Civil service organization as a political determinant of health: Analyzing relationships between merit-based hiring, corruption, and population health.

A growing literature finds that the way governments are organized can impact the societies they serve in important ways. The same is apparent with respect to civil service organizations. Numerous studies show that the recruitment of civil servants based on their credentials rather than on nepotism or patronage reduces corruption in government. Political corruption in turn appears to harm population health. Up to this time, however, civil service organization is not a recognized determinant of health and is little discussed outside of political science disciplines. To provoke a broader conversation on this subject, the following study proposes that meritocratic recruitment of civil servants improves population health. To test this proposition, a series of regression models examines comparative data for 118 countries. Consistent with study hypotheses, meritocratic recruitment of civil servants corresponds longitudinally with both lower rates of corruption and lower rates of infant mortality. Results are similar after robustness checks. Findings with regard to life expectancy are more mixed. However, additional tests suggest meritocratic recruitment contributes to life expectancy over a longer span of time. Findings also offer more support for a direct pathway from meritocratic recruitment to population health rather than via changes in corruption levels per se, although this may depend on a country's level of economic development. Overall, this study offers first evidence that civil service organization, particularly the recruitment of civil servants based on the merits of their applications rather than on whom they happen to know in government, is a positive determinant of health. More research in this area is needed.

The ripple effect of strain in times of change: how manager emotional exhaustion affects team psychological safety and readiness to change.

Introduction: Managers assume a pivotal role during periods of organizational change, yet there exists a notable gap in our understanding of how their emotional exhaustion may impact their capacity to generate readiness to change within their teams. Grounded in the conservation of resources theory (COR), this study explores the crossover effect of managers' emotional exhaustion on team readiness to change. We expect this to occur through higher levels of laissez-faire leadership, which impacts the teams' psychological safety. Methodology: Data was gathered within a Canadian governmental organization undergoing two significant changes-cultural change and digitalization-with a specific focus on leadership as a pivotal factor in preparing teams for change. Employing surveys from 372 team members and 62 managers affected by this change, we conducted path analysis to empirically test the proposed model across 74 teams and their respective managers. Results: Managers' emotional exhaustion has a negative indirect effect on team readiness to change. The double mediation pathway implies a positive relationship on laissez-faire leadership, which hinders psychological safety. In turn, psychological safety hampers team readiness to change. Conclusion: Managers must invest significant resources to fulfill their roles and responsibilities during strategic change. Those who feel exhausted during change may look for ways to protect some of their resources by reducing the time and energy they invest leading their team. This self-preserving resource strategy has detrimental consequences on teams' effectiveness during change due to an indirect crossover effect that affects the levels of psychological safety on the team.

Exploring the Viability and Acceptance of Nudge in Public Policies for Health Promotion.

BACKGROUND: Behaviorally informed interventions, such as nudging, encourage actions intended to promote longer and healthier lives. Holding significant potential for influencing health policies and healthcare practices, these interventions are partaking of a shift in governance and public health policymaking. However, a substantial knowledge gap remains regarding the feasibility and appropriateness of implementing policies that draw on nudge. METHODS: Ae survey on nudge's acceptability) was adapted to the Portuguese context to access attitudes towards 16 nudge measures. The research focused on evaluating attitudes among political science and public administration BSc and MSc students from nine Portuguese universities, and analyzing the relationship between these attitudes, sociodemographic characteristics, and sociopolitical attitudes. The data analysis involved the application of descriptive and inferential statistics. RESULTS: The participants exhibited a moderate-to-high level of approval for various nudge measures, particularly those related to nutrition and public education/awareness raising. The study identified a nuanced relationship between the level of intrusiveness of nudges and their public approval, indicating that interventions preserving the architecture of choice gathered higher acceptance compared to more intrusive approaches. Notably, approval was associated with a high level of trust in social groups and a low propensity for risk-taking and alcohol consumption. CONCLUSIONS: This study not only sheds light on the types of nudge measures that are likely to be more acceptable for promoting healthy behaviors, but also establishes a crucial link between behavioral interventions and healthcare policies. Understanding the nuanced factors influencing the public acceptance of nudges contributes to the discourse on the implementation of behaviorally informed health policies and emphasizes the importance of tailoring interventions to align with public values and preferences.

