The Effectiveness of Non-State Governance Schemes: A Comparative Study of Forest Certification in Norway and Sweden

During the last decade, we have seen the emergence, under the auspices of non-state authorities, of market-driven governance schemes for certification of forest holdings and eco-labelling of wood products. Do these schemes affect actual management practices and environmental protection in forestry? This article examines the effectiveness of forest certification in Norway and Sweden – two ecologically and politically similar countries, but with different certification schemes. It is found that certification processes in both countries have resulted in high participation in certification schemes, high market penetration by certified forest organisations, and reduced conflict prevalence over forestry practices. Although forest certification seems to have modified on-the-ground practices in ways that lead to less environmental deterioration of forests, we still know too little about forest certification’s environmental impact and efficacy as a problem-solving instrument. More research is therefore urged in these areas.     

Accountability in Governance: The Challenge of Implementing the Aarhus Convention in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

The signing of the 1998 UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus Convention) radically extended international law on transparency and accountability in environmental governance. For the countries of Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) that have now ratified, the Convention could prompt profound democratic changes. This article, based on the authors' experiences, analyses changing cultures of governance in EECCA countries. The first so-called pillar of access to information sets in place rights that directly contradict the fundamental secrecy of the former Soviet Union countries. Some officials' reluctance to share environmental information may also be linked to the economic duress of the current transition period, where information may be an official's only asset. The second pillar of public participation also poses difficulties for officials for whom the highest praise is to be considered a professional. In their belief that no one knows better than they do, they are reluctant to spend time and resources to make decision-making transparent and to involve the public. The third pillar of access to justice breaks new ground for post-socialist countries still developing their judicial systems. Though several highly sophisticated NGOs have been successful in using courts, it remains difficult for an ordinary EECCA citizen to bring an environment-related legal action. Changing these attitudes and practices will be a long and troublesome process. The Aarhus Convention will not be truly implemented until openness, transparency and accountability in environmental decision-making become everyday habits.     

Civil Society,Environmental Security and Knowledge: Forest Governance in Thailand and the Philippines in the Context of ASEAN

In the domain of environmental security, it appears that a strong civil society, one with strong social ingenuity and social capital, is a necessary condition not only for environmental security, but also for regional security in general. This paper will argue that in the context of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), much can be learned from the empirical experiences of Thailand and the Philippines that have established records of accomplishment in civil society participation in forest governance. Also discussed is the possible role of epistemic communities both within these countries as well as across countries in the ASEAN in harnessing institutions of knowledge to influence domestic and regional governance of forest resources.     

Nobody Knows Best: Alternative Perspectives on Forest Management and Governance in Southeast Asia

In this paper we propose a framework for understanding how dominant perspectives, or worldviews, influence the crafting of institutions, and how these, in turn, constrain the functions and goals of knowledge systems. Alternative perspectives carry their own set of assumptions and beliefs about who should be making the rules, where the best knowledge lies to guide decisions, and about where more knowledge is needed. Initially, four contrasting perspectives are elaborated: state-, market-, greens-, and locals-know-best. We illustrate the framework by exploring the recent history of forest governance in Southeast Asia, finding several examples of battles of perspectives leading to a new dominant perspective. In each case the dominant perspective itself, old or new, is shown to be defective in some critical way and was, or should be, replaced. The problem is that each of the perspectives considers the world as knowable, manageable, and relatively constant, or at most changing only slowly. Ecological and socio-political crises, however, are recurrent. Management plans and regulations or policies that aim to establish the land-use allocation, the best crop, the best forest management system or the best price or system of incentives, are doomed to failure. If uncertainties are accepted as fundamental, solutions as temporary, and scientific knowledge as useful but limited, then Nobody Knows Best is a modest, but effective heuristic for forest governance.     

Truth, Reconciliation and Justice: The South African Experience in Perspective

The lecture examines the role and objectives of truth and reconciliation commissions in societies undergoing major political transitions, with particular reference to the model of South Africa, and compares this method to others suggested by international criminal law for accommodating both retributive and restorative responses to past conflicts and crimes against humanity.     

