Adaptive governance,status quo bias,and political competition: Why the sharing economy is welcome in some cities but not in others

Examining the variation in policies across 47 U.S. cities, we show that political competition has a significant effect on governments' regulatory responses to the sharing economy. Specifically, a greater level of political competition is associated with a more favorable regulatory response for sharing companies such as Airbnb. This finding is explained using the concepts of governmental status quo bias and adaptive governance. When considering the interests of the public and market incumbents, governments generally favor the latter (i.e., the status quo). This is because single-industry economic interests can more easily be organized into interest groups that can influence policymaking through lobbying. However, a greater level of political competition was found to reduce the power of entrenched market incumbents. This finding provides broad support to the hypothesis that the promotion of political accountability through greater political competition is conducive to adaptive governance.     

The impact of functional decentralization and externalization on local government transparency

Local governments are increasingly establishing functional decentralized agencies, such as autonomous organizations, public companies, foundations and public business entities to provide public services. Furthermore, they are also introducing the private sector, contracting out public services to a private company and creating mixed companies. Our aim is to analyze the effect of functional decentralization and externalization (outsourcing or contracting out) processes on public transparency levels, since theoretically, they are aimed toward good governance and accountability. To do so, we use a sample composed of the 110 largest Spanish cities for the period 2008–2010. The results show that decentralized agencies, especially public companies and foundations, impact positively on levels of public transparency. However, there is no evidence that suggests that the introduction of the private sector, using outsourcing and mixed companies, affects the transparency of local governments.     

Towards a typology of adaptive governance in the digital government context: The role of decision-making and accountability

The notion of adaptive governance was originally created to capture forms of collaboration in socio-ecological systems that can respond to rapid changes in the environment. However, such a notion also has a great potential to be transferred and understood in the digital government context, where there is an increasing need to establish forms of collaboration that can respond to swift changes in the environment related to technology and citizen demands. Drawing on the analysis of four cases of IT-related project collaboration, we put forward that the degree of sharing of decision-making power and of accountability between government and non-government actors is critical to developing different types of adaptive governance. Findings show that the distribution of decision-making power and of accountability can be decoupled, resulting in three types of adaptive governance – namely polycentric, agile, and organic governance. We contribute to research by detailing and empirically testing the notion of adaptive governance in a digital government context, and to practice by highlighting the role of the distribution of decision-making power and of accountability in devising adaptive governance strategies.     

Designing and implementing data collaboratives: A governance perspective

Recently, attention has been paid to the opportunities of data sharing across government sectors for complex public problems. These so-called ‘data collaboratives’ are seen as a novel way of leveraging different sources of data and expertise for societal impact. Data collaboratives come with new challenges that might require new governance structures and processes. So far, scant attention has been paid in the literature to data collaborative governance. This study aims to fill that gap. Building upon the collaborative governance and information sharing literature, a framework for Data Collaborative Governance is developed. This framework was tested in a living lab that focused on the public problem of anti-social behavior. Empirical data was collected over a period of one and a half years and analyzed based on an abductive research approach. The findings show that data sharing adds new elements to collaborative governance theory and practice. This study also demonstrates that a living lab is a promising methodology for studying data collaboratives. Finally, it shows that working across boundaries of organizations and sharing data to address complex problems in more collaborative ways has the potential to generate insights for complex public problems.     

西方国家公共图书馆治理的特点——以西方国家的文化管理体制特点为背景的分析

西方国家文化管理体制的特点主要表现为：注重分权管理,即政策、决策、执行三个环节相分离;注重间接管理,即权力下放并在资金分配上遵循“一臂间距”原则;注重绩效管理,即在绩效评价上强调结果。西方国家的公共图书馆治理也形成了相应的特点,如在服务供给上,追求全面覆盖和普遍均等;在管理主体设置上,普遍采取理事会制;在经费投入上,以地方政府为主,中央政府予以大力支持;在治理评价上,普遍强调结果为重。西方国家公共图书馆治理的特点对我国具有重要的借鉴意义。     

从图书馆管理走向图书馆治理——图书馆法人治理结构与行业管理初探

图书馆治理与图书馆管理具有显著区别。在图书馆管理中,政府是图书馆事务的决策者和直接规制者,而在图书馆治理中,政府是政策制定者和经费提供者。图书馆治理需要法人治理结构和行业管理的体制基础。法人治理结构的特征是决策、执行和监督三个环节相分离,做到分权制衡,目的是为了实现法治化管理。实行图书馆行业管理是图书馆自治和自律的根本表现,它需要建立有图书馆行业协会。建立图书馆法人治理结构,培育图书馆行业协会组织,是我国图书馆治理走向＂良好治理＂的必由之路。参考文献17。     

