The Energy Performance in the Italian Public Administration： State of the Art and Future Prospects

The commitment to improve energy and environmental performance in public administration is essential for the success of development models geared towards lasting sustainability. The Public Administration （PA） in Italy, in particular, plays a key role to affn-m models of development oriented towards energy and environmental sustainability, thanks to a wider and more innovative vision. The PA has a dual consumer/user role, public heritage and decision maker/planner, in promoting energy efficiency at local level, in the light of specific problems and peculiarities. For several decades, initiatives have been launched at various levels to improve energy and environmental performance in the public administration. The aim of this study is to outline from a critical perspective, the state of the art of policy makers in Italy concerning energy efficiency measures in public administration. There are however many cultural, value-related, financial, technological, institutional, and operational issues in the PA sector that limit investments in energy efficiency. It should be noted that if on one hand the PA shows a lack of knowledge and is unwilling to adopt practices and systemic tools for monitoring and control, on the other, in terms of bureaucracy, the system appears to be far too complicated and costly. The multiple benefits linked to improved energy performance would therefore require that the PA rethink their organizational and functional models, put in place more flexible and less bureaucratic forms of management and a more dynamic, pervasive, and proactive approach towards initiatives that promote energy efficiency. The research is a contribution towards identifying the driving forces behind potential systems and tools for energy efficiency in the PA, highlighting both critical elements and opportunities and, in particular, the limits deriving from the technological, managerial, and organizational options available for energy eff^ciency enhancement in the sector of the Italian PA.

Public Accounting and IPSAS in Portugal： The Accounting Standardization System for Public Administrations

The Accounting Standardization System for Public Administrations （SNC-AP） was approved by Decree-Law No. 192/2015, of September 11 and constituted the new accounting system for public administrations in Portugal, which will take effect from January 1, 2017, although there were pilot entities that are already applying it in the year 2016. The reasons for the approval of these accounting regulations are presented in the approval diploma itself, the existence of a strong fragmentation and outdated accounting standardization for the public sector. This paper intends to analyze the public accounting reform in Portugal based on the SNC-AP and the impacts that it will determine in public institutions in terms of accounting in relation to the previous POC-P regime and sectoral plans as well as the resources involved in the Implementation. Likewise, it is intended to assess whether all public bodies subject to its adoption will proceed to its implementation on January 1, 2017, as planned. For this purpose, the data available on this subject will be used, in particular those of the Directorate-General for the Budget of the Ministry of Finance.

Change in Public Administration from the Perspective of Risk Society

In the context of risk society, public administration is facing more complex circumstances, which will inevitably call for an overall restructuring. In the dimension of circumstances, extreme disasters, transboundary crisis and emerging risks create the complex context of public administration. In the dimension of structure, the original structure of public administration still exists but its mode of operation is subject to change. In the meantime, the adaptation to complex scenarios of potential risk society will bring innovations to the structure of public administration so that the structure can develop from a hierarchical mode to a network mode on the whole. In the dimension of process, driven by shifts between order and chaos within the social system, public administration will also undergo frequent shifts between routine administration and emergency management. The core of public administration in the context of risk society is its emergency management, which needs to strike a balance between security and development at the value goal level. As to institutional design, emergency management should be characteristic of an all-hazards approach, multi-organization participation, whole-process management and overall adaptive management. Both the theory and the practice of public administration in China need to be reviewed to address challenges of risk society and explore a new approach that is suitable for China's political situation and can be included into our global risk society governance.

Including Minorities Within Organizations.A Research on Cultural Diversity in Italian Public Administration

The organizations operating in the public sphere can adopt various relational strategies to adapt to transformations linked to the presence of minorities and cultural diversities among its members.The emergence of the concept of diversity in the 1990s and the associated shifting of equal opportunities pose specific challenges in relation to minority employees.The aim of this study is to carry out a primary mapping of the diversity inclusion policies in Italian public administrations,as an emblematic example of the public sector in the Mediterranean area,and to analyse the factors that may favour the inclusion of minorities within organizations.Our approach integrates both quantitative and qualitative analysis.The research was organized in two phases:the first one was a monitoring of those public administrations sensitive to diversity policies;the second one was an analysis of 38 semi-structured interviews with privileged witnesses,including an analysis of the data and information from current activities of their organizations.An important element of originality of this contribution is that it investigates the perspectives and perceptions of the inhabitant of the Italian public administrations.Finally,this study offers concrete recommendations for the implementation of gender equality and diversity&inclusion in Italy,particularly in terms of training policies.