细事细治 ——基层网格化中的科层化精细治理与社会修复

【问题】国家治理体系的落地需要微观治理机制的完善。网格化是近些年发展出的一种重要基层治理机制。然而,谁在治理,怎样治理,治理什么?网格化治理体现了什么样的治理逻辑,又有何种后果?这些问题在文献中并没有系统答案。【方法】本文从治理主体、治理方式、治理内容三个角度,采取内容分析法,对广州市某区2013年1-3月网格化服务管理信息系统登记的2091起事件进行研究。【发现】首先,科层化精细治理:网格化服务管理通过设置网格和购买网格员服务的方式,使得国家科层制组织体系延伸到比社区还要微观的基层社会领域,直接处理日常社会中的“细事”。其次,社会修复效应:网格化服务管理是在社会的日常自我修复能力不足的情况下,国家改革基层以“官进民退”促进基层社会修复的一项制度安排。因此,抑制国家权力过度介入基层日常社会事务需要社会自身提升“日常社会修复”能力。【贡献】本文尝试立足基层治理内容探究国家治理与社会发展的逻辑,以“治理什么”视角拓展国家治理研究视域,以“社会修复”范畴丰富“社会秩序何以可能”问题的研究范式。     

Government-Voluntary Sector Compacts: Governance, Governmentality, and Civil Society

In 1998 government and the main representatives of the voluntary sector in each of the four countries in the United Kingdom published 'compacts' on relations between government and the voluntary sector. These were joint documents, carrying forward ideas expressed by the Labour Party when in opposition, and directed at developing a new relationship for partnership with those 'not-for-profit organizations' that are involved primarily in the areas of policy and service delivery.This article seeks to use an examination of the compacts, and the processes that produced them and that they have now set in train, to explore some of the wider issues about the changing role of government and its developing relationships with civil society. In particular, it argues that the new partnership builds upon a movement from welfarism to economism which is being developed further through the compact process. Drawing upon a governmentality approach, and illustrating the account with interview material obtained from some of those involved in compact issues from within both government and those umbrella groups which represent the voluntary sector, an argument is made that this overall process represents the beginning of a new reconfiguration of the state that is of considerable constitutional significance.     

依法治理的客体、内容和重点

对于依法治理的客体、内容和重点,理论界有不同的学术观点,实际工作者也有不同的理解和把握。有的学术文章对客体与内容分不很清,有的把内容和重点混为一谈,对依法治理实践带来一些消极影响,有必要进行澄清。一、依法治理的客体依法治理是依法治国的实践推进。依法治国就是人民群众在中国共产党的领导下,依照宪法和法律的规定,通过各种途径和形式,管理国家事务,管理经济和文化事业,管理社会事务,逐步实现社会主义民主的法律化、制度化,使这种法律和制度不因领导人的改变而改变,不因领导人注意力的改变而改变。根据对依法治国的这一科学概括,…     

从法治走向善治的中国特色社会主义治理模式

在国家治理现代化推进的激励之下,21世纪中国治理模式演进为以全面依法治国和全面深化改革为特征的中国式善治。善治的中国模式包含了多重治理系统的内在逻辑,即执政党治理制度化、政府治理法治化、社会治理的协同化和参与全球治理的有效化。善治的中国模式呈现出坚持党的领导和推进执政党续造、坚持全面深化改革和迈向幸福生活的政治图景。     

Experimental Governance: The Open Method of Coordination

Abstract:  The open method of coordination (OMC) has increased the competence of the European Union to regulate areas where the traditional Community legislative processes are weak, or where new areas require coordination of Member State policy, either as part of the spillover of the integration project as a result of economic and monetary union, or as a result of the case law of the European Court of Justice. The OMC is viewed as an aspect of new, experimental governance, which is part of the response by the EU to regulatory shortcomings. This article explores the normative aspects of the OMC using case studies. The article examines the conditions in which the OMC emerges, the conditions upon which it thrives, and the claims that are made for its effectiveness as a new form of governance.     

Beyond Technocratic Governance: The Case of Biotechnology

Decision-making processes within the European Union are often held to be technocratic in nature. This article challenges this assumption upon conceptual and empirical grounds. Whilst in the European regulatory field of biotechnology, politicians often seek to define political issues as technical questions and so may successfully evade necessary but time-consuming legislative processes through the means of Comitology; the diverse mixture of national, supranational, technocratic and political interests within the Commission, Council, Parliament and committees, determines that social and ethical criteria do play a role in European regulation. Relating such specific findings to the broader question of European governance, it might thus be argued that the European Union is more than a technocratic regime, and does more than promote negative integration. However, the 'political' within European decision-making needs nonetheless to be strengthened to ensure the necessary and continued inclusion within such regulatory processes of social and ethical rationalities to complement the economic rationality of the internal market.     

公司秘书与公司治理

公司秘书是公司经营过程中不可缺少的高级管理人员。公司秘书不仅是公司治理的守门人 ,而且在公司与其成员之间 ,公司内部各组织机构之间的关系协调中发挥着桥梁作用。我国公司中的秘书仍然囿于传统的观念 ,其地位和职责远未法律化 ,抑制了其在公司治理中应有的作用。因此 ,需要从立法的高度对公司秘书进行角色定位 ,使其成为公司的法定机关