The Privatisation of Public Services : a Privatisation of Democracy ? The article argues that the role of public services goes beyond the provision of « public goods », insofar as they provide « social goods » which form the necessary conditions for the exercise of citizenship, in its political, social and economic dimensions. The article shows that the arguments put forward in support of privatisation are in fact specious, and have been refuted by what has emerged (...) in the wake of privatisation : in essence, a privatisation of democracy, insofar as universal democracy has given way to a consumer vote conditional on a property qualification, a process carried out in dutiful subservience to the interests of financial capitalism. (shrink)

Si, sur le Net, copier n’est pas voler, comment répondre à cette soif de musique gratuite qui ne risque pas de s’apaiser de sitôt? Par une proposition en forme d’utopie réaliste ou de boutade pas si loufoque : transformer Napster ou les sites qui prennent sa relève en un projet de nouveau service public mondial..

The State against Public Service ? the Hidden Side of Endogenous Growth Models of endogenous growth are generally considered to be endowed with the following properties : 1. A macro-dynamisation of the general Walrasian equilibrium ; 2. A rupture with the Solow paradigm ; 3. A capacity to identify the forces which are currently driving technical progress and growth, by way of an increase in externalities and yields ; 4. A rehabilitation of state-intervention, particularly in the social field (...) ; 5. A capacity to effect a rapprochement between the neo-classical and heterodox paradigms. The article, arguing that such positions, which have given rise to a consensus, are seriously flawed, casts light on the latter’s « hidden side », in particular the ambiguities lurking at the heart of its redefinition of the role of the State. (shrink)

The role of state services in a market economy has been lately at the care of an intellectual and political debate in Belgium as well as in most European countries. State companies as the Post Office, the Railways and the Telegraph Service have to face an ever more fierce competition and have to be efficient and profitable.The way to deal with privatisation bas however been much less clearcut in Belgium than in other countries such as the United Kingdom or (...) France. A law bas been passed recently and the monopoly position of the Transport and Telecommunications state companies has been alleviated and their autonomy increased as a result. A distinction has been made between, on the one hand, the commercial activities for which they have to compete with the private sector and, on the other hand, the activities of public interest which are subject to certain limitations laid down in a management contract. (shrink)

According to a libidinally charged slogan, Social Networking Services are meant to give "people the power to share and make the world more open and connected." But does the digital act of sharing personal information – invested in so many of the New Social Media – make such internet domains a public realm? What characterizes actually the public according to classical political theory, and what sort of performances become visible in digital fora under the banners of interactivity, friendship (...) and an alleged dissolution of boundaries? Against the background of increasingly elastic borders between things considered private and spaces declared public as well as of a remarkable spectrum of modes of sharing – ranging from disclosing daily trivia to collectively expressing political dissent – our contribution will examine the ambivalence of sharing in Social Net-working Services, not least in Facebook, in terms of a paradoxical nexus of passions and risks. (shrink)

L'État actionnaire de la télévision publique est soucieux du rendement social de son investissement. Les programmes des chaînes publiques doivent être globalement vus par le plus grand nombre. Mais en même temps, chaque entité du service public doit respecter un cahier des charges et ne peut être une simple addition de «pièges à audience». Au programmateur de gérer ces paradoxes en forgeant une grille qui s'appuie sur ces contraintes et affirme la relation particulière de chaque chaîne avec le (...) public. L'audience est la récompense d'une programmation généreuse, qui prend des risques et produit du sens. La grille de France 3 s'est construite autour des concepts de proximité et de curiosité; France 2 doit être une grande chaîne de divertissement, d'information et de création; France 5 est une chaîne pédagogique qui tente d'apporter à certains publics qui en ont besoin , des clés pour mieux comprendre la réalité de tous les jours.As the main shareholder in public television, the State is of course concerned by the level of social profit in return for its investment. Overall, public channels' programme schedules should be seen by the largest audience possible. But at the same time, each public channel has to respect certain obligations and cannot be a simple accumulation of "audience traps". It is the programmer’s responsibility to manage these paradoxes when constructing a schedule which should be based on these very constraints while affirming each channel's particular relationship with its audience. High audience ratings are the reward for generous scheduling in which risks are taken and a certain meaning is produced. France 3's programming was built around the concepts of proximity and curiosity; France 2 is intended to be a major entertainment, information and creation channel; France 5 is an educational channel aiming to bring keys to better understand everyday reality to certain audiences who need it, particularly young people. (shrink)

