Auteursarchief: Jack P. Kruf

Simpler: The Future of Government

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Cass Sunstein | 2014

Governments everywhere are undergoing a quiet and profound revolution: they’re getting simpler, more cost-effective, and focused on improved outcomes, not politics. For four years, one of the leading lights of that revolution, Cass Sunstein, as President Obama’s “Regulatory Czar,” oversaw the brilliant and successful effort to give every American a better government.

For Americans, the future of government arrived in 2009. The government became simpler, smarter, and worked better. Cass Sunstein, America’s “regulatory czar” under President Barack Obama, was at the centre of it all. Drawing on state-of-the-art work in behavioural psychology and economics, Sunstein helped save the country more than $91 billion and an unknown number of lives.

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Staat van de Uitvoering 2022

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De uitvoeringsproblemen bij de overheid inzake wetten en regels zijn al vele jaren groot. De overheid zelve heeft het vaak zo complex georganiseerd dat burgers de met het beleid beoogde doelen niet of slechts gedeeltelijk worden bereikt. Sterker, mensen die hulp nodig hebben komen door de gebrekkige uitvoering van beleid in de knel.

Naar aanleiding van het in 2021 gepresenteerde rapport Ongekend onrecht: Verslag Parlementaire ondervragingscommissie Kinderopvangtoeslag is een stuurgroep ingesteld met een brede vertegenwoordiging van uitvoeringsinstanties. Hun rapport Staat van de Uitvoering (weblink) is 18 januari 2023 aangeboden aan de voorzitter van de Tweede Kamer.

Noot van de redactie: In juni 2020 geeft de Raad van State in een ongevraagd advies inzake de ministeriële verantwoordelijkheid reeds het volgende advies (p. 78): “Regering en parlement dienen bij de voorbereiding en totstandkoming van regeerakkoord en van wetgeving systematischer aandacht te besteden aan de uitvoerbaarheid en daarover publiekelijk verantwoording af te leggen. Uitvoeringstoetsen dienen verplicht te worden gepubliceerd.“

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Multi-level governance

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Jack Kruf | december 2022

Multi-level governance is an essential part of navigating the public domain. As in nature, there are influences moving up and down between the layers of the ecosystem. As city manager, I experienced the coming and going, for example, of national policy plans, rules, and legislation downwards and financial and political influences upwards, as well as the cooperation between different layers of government on complex projects or programmes. But what exactly is multi-level governance? Where does the term come from? How is it used? A short study.

It is an approach in political science and public administration theory that originated from studies on European integration. According to Piattoni (2001), political scientists Liesbet Hooghe and Gary Marks developed the concept of multi-level governance in the early 1990s.

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Myopic Voters and Natural Disaster Policy

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Andrew Healy, Loyola Marymount University, and Neil Malhotra, Stanford University | 2009

In our democratic system, citizens vote for their representative politicians, elected councils, public leaders, governors, and governing councils. But what about citizens’ perceptions of how risks are handled by their leaders, and what about citizens’ appreciation of proactive thinking by councillors related to public risks when it comes to voting?

Quote: “Do voters effectively hold elected officials accountable for policy decisions? Using data on natural disasters, government spending, and election returns, we show that voters reward the incumbent presidential party for delivering disaster relief spending, not investing in disaster preparedness spending. These inconsistencies distort the incentives of public officials, leading the government to underinvest in disaster preparedness, thereby causing substantial public welfare losses.”

“We estimate that $1 spent on preparedness is worth about $15 in terms of the future damage it mitigates.”

“By estimating both the determinants of policy decisions and the consequences of those policies, we provide more complete evidence about citizen competence and government accountability.”

Bibliography

Healy, A. and Malhotra, N. (2009) Myopic Voters and Natural Disaster Policy. American Political Science Review: Vol. 103, No. 3 August

Download the scientific article

Thinking in Systems

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Donella Meadows, Diana Wright (ed.) | 2008

In the years following her role as the lead author of the International bestseller Limits to Growth – the first book to show the consequences of unchecked growth on a finite planet – Donella Meadows remained a pioneer of environmental and social analysis until her untimely death in 2001.

"So, what is a system? A system is a set of things—people, cells, molecules, or whatever—interconnected in such a way that they produce their own pattern of behavior over time. The system may be buffeted, constricted, triggered, or driven by outside forces. But the system’s response to these forces is characteristic of itself, and that response is seldom simple in the real world."

- Donella Meadows (2008)

Thinking in Systems is a concise and crucial book offering insight into problem-solving from personal to global scales. Edited by the Sustainability Institutes Diana Wright, this essential primer brings systems thinking out of the realm of computers and equations and into the tangible world, showing readers how to develop the systems-thinking skills that thought leaders across the globe consider critical for 21st-century life.

Some of the biggest problems facing the world, including war, hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation, are system failures. They cannot be solved by fixing one piece in isolation from the others because even seemingly minor details have enormous power to undermine the best efforts of too-narrow thinking. While readers will learn the conceptual tools and systems thinking methods, the book’s heart is grander than the methodology.

"Managers are not confronted with problems that are independent of each other, but with dynamic situations that consist of complex systems of changing problems that interact with each other. I call such situations messes. . . . Managers do not solve problems, they manage messes."

- Russel L. Ackoff (1979)

Donella Meadows was known as much for nurturing positive outcomes as she was for delving into the science behind global dilemmas. She reminds readers to pay attention to what is important, not just what is quantifiable, to stay humble, and to stay a learner. In a world growing ever more complicated, crowded, and interdependent, Thinking in Systems helps readers avoid confusion and helplessness, the first step toward finding proactive and effective solutions.

Bibliography

Ackoff, R. (1979) ‘The Future of Operational Research Is Past’. Journal of the Operational Research Society 30, no. 2: 93–104.

Meadows, D. (Wright, D. ed) (2008) Thinking in Systems. Vermont, US: Chelsea Green Publishing Co.

Systems Thinking for Curious Managers

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With 40 new Management f-LAWS 

Russell L. Ackoff | 2009

This gem of a book introduces the extraordinary world of systems thinking and its ‘Dean’, Russell L. Ackoff, to curious and enquiring managers, teachers, business people – anyone, anywhere who works in an organisation.

Finished just before Professor Ackoff’s death late in 2009, “Systems Thinking for Curious Managers” opens the door to a joined-up way of thinking about things that have profoundly influenced thinkers and doers in the fields of business, politics, economics, biology, and psychology.

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Future Global Shocks

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Improving Risk Governance

European Parliament | 2022

This report addresses risks and building capabilities for Europe in a contested world. The coronavirus crisis has demonstrated that the European Union faces various risks, that those disparate risks are interlinked, and that the response to such challenges to the Union is stronger with the Union and its Member States acting together.

Russia’s war on Ukraine, launched while this study was being drafted, shows us more than just the added value of the Union’s concerted action and the ability of EU institutions and Member States to find new and effective solutions to deal with major shocks.

Risks and policy responses linked

This paper, the first in an annual series, seeks to assess the risks to, and capabilities and resilience of, the EU system. Building on a review of global risks, it considers specific risks with the potential to harm Europe and its people in detail.

It then sets out options for policy responses to ensure Europe can address the dangers of such risks and minimise the potential damage. Among the options set out are those previously included in European Parliament resolutions, in positions from other EU institutions, and in policy papers from think tanks and stakeholders.

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