Politics and International Relations - Policy and Practice

This report addresses the critical issues of implementation of the long-term public service agenda. The authors draw upon a unique range of research, practice and theory from the fields of community development, regeneration projects, public and private sector management and organisation development, as well as public and social policy.

This book will improve understanding of how voluntary organisations are structured and evolve, and how they respond to opportunities and constraints. Drawing on case studies with eight UK organisations, it addresses the key dilemmas of voluntary action and explores how these are experienced and managed within particular organisations.

This report is the first evaluation of the structural means by which the meaning of partnership is being operationalised at local level, through the development of local compacts. Using detailed case studies of the development of compacts, the report highlights some of the major barriers to, and key lessons for, effective partnership working

Policy makers have become reliant on mechanistic top-down audit and inspection regimes as the means of implementing public service reforms. This book sets out to redress the balance. It outlines the theory behind whole systems development and gives good practice guidance on how to effectively develop 'systems' to improve joined-up working.

Can and should asset-based policies become a new pillar of the welfare state? Can they form the basis for a more egalitarian form of market economy? The citizen's stake throws open the debate by bringing together the ideas of leading thinkers in academia and policy to explore the future scope of asset-based policies in Britain.

Using global case studies and many practical examples, this book explores the innovation challenges that face the public sector today.

Offering insight into the key debates on services for young children, this book tells how Sure Start was set up, the numerous changes it went through, and how it has changed the landscape of services for all young children in England.

Collaborative working explores the influence of agency through the role of individual actors in collaborative working processes, known as boundary spanners. 

This book presents an academically rigorous yet practical guide to efforts to understand how knowledge, policy and power interact to promote or prevent change.

This valuable book examines the development of evaluation and its impact on public policy by analysing evaluation frameworks and criteria which are available when evaluating public policies and services.

Combining theory and international practice,this book examines how local government can develop active citizens and make a difference to the well-being of those in disadvantaged areas.

Using case studies from around the world, Transparency and the open society surveys the adoption of transparency globally, providing an essential framework for assessing its likely performance as a policy and the steps that can be taken to make it more effective.