Evaluation of a Workplace Active Rest Program in Office Workers With Comparison of a Prospective and Retrospective Survey.

Physical activity-related workplace interventions can be counterstrategies for physical inactivity due to office work. Newly introduced programs should be evaluated for success. This study aimed to evaluate the intervention of a workplace active rest program and to compare a prospective and retrospective design of evaluation. A Germany-wide multicenter evaluation of a 3-month workplace active rest program (30 min, once a week) was carried out at 14 locations with a longitudinal pre/post design by means of an anonymous questionnaire (npre = 405, npost = 369). The participants' program-related changes in targeted characteristics regarding posture, function, complaints and physical awareness were collected with a questionnaire in a prospective design and afterward retrospectively. The prospective evaluation showed a significant improvement in the target characteristic "postural muscles in the neck area". In the retrospective survey, all target characteristics improved significantly. There were no differences between locations. The workplace active rest program in this study had positive effects on the perception of postural neck muscle status regardless of prospective or retrospective approach. Selection of survey mode should depend on desired outcome and consecutive influencing factors. In this specific case, retrospective survey could give more indirect information about overall satisfaction with the program and job although being influenced by response bias. Recall bias should be relatively small for shorter time periods assessed. Future studies should account for corresponding bias and specifics of target characteristics regardless of the chosen approach to survey.

Eficiência em saúde pública: a trajetória de um conceito proveniente da engenharia / Efficiency in public health: the trajectory of a concept from engineering

RESUMO A temática mais geral desta pesquisa diz respeito à eficiência na administração pública e sua manifestação na saúde pública. Em um contexto neoliberal, marcado por políticas de austeridade, em que as restrições orçamentárias em relação às políticas sociais são um dos aspectos principais, a análise sobre o que significa eficiência torna-se uma questão de pesquisa relevante. As diferentes ideias sobre eficiência, constituídas e modificadas ao longo da história, exercem influência na gestão dos recursos públicos. Neste sentido, este artigo tem como objetivo descrever a trajetória de desenvolvimento do conceito de eficiência na administração pública, mais especificamente na área de saúde pública. Para alcançar este objetivo, foi realizado um ensaio teórico, no qual desenvolve-se um argumento teórico-analítico destinado a orientar pesquisas empíricas em relação ao tema da eficiência na gestão em saúde. Este argumento é baseado em três pressupostos: ao longo de um século de desenvolvimento do conceito de eficiência na administração pública, este conceito ainda é fortemente carregado de pressupostos oriundos da engenharia; esses pressupostos, por sua vez, se conectam diretamente com princípios da economia neoclássica, que estão na base de perspectivas neoliberais aplicadas à gestão pública; e na área da saúde, o conceito de eficiência fundado apenas em pressupostos da economia de mercado é insuficiente, necessitando ser articulado aos conceitos de eficácia e efetividade.

ABSTRACT This article aims to describe the development trajectory of the concept of efficiency in public administration, more specifically in the area of public health. To achieve this objective, a theoretical essay was carried out, in which a theoretical-analytical argument was developed to guide empirical research in relation to the issue of efficiency in health management. This argument is based on three assumptions: over a century of development of the concept of efficiency in public administration, this concept is still heavily loaded with assumptions from engineering; these assumptions, in turn, are directly connected with principles of neoclassical economics, which underlie neoliberal perspectives applied to public management; and in the health area, the concept of efficiency based only on market economy assumptions is insufficient, needing to be articulated with the concepts of efficacy and effectiveness.

Health Care Reforms, Power Concentration, and Receding Citizen Participation.

The article highlights several outstanding features of French healthcare reforms in light of New Public Management (NPM). The paper exposes the economic, administrative, and social context of reforms. It investigates horizontal integration, as exemplified by the concentration of power within the Regional Health Organizations, the verticalization of the chain of command, and ensuing conflicts between the French welfare elite and the operating core (eg, the medical profession). Outcomes were below expectations in many areas. The NPM-endorsed fragmentation of public organizations has yet to take root in the French healthcare system. There was little consultation with the medical profession. Physicians' autonomy and patients' rights receded.