Using government websites to enhance democratic E-governance: A conceptual model for evaluation

The last few decades have witnessed unprecedented transformations in every sector of society, resulting from the explosive advancement of information and communication technologies. This drastic development has raised the hopes of citizens for better lives, in both developing and advanced countries, urging innovation in government to make it more competent. Due to e-business revolutions, governments around the world have applied similar principles and technologies to government by opening their websites for more efficient publication of information and more effective delivery of public services. While a government website is an important venue for citizens to participate in public affairs and decision-making processes, early e-government practices tended to overlook democratic purposes by focusing on the features of e-business and information systems. There have been increasing criticisms that e-government system design has focused mainly on the provider's perspectives. Reflecting on the theoretical implications of this, we argue that a government website should facilitate democratic processes involving not only information sharing and delivery of better public services, but also deliberation and coproduction. The purpose of this study is to probe into multidimensional features that enable government websites to fulfill their promises. Developing an integrative model for evaluating a government website, namely the Democratic E-governance Website Evaluation Model, we conducted a qualitative meta-analysis of four strands of literature: information systems, business, public administration, and democratic theory. Our study contributes to the literature by extending the purview of e-government website analysis beyond the question of citizens' acceptance and towards the issue of their engagement, bringing a stimulating view of citizens as active agents in governance, and it provides a holistic model for public authorities to improve their websites to facilitate democratic e-governance that helps to create more effective public outcomes.     

Enabling development through governance and mobile technology

The impact of mobile technology on governance and development has attracted significant interest in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for Development and Electronic Governance communities. There is growing consensus that governance mechanisms must complement access to technology to achieve greater impact on development. However, few or no rigorous research exists to show how such mechanisms can support the delivery of mobile services to vulnerable groups. This study fills this important gap by first providing a conceptual framework, based on the Choice Framework and the Structuration Theory, to elaborate on the relationship between ICT, governance and citizen capabilities. Second, the framework is applied to analyze livelihood needs of 45 women head porters interviewed in Accra. Third, as all women under study have access to mobile phones, we determine which governance mechanisms are needed to support the delivery of mobile services to them. Results show that three governance mechanisms enable the contribution of mobile technology to meeting the livelihood needs of this group: 1) updating financial and telecommunication regulations to enable the provision of mobile-based services e.g. mobile microfinance, to vulnerable groups; 2) mobilizing local communities in the production of local contents; and 3) engaging non-governmental organizations in building capacity of government agencies in mobile service delivery and in training vulnerable communities in effective use of mobile technology to access information and services critical to their needs. We conclude by discussing the use of the Structuration Theory along with the Choice Framework to shape development processes based on citizen needs and by discussing the applicability of our framework to similar vulnerable groups.     

Crowdfunding public projects: Collaborative governance for achieving citizen co-funding of public goods

This study explores the potential of crowdfunding as a tool for achieving “citizen co-funding” of public projects. Focusing on philanthropic crowdfunding, we examine whether collaborative projects between public and private organizations are more successful in fundraising than projects initiated solely by private organizations. We argue that government involvement in crowdfunding provides some type of accreditation or certification that attests to a project's aim to achieve public rather than private goals, thereby mitigating information asymmetry and improving mutual trust between creators (i.e., private sector organizations) and funders (i.e., crowd). To support this argument, we show that crowdfunding projects with government involvement achieved a greater success rate and attracted a greater amount of funding than comparable projects without government involvement. This evidence shows that governments may take advantage of crowdfunding to “co-fund” public projects with the citizenry for addressing the complex challenges that we face in the twenty-first century.     

Information governance,records management,and freedom of information: A study of local government authorities in England

In many democratic states political rhetoric gives weight to increasing public participation in and understanding of the political process; (re)-establishing public trust in government decision making; increasing transparency, openness, and accountability of public authorities; and, ultimately, improving government decision-making on behalf of citizens. Access to the public record and freedom of information (FOI) are mechanisms which help to facilitate the accountability of public authorities. Many jurisdictions have introduced legislation related to these mechanisms, and the UK government is no exception with its enactment of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in 2000. University College London (UCL) ran a research project over 12 months in 2008–2009, funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council. The research project examined what the impact of the UK FOIA had been on records management services in public authorities, especially local government. This article reports on some of the findings of the study. It considers how FOI compliance and records management functions are organized in local government and the role of information governance which is emerging as an umbrella for such functions. It draws some conclusions about the contributions that records management services make to the ability of local authorities to comply with the FOIA and identifies some ways in which user experience may be affected by the management of records.     

