Research project AM/01/001 (Research action AM)
In the practical business of government, only recent consideration has been given to the problem of co-ordination. Research shows that, although authorities in the various OECD countries attach importance to integration and cohesion between the different stages of the political and administrative cycle and between the various policy areas, a different organisational trend is readily identifiable: the increasing specialisation and (organisational) separation of the political and administrative cycle and policy sectors. Together, these two developments call for investment from central authorities in the area of co-ordination.
Theoretical analysis of co-ordination may be based on a trio of regulatory frameworks. That is to say, the framework for an integrated political and administrative cycle and the relationship between specialisation and co-ordination may be founded on organisation theories, under which attention is also paid to the input from economic flows related to organisational theories such as ‘transaction cost approximation’ and ‘principal agent’. This regulatory framework is open to contrast with the network theories, from where actual specialisation and the related co-ordination of the political and administrative cycle may be described and analysed.
OBJECTIVES
To perfect a typology of co-ordination instruments based on existing theories. On the basis of an international comparative study, whose findings will be set alongside the analysis of Belgium’s federal situation, recommendations for Belgium’s federal government will be formulated. More specifically, it will be possible to state which particular instrument will be deployed for which problem and on the basis of which criteria this decision may be taken. The various factors in the success and failure of the co-ordination instruments will also be indicated.
The study will set out to formulate an answer to the following study questions:
- How is it possible to achieve actual co-ordination between the various departments or new policy units on clearly-determined problem issues (e.g. sustainable development, scientific policy, application of international agreements, etc.)?
- What capacities should central departments develop in order to be able to contribute to the policy, and what are their administrative functions and control and conciliation functions? How are these assorted tasks being combined?
Over samenwerking en afstemming : instrumenten voor een optimale coördinatie van beleid en beheer in de publieke sector
Verhoest, Koen - Legrain, Amaury - Bouckaert, Geert Gent : Academia Press, 2003 (PB5973)
Van effectiviteit van coördinatie naar coördinatie van effectiviteit : samenvatting
Brussel : Federaal Wetenschapsbeleid, 2004 (SP1365)
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