Mediating effect of job crafting dimensions on influence of burnout at self-efficacy and performance: revisiting health-impairment process of JD-R theory in public administration.

Introduction: In recent years, job crafting has greatly interested Work and Organizational Psychology. Different research studies have shown its positive impact on people and organizational performance. However, it knows little about the differential effect of the two dimensions that make up this variable (prevention-focused and promotion-focused) and its role in the health-impairment spiral process of the job demand-resources theory (JD-R). Method: This research aims to analyze the mediating effect of the different dimensions of job crafting on the influence of burnout on performance and self-efficacy in the workplace. The study used a sample of 339 administrative employees of a university. Results: The results indicate that promotion-focused job crafting is a mediating variable in the relationship between the influence of burnout on performance and self-efficacy. Unexpectedly, prevention-focused job crafting does not have this mediating role in the same relationship. Discussion: These findings confirm the adverse impact of burnout on personal and organizational improvement, while showing the absence of prevention/protection responses of employees when they are burned out. The theoretical and practical implications show an advance in knowledge about the process of health deterioration and about the spiral of health deterioration in the JD-R theory.

The effects of DNA profiles: Measuring the effectiveness of DNA banks in criminal investigations in Brazil.

Since 2013, the Brazilian National Bank of Genetic Profiles (BNPG) of the Integrated Network of Genetic Profiles Bank (RIBPG) has been used to aid investigations, identifying who committed a crime based on biological samples found at crime scenes or on victims, which may be substantial evidence in a criminal case. This research evaluates the extent to which the types of genetic profiles and the number of hits influence the number of investigations aided. The study used data from institutions of the RIBPG adopting the period from 2016 to 2020 and organized them in a stacked panel with 98 observations. A regression mediation model was built to estimate the influence of the independent variables "forensic unknown profiles," "profiles of convicted offenders," and "profiles of suspected perpetrators or legal profiles" when mediated by the "hits" variable, influence the increase of the dependent variable "investigations aided," identified as a measure of the effectiveness of the forensic DNA banks. The results showed that the 1% increase in the variables "forensic unknown profiles" and "profiles of suspected perpetrators or legal profiles," mediated by "hits," was significant to produce "investigations aided." As for the variable "profiles of convicted offenders," there was no evidence that it contributed significantly to the increase in "hits" and "investigations aided." The study demonstrated that the increase in "forensic unknown profiles" by 126 and "profiles of suspected perpetrators or legal profiles" by 14 led to 12 "hits" in the RIBPG, offering support to 4 cases. The variable "profiles of convicted offenders" did not show significant results in terms of "hits" and "investigations aided."

Darwin and American public administration Woodrow Wilson's Darwinian argument for administration.

This research note addresses a gap in the public administration literature by arguing that a political Darwinism was present in the intellectual origins of American administrative theory. By examining the arguments of Woodrow Wilson, this article demonstrates that Darwinism complemented the German political thought that contributed to the establishment of America's administrative state. The application of Darwinian evolutionary biology to politics was a vital element of Wilson's reconceptualization of the state as a living organism. Darwinism was a key rhetorical tool employed by Wilson in his argument against the Constitution's separation of powers. This note finds that Darwinism was present in the early stages of public administration theory in Wilson's argumentation and persists today in the public administration literature. It concludes by sketching out an agenda for further research on Darwinism's influence on public administration.

25 years of Flex: Supporting states in maintaining rural access to care.

The Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility (Flex) Program secured access to care for rural communities, through the creation of the Critical Access Hospital provider type, keeping hospitals open in many communities where they may have otherwise closed. The Health Resources and Services Administration's Federal Office of Rural Health Policy has worked in partnership with hospitals, State Offices of Rural Health, State Flex Program coordinators, researchers, and rural hospital finance and quality experts to direct the Flex Program to ensure rural communities have access to high-quality care. This article outlines the history of the Flex Program, its program framework and state-level implementation, and the ways the program aligns with other federal programs with similar goals.

