Public Priority Setting: Rules and Costs

At present we observe a decreasing role for the state in many areas where it used to be prominent. Amidst severe budgetary cuts, the state and its organs are confronted with ever louder calls for efficiency in public office (`value for money') and public performance. Simultaneously we see in many democratic welfare states the rise of new institutional forms and social organizations responding to new public priorities. Phenomena like privatization and de-regulation, new forms of regulation and self-regulation, and the rise of special issue groups are an expression of this.
This book seeks to provide order in some of today's issues and to offer analysis and explanation for selected topics. The book opens with contributions on the importance of concepts of present-day institutional economics interpreting modern governmental behavior and organization. Subsequent chapters deal with new developments in various fields such as environmental management and conservation, political legitimacy, or the new roles for covenants.
Audience: This volume will be of interest for scholars in the fields of public service, government studies and adjacent branches of economics, political science and law.

Booknews

Deals with recent changes affecting public administration in democratic welfare states, discussing new instruments in environmental policy and legal administration, new paradigms of institutional economics, and changing public priorities in environmental issues. Themes include transaction cost theory, new rules and institutions in legal administration such as self-regulation and covenants, and the formation and impact of political preferences and new institutions such as the referendum. Includes case studies from The Netherlands. Of interest to scholars in public service, government studies, economics, political science, and law. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.