The article analyzes approaches to the ethicalization of officialdom in the realities of digitalization. The author believe that demonstrative behavior harms the authority of public service. Administrative ethics should be based on traditional values, the main of which are deemed to be integrity and loyalty to the Motherland. В статье анализируются подходы к этизации чиновничества в реалиях цифровизации. Автор полагает, что демонстративность поведения вредит авторитету государственной службы. Административная этика должна базироваться на традиционных ценностях, главными из которых почитаются принципиальность (...) и верность Отечеству. (shrink)

In the post-broadcast era, public service media (PSM) organizations have to innovate, stay up-to-date with new ways of consuming content, and experiment with the manifold opportunities that interactivity offers for audience engagement. At the same time, they are still obligated to achieve their public service remit and guarantee that services comply with values such as universality, diversity, creativity, and innovation. This article analyzes the innovation policies and strategies of PSM to understand if these are shifting from (...) a technology-centric to a user-centric approach. It evaluates what areas of innovation are prioritized by both policy-makers and public broadcasters and whether these areas correspond with the innovation goals entrusted to PSM organizations by scholars. To this end, we adopted a multi-case study approach. The focus is on three public broadcasters of varying size and situated in different political, cultural, and economic backgrounds: RTVE (Spain), RTÉ (Ireland), and VRT (Belgium). Based on a qualitative document analysis, we conclude that innovation remains largely technology-centric. Strategies are oriented to the implementation of new technologies, the digital distribution of the content, and the collaboration with external partners. However, these public broadcasters have not yet promoted concrete actions to encourage the participation of their audiences. (shrink)

Claims that there are good arguments for a public health service that do not amount to arguments for a national health service, but for something that looks far more like a transnational health service.

This essay reviews the place and role of Public Service Media (PSM) in promoting social justice in the changing digital media landscape through the ethos of diversity. Media diversity – the value and practice of including varied viewpoints, social groups, voices, and channels or outlets in media – has long been a declared pillar of PSM organizations worldwide. However, current changes in the digital media landscape and the growing extension of PSM organizations to digital platforms require re-reading the (...) premise of promoting media diversity as a tool for social justice. This essay identifies a paradox. On one hand, online media appear to accommodate a greater range of diverse voices and players, particularly in the PSM ecosystem. At the same time, these very same online spaces jeopardize diversity, as the increasing practices of personalization, algorithmic curation, and platformization often reduce diversity of representations, voices, and exposure to content, thereby hindering opportunities for social justice and equality. This essay shines a spotlight on this nexus of conflicting mechanisms. The essay begins with in-depth definitions of the two somewhat convoluted terms diversity and social justice. This section includes a review of global perspectives on PSM organizations, and the long-standing value of diversity promoted through them for decades. We then review the impact and changes identified in PSM platforms worldwide in light of the digital turn in the media field. This is followed by an in-depth discussion of the inherent tension between mechanisms that promote and hinder diversity online. Throughout this discussion, we raise questions about the practical dimensions of using online media to promote social justice through diversity. It provides a useful starting point for considering the intersection of Public Service Media, online platforms, diversity, and social justice. Thus, the essay will serve academic scholars studying social justice on a conceptual level as well as practitioners and stakeholders in the media industry at large, and PSM in particular, seeking to practically promote social justice. (shrink)

