Can Governments Learn?

Can Governments Learn? PDF Author: Frans L. Leeuw
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000676064
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
There is continual concern about the ability of governments to perform the duties and responsibilities that their citizens have come to expect from them. Many citizens view government as inept, arthritic, and dedicated to the preservation of the bureaucratic status quo. As we close the twentieth century, the challenge for democratic governments is to become adaptive, flexible, innovative, and creative. In short, they need to become learning organizations. This book explores what it will take for governments to break out of their traditional ways of approaching problems and learn new approaches to finding solutions. Can Governments Learn? examines organizational learning in the public sector. It seeks to understand the role policy and program evaluation information can play in helping governments learn. Among the democratic societies studied are Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States. Significantly, the studies documented here show that the concept of organizational learning has vitality and applicability cross-nationally. Can Governments Learn? evaluates preconditions for governmental learning as well as the institutional and human resource factors that contribute to the process. This volume in the Comparative Policy Analysis Series is essential for policymakers, government officials, and scholars interested in improving the performance of governments.

Can Governments Learn?

Can Governments Learn? PDF Author: Frans L. Leeuw
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000676064
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 156

Get Book Here

Book Description
There is continual concern about the ability of governments to perform the duties and responsibilities that their citizens have come to expect from them. Many citizens view government as inept, arthritic, and dedicated to the preservation of the bureaucratic status quo. As we close the twentieth century, the challenge for democratic governments is to become adaptive, flexible, innovative, and creative. In short, they need to become learning organizations. This book explores what it will take for governments to break out of their traditional ways of approaching problems and learn new approaches to finding solutions. Can Governments Learn? examines organizational learning in the public sector. It seeks to understand the role policy and program evaluation information can play in helping governments learn. Among the democratic societies studied are Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States. Significantly, the studies documented here show that the concept of organizational learning has vitality and applicability cross-nationally. Can Governments Learn? evaluates preconditions for governmental learning as well as the institutional and human resource factors that contribute to the process. This volume in the Comparative Policy Analysis Series is essential for policymakers, government officials, and scholars interested in improving the performance of governments.

Can Governments Learn?

Can Governments Learn? PDF Author: Lloyd S. Etheredģe
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 148314044X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
Can Governments Learn? American Foreign Policy and Central American Revolutions examines U.S. foreign policy toward revolutions which use Marxist rhetoric, receive material aid from the Soviet Union, and are directed against a repressive government that has been the beneficiary of substantial material and political assistance from the United States. The case material is drawn from the history of American policy in Latin America; the 1954 overthrow of a leftist government in Guatemala; the evolution of Cuban policy from 1958 to 1962; and the repetition of similar policies in the 1980s. This book is comprised of seven chapters and begins by reviewing the history of America's failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, Operation MONGOOSE, and the Cuban nuclear confrontation crisis of 1962. The successful use of the Bay of Pigs model in 1954 (against a government in Guatemala) is examined, along with the U.S. government's contract with the Mafia to assassinate Premier Fidel Castro at the time of the Bay of Pigs invasion. The following chapters look at three vectors reflecting the blockage of government learning: the adoption of similar policies across historical encounters; the repetition of collectively self-blocking behavior within the national security decision process; and the repetition of a common syndrome of errors in judgment and perception. The final chapter analyzes American foreign policy toward Central America in the 1980s and offers suggestions to improve the foreign policy learning rate. This monograph will be of interest to diplomats, politicians, political scientists, and others concerned with international relations.

Can Governments Learn?

Can Governments Learn? PDF Author: Frans L. Leeuw
Publisher: Transaction Pub
ISBN: 9780765806581
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
There is continual concern about the ability of governments to perform the duties and responsibilities that their citizens have come to expect from them. Many citizens view government as inept, arthritic, and dedicated to the preservation of the bureaucratic status quo. As we close the twentieth century, the challenge for democratic governments is to become adaptive, flexible, innovative, and creative. In short, they need to become learning organizations. This book explores what it will take for governments to break out of their traditional ways of approaching problems and leam new approaches to finding solutions. Can Governments Learn? examines organizational learning in the public sector. It seeks to understand what role policy and program evaluation information can play in helping governments to learn. Among the democratic societies that are studied are Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States. Their governmental systems have produced and learned from evaluation information in quite different ways. Significantly, the studies documented here show that the concept of organizational learning has vitality and applicability cross-nationally. Can Governments Learn ? evaluates preconditions for governmental learning as well as the institutional and human resource factors that contribute to the process. This is the third volume in the comparative policy analysis series. It is essential for policymakers, government officials, and scholars interested in improving the performance of governments.

Performance Management and Budgeting

Performance Management and Budgeting PDF Author: F Stevens Redburn
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317462947
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 410

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Book Description
This book provides a fresh look at the process by which governments hold themselves accountable to their citizens for performance. Unlike the plethora of other books in the field, it examines all aspects of the Performance Management and Budgeting issue, not only from the federal, state, and local perspectives, but also internationally in both developing and developed countries.Covering both conceptual and theoretical frameworks in performance management and budget, the book analyzes the effectiveness of different approaches. Featuring insights from a group of distinguished contributors, it ties current performance management approaches into the century-old literature on public sector reform and management, and presents arguments for and against performance management as well as recommendations on how to improve the enterprise.

The Politics of Happiness

The Politics of Happiness PDF Author: Derek Bok
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 069115256X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Describes the principal findings of happiness researchers, assesses the strengths and weaknesses of such research, and looks at how governments could use results when formulating policies to improve the lives of citizens.