Natural resource volatility and financial development during Covid-19: Implications for economic recovery.

Demand for natural resources is constant, while the prices of natural resources increase day-by-day, which has a significant impact on financial development and economic activity. Thus, the study intends to test the association of natural resource volatility and financial development, in order to recommend policies for economic recovery. The study acquires and analyses data for the N11 economies. The findings reveal that natural resource volatility is linked to global economic growth and governmental governance in pre-pandemic era as well as during pandemic. Results exposed that natural resource volatility has a large detrimental impact on global economic growth and plays a prominent part in economic recovery. The findings are robust and reveal that natural gas, oil, and the quality of public administration all contribute to N11 financial development. The study suggests that policymakers address the challenges raised through the solutions discussed.

Survey data on the attitudes towards digital technologies and the way of managing e-governmental tasks.

A representative sample of 2520 people was surveyed by completing an online questionnaire using the Tablet Assisted Personal Interviewing (TAPI) method to measure the digital readiness and administrative habits of the population. The data are available in tabular form from an open repository. Some topics were processed by measuring several latent variables and latent class analysis was applied. The database facilitated understanding of the stratification of the population according to digital literacy, preferences with regard to device usage, the purpose of Internet usage, fear of smart systems as well as technophilic and technophobic attitudes. The database revealed the population's administrative practices, particularly their attitudes towards e-government and future development needs. The survey is useful for planning e-government developments. Knowledge of the digital readiness of the population is useful for designing training programs, mapping labor market competencies in the era of Industry 4.0 and developing channels of communication campaigning. Through the regional demographic variables, all of the aforementioned topics can also be used in regional science to measure indices at NUTS 2 or NUTS 3 levels.

Risk in public administration: a systematic review focused on a future research agenda / Riesgo en la administración pública: una revisión sistemática enfocada en una futura agenda de investigación / Risco na administração pública: uma revisão sistemática focada em uma agenda de pesquisas futuras

Abstract Risk as a research phenomenon in the government sector is still an embryonic, challenging, and multifaceted subject. This study aimed to review the existing literature around risk in Public Administration and outline future research directions within this area based on mapping the existing production in the five main journals specialized in public administration. The researched studies were analyzed and classified according to the area or government sector and organizational levels in which the research was conducted, seeking to identify the relationship between risk and other analysis factors and theories. This article contributes theoretically and methodologically to advancing the field of knowledge, synthesizing existing publications, pointing out gaps in the literature, and proposing theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches that address the dynamics of the risk phenomenon in future research. In addition, it contributes practically to professionals who deal with risk in the public context, managers, public servants, and private partners, among others.

Resumen: El riesgo como fenómeno de investigación en el sector gubernamental es todavía un tema embrionario, desafiante y multifacético. Este estudio tuvo como objetivo revisar la literatura existente sobre el riesgo en la administración pública y delinear direcciones futuras en esta área, a partir del mapeo de la producción existente en las cinco principales revistas especializadas en administración pública. Los estudios relevados fueron analizados y clasificados según el área o sector gubernamental y niveles organizacionales en los que se realizó la investigación, buscando identificar la relación entre el riesgo y otros factores de análisis y teorías. Este artículo contribuye teórica y metodológicamente al avance del campo del conocimiento, sintetizando publicaciones existentes, señalando vacíos en la literatura y proponiendo perspectivas teóricas y enfoques metodológicos que aborden la dinámica del fenómeno del riesgo en futuras investigaciones. Asimismo, ayuda de manera práctica a los profesionales que lidian con el riesgo en el contexto público, directivos, servidores públicos y socios privados, entre otros.

Resumo O risco como fenômeno de pesquisa no setor governamental é ainda um tema embrionário, desafiante e multifacetado. Este estudo teve como objetivo revisar a literatura existente sobre risco na Administração Pública e traçar rumos futuros nesta área, a partir do mapeamento da produção existente nas cinco principais revistas especializadas em administração pública. Os estudos pesquisados foram analisados e classificados de acordo com a área ou setor governamental e níveis organizacionais em que a pesquisa foi realizada, buscando identificar a relação entre o risco e outros fatores de análise e teorias. Este artigo contribui teórica e metodologicamente para o avanço do campo do conhecimento, sintetizando as publicações existentes, apontando lacunas na literatura e propondo perspectivas teóricas e abordagens metodológicas que abordem a dinâmica do fenômeno do risco em pesquisas futuras. Além disso, contribui de forma prática para profissionais que lidam com risco no contexto público, gestores, servidores públicos e parceiros privados, entre outros.

