Professionals often have problems with governmental policies they have to implement. This can lead to diminished legitimacy and lower policy performance. The goal of this article is to identify the main reasons why professionals resist implementing new policies. An interdisciplinary approach is taken. From public administration literature, I use the policy alienation model, which consists of five dimensions: strategic, tactical and operational powerlessness, societal meaninglessness and client meaninglessness. These are possible reasons why professionals resist public policies (‘resistance to change’, a concept drawn from change management literature). I test these assumptions using a survey among 1,317 healthcare professionals. The results show that when professionals experience that a policy is meaningless for society or for their own clients, they show strong resistance. A lack of perceived influence is much less important in explaining resistance, although this is partly dependent on the particular profession someone belong to. The policy alienation model can help policy makers and managers to develop policies which are accepted by professionals. The article ends with practical recommendations for policy makers, managers and professionals. |
Artikel |
Verandermanagement en beleid: waarom vertonen professionals weerstand tegen nieuw beleid? |
Tijdschrift | Bestuurskunde, Aflevering 2 2014 |
Trefwoorden | public policy,, change management, policy implementation, public management, resistance to change |
Auteurs | Lars Tummers |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
Artikel |
Het probleem van laaggeschooldheid in België: een historisch-geografische analyse |
Tijdschrift | Beleid en Maatschappij, Aflevering 2 2014 |
Trefwoorden | human capital, unskilled, school dropout, geographical segregation |
Auteurs | Drs. Frederik Van Der Gucht en Prof. dr. Raf Vanderstraeten |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
This article presents an analysis of the geographical clustering at the bottom end of the human capital distribution within Belgium and its major political regions (namely, the Flemish and the Walloon Region). At the national level, there is both a clear decrease of the shares of unskilled and unqualified adults and of their regionally unequal distribution. However, this overall decrease goes along with growing divergences between Flanders and Wallonia. In Flanders the number of early school leavers has become small. In Wallonia economic problems – measured in terms of unemployment rates – go hand in hand with a comparatively high number of school dropouts. Our empirical findings suggest that the success of particular areas and regions in a knowledge-intensive economy depends not only on the presence of highly skilled and highly qualified human capital, but also suffers from the presence of relatively large shares of the less-skilled. We discuss some implications for political decision-making. |
Artikel |
De grote verbouwingEen bestuurskundig perspectief op veranderingen in stelsels van publieke voorzieningen |
Tijdschrift | Bestuurskunde, Aflevering 1 2014 |
Trefwoorden | public management reform, New Public Management, New Public Governance |
Auteurs | Philip Marcel Karré en Cees Paardekooper |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
The Netherlands is engaged in reforming several of its public service provision sectors by limiting their hybrid (mixed public/private) character. This special issue deals with these reforms. We have a closer look at the systems of transport, education and housing, and also discuss reforms of the Dutch nation state. Each article poses three basic questions: why has the sector evolved as it has? Why is change seen as necessary? And how does this process take place? By doing so, we draw general lessons on how the Netherlands deals with system change and public management reform. |
Artikel |
Veranderend lokaal gezagDe gezagsbronnen van burgemeesters en wethouders verkend |
Tijdschrift | Beleid en Maatschappij, Aflevering 4 2013 |
Trefwoorden | authority, political leadership, mayors, aldermen |
Auteurs | Dr. Niels Karsten MSc MA en Drs. Thijs Jansen |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
The traditional authority of mayors and aldermen is readily challenged. Formal positions do no longer constitute authority. For that reason, new political repertoires are being sought after and are being developed by local political-executive leaders. This article analyses and compares the sources of authority for mayors and aldermen: how can they develop, maintain, and strengthen their authority? It develops an innovative typology of sources of authority. A distinction is made between institutional, positional, and personal sources of authority. The model is applied to the mayors and aldermen in relation to relevant socio-political developments that affect the two offices. It is found that the authority of mayors rests on institutional sources of authority more so than that of aldermen. For the latter, positional and personal sources of authority are more important. At the same time, personal sources of authority have become very important for mayors as well as aldermen. The results call upon mayors and aldermen’s skills and competences to develop personal authority through persuasion. |
Artikel |
Hoe beoordelen topambtenaren veranderingen?De bijzondere positie van de Nederlandse topambtenaar |
Tijdschrift | Bestuurskunde, Aflevering 4 2013 |
Trefwoorden | senior officials, reforms, public sector, international comparison |
Auteurs | Steven Van de Walle, Stephan Dorsman en Tamara Homan |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
