Coordination in youth affairs :
By: ROBERTSON, Susan
.
Contributor(s): BERESFORD, Quentin.
Material type: 
ArticlePublisher: Oxford : Blackwell Publishers Limited, March 1996Australian Journal of Public Administration 55, 1, p. 23-32Abstract: One of the components associated with the widely heralded shift to 'new managerialism' in the public sector has been an increased emphasis on coordination between government departments as a measn to enhance effective service provision. This article exmines the capacity for coordination to fulfil this objective. Drawing upon a case study of coordination in youth affairs in Western Australia, the article examines the process by which the cooedination mechanisms become enveloped in the 'politics of non-decision-making'. By this is meant that a set of power relationships create tensions at a number of levels - between commonwealth and state government agencies; between state government agencies and within individual agencies - which act to prevent effective decicions from being taken. The implications of this case study for the capacity of 'new managerialism' to produce effective policy outcomes in complex social policy areas is higlighted. Evidence from this study suggests that, in an era of restricted resources and heghtened competition within the public sector, agencies are pushed to more clearly define their boundaries
One of the components associated with the widely heralded shift to 'new managerialism' in the public sector has been an increased emphasis on coordination between government departments as a measn to enhance effective service provision. This article exmines the capacity for coordination to fulfil this objective. Drawing upon a case study of coordination in youth affairs in Western Australia, the article examines the process by which the cooedination mechanisms become enveloped in the 'politics of non-decision-making'. By this is meant that a set of power relationships create tensions at a number of levels - between commonwealth and state government agencies; between state government agencies and within individual agencies - which act to prevent effective decicions from being taken. The implications of this case study for the capacity of 'new managerialism' to produce effective policy outcomes in complex social policy areas is higlighted. Evidence from this study suggests that, in an era of restricted resources and heghtened competition within the public sector, agencies are pushed to more clearly define their boundaries
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