The article examines the issue of public health and medical services in Algeria and analyses the role of the public and private sectors in supporting and promoting public health. Our study is based on an analysis of legal texts that highlight Algeria’s health policies. Some significant aspects of the article are: the Algerian policy of opening health services up to private investment; the lack of contribution of private health institutions in the field of medical education; and issues (...) surrounding the organisation of blood donation. The article also notes the absence of foreign investment in Algerian hospitals. (shrink)

This article analyzes doctor–patient communication at admission interviews in an outpatient mental health care service at a public hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina. These interviews are the first contact between professionals and patients, and they result in the admission or rejection of the latter into the medical institution. In particular, we observe how context, understood as a sociocognitive and scalar concept, is reshaped with gaze direction and agenda-setting through interaction, resulting in three hierarchical spaces which can be represented (...) as degrees in a scale: the public, the private, and the intimate level. This description will allow us to understand a series of communicative difficulties that may result from scale maladjustments, in which professionals interact with patients at different levels and therefore cannot give adequate feedback to satisfy mental health care needs. (shrink)

Public sector institutions are increasingly investing resources in data collection and data analytics to provide better public services at lower cost, to anticipate demand for services, to identify high-risk groups, and to develop targeted interventions. Prior research has shown that the media shape understanding of the possibilities of technology and creates related expectations. In this article we explore how artificial intelligence and emerging data-driven technologies are made familiar and by whose voices they are talked about in the media. (...) Empirically, we explore communication materials and media coverage from the joint AI experiment between the City of Espoo and Tieto Corporation in 2017–18. In this experiment, Tieto Corporation combined customer data from the City of Espoo’s social and health care and early childhood education from 2002–2016 and analysed this data using artificial intelligence methods. Theoretically, we draw on the tradition of the social construction of technology and especially its branch that focuses on the domestication of technologies. The results show that the means of narration used by the media – repetition and highlighting the voice of the representatives of the institutional actors involved in the AI experiment – strengthen the agency and interests of the parties involved as well as their visibility in the media, while reducing the space for possible critical discussion. We argue that this way, AI is made familiar and acceptable to citizens and in public services in Finland. (shrink)

Ethics is an attempt to guide human conduct and it is also an attempt to help man in leading good life by applying moral principles. Ethics refers to well based standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues. Ethics is related to issues of propriety, rightness and wrongness. What is right is ethical and what is wrong is unethical. Value is an important conception (...) in ethical discussion. Values relate to the norms of a culture, but they are more global and abstract than norms. In certain cultures norms reflect the values of respect and support of friends and family. Different cultures reflect different values. Over the last three decades, traditional-age college students have shown an increased interest in personal well-being and a decreased interest in the welfare of others. Recently, the department of personnel and training has decided to change the pattern of the Civil Services Examination by stressing more on general studies and aptitude skills. A notification has been issued is this regard. From this year the Civil Services (Mains) will also have a separate paper on “ethics, integrity and aptitude”. The notification for the 2013 exam said the “paper (on ethics, integrity and aptitude) will include questions to test the candidate’s attitude and approach to issues relating to integrity, probity in public life and his problem-solving approach to various issues and conflicts in dealing with society”. There are six major sections (i) Ethics and Human Interfaith, (ii) Attitude, (iii) Emotional Intelligence, (iv) Contributions of Moral thinkers and philosophers of India and World, (v) Public/Civil Service Values and Ethics in Public Administration and (vi) Probity in Governance. In this paper an attempt is made to describe the values needed in public service sector and ethical principles might use in public administration and related to the V section of this syllabus. (shrink)