This article shows how top officials in ten European countries evaluate changes in the public sector based on a number of dimensions, such as quality, cost-efficiency, ethics, effectiveness and the attractiveness of the public sector as an employer. Senior public officials in the Netherlands are compared to their counterparts from 9 other European countries. The study is based on the large-scale academic COCOPS Top Executive Survey, and answers from 3,173 top public sector officials were used. |
Artikel |
Governance by numbers: risico’s verbonden aan de internationale benchmarking en ranking van pensioensystemen |
Tijdschrift | Beleid en Maatschappij, Aflevering 2 2013 |
Trefwoorden | Governance by numbers, Commensuratie, comparatief onderzoek, doelmatigheid van pensioenen, standaardisatie |
Auteurs | Drs. Hans Peeters en Dr. Gert Verschraegen |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
This article points out some of the pitfalls and ambiguities involved in quantified cross-national policy comparisons by looking at the construction and use of standardized indicators in the field of pension policy. The empirical analysis looks at three cases where the OESO and EU use standardized pension indicators to score and rank the performance of national pension systems. The cases illustrate some of the problems associated with scoring and ranking the outcomes of unique and complex pension systems by means of internationally standardized indicators. Our results show that internationally standardised indicators for pension systems are not neutral in the sense that they favor countries with certain institutional pension policy mixes over others. When particular institutional characteristics are treated differently under the same metric, systematically distorted conclusions about the performance of national pension systems may, and likely do, result. Consequently, these observed biases hinder reliable cross-national comparison that is based on these indicators. The article concludes with some recommendations on the construction and use of international indicators in the field of pension policy. It also discusses where research on the process of commensuration – transforming qualities into quantities − in a comparative context should go from here. |
Artikel |
Het eindeloze verhaal van de bestuurskunde: complexiteit, vernieuwing en de Big Society |
Tijdschrift | Bestuurskunde, Aflevering 1 2013 |
Trefwoorden | Big Society, public administration, complexity, innovation, administrative history |
Auteurs | Thomas Schillemans |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
‘Big Society’ has been one of those inspirational concepts that have recently swept through the public administration literature. With their appeal for a ‘Big Society’, the British Tories contrasted their policy program with Labours’ traditional ‘Big Government’ program. Upon closer inspection, however, it is revealed that the underlying analysis is not new at all, but reflects a specific analysis that can be traced back to Wilson’s famous essay on the study of public administration in 1887. Stripped from its details, the never-ending story claims that public administration now struggles with overwhelming complexity, which makes traditional bureaucratic methods obsolete and calls for innovative, new approaches. The fact that this story has remained fairly constant for over 125 years is cause for some concern. The article traces the historical genesis of this never-ending story and lands on a plea for more sophisticated attention for administrative history, more critical scrutiny of new ideas and more serious study of the nature and effects of complexity. |
Artikel |
Ontbrekende alternatieven en gevestigde belangenEen studie naar de posities van overheden in hervormingsdebatten tijdens de financiële crisis |
Tijdschrift | Beleid en Maatschappij, Aflevering 4 2012 |
Auteurs | Daniel Mügge PhD en Bart Stellinga MA MSc |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
The credit crisis that began in the summer of 2007 has fundamentally challenged much financial regulation and the political institutions that produced it. Measured against the criticisms that have been brought forth against previous financial governance, the extent of governments’ overall reform ambitions has been disappointing. Starting from this observation, this article asks: what explains governments’ reform choices, and thus also their limited ambitions? To explore this question, this article focuses on the positions that four governments central to global financial regulation (the USA, the UK, Germany and France) have taken in advance of the G20 meetings in 2009 across four key issue areas: accounting standards, derivatives trading, credit ratings agencies and banking rules. It evaluates both the overlap between positions across domains and governments as well as the differences between them. Such variation, we argue, provides key clues to the overall drivers behind reforms – as well as their limits. The overall picture that emerges can be summarized as follows: governments have been staunch defenders of their national firms’ competitive interests in regulatory reforms. That has not necessarily meant that they followed industry preferences across the board. It has been the relative impact, compared to foreign competitors, that counted in reform positions, not the absolute impact. These differences of opinion have played out within the context and the limits of the overall debates about thinkable policy alternatives. In spite of fundamental criticisms of pre-crisis regulatory orthodoxy, convincing and coherent alternatives have been forthcoming slowly at best. This has made reform proposals less radical than criticisms, seen on their own, might suggest. |
Artikel |
Herziening van sociale zekerheid: het perspectief van flexwerkers en zelfstandigen |