The forgotten promise of e-government maturity: Assessing responsiveness in the digital public sector

Assessing e-government responsiveness is one of the major gaps in the currently dominant e-government maturity models. While we have a relatively large pool of models focusing on technological and organizational integration from a supply side perspective, measures of responsiveness of e-government systems from a user perspective are still lacking. Replicating a study from New Zealand and Australia, this study explores the response time and quality of e-mail response in Danish local and central governments (N = 175). Despite that Denmark is high ranking in international benchmark studies, we find that one third of central government agencies did not respond at all, and close to 80% of the ministries provided none or incomplete answers. Local government responds faster and provides answers that are more complete and accurate than those provided by central government. Implications for e-government are discussed.     

Data governance: Organizing data for trustworthy Artificial Intelligence

The rise of Big, Open and Linked Data (BOLD) enables Big Data Algorithmic Systems (BDAS) which are often based on machine learning, neural networks and other forms of Artificial Intelligence (AI). As such systems are increasingly requested to make decisions that are consequential to individuals, communities and society at large, their failures cannot be tolerated, and they are subject to stringent regulatory and ethical requirements. However, they all rely on data which is not only big, open and linked but varied, dynamic and streamed at high speeds in real-time. Managing such data is challenging. To overcome such challenges and utilize opportunities for BDAS, organizations are increasingly developing advanced data governance capabilities. This paper reviews challenges and approaches to data governance for such systems, and proposes a framework for data governance for trustworthy BDAS. The framework promotes the stewardship of data, processes and algorithms, the controlled opening of data and algorithms to enable external scrutiny, trusted information sharing within and between organizations, risk-based governance, system-level controls, and data control through shared ownership and self-sovereign identities. The framework is based on 13 design principles and is proposed incrementally, for a single organization and multiple networked organizations.     

Revisiting social media institutionalization in government. An empirical analysis of barriers

Social media have become a common organizational resource of governments and public administrations in different contexts. Previous authors have stated that social media institutionalization encompasses a process including stages from experimentation to complete command of the innovation. However, an understanding of barriers to social media institutionalization in public administration needs to be developed. In this article we focus on exploring what factors operate as barriers of the social media institutionalization process. Methodologically, we use a mixed-methods strategy combining different sources of data for triangulation purposes, including a survey on social media conducted to Spanish largest local governments. Based on this data, and following the literature on social media institutionalization, we construct a Social Media Institutionalization Index (SMI). Our SMI is founded on a set of variables measuring to what extent social media have been embedded in public sector organizations. Also, we conducted a case study in a city council based on semi-structured interviews. Our results suggest that social media institutionalization has not been fully developed in our sample of local governments. In addition, different variables (including security, lack of resources for maintenance, control and evaluation, organizational culture, or absence of governance framework) are perceived by public managers as institutionalization barriers, whereas the governance scheme of social media seems to be the critical variable. At the same time, we emphasize that some inhibitors might be overvalued by public employees. This article encourages future avenues of comparative research and practical recommendations to public managers leading social media in the public sector.     

Integration and coordination: Advancing China's fragmented e-government to holistic governance

In the context of Political Science, fragmentation refers to the process of decentralization, department differentiation and division of management in governmental institutions. Increasingly fragmented features emerge in China's administrative values, public resource operation, public organizational structures and public service provision in the post-industrial age, which affect the planning and implementation of e-government and inevitably map onto virtual government, leading to a fragmented Chinese e-government. Although most of the literature include impediments or measures to China's e-government, hardly any research can be found that focuses on theoretically identifying and innovating the way to handle problems. An aim of this research is to determine that holistic governance could be considered a rational choice for the transformation from fragmentation to holistic development and an effective measure for the sound advancement of e-government.     

Information Technology for Economic and Social Benefit—Options for Bangladesh

Significant changes in the Indonesian political system have affected most aspects of its government and community. First, there is an effort to implement democracy in terms of ideology as well as political practices. Second, the government system is transforming from centralization to decentralization, as the development process is delegated to regional governments (cities and kabupatens). Third, there is an effort to build community consciousness through community participation in national and regional development.

Participating in the development process, citizens should be supported with relevant public information. It is the government's task to provide information regarding governmental issues and public interests. As communication and information have been delegated to regional governments, they should execute this task based on good governance principles.