Study on the Instability of Information Systems and Security Risks in the Public Administration: Case of Burkina Faso Public Administration

The purpose of this research is to show the instability and the security risks of the information system in Burkina-Faso public administration. In this paper, witnessing unsatisfactory services such as government messaging (mailer.gov.bf) as well as G-cloud services which are the government cloud were studied. The behavior of user agents on the administration’s IT infrastructures which could expose the information system to security risks was also studied. The expected result shows evidence of the weakness of the public administration information system and provides some recommendation.

Publicness:The Basis of Constructing a Public Administration Discipline in China

The legitimacy crisis of public administration has a long history.From a historical perspective,an analysis of five Western pathways in the discipline of public administration shows that the roots of this crisis lie in the lack of a public nature.From a theoretical perspective,the“publicness”of public administration should be defined along the dimensions of public administration powers,actors,targets,methods and values.In terms of practice,the uniqueness of China’s public power framework,the influence of traditional political culture on the public nature of Chinese public administration and the provisions governing this public nature at different stages of China’s development constitute the unique public nature of the construction of Chinese public administration.The discipline construction of Chinese public administration should be rebuilt so that its public nature forms the basis of its legitimacy,in accord with historical logic,theoretical logic and practical logic.We should construct a publicness discourse system of Chinese public administration that adheres to the value guidance of publicness and should frame research topics on the basis of publicness.This will ultimately form a research paradigm for the public nature of public administration that will consolidate the foundation of the legitimacy of the discipline construction of public administration.

From administering administrative divisions to regional public administration： a game analysis of evolution in the pattern of governance by the government

Regional public administration represents in essence an institutional change in the pattern of governance by the government, in that it breaks down the original institutional arrangements of the administration of administrative divisions and embarks on a new process of institutional evolution of the patterns of interest distribution in society. Present throughout this process is a game between different interests, leading to the final emergence of a new system - a new contractual setup resulting from the playing out of the relevant factors. These games take place mainly between the central and the local authorities and among the latter. Setting up a cooperative approach of ＂repeated gaming＂ when the game runs into possible difficulties, developing mechanisms conducive to better information exchange and to bilateral or multilateral consultation, further reshaping government functions by cutting the interest ties that link local authorities with socioeconomic entities, and strengthening the central authorities＇ macro-control functions are efficient guidance measures for setting up a system of regional public administration and realizing change in governance patterns.

The AHP-Based Assessment of Public Services With Respect to Different Groups of Customers of Polish Local Government

The situation of the contemporary economic systems is based on their ability to ensure optimal response to the customer needs. There are several important groups of clients, who may determine development processes and who are recipients of public services. They include： residents, entrepreneurs, tourists, and State Treasury. Local governments are equipped with a range of legal instruments to provide public services addressed to the selected clients. The objective of this paper is to present the application of the AHP method to assess the significance of the selected categories of public services for different groups of clients in Poland. The results allow setting priorities for future policy and adjust the tasks to the specific expectations of each group of clients. The model of assessment of public services was built using the analytic hierarchy process （AHP）. Since the 1970＇s, this multicriteria decision-support method has been used by researchers and practitioners in many areas of socioeconomic life. The case study presented in this paper involved 14 experts--public administration workers in one of the districts in Southern Poland. The survey consisted of two stages. First, they assessed--using the AHP--the influence of each group of customers on local development processes. The most important was ＂business＂ （priority 38.7%）, followed by ＂tourists＂ （29.7%）, ＂citizens＂ （26.1%）, and ＂central administration＂ （5.5%）. Second, they evaluated at the five-point Liken scale the influence of over 20 different public services with respect to different groups of clients. The results were aggregated using arithmetic mean and multiplied by the priorities of the clients. The synthesized final score indicated the most significant public activities overall, which were ＂roads＂ （4.16）, ＂transport＂ （3.93）, and ＂tourism＂ （3.84）.

