城市社区建设与社区自治组织的发展

社会共同体的自治理念与现代宪政理论的发展是社区自治的理论与思想基础。在“自我管理、自我服务、自我教育”指导下的社区选举、社区财务、社区管理服务是社区自治组织自治性的具体体现。社区建设的发展对社区自治组织的自治提出了更高的要求，社区居民委员会自治能力的提高成为社区建设与发展的关键所在。通过完善与改进社区选举制度提高社区居民自主推举社区管理的能力，同时，提高社区居民委员会的财务自主能力和自我管理与服务的能力以及加强居民委员会的自身建设，是推动社区自治组织发展的重要途径。     

我国的居民委员会制度

以居民委员会和村民委员会为核心的基层群众自治制度，是我国现行宪法规定的一项政治制度．中共十七大报告把“基层群众自治制度”确立为我国民主政治的四项制度之一。改革开放以来，随着基层自治组织不断健全．居民群众参与管理、反映诉求的渠道逐步拓宽。在城乡基层，社区自治组织基本实现了全覆盖。截至2007年底，全国设有居委会8万多个，居委会成员45．4万人。全国绝大多数居委会都设立了人民调解、治安保卫、公共卫生等下属委员会。近年来，还出现了一些新型社会组织，在管理基层公共事务、服务居民群众、维护居民合法权益等方面发挥了重要作用。在城市，     

元治理视角下业主委员会“成立难”探析

业主委员会是业主基于建筑物区分所有权而产生的一种自治性组织,对城市社区治理有着直接而重要的影响。但长期以来业主委员会数量少、增长缓慢。从元治理的视角看,这总体上是国家在促进自治与必要控制之间失去平衡——控制过多而支持不足所导致的。而破解的基本路径就在于重建平衡,核心要旨包括:树立支持业主委员会成立发展的导向、完善和优化业主委员会成立规则、强化基层党政力量对成立业主委员会的行动支持。     

“居民委员会”诞生记

2008年6月28日，民政部确认，杭州市上城区1949年10月产生的“上羊市街居民委员会”是新中国第一个居民委员会。由此，在中国居民自治的里程表上又有了一个清晰的新“节点”，也为社区发展提供了一个新的历史坚标，     

城市社区事务治理与合作型权力结构重塑

城市社区事务的治理是政党、行政、居民和物权等几方面现实因素综合作用的过程,其反映核心要素的权力结构能有效提升社区治理绩效。在合作型社区权力结构中,社区居民处于中心地位,社区党组织处于领导核心地位,社区居委会承担着实现居民自治的核心功能,社区业主组织承担着实现物权法治的重要任务。重塑合作型社区权力结构,要补齐社区业主和物业服务组织要素,根据共同体治理的要求定位党组织的角色地位,按照去行政化的方向调整居委会和服务站的关系,通过组织间交叉任职实现党组织、居委会和业主组织的互动合作。     

论社区自组织在社区管理中的角色归类及自治功能

社区自组织的理论优势有助于跳出既往关于社区自治组织的认识误区,重新审视社区内各组织的性状,从而归类出社区自组织角色包括社区居民委员会、业主委员会、社区中介组织等,明确了它们在“应然意义”上作为社区发展的主人翁、社区公益和社区文明的倡导者、开发和利用社区资源的整合器、实现社区自治的主力军、社区利益矛盾的协调人等自治功能,为实现社区自治发掘新的组织力量开辟新的途径。     

乡镇政府与村民委员会之间的关系——一种交换理论的分析框架

有关法律规定乡镇政府与村民委员会之间工作上的指导与被指导、协助与被协助的层次,国家基层政权是乡镇政府,具有依法行使的职能;村民委员会是村民自治组织,符合法律自身的特点。政策上,乡镇与村委之间不再是政权上的上下级和直接的"领导关系",是"指导关系"。然而,从眼前来看,乡、村关系的调处在实践中存在着诸多矛盾,与制度所规范的相远离。其原因在于,乡镇政府这一政府组织与村委会这一群众自治性社会组织是建立在各自不平衡的资源占有之上的交换关系。文章试图从乡镇政府和村委会的组织性质和能力方面,借助交换理论的解析框架来分析乡、村之间的交换互动以及从中产生的权力控制,从而对当前乡、村关系的性质予以定位,通过对交换中乡镇政府和村委会影响因素的考察,对乡、村关系的协调提出相关建议。     

我国城市社区公共服务绩效评价问题研究——以长春市H社区为个案

本文以H社区为个案,对比了政府绩效考评与居民满意度调查两种评估过程和结果的差异,并从显性的绩效评价指标和隐性的社区治理结构关系两个方面分析了造成差异的主要原因.政府的绩效评估重效率,轻效益;重有形,轻无形.这些特点根植于政府、社区自治组织和居民之间的关系,具体表现为政府居于主导地位,自治组织处于附属地位,居民评估主体地位缺失.基于此,建议以"强政府、强社会"为目标,确保社区公共服务组织的相对独立性,大力支持社会组织提供社区公共服务的活动,积极培育社区社会资本,进而实现政府与社区的合作治理,提高社区公共服务的供给水平.     

