010: Closing date for abstract submissions
30 November: Authors notified of outcome of their abstract
submission
10 March 2011: Closing date for submission of final conference
papers and submissions for the Special Issue (for the latter, see PMR's
'instructions for authors' at
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/journal.asp?issn=1471-9037&linktype=44).
Information on IRSPM Dublin 2011 is available at
http://irspm2011.com/.
Please contact either of the Panel Chairs/Special Issue joint editors with
any queries. We very much look forward to receiving your contributions
and to interacting with you at IRSPM.
Willy McCourt
Institute for Development Policy and Management
University of Manchester, UK
(
willy.mccourt@manchester.ac.uk)
Richard Batley
International Development Department
University of Birmingham, UK
(
r.a.batley@bham.ac.uk <mailto:
r.a.batley@bham.ac.uk> )