Russian Science and Technology: Rise or Progressive Lag (Part I).

The article proposes an approach to a comprehensive assessment of the level of scientific and technological activity in Russia in comparison with leading foreign countries. An analysis has been made of the current imbalances in the development of the scientific and technological sphere in Russia and the reasons for the failure to fulfill many strategic goals. A forecast of scientific and technological development in the context of the existing management system has been made and an assessment has been taken of the potential effect and cost of measures aimed at increasing the technological sovereignty of Russia and the formation of an advanced knowledge economy.

Open innovation during the COVID-19 pandemic policy responses in South Africa and Kenya.

Most governments upscaled technological adaptations and integration into public service delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic policy responses globally. This article analyzes the context of open innovation (OI) applications and initiatives that characterized public innovation trends and impacted government agencies' responses to contain different consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in four critical areas: economic recovery strategies, logistics and supply chain, digital health-care partnerships, and collaborations. We show how policy responses increased the uptake and upscaling of OI strategies in Kenya and South Africa. In both countries, government agencies, among other things, upgraded innovative or created online integrated portals for instant data sharing and used knowledge management platforms to monitor the COVID-19 pandemic prevalence in transportation systems and the delivery of vaccines. These enabled effective policy communication and tracing of COVID-19 patients, organizing the population for the vaccination drive, and generating timely data for further action in the four mentioned sectors. Related Articles: Lachapelle, Erick, Thomas Bergeron, Richard Nadeau, Jean-François Daoust, Ruth Dassonneville, and Éric Bélanger. 2021. "Citizens' Willingness to Support New Taxes for COVID-19 Measures and the Role of Trust." Politics & Policy 49(3): 534-65. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12404.Liu, Zezhao, and Zhengwei Zhu. 2021. "China's Pathway to Domestic Emergency Management: Unpacking the Characteristics in System Evolution." Politics & Policy 49(3): 619-50. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12407.Pelizzo, Riccardo, and Abel Kinyondo. 2014. "Public Accounts Committees in Eastern and Southern Africa: A Comparative Analysis." Politics & Policy 42(1): 77-102. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12062.

La mayoría de los gobiernos mejoraron las adaptaciones tecnológicas y la integración en la prestación de servicios públicos durante las respuestas políticas a la pandemia de COVID­19 a nivel mundial. Este artículo analiza el contexto de las aplicaciones e iniciativas de Innovación Abierta (OI) que caracterizaron las tendencias de innovación pública e impactaron las respuestas de las agencias gubernamentales para contener diferentes consecuencias de la pandemia de COVID­19 en cuatro áreas críticas: estrategias de recuperación económica, logística y cadena de suministro, digital asociaciones y colaboraciones de atención médica. Mostramos cómo las respuestas políticas aumentaron la aceptación y la ampliación de las estrategias de OI en Kenia y Sudáfrica. En ambos países, las agencias gubernamentales, entre otras cosas, mejoraron o crearon portales integrados en línea innovadores para el intercambio instantáneo de datos y utilizaron plataformas de gestión del conocimiento para monitorear la prevalencia de la pandemia de COVID­19 en los sistemas de transporte y la entrega de vacunas. Estos permitieron una comunicación política efectiva y el rastreo de pacientes con COVID­19, organizando a la población para la campaña de vacunación y generando datos oportunos para acciones futuras en los cuatro sectores mencionados.