Tijdschrift | Beleid en Maatschappij, Aflevering 3 2012 |
Trefwoorden | social security, labour flexibility, policy preferences, risk, solidarity |
Auteurs | Dr. Fabian Dekker, Prof. dr. Romke van der Veen en Dr. Bram Peper |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
The social security system provides some form of protection for its citizens. The social security system depends on public support in society. Support is crucial for legitimacy of the social system. To date, it remains unclear whether social policy preferences will be affected by changes on the labour market. In this article we aim to increase our understanding of individual reactions to increasing labour flexibility and the impact on social policy preferences. From the results of our study, we draw the general conclusion that employees with flexible labour contracts as well as the self-employed do not reject the idea of social security. |
Artikel |
De inhoud van ‘burgerschap’ in de inburgeringscursus en burgerschapsonderwijs |
Tijdschrift | Beleid en Maatschappij, Aflevering 3 2012 |
Trefwoorden | citizenship, civic integration, civic education, text books |
Auteurs | Matthijs Lems MSc en Dr. Semin Suvarierol |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
The recent scholarly debate on policies and discourses with regard to citizenship in the Netherlands point to a moralization or culturalization of citizenship. This article aims to contribute to this debate by zooming into the current contents of citizenship education. We make a comparative analysis of the contents of textbooks for citizenship education that are used for civic integration courses for migrants and for primary and secondary school students in the Netherlands. Our findings show that citizenship has indeed gained a moral content in both contexts but that the difference lies in the norms that are stressed and how they are conveyed to the target population of future citizens. Whereas civic integration books for migrants emphasize the importance of learning local procedures and habits in order to belong to the Dutch national community, primary and secondary school books underscore the importance of dealing with cultural diversity in the multicultural society. |
Artikel |
Politiek en samenleving in het post-Fortuyn tijdperk |
Tijdschrift | Beleid en Maatschappij, Aflevering 2 2012 |
Auteurs | Sarah de Lange |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
The assassination of Pim Fortuyn and the electoral breakthrough of his Lijst Pim Fortuyn sent shockwaves through the Netherlands in May 2002. This article assesses the influence Fortuyn has had on Dutch politics and society. It provides an overview of the research that has been conducted on this topic over the past decade and relates the findings of previous studies to research on the consequences of the emergence of radical right-wing populist parties on West European party systems. |
Artikel |
Overlappende waarden, wederzijdse vooroordelenEmpirisch onderzoek naar de mores van politieagenten en particuliere beveiligers |
Tijdschrift | Beleid en Maatschappij, Aflevering 1 2012 |
Trefwoorden | policing, security, public-private values, professional motivation |
Auteurs | Dr. Zeger van der Wal, Dr. Ronald van Steden en Dr. Karin Lasthuizen |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
The private security sector is rapidly growing and their operations more and more comprise policing and public order maintenance, tasks which to date have been government’s primary responsibility. Some fear this development because the private sector is characterized by market values as profitability and efficiency instead of public sector values such as lawfulness and impartiality, putting the quality of public safety at risk. In this article the professional values, norms and motivations of police officers and private security employees in the Netherlands are compared on the basis of a standardized survey. The main conclusion is that there are large differences in how both groups perceive each other, however the underlying professional morale is actually more similar than different. |
Artikel |
De bestuurlijke gevolgen van web 2.0 |
Tijdschrift | Bestuurskunde, Aflevering 3 2011 |
Trefwoorden | web 2.0, responsive government, government-citizen interaction |
Auteurs | Vincent Homburg en Philip Marcel Karré |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
New means of communication, especially social media, dramatically alter the relationship between citizens and government. The internet is a platform for political discourse now in which citizens not only interact with governments but often play a leading role. This demands of government to learn how to act in a more responsive fashion. In this issue, we focus on the practical effects of web 2.0 for various governmental organizations and draw up a research agenda. |
Artikel |
De investeringsstaat en het verdelingsvraagstuk: waarom is de armoede niet gedaald? |
Tijdschrift | Beleid en Maatschappij, Aflevering 2 2011 |
Trefwoorden | welfare state, poverty, inequality, new social risks, labour market, income protection |
Auteurs | Bea Cantillon en Wim Van Lancker |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
