Australian higher education has undergone radical change aimed at transforming universities into commercial enterprises less dependent on public funding. Despite some significant successes, including dramatic increases in the numbers of domestic and international students, decreased Commonwealth...

Considerable public debate surrounded the Bush Administration's policy to invade Iraq if it did not dismantle its purported stockpile of 'Weapons of Mass Destruction' and the wisdom of Australian participation in such an attack. This paper invokes Albert Hirschman's well-known 'rhetoric of...

The rational expectations model has been the central expectations hypothesis used by economists while the adaptive expectations hypothesis has been considered by many as inefficient because expectations cannot fully exploit all available information. The aim of this study is to determine which...

This major Handbook provides a state-of-the-art study of the recent history and future development of international public management reform.

Expert contributors in economics and political science offer a comprehensive breakdown of the issue of local jurisdiction fragmentation and provide recommendations for successful policy reform. Topics discussed include economies of scale, the costs and benefits of voluntary and forced...

type="main" xml:id="ecpa12065-abs-0001" <p>New South Wales (NSW) local government is in the throes of a vigorous debate over the best methods of improving its operations through a comprehensive reform programme. An Independent Local Government Review Panel, set up by the NSW Government, has...</p>

Australian local government is widely acknowledged to be under severe financial distress that has been mainly manifest in local infrastructure under-investment. The Commonwealth government’s Roads to Recovery funding programme has provided substantial funding relief to municipalities to...

Australian local government has been subjected to vigorous reform by State Governments for more than a decade, with the most recent reform episode presently under way in Queensland under the Size, Shape and Sustainability programme. Reform has typically focused on enhancing the operational...

Like many advanced nations, Malaysia is undergoing profound demographic changes that are bound to have far-reaching economic and social repercussions in future. A critical feature of future Malaysian society will be the need to provide economic security to older people. Thus, it is important...