市场导向:中国与西方行政改革的比较

从本世纪70年代以来,以英美为代表的西方国家掀起了一场旷日持久的行政改革运动.随着这场改革的深入,越来越多的国家和地区都不同程度地加入到了这场改革的潮流之中.中国作为一个行政大国,从改革开放伊始,就把行政改革作为整个改革事业的重要组成部分.特别是党的十四大后,以“市场导向”为中心的行政改革,已取得初步成效.把中国的行政改革与西方“市场模式”的行政改革予以比较,探究二者之间的共同点与差异点,进而发现其中的内在规律,对进一步深化我国的行政改革具有重要的指导意义.     

美日两国行政改革的走向

20世纪90年代以来,美日两国政府都进行了国家行政的改革,其基本措施是简政放权,调整机构,目标是转化和强化政府管理职能.东西方这两个大国的改革走向,预示着信息时代国家行政管理面临重大挑战,各国政府如何根据自己国家的情况做出选择,是关系到21世纪国家间竞争成败的重大问题.     

西方国家公共服务市场化改革及其启示

一、西方国家公共服务市场化改革的实践 20世纪70年代末,英、美、新西兰等国掀起了以公共服务市场化为取向的行政改革浪潮,是各国政府实施治道变革的重要方面.     

论当代西方行政改革背景及启示

20世纪 70年代以来 ,西方国家掀起了行政改革的浪潮 ,这种趋势愈演愈烈。究其原因 ,传统的科层制在现代社会中暴露出的缺陷是其内在因素 ,经济全球化对整个社会经济、政治、文化造成的冲击波是其外部条件。本文从以上两个方面探讨当代西方行政改革的动因 ,并引用当代西方学者归纳出的四个具体的行政改革模式 ,试图以后科层制为解决问题的出发点 ,以求对我国正在进行的行政改革中出现的“两难选择’提供有益的启示     

西方国家行政体制改革的经验及其借鉴

从20世纪80年代末开始,西方国家掀起了改革政府的热潮。从西方国家改革的实践看,改革的内容主要是按照新公共管理的要求展开的:重新界定政府职能,将“掌舵”和“划桨”分开;运用市场原则,引进竞争机制;提高公共服务质量,强调顾客导向。西方国家行政体制改革可供我国借鉴的特点是:改革目标上的效率和质量取向;改革措施上的分权趋势;改革的良性循环。     

社区警务：公安部门治理变革的典型案例

上世纪80年代以来在西方各国兴起的社区警务策略，是一种维护社会治安的新思维、新观念，体现了西方各国行政改革和新公共管理运动中所蕴涵的“治理”观念。本文从治理的视角出发分析了西方各国社区警务改革的实践历程及主要内容，在此基础上当试封我国“社区警务”改革的实际运作情况进行分析，从而提出适用于社区警务战略的合理建议．     

西方国家治理变革及对我国行政改革的启示

当代西方国家行政改革的基本趋势是治理型的公共行政,与传统的行政模式相比较,治理不仅具有全新的内涵,而且正在成为指导行政改革的一种新理念。在治理理论指导下,西方国家掀起了公共行政改革的浪潮。中国有必要借鉴西方发达国家行政改革的实践和经验,以先进的行政理念重塑政府,构建与现代社会相适应的政府行政模式。     

国外政府效能建设的实践及启示

政府效能是政府自身建设的核心内容之一.20世纪70年代以后,一些国家掀起了行政改革的浪潮,改革的目标是提高行政效能、降低行政成本、维护行政的公共性,其中不同国家有着不同的模式,在改革中用于提高行政效能的理论工具也不尽相同.这些改革虽然都有其局限性,但是作为一种提高政府效能的理论尝试和实践工具对我国地方政府正在进行的效能建设有一定的借鉴价值.     

大部制模式：中国行政体制改革对新公共管理运动的回应

自20世纪70年代末以来，西方主要国家的新公共管理运动与中国伴随着市场经济体制的建立而推进的行政体制改革几乎同步展开。本文试图阐明新公共管理运动和中国行政体制改革之间的内在关联性，并在此基础上通过深入分析中国的大部制改革模式，在说明大部制改革模式可以视为中国对新公共管理运动的一种回应的同时，探讨大部制模式的实现形式及其在中国所面临的困境，并提出可能的解决策略和改革措施。     

不同视阈下的官僚制改革：中西方行政体制改革比较

官僚制是适应工业社会的行政模式,然而,随着官僚制在全世界的发展和运用,其形式合理性和工具理性的弊端也日益暴露出来,中西方政府行政面临着官僚制危机的共同命运。于是,中西方国家都展开了官僚体制的改革尝试。由于处于不同的行政发展阶段和制度完善程度,中西方的官僚制改革又有不同的目标任务和路径选择:西方国家展开了“摒弃官僚制”的政府再造运动,而中国则开始了一场以“职能转变”为切入点和着力点的行政改革,以期实现完善政府官僚体制和转变行政典范这一双重的共时性行政发展目标。面临“全球行政改革时代,”西方政府再造对中国行政改革有借鉴意义,但也有不适用于中国的理念、方式和方法,所以,我们应该学会对西方政府的再造进行取舍考量。     

