公共行政 外文文献 英文文献 01

Public Organization Review:A Global Journal3:317–332(2003)

#2003Kluwer Academic Publishers.Manufactured in The Netherlands. Making Sense of Organizations in Public Management:A Back-to-Basics Approach

IAN THYNNE

Department of Politics and Public Administration,University of Hong Kong

Key words:organizations,public management,legal-structural configurations

Abstract

This article addresses some basic facts and ideas about organizations as a way of concluding the symposium.It identifies different types of organizations in terms of their legal-structural characteristics,and considers aspects of their legal power,ownership,financing,staffing,and outsourcing.It ends with some suggestions for further related research on organizations. Introduction

The management of public affairs increasingly comprises a complex array of overlapping and interlocking organizations of the state,market and civil society both domestically and internationally.The recognition of this immediately highlights two significant aspects of the practice and study of modern governance.Thefirst is that,within and beyond the state,organizations of diverse shapes and sizes remain a dominant means of mobilizing people,legal power,finance,information and so on in the pursuit of common interests and goals.The second is that both state and non-state,or public and private, organizations need to feature in most assessments of public management in developed and developing countries alike(Evans,1997;Kooiman,1993;Pierre and Peters,2000).

Organizations and the relationships involved in their work are central to this symposium.The preceding contributions all appreciate that organizations definitely do matter and that their varied existence and operation as state and non-state entities must be understood.Accordingly,a wide range of structures and alignments are considered.Included is the notion of a‘‘quango’’,as well as various sectoral overlaps and public-private blurrings which need to be recognized.These arefleshed-out by specific analyses of both state and non-state organizations performing public functions,of public and private law being mixed in the form of contract agencies and state companies,of state organizations contracting-out their work to private operators on a large scale,

318I.THYNNE and of public and private regulatory regimes in which the latter sometimes have more extensive public power than the former.Such arrangements raise questions of considerable constitutional and political significance,including the possibility of state sovereignty being diffused.

As a way of both complementing and rounding-off these contributions,the discussion here returns to some basic facts and ideas about all types of organizations,largely from a legal-structural perspective.It begins by addressing organizations in terms of the legal instruments by which they are established, along with the arrangements at their apexes.It then considers aspects of their legal power,ownership,financing,staffing and outsourcing,before concluding with some suggestions for further study in this area of organizational enquiry. Types of organizations by legal instrument and apex

Whatever else they might be,all formally constituted organizations of the state, market and civil society are consciously-created,legal-structural entities.Their main characteristics in this regard can be used to distinguish them from one another,and thereby to start to understand how they might operate in a system of distributed power and responsibility(c.f.Gill,2002;Hood,1978,1986;OECD, 2002).

State and non-state organizations

All formally constituted organizations are established by a legal instrument and have an apex in which most,if not all,of their legal power is vested.The instrument can be

a.a public law instrument in the form of a Constitution,statute(including

subordinate legislation),or executive declaration(an order,decree,pro-nouncement,or the like);or

b.a private law instrument in the form of the organization’s own constitution(a

memorandum and/or articles of association,deed of association,deed of trust,or some other recognized agreement).

The apex can comprise or be occupied by

a.a minister or ministers(a member or members of a government,with the

specific titles being influenced by whether the government is a parliamentary executive,presidential executive,or some combination thereof);

b.a non-ministerial office-holder;or

c.a board(a board,council,committee,or the like).