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A recognition of general properties of categorization can be used to illuminate the functional underpinnings of aspects of grammar that appear at first to be arbitrary syntactic facts. One such case, that of Subject-Auxiliary Inversion (SAI) is investigated in this chapter which builds on previous accounts that have offered insightful generalizations about the function of SAI constructions. It is argued that a case that is apparently somewhat exceptional — that of exclamatives — is actually strongly motivated as well. Formal restrictions on SAI are addressed and accounted for by a functional account. The implication of this work is that synchronic functional motivations often lurk behind seemingly syntactic brute facts, and can be used to explain many aspects of grammar that appear otherwise to be wholly idiosyncratic.

This chapter evaluates the impact of performance audit work undertaken by the SAIs in Great Britain, Sweden, The Netherlands, Finland, and France. The findings reveal that performance audits have led to changed in government activities and in many cases the responses to recommendations in audit reports resulted in substantial savings in public funds. The result also indicated that the impact of SAIs' work and their concern to demonstrate their impact have both increased from the 1980s to the 1990s.

This chapter sums up the key findings of this study on the performance audit of SAIs in Great Britain, Sweden, The Netherlands, Finland, and France. It summarizes the answers to the questions in previous chapters, which include the nature of performance audit work, auditing criteria, auditing methods, and auditing craft. It speculates on the future of performance audit and identifies certain strategic choices and constraints that may be faced by those who wish to develop performance audit further.

This chapter explains the objective of this book, which is to study the practice of performance audits and relate it to contemporary development public management. This book evaluates audits carried out by Supreme Audit Institutions (SAI) in Great Britain, Sweden, The Netherlands, Finland, and France. It highlights the need for more publications that offer sustained and independent analysis of the audit process and stresses the importance of exploring the connections between performance auditing and public-sector management reform.

This chapter discusses various definitions of the concept of performance auditing. It suggests that performance audit can be understood by clarifying its distinction with other related activities, such as financial or compliance audit, inspection or programme evaluation. Another way is by looking at the works performed by SAIs. The most widely accepted definitions connect performance auditing with the review of the three Es, which are economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of public bodies or programmes.

This chapter examines the management–audit interface and the implications of public management reforms for SAIs. It suggests that the interlinked development of management reform and performance audit is not restricted to budgetary matters. These connections may come in the form of management reform leading to the changes in the public sector, and management reform complicating or simplifying the pattern of organizations to the audited.

This chapter provides an overview of what is actually being done by SAIs. It compares the audit topics covered by the SAIs in Great Britain, Sweden, The Netherlands, Finland, and France in order to understand the trends and changes in the focus of performance audit across SAIs. It also highlights the independence of choice that SAIs can exercise and discusses varying strategies that individual SAIs appear to have adopted in order to select their portfolios of study.

This chapter discusses the criteria used by SAIs in performance audit of public management. The general basis of public auditing is the three E's: economy, efficiency, and effectiveness. However, more detailed or more specific criteria may be used to reflect the desired result of the audit. This chapter suggests that there may be philosophical grounds for arguing for the pursuit of precise criteria for the judgement of government policies, programmes, and organizations.

This chapter examines the nature of the work of performance auditors and discusses how their identities and the content of their work are changing. It describes the possible roles in various fields including economics and social sciences, management studies, accountancy, and law. It evaluates the craft of performance audit in SAIs in Great Britain, Sweden, The Netherlands, Finland, and France and suggests that whilst they share some broad procedural features, the characteristic scope of the work and the standard requirements for membership of the guild vary extensively from one to the other.

This chapter deals with the outs of performance audit or the products that normally appear at the end of the performance of audit investigations. The analysis of the SAIs in Great Britain, Sweden, The Netherlands, Finland, and France reveals that they have clearly made efforts to improve the adaptation of their products for different audiences. In all the SAIs, the number, variation, and composition of audit reports have increased and they are more actively communicated.

Dakotas and Norwegian immigrants maneuvered through national debates about integration and adaptation into the American polity from their profoundly different legal statuses. This chapter explores the avenues for political engagement—Dakotas sought amends for their grievances against the U.S. government primarily in the courts, and Norwegians channelled their political voice through the ballot box. For both Dakotas and foreign–born Norwegians, achieving citizenship and finding a means of exercising political voice was tied to owning land. The assimilation project was successful insofar as Spirit Lake Dakotas generally agreed to become landowners and citizens. And Norwegians became naturalized at extraordinarily high rates. Ironically, landowning and citizenship facilitated their attachment to their respective ancestry and language, and enhanced their refusal to accommodate to assimilationist expectations.