Policy transfers between governments: The case of administrative reforms

Administrative reform has been a very common activity of governments in almost all industrialised democracies, including those in Western Europe. The frequent contacts among these governments, and the presence of organisations such as the OECD that are spreading the reforms, might be expected to produce widespread diffusion of administrative innovations. That diffusion is not, however, as widespread as might have been expected and there are marked differences among countries as well as among types of reform. Using Boolean algebra, this article analyses the correlates of the diffusion of reform among European countries and the implications of that diffusion for public administration in these countries.     

ASEAN and human rights: resisting Western pressure or emulating the West?

Abstract

Observers of Southeast Asian affairs commonly assume that the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are reluctant to pursue liberal agendas, and that their main concern is to resist pressure from Western powers to improve their human rights practice. This article, however, argues that such a conventional view is too simplistic. The Southeast Asian countries have voluntarily been pursuing liberal agendas, and their main concern here is to be identified as ‘Western’ countries – advanced countries with legitimate international status. They have ‘mimetically’ been adopting the norm of human rights which is championed by the advanced industrialized democracies, with the intention of securing ASEAN's identity as a legitimate institution in the community of modern states. Ultimately, they have been pursuing liberal agendas, for the same reason as cash-strapped developing countries have luxurious national airlines and newly-independent countries institute national flags. Yet it should be noted that the progress of ASEAN's liberal reform has been modest. A conventional strategy for facilitating this reform would be to put more pressure on the members of ASEAN; however, the usefulness of such a strategy is diminishing. The development of an East Asian community, the core component of which is the ASEAN–China concord, makes it difficult for the Western powers to exercise influence over the Southeast Asian countries. Hence, as an alternative strategy, this article proposes that ASEAN's external partners should ‘globalize’ the issue of its liberal reform, by openly assessing its human rights record in global settings, with the aim of boosting the concern of its members for ASEAN's international standing.     

Inter-country differences in voter satisfaction with the democratic process: a study of world elections

Using data from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems, this paper examines differences between West and East European countries in their levels of satisfaction with the way democracy works. Compared to East European countries, satisfaction levels were considerably higher in Western countries (West Europe, North America, and Oceania). Moreover, there was considerably greater inequality in the distribution of satisfaction in East European, compared to Western, countries. When these facts were combined to construct “equity-sensitive” satisfaction averages, the gap between Western countries and East European countries was even greater than suggested by a comparison of average satisfaction levels. This raised the question of why satisfaction levels varied so markedly between these two sets of countries. A logit model suggested that a number of factors were important for determining whether people were satisfied with the way democracy worked in their countries. While there was a difference between Western countries and East European countries in their endowments of these satisfaction-inducing factors (income, gender, participation, education, among others), when the equations were estimated separately for the Western countries and East European countries, the coefficient responses associated with several of these factors also differed markedly between the two groups.     

从“他山之石”看我国城市公共服务市场化改革

在西方国家大力推行公共服务市场化改革的背景下,我国各地方政府也正尝试公共服务改革的实践,在取得成功经验的同时,也暴露出不少的问题。只有理性看待西方国家公共服务市场化,准确把握公共服务市场化的内涵,结合我国国情的基础上,才能找到城市公共服务市场化正确的改革路径。     

对"省直管县"体制的反思

"省直管县"已经成为行政体制改革的大趋势,但是我们并不主张全国范围内统一实施省直管县。中国与西方国家有很大的区别,西方国家的体制并不一定适应中国的具体情况,不应一切西化。政府层级变化是一个自然的发育过程,只可顺势而为,不可强力推行。在"省直管县"改革过程中各省可因地制宜,自主选择;应该注意把握改革的方式、节奏和速度,切忌操之过急,搞一刀切。     

Federal Dynamics of Changing Governance Arrangements in Education: A Comparative Perspective on Australia,Canada and Germany

Abstract

Education policy is a highly interesting field from the point of view of governance, given the substantial changes that have been made throughout the world to the governance of such policy over the last 30 years or so. Western governments in particular have made significant changes in the governance arrangements of their education policy in order to achieve two fundamental goals: increased efficiency and greater accountability. In this process, the role of governments has changed but not diminished. This paper explores such developments by comparing the trajectories of governance reforms in three federal countries (Australia, Canada and Germany). What emerges is that the role of governments is key to all governance mixes modelled by the reform processes in the three analysed countries, and that there is greater “national” coordination than before, but also significant differences in the strategies adopted and in the content of reform, due to the differing nature of such countries’ federal dynamics.     

