Acceso a la información pública gubernamental: ¿incentivo para la mejora administrativa? (Evaluación de una política pública transversal, frente a la gobernanza)

El presente artículo presenta un análisis pormenorizado de la evolución administrativa y legal de las políticas públicas del acceso a la información gubernamental en México y la evaluación de su vinculación con la modernización y mejora de la administración pública y el combate a la corrupción. Se sostiene que, si bien la rendición de cuentas ha generado gran cantidad de datos y se considera como un factor indispensable para la democracia, sus resultados están orientados al margen del cambio administrativo y la disminución del desorden y el abuso en la función pública, como lo muestra la persistencia de las tasas de corrupción administrativa y política. This paper presents a detailed analysis of the administrative and legal evolution of public policies on access to government information in Mexico and evaluation of its relationship with the modernization and improvement of public administration and fighting corruption. It is argued that while accountability has generated large amounts of data and is considered as an essential factor for democracy, their results are oriented outside the administrative change and the decline of disorder and abuse in the public service, as show the persistence rates of administrative and political corruption.

Directions of legislative and administrative change in the мanagement of motor roads of Ukraine

The state of public highways undoubtedly affects the quality of cargo and passenger transport ation, the level of prices, the degree of employment of the population and the pace of economic development of the state. Consequently, the development of the network management system for highways and improvement of their transport and operational condition is a prerequisite for further socio-economic development of the state and society. Of particular importance are the research directions of the administrative and legal principles of management in the field of motor roads in Ukraine, since the geographical location of Ukraine, subject to the integration of domestic transport infrastructure into the European one, will allow in the future to receive annual international transit transport by road and tourist trips, significant development of international cooperation of the state and significant revenues to the state budget of the country.The article defines the directions of legislative and administrative changes in the management of motor roads of Ukraine.

The Formation of the East Siberian Region in 1930 and the Problems of the Reorganization of the Banking Sector in the Region

The article analyzed the changes in the credit system of Eastern Siberia that took place during the formation of the East Siberian region in 1930. As a result of the reorganization Irkutsk office of the State Bank of the USSR was transformed into a regional one, which greatly expanded the geography of its activities. The article considers the challenges of expanding bank by establishing branch offices, the organization of management and communication with them on the territory of the region. Management challenges of the new structure were compounded by the ongoing administrative change initiatives in the region. The study focused on the issues of human resources management. The reorganization of the banking sector was hampered by the lack of experienced bank managers. A significant issue was not only the low level of professional skills, but also high staff turnover due to difficult working conditions, low wages, high cost and low level of cultural and living conditions. The way out from this situation was the creation of its own system of job training in the form of banking and finance courses, which were later transformed into a Training Academy.

The rise of participatory despotism: a systematic review of online platforms for political engagement

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a systematic literature review of empirical studies into online platforms for political participation. The objective was to diagnose the relationship between different types of digital participatory platforms, the real possibilities of participation generated by those initiatives and the impact of such participation on the decision-making process of governmental representatives. Design/methodology/approach A systematic literature review was conducted using pre-defined terms, expressions and criteria. A total of 434 articles from 1995 to 2015 were gathered from the Web of Science database. And, 32 studies were selected from those articles for meta-synthesis, and the cases investigated were evaluated according to the e-participation ladder model (Smyth, 2001). Findings The results indicated that online political participation worldwide remains timid both in quantity and quality. We have witnessed the growth of a kind of “rhetorical participation” promoted by policy-makers and the rise of a “participatory despotism”, in which only the privileged partake, while the majority remains silent. Practical implications The solutions found to promote increased participation and ensure its effectiveness ranged from shaping the platform design in accordance with citizens’ capacities and interests to a need for profound political–administrative change, which includes the world’s public agencies adopting a more transparent, inclusive and collaborative approach to decision-making. Originality/value This paper proposes a systematic review, mapping the studies on online platforms for political participation, analysing the questions, methods and conclusions found by the authors and evaluating each case study with a participation ladder.

KRK DLA SZKOLNICTWA WYŻSZEGO W POLSCE JAKO OKAZJA DO PRZEKSZTAŁCEŃ W SFERZE KOMPETENCJI W GLOTTODYDAKTYCE. KOMUNIKAT Z WSTĘPNYCH BADAŃ NA TEMAT FORMUŁOWANIA I WALIDACJI EFEKTÓW KSZTAŁCENIA W RAMACH REFORMY SZKOLNICTWA WYŻSZEGO

This article presents a theoretical discussion, supported by empirical research, about the attitudes of university teachers of foreign language in Poland towards the implementation of the National Qualification Framework for Higher Education. The opinions on the topic were collected by a questionnaire, conducted in March 2012, among representatives of 17 Polish universities. The research aimed to investigate whether institutional and administrative change connected with the reform of higher education in Poland is in any way contributing to reframing of competencies, or to the development of new competencies in foreign language teachers and researchers. The inter-nationalization of tertiary education and demands for orientation to the job market, widely discussed in literature and public debate recently, are irreversibly connected with globalization and the Bologna process. It is important to raise the question how this affects the generic and specific competencies of teacher trainers and educators. The research results revealed that academics are highly sceptical about the assumptions and effects of the implementation of the NQF. It is the author’s intention to diagnose the reasons for this in the context of seeing the NQF as creating new space for modi-fied and redefined skills, which are indispensable in the new educational reality.

Territorialities, spatial inequalities and the formalization of land rights in Central Benin

The formalization of ‘informal’ customary land rights is at the core of current rural land policies in Africa. The dubious impacts of such policies on agricultural production, and the recomposition of land rights and governance they cause, have been studied widely. But their territorial dimensions are hardly acknowledged. Studying the implementation of a rural land rights formalization project in central Benin, this article highlights the links between territorialization and plot-level land rights formalization. It first unpacks the notion of the village and presents a conceptual framework for analysing the superimposition of and contradiction between customary and administrative territories. Using two case studies, it then examines the conflicts that arise during formalization operations and their outcomes in terms of the mapping of land rights and political and administrative change. This article shows how the political organization of the territory and the socio-spatial inequalities resulting from the history of settlement shape the results of plot-level land rights registration (which explains why large parts of village territories have not been registered), and, in turn, how these registration operations lead to new territorialization processes and increase the heterogeneity of land tenure rights within the territory.