However, providing fair and balanced information is not simple. Large populations and regions separated by water and mountains make the task harder. Therefore, regional governments must adopt advanced information technology systems, which functioned to transfer information to the public as well as to receive public feedback medium in an efficient and effective way. To meet those qualifications, regional governments endeavor to implement e-government as a tool for democratizing communication and information.

After almost 3 years, there are indications that e-government has not been properly implemented by regional governments. They have faced many problems, including lack of financing, poor technical skill, lack of human resources and infrastructure, and the political will of the government elite itself.

Nevertheless, there are many ways to overcome these problems. Standardizing the application of e-government, establishing the regulation of e-government, involving other stakeholders, and developing human resources may aid in the implementation of e-government. In addition, lessons learned from other regions, for example, Kutai Timur or Gorontalo, are also recommended.     

Digitalization as a policy response to social acceleration: Comparing democratic problem solving in Denmark and the Netherlands

Social acceleration – the progressively faster rate of technological, social and life-pace change – poses a dilemma for democratic problem solving: It increases the amount of new social problems emerging on the political agenda and hence amplifies the demand for rapid and effective policy solutions. Democratic politics is, however, slow. So either the political system speeds up decision making at the cost of democracy, or it holds on to democracy at the cost of problem solving. Obviously, neither option is desirable. How do governments try to solve this dilemma and provide positive-sum solutions that are both effective and democratic? We present two so-called paradigm cases of governments, in Denmark and the Netherlands, that have developed a remarkably quick and effective digitalization response to social acceleration. By focusing on four markers – (1) awareness and timing; (2) motivation; (3) new strategic goals; and (4) goal-directed strategic policy action – we theorize how governments aim to solve the dilemma for democratic problem solving under conditions of social acceleration.     

科技期刊在科研诚信协同治理中的作用

“透明性”是科研诚信治理中的一个重要概念。科技期刊在科研诚信协同治理中具有4个方面的重要作用:维护出版规范的守门人、严守审校流程的控制人、维护同行评议权威的责任人和科研诚信协同治理的倡导者。科技期刊的上述4个作用不宜夸大,且应同机构开展积极互动和信息共享,才能负责任地履行自身在科研诚信治理中的职责,进而对推进科研诚信协同治理产生重要的现实意义。     

The small group subtlety of using ICT for participatory governance: A South African experience

The greater number of government efforts to stimulate participative governance in communities using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) often fall short of expectations. In South Africa extending e-government to communities has been in the form of more and/or better equipped ICT-enabled community centres, called Thusong Service Centres. In this paper, based on action research experiences, we report outcomes of interpretive research into ICT-enabled approaches to participative governance in communities. Using the Diffusion of Innovations theory as an analytic lens, the findings reveal a subtlety that is not often mentioned in the call for participative e-governance; people from communities prefer to work in groups rather than individually. The collectiveness inclination is a common denominator of many developing countries where people choose to come together to leverage the few available resources. Individuals become apprehensive when made to work on their own using the ICT. The research reveals the necessity to re-design ICT to suit small groups as part of participative e-governance rather than the normative ICT design that suits individual work styles. Additionally, the research reveals that by working in groups, communities are more willing to accept the government initiatives that are being energised with the use of ICT. Methodologically, the research revealed the ethical issue that arises from action research in its raising of unrealistic expectations in a community.     

言论自由与地方治理——以“彭水诗案”为例

“彭水诗案”是社会转型时期地方政府滥用公权侵犯公民言论自由的一例其型事件。本文详细剖析这一个案,首先指出:当地政府采取非理性态度对待政治民谣,与“法治”、“参与”、“稳定”等“善治”理念背道而驰。其次分析:网络时代公众个体传播力量需要正视。在此基础上,本文进一步认为:有效保障公民言论自由,能有效遏止地方政治的“类苏丹化”倾向,促使地方治理趋向“善治”。     

Agile local governments: Experimentation before implementation

This paper discusses how local governments can team up for joint service provision, be more adaptive towards new technological and organisational changes and introduce novel services following main industry trends (e.g. predictive analytics, autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence). The conceptual approach is to use Public Value (PV) as the framework for the organisation and management of government performance, one of the most important successor ‘paradigmettes’ of the New Public Management (NPM). Based on the PV concept, the ‘adaptive model’ for local governments is introduced according to which each procured ICT solution is preceded by agile, open, bottom-up and experimental trial. This model is corroborated via recent empirical evidence from the case of Helsinki and Tallinn which was obtained by observing how city governments collaborate on joint innovation-lab-type structures and conduct agile trials in the field of smart mobility before traditional procurement.