Responsible Governance and Problems of Administrative Reform: Experiences of Developing Countries in Asia

In the 1980s many developing and newly industrializing countries in Asia expressed great interest in administrative reform. Compelling reasons for public reform in these nations arise from causes different from those in developed nations. Among Asian developing nations, government reform is intrinsic to and inextricable from crises in governance. Within the context of developing politics, a reliable and competent government is sine qua non of national stability; and, more importantly, this largely decides the tenure of a governing group. Its ability to remain in power will be determined by the efficaciousness of public authority. Against these backgrounds, this article discusses the five conference papers of the Eastern Regional Organization of Public Administration (EROPA) of 1991. It examines both similarities and differences among four countries in their efforts to reform public administration. This review suggests that in developing Asia, the quest for administrative reform emanates from crises in governance. Reform goes beyond exploring ways to improve the quality of public management.     

Persuasion, slack, and traps: how can economists change the world?

Contrary to my critics, voter irrationality does not imply that economists cannot mitigate political failure. With rational voters, reform-minded economists have few viable tactics; with irrational voters reformers have more options. Rational voters can be swayed only by facts and logic; irrational voters could respond to better rhetoric. Rational voters strategically punish those who ignore their policy preferences; irrational voters use less effective disciplinary strategies that create political slack. Even with irrational voters, efficiency-enhancing reform is hard. With rational voters, however, democracy’s failure to adopt a reform is strong evidence that the reform does not enhance efficiency.     

Shaping Administrative Reform and Governance: An Examination of the Political Nexus Triads in Three Asian Countries

When addressing administrative reform, many scholars have referred to the fact that governments confront multiple internal challenges such as fiscal stress, distrust of bureaucracy, and higher demands for public services (Peters and Savoie 1995). Externally, governments become more sensitive to global issues and tend to be more influenced by international environments (Garcia-Zamor and Khator 1994). Faced with internal and external challenges, governments seek new paradigms for governance (Ingraham and Romzek 1994) and often initiate administrative reform (AR) aimed at enhancing governmental performance and improving the administrative system through technological advances, managerial improvements, administrative innovations and continued enhancement of administrative capabilities (Caiden 1991). Administrative reform and its diffusion among Western countries are well documented in the literature (Campbell and Peters 1988; Savoie 1994; Halligan 1996; Peters and Savoie 1995). However, studies are skewed toward Western countries and little attention has been paid to Asia. Even less attention has been paid to comparative studies on Asian administrative reform, even though many Asian countries have developed their own AR trajectories to improve public efficiency and productivity (Burns 1994; Zhang, De Guzman, and Reforma 1992). As many students of comparative public administration (CPA) understand, it is always a challenging task, both methodologically and theoretically, to examine a group of different countries (Aberbach and Rockman 1987; Heady 1996a; 1996b; Peters 1988; Peters 1996). It is an even more challenging and controversial task to develop a single comparative framework from which we can examine different countries. This article attempts to fill a gap in the literature by examining Asian AR from a comparative perspective. First, we propose an exploratory theoretical framework, a Political Nexus Triad (PNT). PNT is an extended model, which adds civil society as the third dimension to the traditional politics-administration model. We suggest the PNT and its dynamic trajectory as a building block of the comparative study of Asian administrative reform. This is similar to the power interaction models in which Peters (1988) addresses the power interactions between politicians and bureaucrats. 1 Peters (1988) suggests the “pursuit of power” as one of the following four dependent variables for the comparative study of public bureaucracy: an individual level, an organizational level, a behavioral level and a power level. With respect to the power level, Peters develops five ideal-type models: a formal/legal model, a village life model, a functional village life model, an adversarial model and an administrative state model.
¹ Second, we examine the conventional patterns of PNT for three Asian countries: China, Japan, and Korea. Third, we survey AR of the three countries, focusing on actors, contents and potential impacts to the new PNT. Finally, we discuss conclusions and comparisons     

Enhancing Public Accountability for Developing Countries: Major Constraints and Strategies

Many Asian countries are attempting to promote public accountability as a part of public-sector reform, but their situation remains unsatisfactory compared to advanced countries. Except for a few, many Asian developing countries are still struggling with political and socioeconomic weaknesses. Indeed, the nature of public sector reform in many Asian developing countries differs substantially from that of advanced countries. Furthermore, the concept of accountability is not interpreted equally throughout the world. Accordingly, the purpose of this article is to review the major constraints to enhancing public accountability in Asian developing countries and to discuss major strategies to promote such accountability from the perspective of developing countries. This article first reviews the concept of accountability and its development, followed by discussion of constraints in enhancing public accountability and public sector reform, key measures to enhance public accountability, and implications and conclusions.