O programa saúde na escola como política pública interfederativa e intersetorial: uma visão geral sobre sua estrutura, conformação, quadro institucional e traços constitutivos / The school health program as an inter-federative and intersectoral public policy: an overview of its structure conformation, institutional framework and constitutive features

O PSE é uma articulação interfederativa e intersetorial das redes de Saúde e Educação para desenvolver ações no mesmo território. Correlacionado à Política Nacional de Promoção de Saúde, visa propiciar sustentabilidade pela corresponsabilidade. Mais de 5.000 municípios aderiram nos biênios 2017/18 e 2019/20. A execução compete aos Ministérios e Secretarias de Saúde e Educação, Grupos de Trabalho, Unidades Básicas e Escolas Estaduais e Municipais. Por meio de uma revisão bibliográfico-documental, o objetivo é apresentar sua estrutura geral, quadro institucional, traços constitutivos e conformação. Constatou-se que a parte normativa está bem delineada e não compromete, mas, a logístico-administrativa não, com lacunas identificadas à concretização ao cidadão. Preenchê-las pelo amplo diálogo é indicado à qualificação dessa relevante política pública.

The School Health Program (SHP) is an inter-federative and intersectoral articulation of the Health and Education networks to develop actions in the same territory. Correlated to the National Health Promotion Policy, it aims to provide sustainability through co-responsibility. More than 5,000 municipalities joined in the 2017/18 and 2019/20 biennia. The execution is responsibility of Ministries and Secretariats of Health and Education, Work Groups, Basic Units and State and Municipal Schools. Through a bibliographic-documental review, the objective is to present its general structure, institutional framework, constitutive features and conformation. It was found that the normative part is well outlined and does not compromise, but the logistical-administrative part is not, with identified gaps to the implementation to the citizen. Filling them in through the broad dialogue is indicated for the qualification of this relevant public policy.

O papel da herança cultural nos processos de ingresso na carreira diplomática brasileira entre 1995-2015 / El papel del patrimonio cultural en los exámenes de admisión a la carrera diplomática brasileña entre 1995-2015 / The role of cultural heritage in the admission exams for the Brazilian diplomatic career between 1995-2015

Resumo A seleção de novos membros para ocupar cargos na estrutura burocrática federal brasileira mudou progressivamente durante a segunda metade da década de 1990. Se a orientação inicial foi marcada pela retomada quantitativa dos concursos públicos federais (1995-2002), após 2003 a tendência foi de buscar atrair uma maior diversidade de setores sociais nas carreiras públicas - e a seleção de diplomatas não ficou alheia a este processo. A análise qualitativa de fontes primárias (documentos) e fontes secundárias (revisão de literatura) permitiu verificar que, juntamente com iniciativas já reconhecidas na literatura - aumento do número de vagas e da remuneração, isenção de inscrição, entre outras -, a própria modificação das questões formuladas nas provas aplicadas entre 1995 e 2015 pode ser entendida como uma medida com o objetivo de alteração do perfil dos ingressantes na carreira diplomática. Entre 1995 e 2004, a prova avaliou e selecionou os candidatos mediante questões de "cultura geral", que privilegiavam uma certa "herança cultural" reputada como sinal de distinção social e associada a um perfil social pretensamente sofisticado. No entanto, entre 2004 e 2015 parece ter havido uma padronização das novas questões, que, afastando-se das exigências tácitas de refinamento cultural, dariam preferência a outros perfis de candidatos.

Resumen La selección de nuevos miembros para ocupar los cargos públicos federales brasileños cambió progresivamente durante la segunda mitad de la década de 1990. Si la orientación inicial estuvo marcada por la reanudación cuantitativa de los concursos públicos federales (1995-2002), en el período posterior a 2003 esta tendencia buscó atraer una mayor diversidad de sectores sociales a las carreras públicas - y la selección de diplomáticos no quedó ajena a este proceso. El análisis cualitativo de fuentes primarias (documentos) y fuentes secundarias (revisión bibliográfica) permitió constatar que, junto a iniciativas ya reconocidas en la literatura - aumento del número de vacantes y remuneración, exención de registro, entre otras -, se puede entender la modificación de las preguntas formuladas en los exámenes aplicados entre 1995 y 2015 como una medida hacia la alteración del perfil de quienes ingresan a la carrera diplomática. Entre 1995 y 2004 la prueba evaluó y seleccionó a los candidatos a través de preguntas de "cultura general", que privilegiaron un "patrimonio cultural" reputado como signo de distinción social y asociado a un perfil social supuestamente sofisticado. Sin embargo, entre 2004 y 2015 parece haberse producido una estandarización de las nuevas preguntas, que, alejándose de las exigencias tácitas del refinamiento cultural, darían preferencia a otros perfiles de candidatos.