Objective: Governments consistently aim to enhance services and establish online connections to efficiently deliver necessary information. This study aims to evaluate the future potential of digital libraries in public libraries in Pakistan by examining various projects that have introduced innovative approaches to foster the development of digital library services. Methodology: The analysis utilized the Amos 24 version, employing the Structural Equation Model (SEM) for assessing model fit indices and validating hypotheses. Additionally, Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24 (...) was employed for Pearson correlation and factor analysis. Findings: The results suggest the appropriateness of discussing three out of the seven elements/factors used to assess competence improvement. The study reveals that public library managers can offer both physical and online workshops to community members, addressing emotional management for customers, including children and adults, during post-crisis information retrieval. Practical Implications: The study on public library user literacy skills, user behavior, and digital resources and services integrates the exploration and development of online databases to address challenges faced by public library management and users amidst the information explosion in academic and research activities. This contributes to enhancing the satisfaction levels of public library users. Originality/Value: Librarians are encouraged to conduct online workshops to address challenges faced by research students in information-seeking scenarios, focusing on improving reading and literacy skills, understanding user behavior, and optimizing digital resources and services through a study of online databases. (shrink)

Public service organization's increasingly are considering diversification into new “for-profit” or “high-profit” enterprises. Such undertakings offer a number of potential benefits to both the organization and the public. They also have potential problems. This article examines some of the major types of benefits and problems in hopes that both public service managers and public policy makers will give a balanced consideration to these diversification efforts.

One of the responses to the attacks upon the contemporary university, particularly upon the humanities, has been to encourage faculty to engage in so-called ‘public intellectualism.’ In this paper I urge philosophers to embrace this turn, but only if the academy can effectively address how to credit such work in the tenure and promotion process. Currently, public philosophy is typically placed under ‘service’, even though the work is often more intellectually and philosophically rigorous than committee work, even (...) sometimes more than publications. I address this problem by providing an analysis of what is academically valuable about good scholarship and then showing how much of public philosophy achieves those goods. From this I argue that the academy should abandon the traditional categories of teaching/research/service and replace them with a holistic and qualitative single category of “teacher-scholar.” I then recommend that evaluation criteria should be very inclusive, giving credit to the wide range of activities in which faculty participate and I provide some suggestions for how those criteria should read. (shrink)

Elsewhere I have defended utilitarianism as a philosophy peculiarly well suited to the conduct of public affairs, on grounds of the peculiar tasks and instruments confronting public officials. Here I add another plank to that defence of ‘utilitarianism as a public philosophy’, focusing on the peculiar role responsibilities of people serving in public capacities. Such ‘public service utilitarianism’ is incumbent not only upon public officials but also upon individuals in their capacities as citizens (...) and voters. I close with reflections on how best to evoke appreciation of these utilitarian role responsibilities from officials and electors alike. (shrink)

Souzy Dracopoulou , Ethics and values in health care management.

This article explores the tension between the fundamental perception that the provision of privatized services such as health and social care remain inherently public and the absence of any clearly developed juridical concept of ‘public services’ as the basis of judicial control in accordance with public law standards. In a series of recent cases, courts have had the opportunity to determine whether private contractors engaged in the provision of local authority residential and social care services are amenable (...) to judicial review or susceptible to direct vertical proceedings under the Human Rights Act, on grounds that they are performing functions which are by their very nature quintessentially public. However, conflating questions of amenability to review and susceptibility to the Human Rights Act (hereafter HRA), courts have refused to adopt a test based on the public character of a body's functions, irrespective of the source of power. This article acknowledges the constitutional propriety and rationality of a broad based functional test of review. Nevertheless, it is argued that if courts continue to resist such a test, Parliament must legislate to ensure judicial regulation of decisions by independent contractors of health and social care services, in accordance with public law principles and HRA obligations, which transcend the boundaries of their strict contractual undertakings. (shrink)

Automatic public malware analysis services provide controlled, isolated and virtual environments to analyse malicious software samples. Unfortunately, malware is currently incorporating techniques to recognize execution onto a virtual or sandbox environment; when an analysis environment is detected, malware behaves as a benign application or even shows no activity. In this work, we present an empirical study and characterization of automatic PMAS, considering 26 different services. We also show a set of features that allow to easily fingerprint these services as (...) analysis environments; the lower the unlikeability of these features, the easier for us to fingerprint the analysis service they belong to. Finally, we propose a method for these analysis services to counter or at least mitigate our proposal. (shrink)