In the past decades, employment and incomes were on the rise, social spending remained high while passive welfare states were progressively transformed into so-called ‘investment states’. Despite these favourable conditions, however, contemporary welfare states did not succeed in reducing poverty and inequality. What lies beneath the disquieting poverty standstill and how did welfare states miss this ‘window of opportunity’? In this article, we aim to shed more light on this question. We identify three structural trends behind the poverty standstill: rising employment has benefited workless households only partially; income protection for the working-age population out of work has become less adequate; social policies and, more generally, social redistribution have become less pro-poor. In other words, the reorientation of social expenditures to the employed occurred at the expense of those at risk in the labour market. The success of future poverty-reducing strategies will depend on the way policies aimed at labour market inclusion will be implemented and the emphasis on redistributive policies. |
Artikel |
Privaat beheerde woondomeinen: beloftevol of beangstigend fenomeen? |
Tijdschrift | Beleid en Maatschappij, Aflevering 1 2011 |
Trefwoorden | housing enclave, gated community, Netherlands, local government |
Auteurs | Jasper Eshuis, Erik-Hans Klijn en Mark van Twist |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
In recent years the Netherlands have seen an upsurge of housing enclaves. The enclaves are often built as courtyards, castles, estates or apartment complexes. The growing number of people living in housing enclaves indicates a demand for this kind of living areas. However, the motivations behind the increasing popularity of housing enclaves are unclear. Is this a reflection of a long standing tradition of people staying in their own social group, seeking for belonging and sociability? Or does it fit in a global trend of searching for security in gated communities? This paper presents empirical research in the Netherlands that addresses peoples’ motives for living in housing enclaves, as well as the role of the local government in relation to housing enclaves. The research shows that residents of housing enclaves seek a pleasant living environment in the first place, while security is a less important motive. The study gives reason for planners and developers outside the US not to assume that fear of crime and a wish for security are the main reasons for moving to housing enclaves. Further, the study shows that housing enclaves are not completely privatized areas. Local government still has an important role to play. |
Artikel |
Sturen met minderVerbindend bestuur in krimpende domeinen |
Tijdschrift | Bestuurskunde, Aflevering 1 2011 |
Auteurs | Martijn van der Steen, Boudewijn Steur en Karin van Boetzelaer |
Auteursinformatie |
Artikel |
Werk in een wantrouwende wereldOmvang en oorzaken van een uitdijende controle-industrie |
Tijdschrift | Beleid en Maatschappij, Aflevering 4 2006 |
Auteurs | Frans van Waarden |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
Fraud seems to be on the rise. That feeds a demand for controls. This paper sketches the diversity of supply in reaction to this demand: public regulators of course, but also commercial information providers and benchmarkers, self-regulating associations, hallmark producers, certification and accreditation bodies, and internal business management control systems, whereby ever more levels of control are piled on top of each other. More than a million Dutchmen earn a living in this booming control-industry, or 14% of the working population. In addition to fraud, other causes of this trend are being discussed, among them, paradoxically, neo-liberalist deregulation policies. All these causes contribute to a sense of risk and uncertainty. Although this trend has a number of negative consequences, it has a major benefit: jobs! Economists may have long thought that transaction costs are there for the transactions. But it looks as if transactions exist to produce transaction costs. |
Artikel |
De angst voor bevolkingskrimp, vergrijzing en bevolkingspolitiek |
Tijdschrift | Beleid en Maatschappij, Aflevering 4 2008 |
Auteurs | Harry van Dalen |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
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Artikel |
Inleiding: Klimaatbestendigheid als ruimtelijke en maatschappelijke opgaveBouwstenen voor legitieme adaptatiestrategieën |
Tijdschrift | Beleid en Maatschappij, Aflevering 1 2010 |
Auteurs | Arwin van Buuren, Peter Driessen en Geert Teisman |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
The problem of climate change is high on the various political-administrative agendas, both national and international. At the same time the problem is full of uncertainties and controversies. Adaptation to climate change asks for adjustments in our spatial planning, but can also necessitate changes in the distribution of public and private responsibilities. A crucial question is how the legitimacy of adaptation measures can be organized in a context surrounded with uncertainties, controversies and conflicting interests. In this paper we introduce the central theme of this special issue and the various contributions. |
Artikel |
Bedreigt economische openheid de verzorgingsstaat, of niet?Een synthese van internationaal vergelijkend onderzoek |
Tijdschrift | Beleid en Maatschappij, Aflevering 3 2007 |
Auteurs | Ferry Koster |
SamenvattingAuteursinformatie |
It has been claimed by politicians as well as researchers that economic openness poses a threat to the welfare state. This article investigates whether there is such a threat. Based on the literature four different hypotheses are distinguished; economic openness is negatively, positively, curvilinear or not related to the welfare state. The first and the third hypothesis state that economic openness does threaten the welfare state, whereas the other two hypotheses argue that this is not the case. The empirical studies investigating the relationship between economic openness and the welfare state are systematically reviewed in this article. The analysis shows that economic openness does not threaten the welfare state. |