The Public Service as an Actor of Political Network

This research analyzes the role of public service in the political networks. The status of civil servants in these networks is not obvious. On the one hand, the officials are surrounded by strict framework of regulations and law. They are not independent subjects of political decisions, but at the same time, they are the main sources of information needed for making political decisions. On the other hand, they actively interact with other actors of the political networks, including under informal conditions. In addition, high professional requirements for officials lead to the need of recruiting them into the elitist environment. Therefore, there often arises a conflict of interest due to their personal connections. Activating these links, officials are building patron-client relations, behaving as patrons for those who need to receive confidential information and as clients for the higher heads. Thus, civil servants use personal networks for carrying out their functions, and simultaneously use available official information for private gain.

Measurement of Economic Result in Public Organizations： A Departmental Analysis

The aim of this work is to demonstrate how public university hospital （UH） managers can improve the process of decision-making by using the measurement of economic value added to the society （EVAS） generated by these organizations. Thus, the economic values of the organization and its departments were calculated, according to the theory studied： measurement model of economic result of Slomski （1996）. It was considered the conduction of a case study in a public UH, evaluating its economic performance in a 3-year period. For the interpretation of results, the Data Envelopment Analysis （DEA） which categorized the departments of the hospital studied as efficient or inefficient was used. This study revealed that managers can improve the decision-making process by using the EVAS, since it has been established that this measurement of economic value has sensitivity to identify which of the economic value drivers should be emphasized in the management.

The possible effects on the future management of local Italian authorities following the use of financial derivative instruments

The appeal from municipalities, provinces and regions to financial derivative instruments is tied to the need of overcoming the situations in a state of urgency inherent in a balance. On average, one local Italian authority in twenty has decided to underwrite a derivative product, giving life to a number of contracts that had a value of over 35 billion euro with an average value of 6.5 million for each contract until 2007. The boom of swaps has, since 2000 on, experienced a peak period from 2003 to the end of 2005, in which the Euribor rate touched a very low level, maintained itself for long periods at around 2% and fallen in some cases even under this value. Many of the contracts completed before 2006, which link the debt of local authorities to variable rates, but also many of those completed from 2006 onwards that moved debt onto fixed rate, which are now a source of loss for the balance of local authorities that have underwritten them. In the 2002-2008 period, the number of the stipulation of contracts local authorities reported to the Ministry of Economy and Finance is about 900, corresponding to more or less 150 per year, which affected 18 regions, 44 provinces, 532 municipalities and 4 mountain commtmities, for a total of 594 authorities. Therefore, the local authorities have approached the derivative instruments in an often approximate way without a real awareness, both for the conditions that were being negotiated and the effects that they would have produced in perspective. The purpose of this work is to highlight the consequences of the use of derivative instruments on the future management of local authorities.

Devolution of Sta. Ana Davao Port： Then and Now

Better seaport operation is one of the indicators that a city is achieving its goals towards progress and development. The Sta. Ana Davao Port for example is one of the many seaports in Region XI that caters to thousands of passengers going from one terminal to another and from one island to another. In this study, it will revisit the status of Sta. Davao Port from the time when it was devolved from the national goverrmaent under Philippine Ports Authority （PPA） to local government of Davao City. The devolution was in accordance with the Memorandum of Agreement by two parties, which clearly stipulates the full-control of operation of the local government of Davao City with an end view of bringing more investors, tourist hubs and other business related concerns. This study utilized descriptive-evaluative method using interview guide question as a qualitative approach in gathering data. The participants were the former employees of the PPA and the current management of Sta. Ana Davao Port under the local government. Data gathered were analyzed using Nvivo software for qualitative research and content analysis to obtain factual information direct from the participants. It was found out that most of the employees agreed that the office needs improvement in terms of physical, financial and human aspects. For several years, the passengers of both local and foreign shipping lines were complaining on its limited berthing capacities, saturated container yards and even worse the collapse of the berthing area which resulted to the delay of transactions in the operation of the vessels. In spite of employees claimed that prior to devolution of Sta. Ana Davao Port to the local government of Davao City, the operation was well-managed and maintained, thereby resulted to passengers＇ satisfaction. Thus, the researchers aimed to provide an action plan as basis by the management of the Sta. Davao Port to achieve its vision, missions and goals.

