创新和完善城市危机管理机制

我国传统的城市危机管理机制以各自为政和临时群策动员为特点，缺乏事前预防机制、协调联动机制和法律保障机制，效率较低，已经不能适应城市快速发展的需要，因此，创新和完善城市的危机管理机制势在必行。本文在分析国内大城市危机管理现状，并在借鉴西方发达国家成功经验的基础上，从危机管理的视角构建城市危机管理机制，力争为我国城市危机管理机制的创新和完善提供相关政策建议。     

公共危机决策中的公民有序参与

日益频发的公共危机需要政府作出有效的决策,因此公共危机决策是政府危机管理的先导和主要手段,一切危机管理都离不开危机决策。而公民的有序参与是科学、民主与合法地进行公共危机决策的重要保证。但是,现阶段我国公民有序参与公共危机决策还存在许多困境:危机信息的传播缺乏公开性和透明性,公民的参与意识和能力不高,公民参与渠道不畅通,政府与公民之间缺乏良性互动,公民参与危机决策缺乏法律制度保障,公民参与政府危机决策的组织基础薄弱。因此,应积极采取措施促进危机信息公开化,提高公民参与能力,培育公民参与的主动精神,建立政府与公民的合作治理机制,加强公民参与的法治化和制度化建设,培育和发展社会自治性组织,以促进公民有序参与公共危机决策并及时有效地消除公共危机。     

论政府危机管理中的公众参与

公众参与政府危机管理有助于提高社会自我救助能力、解决危机管理中的“政府失效性”以及确保政府危机管理的公共利益取向。当前我国政府危机管理中的公众参与还处于较低的层面。为推进公众积极参与政府危机管理,必须建立和完善相关法律制度,培育和发展民间组织,建立政府、媒体与公众合作的应急机制以及完善危机教育机制等。     

发达国家农业应急管理的主要经验及其对我国的借鉴

发达国家的农业应急管理设置有完整的应急管理机构体系,应急管理的法律体系完善,重视灾害的预防管理及应急教育,重视灾害应急中的社会参与。当前,我国的农业应急管理存在缺乏统一的综合性农业应急管理机构、法制不健全、不完善等问题。借鉴发达国家的经验,我国在农业应急管理方面,需完善机构体系、运行机制与法律体系;增强预警能力、危机意识和救灾能力,建立应急管理风险评估机制,发展民间非政府应急组织。     

危机管理中非政府组织“参与失灵”及其矫正

由于志愿失灵、社会资本的负外部性、管理型社会治理模式的失效以及集体行动的困境等因素,我国非政府组织在参与危机管理中存在着“参与失灵”现象,表现为无法参与、参与失效、参与绩效评价不高等.矫正危机管理中非政府组织参与失灵必须与改造我国危机管理体系相结合,注重加强非政府组织自身建设,建设服务型政府,构建危机合作参与机制,推进我国危机管理体系的升级和优化.     

超大城市社区应对重大突发公共危机的韧性治理及其策略

与普通城市相比,超大城市公共安全风险高,灾害事故成因复杂,源头防控工作难,基层保障能力薄弱。一旦出现重大突发危机,城市社区作为危机应对的“最后一道防线”至关重要。而且,社区作为超大城市应急管理的基本单元,处在突发危机应对和防灾救灾的前沿阵地,是筑牢基础,抵御各类危机危害的“最先一公里”。本研究对韧性治理框架下的社区韧性特征分析,从社区治理体系的适应性提升,治理功能的重构以及应急管理模式的转换等三个方面,描述社区应对重大突发危机的韧性,构建社区应对重大突发危机的结构韧性、功能韧性和行动韧性等能力,并提出韧性治理的主要策略,包括加强主体协同,强化社会动员;促进资源整合,建立韧性网络,增强基层社区的自我组织、自我服务、自我调适、自我恢复的能力。通过完善韧性治理体系,提升社区韧性能力,将危机减缓做到前端,落在基层,防范各类重大安全风险,实现超大城市社区应对重大突发危机的韧性治理。     

应急管理中公共政策的有效执行

公共政策是政府进行应急管理的基本手段,应急管理中公共政策的有效执行,有利于危机的化解。目前,我国应急管理中政策执行存在缺乏强有力的执行组织、社会参与不足、执行手段单一、问责机制不健全等问题。为此,必须建立高效统一的政策执行组织,动员社会力量参与执行,整合执行资源,综合运用多种执行手段、加强执行问责,以促进政府应急管理中公共政策的有效执行。     

新合作主义视域下的公民参与城市社区治理——基于德国城市绿色空间治理的思考

新合作主义作为认识和处理国家与社会关系的一种思想理论,其在城市社区治理中的显著特征就是合作理念与合作机制引导下的政府、公民及社会组织的职能耦合与价值实现。德国柏林、莱比锡以及巴伐利亚州城市社区治理的经验表明,新合作主义视域下的城市社区治理模式,其价值指向是善治,动力机制是合作,实现条件是政府角色转换,实践基础是公民积极参与。德国城市社区治理中新合作主义实践所显示的要素构成、内在要求、相互关系及其发展机制,在展现西方国家城市社区治理的民族性和区域性的同时,也蕴含了现代城市社区治理的价值指向和实现机理。     