Artificial insemination was the first conceptive technology to be widely used in agriculture. Whereas at the beginning of the twentieth century all cows in England and Wales were mated to bulls, by the end of the 1950s 60% conceived through artificial insemination. By then a national network of ‘cattle breeding centres’ brought AI within the reach of every farmer. In this paper I explore how artificial insemination, which had few supporters in the 1920s and 1930s, was transformed into an ‘indispensable’ (...) method for reproducing cattle. I discuss the factors that made organised AI possible , including changes in cultures of cattle breeding, novel State involvement in bovine reproduction, the rise of new ‘animal breeding research’ centres at Cambridge, Edinburgh and Reading universities, war preparations and central planning by the Milk Marketing Board . I go on to show that the unprecedented focus on bovine reproduction set in motion by the AI centres effectively generated new networks of reproductive research, through these the ‘biopower’ of the farm was incorporated into the clinic. The example of AI shows that by combining the history of reproductive technology in agriculture and medicine we can give a richer account of modern reproduction. (shrink)

Buchanan highlighted the inconsistencies that arise when public services are financed by general taxation. Citizens increase their demand for services, even though citizens are reticent to increase taxation. Buchanan invited readers to explore the impact of different assumptions of politicians’ behaviour. In this chapter, attention focuses on the way that vote maximising governments are likely to respond to the divorce between receipt and payment for services. Buchanan illustrated his analysis with reference to the National Health Service in the (...) UK. Predictions are tested with reference to the pattern of excess demand in the National Health Service between 1970 and 2012. (shrink)

‘Looking beyond Compliance’ assesses the role of an enabling environment as a major factor in the successful mainstreaming of gender. This article analyses the important role of political will in influencing the creation of an enabling environment. The article suggests that several role-players need to possess the political will to ensure that an enabling environment is created. Notably, the actions of an individual have an impact on the institutional reforms developed and vice versa. Political will is argued as the most (...) influential component in the development of an enabling environment and therefore creates the enabling environment through political buy-in. The argument specifically looks at the Department of Public Service and Administration located in the South African public service. (shrink)

This paper argues that public sector organizational failure may be best understood from a perspective of collective denial. The rise of this phenomenon is examined using testimony from a Public Inquiry into the downfall of a UK hospital, where falling organizational standards led to unethical decision making and an unacceptable number of patient deaths. In this paper, we show how collective denial, over time, became a process that resided within the fabric of organizational life. To explore the organizational (...) processes associated with collective denial, and how and why it occurs, we identify the influence of a ‘narrative of silence.’ This narrative allows ever more serious failings to be justified as organizational members lose contact with reality entering a downward spiral with no recovery. The combined impact of assumptions about leadership capability, enculturated professional identities, and organizational loyalty create an environment where a narrative of silence can develop. (shrink)

Chiara Cordelli’s The Privatized State is a book that should be widely read for many reasons.1 In the first place, it engages with an important set of issues in governance and public administration...

A commentary on “‘Ever Vigilant’ in ‘Ethically Impossible’: Structural Injustice and Responsibility in PHS Research in Guatemala,” from the May‐June 2013 issue.

Many Public Administrations structure their services around the notion of users’ need. However, there is a gap between private, subjectively perceived needs (self-attributed) and needs that are attributed by PA to citizens (heteroattributed). Because of the gap, citizens’ needs are often only partially satisfied by PAs services. This gap is in part due to the fact that the meaning of the word “need” is ambiguous and full of antinomic nuances. The purpose of this paper is to formulate a definition (...) of “need” suitable for citizens’ needs management with respect to PA’s services offering, and to provide an accurate ontological analysis of the notion of “need” and the network of concepts that relate to it. (shrink)