China’s Minnowbrook Conference: The Review of “Chinese Theories, Chinese Stories and Chinese Solutions” Initiated by China Case Study Journal Alliance

On March 24th,2021,with the initiative of the Chinese government and the promotion of well-known scholars in public administration,the(qualitative)case study seminar of Tsinghua University initiated the case study movement.The Case Study Seminar of Young Scholars was also held on November 16th 2021,and the Case Study Seminar of the Case Center of the Ministry of Education was held on November 17th 2021.If the three Minnowbrook Conferences of the United States were of epoch-making significance to the transformation of the paradigm of public administration theories and practices,then the three conferences also have the epoch-making significance of the paradigm transformation of case studies of public administration in China.Under the background of great changes in the global power contrast and profound reform in China,this review paper tries to use the interpretation and interpretation of critical discourse,especially to explain the Chinese theories which are in-depth,refined and transformed by the case study method of Chinese stories,and the Chinese solutions plausible for Chinese theories.In view of the diversity and complexity of Chinese theories and Chinese solutions,this paper mainly focuses on the realization of Chinese theoretical construction and the formulation of Chinese solutions through the discourse interpretation of Chinese case propositions.

Social and Environmental Management in the Municipalities of Minas Gerais,Brazil

The objective of this study is to analyze the ability of the public management of environmental problems faced by the municipalities in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The theoretical elements that underlie this article are related to environmental management and municipal public administration. We used the results of the natural vulnerability and the social potential of the indicator of municipal environmental management, as well as data on sanitation and waste disposal. The weaknesses of public administration are located in the counties of low population group. These municipalities do not have suitable structure, formal organization and power of decisiveness in dealing with environmental problems.

论司法公信力的提升

司法公信力建设是推进法治中国建设的重要内容和保证。我国司法公信力总体上不高,影响司法公信力的因素主要有司法腐败和不公、司法地方化和司法行政化等。要不断推进司法制度改革,加强法官职业化建设,保证司法机关独立行使职权,做到司法公开,完善人民陪审员制度,以促进司法公信力的提升,构建公正高效权威的司法制度。

Value Goals and Institutional Framework for the Establishment of Administrative Public Prosecution in China

中国正处于社会转型期,社会矛盾和利益纠纷呈高发态势,通过厉行法治,保证行政权正确行使,是预防、减少和妥善应对社会风险的良策。由于行政诉讼在制度架构方面的缺陷,其制度功能发挥并不充分。设置行政公诉制度,应当成为完善行政诉讼制度的一个重要选择。它具有监督和促进依法行政、引导市民社会生成、化解社会矛盾等多方面的价值,也是完善中国特色检察制度的应有之义。建立行政公诉,应当从理念和制度建构等不同层面予以设计。

Applicability of public sector reform initiatives of the Yemeni government from the integrated TOE-DOI framework

Effective resource allocation and accountability are critical for public services in countries facing a crisis,to ensure minimum inequality and even save lives.Administrative innovation is introduced as public sector reform to improve the performance and accountability of public sector organizations.Despite the said benefit,little has been done to study public administrative innovation in countries under crisis.This study extends the literature by examining the attitude of civil service managers to the administrative innovation in the Yemeni government representing a country in crisis from an integrated perspective of technology-organization-environment(TOE)and diffusion of innovation(DOI)theory.Data was collected from a survey of 200 civil service managers of the Yemeni central government.The result shows that the attitude of managers to private sector management style is scored the highest representing the key tool of the public administrative innovation.On the other hand,the downsizing elements were ranked the least significant as public sector reform elements.The explanatory model highlights the use of information technology,quality of human resources,and budget management orientation as significant factors for the applicability of public administrative innovation in the Yemeni central government.