群体性事件的体制性症结及解决思路

群体性突发事件是社会主义和谐社会中的不和谐因素,其体制性症结除了地方基层政府不依法行政外,主要是普通民众的政治参与要求无法得到充分满足,社会各阶层的利益协调机制无法完全发挥作用;此外,在一些特定领域,普通民众的合法权益被侵害后,找不到利益协商机制和利益维护机制。要从体制上解决群体性事件,必须扩大公民的政治参与途径,健全引导公民参与法制建设的合理机制;借鉴西方国家的司法接近正义理论,完善公民利益诉求制度。     

引导公民参与社会组织活动的路径与对策研究

伴随着社会管理创新和政府职能的转变,社会组织在社会治理中的重要性日益凸显,而只有公民的积极参与才可以使社会组织有效发挥作用。在对公民和社会组织参与社会治理相关文献进行梳理的基础上,运用描述性统计分析得出公民参与社会组织活动的现状,运用因子分析得出公民参与社会组织活动态度和行为的影响因素,运用回归分析对其影响路径进行了初步探索。并在此研究基础上从公民、政府和社会组织三条路径提出包括教育宣传、制度引导、机制保障和行动落实等四个方面的引导公民参与社会组织活动的对策建议。     

Personnel practices in careers of women at the top in government and business in Nicaragua and Costa Rica

This article, which is the first empirical study of upper-level female managers in Central America, extends the exploration of similarities and differences between public and private sectors in human resource management to the context of developing countries. A comparison of work hours, recruitment and selection practices, mentoring, political pressure, gender discrimination and sexual harassment, reported by female managers in public and private organizations in Nicaragua and Costa Rica, yielded no sector-based differences and few country-based differences. We conclude, therefore, that the public sector is not a more supportive or more fair employer for women in management than the private sector in these two countries, contrary to the assumption in the women-in-management literature that the public sector is a more hospitable environment. Improvements in human resources practices are appropriate in both sectors.     

Civic Engagement and Sustainable Cities in the United States

Over the last decade, at least 42 U.S. cities have elected to pursue sustainable cities programs to improve their livability. Some programs are broad, involving smart growth efforts, and others are narrowly targeted, including bicycle ridership and pesticide-reduction programs. A recurring theme in these cities is the role of public participation in shaping and implementing these programs. In cities where the sustainable cities idea first emerged in local grassroots organizations, such as Seattle, these programs owe their existence to public involvement. Other cities have taken a top-down approach, treating sustainability as a matter for experts rather than ordinary citizens. Civic engagement is manifest both in the development of the sustainability program and as an explicit goal of the sustainability program. This article examines the role of civic engagement in these programs and defines a research agenda by identifying hypotheses about the importance of public involvement in sustainable cities programs.     

Rethinking Security: Organizational Fragility in Extreme Events

Providing public security is a fundamental function of government. As the class and degree of threat vary, government agencies must adapt to changing conditions or risk failing their basic mission. The events of September 11, 2001, illustrated the limits of governmental performance in identifying and interrupting actions intended to harm innocent citizens. These events are examined against the resources, range, and limits of governmental capacity to adapt to the emerging threat of terrorism, and an alternative perspective on administrative performance as a complex adaptive system is proposed. This perspective redefines the search for public security as a dynamic process that balances mechanisms of control with processes of information search, exchange, and feedback among public, private, and nonprofit organizations and is supported by a well–designed information infrastructure. The article concludes that the search for public security is an interactive learning process that, while guided by public organizations, must involve responsible participation by private and nonprofit organizations as well as an informed citizenry.     

Reassessing popular participation in Uganda

The 1980s saw the emergence of popular participation as a mechanism for promoting good governance in developing countries Good governance was seen as crucial to efforts to improve the welfare of poor people in countries where elites had hitherto benefited disproportionately from policies conceived at the top without reference to ordinary citizens at the bottom. Donor pressure helped accelerate the change. In Uganda these developments coincided with the rise to power of a government that sought to democratise the country's politics. A major plank in the democratisation agenda was the establishment of a participatory system of local administration in which ordinary citizens, facilitated by local councils, would participate in public affairs and influence the way government functioned. These aspirations coincided with those of the donor community and enthusiasts of popular participation. This article is an account of the evolution of village councils and popular participation from 1986, when the National Resistance Movement came to power in Uganda, to 1996. It shows that while at the beginning the introduction of local councils seized the public's imagination leading to high levels of participation, with time, public meetings as consultative fora succumbed to atrophy due to participation fatigue and unwarranted assumptions about the feasibility and utility of popular participation as an administrative and policy‐making devise. It calls for political history and the socio‐cultural context to be taken into account in efforts to promote participation. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Citizen Participation in City Governance: Experiences From Vietnam