Can Governments Learn?

Can Governments Learn? PDF Author: Frans L Leeuw
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9781138519947
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
There is continual concern about the ability of governments to perform the duties and responsibilities that their citizens have come to expect from them. Many citizens view government as inept, arthritic, and dedicated to the preservation of the bureaucratic status quo. As we close the twentieth century, the challenge for democratic governments is to become adaptive, flexible, innovative, and creative. In short, they need to become learning organizations. This book explores what it will take for governments to break out of their traditional ways of approaching problems and leam new approaches to finding solutions.Can Governments Learn? examines organizational learning in the public sector. It seeks to understand what role policy and program evaluation information can play in helping governments to learn. Among the democratic societies that are studied are Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States. Their governmental systems have produced and learned from evaluation information in quite different ways. Significantly, the studies documented here show that the concept of organizational learning has vitality and applicability cross-nationally.Can Governments Learn ? evaluates preconditions for governmental learning as well as the institutional and human resource factors that contribute to the process. This is the third volume in the comparative policy analysis series. It is essential for policymakers, government officials, and scholars interested in improving the performance of governments.

Social Learning Systems and Communities of Practice

Social Learning Systems and Communities of Practice PDF Author: Chris Blackmore
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1849961336
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
Social Learning Systems and Communities of Practice is a collection of classical and contemporary writing associated with learning and systemic change in contexts ranging from cities, to rural development to education to nursing to water management to public policy. It is likely to be of interest to anyone trying to understand how to think systemically and to act and interact effectively in situations experienced as complex, messy and changing. While mainly concerned with professional praxis, where theory and practice inform each other, there is much here that can apply at a personal level. This book offers conceptual tools and suggestions for new ways of being and acting in the world in relation to each other, that arise from both old and new understandings of communities, learning and systems. Starting with twentieth century insights into social learning, learning systems and appreciative systems from Donald Schön and Sir Geoffrey Vickers, the book goes on to consider the contemporary traditions of critical social learning systems and communities of practice, pioneered by Richard Bawden and Etienne Wenger and their colleagues. A synthesis of the ideas raised, written by the editor, concludes this reader. The theory and practice of social learning systems and communities of practice appear to have much to offer in influencing and managing systemic change for a better world.

Learn about the United States

Learn about the United States PDF Author: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
Publisher: Government Printing Office
ISBN: 9780160831188
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description
"Learn About the United States" is intended to help permanent residents gain a deeper understanding of U.S. history and government as they prepare to become citizens. The product presents 96 short lessons, based on the sample questions from which the civics portion of the naturalization test is drawn. An audio CD that allows students to listen to the questions, answers, and civics lessons read aloud is also included. For immigrants preparing to naturalize, the chance to learn more about the history and government of the United States will make their journey toward citizenship a more meaningful one.

 PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 087154668X
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description


Societal Learning and Change

Societal Learning and Change PDF Author: Steve Waddell
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351280740
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 166

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Book Description
Constructing roads in Madagascar; forestry along Canada's Pacific Coast; water and sanitation projects in South Africa; community banking in the United States; constructing a new global system for corporate reporting. These all have something in common. They provide great illustrations of the types of profound and wise changes needed in the way we run our affairs if we are to respond to the scale of environmental and social challenges and opportunities facing us. They are examples of "societal learning and change". Today, this phenomenon is occurring across industries as diverse as resources extraction, infrastructure development, agriculture and information technology at the local, national, regional and global levels. Its essence involves the ability to create rich relationships that bridge large differences. This book describes this phenomenon for practitioners to help them address issues and develop opportunities more effectively. Building on the traditions of individual and organizational learning, this book suggests that our challenge is to create learning societies and processes. This involves both change in ourselves as individuals, but also change in the way the three key systems that make up our societies – the political system (government), economic system (business) and social system (civil society) – function by creating more robust interactions that respond to human and environmental imperatives rather than organizational ones. Societal Learning and Change presents a meta-framework that covers diverse approaches, including corporate citizenship, social responsibility, community development, private-public partnerships, inter-sectoral collaboration and sustainability strategies. It makes sense of all of these by emphasising that they all share the need to change relationships at the societal level and explaining how to do this from a systems perspective. The book helps overcome the conundrum where individual organisations are unsuccessfully trying to achieve big change with their stakeholders. Rather than stakeholder management with an organization-centric viewpoint, this book describes the importance of taking a stakeholder engagement and issue/opportunity-centric strategy. Wherever you are, you can make a contribution to shifting the paradigm through a societal learning and change strategy. The critical contribution is creating new relationships between people and organizations that traditionally would not interact but in fact have common interests. When these relationships become meaningful by addressing a problem or developing an opportunity, people begin to learn about each other and develop mutual appreciation and understanding. Often this process is complicated and confusing. People do not use words in the same way even if they speak the same formal language; they do not learn or perceive the world the same way although they may share a common culture; their organizations have diverse goals, resources and weaknesses that make working together problematic. However, it is these very differences that are the source of the value of working together. Societal Learning and Change aims to make it easier to solve differences in order to work together successfully; it does this by identifying some of the differences as sources of tension and opportunity and describing the development processes of building relationships that can produce mutually rewarding innovation that is unimaginable when the relationship begins. This is an extremely optimistic book at a time of great pessimism about the huge forces of globalization and corporate power that seem to be overwhelming us. It will be essential reading for students and practitioners in the fields of organizational learning, sustainability, poverty, international development and stakeholder relations.