NUDGE: IMPROVING DECISIONS ABOUT HEALTH, WEALTH, AND HAPPINESS by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein Penguin Books, 2009, 312 pp, ISBN 978-0-14-311526-7This book is best described formally as a general explanation of and advocacy for libertarian paternalism, a term coined by the authors in earlier publications. Informally, it is about how leaders, systems, organizations, and governments can nudge people to do the things the nudgers want and need done for the betterment of the nudgees, or of society. It is paternalism in the sense that "it is legitimate for choice architects to try to influence people's behavior in order to make their lives longer, healthier, and better", (p. 5) It is libertarian in that "people should be free to do what they like - and to opt out of undesirable arrangements if they want to do so", (p. 5) The built-in possibility of opting out or making a different choice preserves freedom of choice even though people's behavior has been influenced by the nature of the presentation of the information or by the structure of the decisionmaking system. I had never heard of libertarian paternalism before reading this book, and I now find it fascinating.Written for a general audience, this book contains mostly social and behavioral science theory and models, but there is considerable discussion of structure and process that has roots in mathematical and quantitative modeling. One of the main applications of this social system is economic choice in investing, selecting and purchasing products and services, systems of taxes, banking (mortgages, borrowing, savings), and retirement systems. Other quantitative social choice systems discussed include environmental effects, health care plans, gambling, and organ donations. Softer issues that are also subject to a nudge-based approach are marriage, education, eating, drinking, smoking, influence, spread of information, and politics. There is something in this book for everyone.The basis for this libertarian paternalism concept is in the social theory called "science of choice", the study of the design and implementation of influence systems on various kinds of people. The terms Econs and Humans, are used to refer to people with either considerable or little rational decision-making talent, respectively. The various libertarian paternalism concepts and systems presented are tested and compared in light of these two types of people. Two foundational issues that this book has in common with another book, Network of Echoes: Imitation, Innovation and Invisible Leaders, that was also reviewed for this issue of the Journal are that 1 ) there are two modes of thinking (or components of the brain) - an automatic (intuitive) process and a reflective (rational) process and 2) the need for conformity and the desire for imitation are powerful forces in human behavior. …

Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness

Full Disclosure: The Perils and Promise of Transparency. By Archon Fung, Mary Graham, and David Weil. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 282p. $28.00.One of the cornerstones of Woodrow Wilson's policy agenda, even before he formally sought the presidency, was transparency. To neutralize corporate misbehavior, for instance, he called for “turn[ing] the light” on corporations: “They don't like light. Turn it on so strong they can't stand it. Exposure is one of the best ways to whip them into line.” Although the authors of this superb work do not acknowledge Wilson's part in the evolutionary line of transparency policy, they do show by means of thorough and enlightening description and analysis the fruit finally borne of ideas like those Wilson espoused. Indeed, the authors tell a story of policy design that demonstrates the continuing value of careful legislative craftsmanship and policy refinement over time, based on feedback from administration and enforcement. It is a tale of effective legislative governance, particularly at the national level, that far too many American citizens, and even political leaders, believe is impossible or at least unlikely anymore.

Full Disclosure: The Perils and Promise of Transparency

Understanding 'smart cities': Intertwining development drivers with desired outcomes in a multidimensional framework

The governance of smart cities: A systematic literature review

Digital Democracy. Discourse and decision making in the information age

In recent years, ``smart cities'' have rapidly increased in discourses as well as in their real number, and raise various issues. While citizen engagement is a key element of most definitions of smart cities, information and communication technologies (ICTs) would also have great potential for facilitating public participation. However, scholars have highlighted that little research has focused on actual practices of citizen involvement in smart cities so far. In this respect, the authors analyse public participation in Japanese ``Smart Communities'', paying attention to both official discourses and actual practices. Smart Communities were selected in 2010 by the Japanese government which defines them as ``smart city'' projects and imposed criteria such as focus on energy issues, participation and lifestyle innovation. Drawing on analysis of official documents as well as on interviews with each of the four Smart Communities' stakeholders, the paper explains that very little input is expected from Japanese citizens. Instead, ICTs are used by municipalities and electric utilities to steer project participants and to change their behaviour. The objective of Smart Communities would not be to involve citizens in city governance, but rather to make them participate in the co-production of public services, mainly energy production and distribution.

How are citizens involved in smart cities? Analysing citizen participation in Japanese ``Smart Communities''

This article tries to describe Japanese npm (New Public Management) from two opposite poles: from the national legislative framework and from an experimental example in local governmentSince the l

Between the ‘Governance’ Model and the Policy Evaluation Act: New Public Management in Japan

Many Japanese local governments introduced New Public Management (NPM) in the mid/late nineties. Most of them introduced performance measurement, programme evaluation, customer satisfaction surveys, outsourcing and/or contracting out to the private sector, revision of public service delivery, PFI, and PPP (Kudo, 2003). Local public services have been mostly outsourced to private and social sectors. After a decade of these experiences, some municipalities have started to distance themselves from the NPM-driven managerial style. After monitoring and evaluating their performance and considering customer satisfaction, some decided not to renew contracts to their private partners, to bring the service back to public administration, or to introduce new forms of collaboration between public and private sectors, mainly based on proposals from the private sector. The author has been taking part in a research group, which previously surveyed the financial situation of Japanese local governments and their managerial choices (Kudo, 2010) and recently conducted an extensive survey among municipalities to see if they were either in favour of NPM oriented managerial styles or if they were introducing New Public Governance (NPG) oriented (Osborne, 2006; Bovaird, 2007) approaches. Some ways to understand this shift are: 1) putting more importance on citizen participation than cost cutting; 2) preference of PPP to simple outsourcing; and 3) consideration of political accountability (Bakvis and Jarvis, 2012) in administrative implementations. The questioners turn to mayors and financial directors to understand the political as well as economic influences on these choices. The results of the survey and some interviews conducted with mayors and public servants show that some municipalities have shifted from NPM-driven management to public service delivery based on NPG (Pestoff, 2011), although they are rarely aware of the theoretical transition. The examples are small in number, and do not necessary confirm the theoretical framework of public service delivery under NPG (Hartley, 2005), since the reasons of these shifts vary among municipalities. The experiences of Japanese local government would make an interesting lesson for many countries with late introduction of NPM. Japanese NPM demonstrates several characteristics: 1) its NPM has been introduced with some elements of public governance without being recognised; 2) very strong and still dominant attention on NPM; and 3) less attention on NPG, since NPM results in self-reform and learning process of public servants, especially at the local level (Kudo, 2010). The paper analyses the results of the survey in relation to the Japanese literatures on public governance.

/pdf/bridging-the-gap-between-reform-practices-and-literatures-q5l94m69jc.pdf

Bridging the Gap Between Reform Practices and Literatures: New Public Service Delivery of Japanese Local Governments

Smart Cities with their mobility system are assumed to be based on smart technology, smart people or smart collaboration, assigning citizens significant roles. While some argue that ICT will enhance democratic debate and empower citizens, others concern about the development of Smart Cities “without critical discussions and politics”. Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) launched its Smart City project in 2010, setting specific criteria to ensure the “participation of all the stakeholders”; however, drawing on analysis of official documents as well as on interviews with each of the four Smart Communities’ stakeholders, the paper explains that very little input is expected from Japanese citizens. Instead, ICTs are used by municipalities and electric utilities to steer project participants and to change their behaviour. The objective of these experiments would not be to involve citizens in city governance, but rather to make them participate in the co-production of public services.

Co-design, Co-creation, and Co-production of Smart Mobility System

Performance Measurement Systems Innovations in National Healthcare Contexts

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Hiroko Kudo

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