The radical political and economic reforms sweeping through former socialist countries during the last several decades have facilitated economic growth and urbanization. During this period of market reform and urbanization, citizen participation is greatly needed yet easily lost to other priorities. We employ stakeholder theory to examine whether citizen participation differs between large and small cities and between the poor and non‐poor people in Vietnam. Using data from a sample of citizens in five centrally managed cities, we found that citizens in large cities and citizens that belong to “unofficially poor” groups participate less. For policy makers, this implies that citizen participation should be of central importance in the management of current cities' expansions. In addition, the categorization of “poor households” needs to be closely monitored to minimize the risk of de facto poor households being excluded from the group. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Less Government, More Secrecy: Reinvention and the Weakening of Freedom of Information Law

Many critics have suggested that worldwide efforts to reinvent government could also weaken democratic control over public institutions, but few have considered how attempts to implement the "new paradigm" in public management might affect a widely used instrument for promoting accountability: freedom of information law (FOI). FOI laws give citizens and nongovernmental organizations the right of access to government information. However, recent Canadian experience shows that reinvention can weaken FOI laws in three ways. First, attempts to reduce "nonessential" spending may cause delays in handling FOI requests and weaken mechanisms for ensuring compliance. Second, governmental functions may be transferred to private contractors and not-for-profit organizations that are not required to comply with FOI laws. Third, governments' attempts to sell information and increase FOI fees may create new economic barriers to openness. Thus, restructuring provides an opportunity for political executives, public servants, and some well-organized business interests to weaken oversight mechanisms and increase their own autonomy within the policy process.     

Does Strategic Planning Improve Organizational Performance? A Meta‐Analysis

Strategic planning is a widely adopted management approach in contemporary organizations. Underlying its popularity is the assumption that it is a successful practice in public and private organizations that has positive consequences for organizational performance. Nonetheless, strategic planning has been criticized for being overly rational and for inhibiting strategic thinking. This article undertakes a meta‐analysis of 87 correlations from 31 empirical studies and asks, Does strategic planning improve organizational performance? A random‐effects meta‐analysis reveals that strategic planning has a positive, moderate, and significant impact on organizational performance. Meta‐regression analysis suggests that the positive impact of strategic planning on organizational performance is strongest when performance is measured as effectiveness and when strategic planning is measured as formal strategic planning. This impact holds across sectors (private and public) and countries (U.S. and non‐U.S. contexts). Implications for public administration theory, research, and practice are discussed in the conclusion.     

Information Sharing for Infrastructure Risk Management: Barriers and Solutions

There is a public interest in ensuring that infrastructure systems are appropriately protected and prepared for disruptions. While infrastructure protection is usually viewed as a public responsibility, infrastructure risk management actually requires a high degree of cooperation between the public and private sectors, particularly in the sharing of information about risks to infrastructure. Discussions with Chief Security Officers across sectors of the US economy reveal the complexity of the task, as they describe at length the private sector's requirements of multiples types of information about a range of potential threats. While the US government has established many mechanisms for sharing information, barriers remain that inhibit both the private and public partners from obtaining the information needed to protect infrastructure. Overcoming these barriers requires new thinking about the intelligence generation process, the mechanisms and practices upon which the process relies, and the responsibilities of those in the private sector who participate in it.     

Sliding doors in Brussels: A career path analysis of EU affairs managers

This article investigates the revolving doors phenomenon in the European Union (EU). It proposes a management approach that treats this phenomenon as a form of corporate political activity through which companies try to gain access to decision makers. By using sequence analysis to examine the career paths of almost 300 EU affairs managers based in public and private companies across 26 countries, three different ideal‐typical managers are identified: those EU affairs managers coming from EU institutions and public affairs; those who make a career through the private sector; and those who establish themselves in national political institutions. This identification confirms that EU institutions need different types of information and companies need EU affairs managers with different professional backgrounds able to provide it. Rather than observing a revolving door of EU officials into EU government affairs, what the authors term ‘sliding doors’ – namely the separation of careers, especially between the public and private sectors – is discerned.     

Reinventing government through on‐line citizen involvement in the developing world: a case study of taipei city mayor's e‐mail box in Taiwan

Since the 1980s, a global administrative reform movement is reshaping the relationship between citizens and state. A major concern is how government can be more responsive to the governed through citizen participation. However, the more citizens participate, the more costly it is to govern. And the application of new information and communication technology (ICT) seems to be a cure for this limitation. In this research, authors take the Taipei City Mayor's e‐mail‐box (TCME) in Taiwan as a case to illustrate the complex relationships among citizen involvement, e‐government and public management. After a series of empirical investigations, the authors show that although ICT can reduce the cost of citizen involvement in governing affairs, it cannot increase citizens' satisfaction with government activities without reforming the bureaucratic organisation, regulatory structure, and managerial capacities of the public sector. The results could be helpful to public managers in planning and evaluating online governmental services in the developing countries. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.