Abstract The selection of new members to occupy positions in the Brazilian federal bureaucratic framework changed progressively during the second half of the 1990s. If the initial orientation was characterized by the quantitative resumption of federal public tenders (1995-2002), post-2003, this trend sought to attract a greater diversity of social sectors in public careers — and the selection of diplomats was not alien to this process. The qualitative analysis of primary sources (documents) and secondary sources (literature review) showed that, along with initiatives already recognized in the literature — increase in the number of vacancies and remuneration, exemption from registration, among others — the very modification of questions formulated in the exams applied between 1995 and 2015 can be understood as a measure toward the alteration of the profile of those entering the diplomatic career. Between 1995 and 2004, the test evaluated and selected the candidates through questions of "general culture," which privileged a certain "cultural heritage" reputed as a sign of social distinction and associated with an allegedly sophisticated social profile. However, between 2004 and 2015, there seems to have been a standardization of the new questions, which, moving away from the tacit requirements of cultural refinement, gave preference to other candidate profiles.

Public Health Management of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Australia: The Role of the Morrison Government.

The Australian Commonwealth government has four health-related responsibilities during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: to provide national leadership; to manage external borders; to protect residents of residential aged care facilities; and to approve, procure and roll-out tests and vaccines. State governments are responsible for determining what public health measures are appropriate and implementing them-including managing the border quarantine arrangements and the testing, tracing, and isolation regime-and managing the hospital response. This paper analyses the national government's response to the pandemic and discusses why it has attracted a thesaurus of negative adjectives.

Is there coercion in local emergency management policy implementation?

American governance in the twenty-first century continues down a path of enhanced coercion and direction from the federal government. Emergency management policy is no different from any other policy field in this aspect, especially in the time following the September 11 attacks. Throughout the Obama administration, the federal government continued these policies and created additional mandates that required local compliance with federal policy demands. Failure to do so would put grant funding at risk in a field where budgets are typically stretched to the limit. However, an earlier study by Hildebrand (J Homeland Secur Emerg Manag 12(2):273-298, 2015) showed that this coercive threat had no statistical significance in predicting the reported implementation behaviors of local emergency management officials during the George W. Bush administration. This study seeks to determine if attitudes of local emergency managers changed during the Obama administration, and if the potential impacts from coercion had any predictive effect upon the local agencies decision to implement policy demands from the National Response Framework (NRF), National Incident Management System (NIMS), and Incident Command System (ICS). The findings once again show that coercive threats (the potential loss of grant funding) play little-to-no role in the actions and attitudes of local emergency management professionals when reporting compliance with federal policy demands.

Administrative Ethics Conflict and Governance of Grassroots Government Staff Under the Human Relationship Society.

The conflict of administrative morality among civil servants at the grassroots level arises from the background of China's long-standing traditional culture, and the current administrative system cannot keep up with the pace of economic development. In the process of grassroots management, due to the lag in the construction of administrative morality, the traditional official standard thinking, the imperfection of the current system, and the restriction of human nature, it is easy to cause the administrative moral conflict of the grassroots civil servants in practice. This paper takes the interpersonal society as the research background, analyzes the influence of the interpersonal society on the environment, and studies the administrative ethics conflicts and governance issues of basic civil servants from the interpersonal background. In addition, this paper conducts a more detailed field investigation based on fuzzy cluster analysis, analyzes the manifestations and causes of the administrative moral conflict of grassroots civil servants in the context of human society from multiple perspectives and levels, and then proposes countermeasures to solve the administrative moral conflict. The administrative moral conflict and governance of grass-roots civil servants under the background of interpersonal relationship is of great positive significance for solving the administrative moral conflict and improving the service awareness and service level of grass-roots civil servants.