论业主委员会的法律性质

《物权法》、《物业管理条例》及其他相关法律法规,都没有明确规定业主委员会的诉讼地位,以至于在司法实践中,各个地方法院对业主委员会的诉讼地位的理解出现偏差。分析目前实务界和理论界在业主委员会诉讼地位方面存在的分歧,探讨实务界和理论界对业主委员会诉讼地位存在分歧的原因,提出完善业主委员会诉讼地位的途径,希望通过对业主委员会诉讼地位的探讨,能对我国业主委员会诉讼地位的研究有所裨益,对促进我国社区和谐发展有所贡献。     

我国城市社区民主政治建设的困境与对策

我国城市社区民主政治建设已经历了20多年,目前遭遇了一些困境,比如：社区自治组织与政府关系错位;社区自治组织不能满足民主政治发展的要求;城市社区民主制度不完善。为走出这些困境,在建设工作中应注意做好以下几点：完善城市社区管理体制;形成居民的有序化参与格局;理顺城市社区自治组织与政府的关系;合理利用资源。     

Myths and the definition of policy problems

In this paper we argue that behind widely accepted problem definitions are myths, stories which draw on tradition and taken for granted knowledge. These myths, which may or may not be true in a factual sense, are important to the definition of problems because they link public issues to widely accepted ways of understanding the world and to shared moral evaluations of conditions, events, and possible solutions to problems. Such myths perform a double-edged function in a policy or planning process. On the one hand, they can provide creative inspiration for policies, a way of translating community values into action proposals, and a powerful means to communicate to a broad public and rally support. They can mediate social and economic change by allowing new policies to carry familiar meaning. On the other hand, a myth can conceal crucial contradictions and realities, legitimize policies that benefit the powerful, and support anachronistic perceptions of policy problems. These ideas are explored in case histories of two areas of urban policy. In one we trace the support for home ownership to a transformation of the Jeffersonian myth of the independent yeoman farmer as the ideal citizen. This use of myth made home ownership the cornerstone of US housing policies and helped suppress alternatives. Though debate over home ownership occurs in the context of housing policy, the tacit purpose is to maintain a myth which is central to our identity as a nation. In the second example, public officials and analysts engaged in an explicit myth-making process to garner support for public-private partnerships as a central tool in urban redevelopment. The myths, which drew on familiar themes, made socially beneficial cooperation seem easy to achieve and legitimized new political and institutional arrangements though it also concealed implementation difficulties. Though myths complicate the effort to use rational, systematic analysis, they are an inevitable part of policy making and planning processes. Planning professionals must openly confront myths and make creative, responsible, use of them rather than allow policies and plans to be subject to their unexamined influence.     

Managing economic reform: An alternative perspective on structural adjustment policies

The structural adjustment policies of international development organizations have been undermined in many developing countries by weaknesses in administrative capacity to manage economic reforms. If economic reform policies are to be implemented more effectively in the future, international organizations must take a broader view of the development process and assess more carefully the administrative and political capacity of the state to guide the decisions of public and private organizations toward development goals in four policy arenas. The experience of developing countries that were more successful at economic and social development during the 1970s and early 1980s, indicates the characteristics of development administration that policy analysts must assess in order to determine governments' capacity to implement economic reform policies effectively.     

International Organizations in Transfer of Infectious Diseases: Iterative Loops of Adoption, Adaptation, and Marketing

Over the past few years increasing attention has been given to the role of international organizations in the diffusion of policy ideas and promotion of particular macro-level policies. Much of the attention has been on the ideological driving forces behind such policies, and on the extent to which the policies are externally imposed. There has been limited discussion on the bread-and-butter, technical policies of international organizations, and how they devise, adopt, adapt, and then promote what come to be seen as policies of global "best practice." This paper seeks to redress this gap by looking at the process of transfer of two infectious disease policies between international and national levels. It demonstrates that international organizations play different roles in policy transfer at particular stages in the process. The paper suggests that health policy transfer is a long adaptive process, made up of several iterative loops, as research and clinical practices developed in one or more countries are adopted, adapted, and taken up by international organizations which then mobilize support for particular policies, market, and promote them. Assumptions that new ideas about policies flow "rationally" into existing decision making are challenged by the processes analyzed here. Policy transfer, given the experience of these infectious diseases policies, goes through separate, "bottom-up," research-oriented, and "top-down" marketing-oriented loops. Individuals and different configurations of networks play key roles linking these loops. In the process, complex, context-specific policies are repackaged into simplified guidelines for global best practice, leading to considerable contestation within the policy networks.     

The emergence of stable racially and ethnically diverse urban communities: A case study of nine U.S. cities

Abstract

We examine the characteristics of 14 stable racially and ethnically diverse urban communities in 9 U.S. cities and point to policies that could strengthen these communities and encourage the growth of more diverse neighborhoods in American cities. The cities examined are Chicago; Denver; Houston; Memphis, TN; Milwaukee; New York; Oakland, CA; Philadelphia; and Seattle. University researchers and community leaders in each city collaborated on the research for this project.

We identify two types of stable diverse communities, “self‐conscious” and “laissez‐faire,” which have evolved for different reasons and with different characteristics. Stable diverse communities will not just happen, but they can be influenced by a number of policy recommendations stemming from our research. These include helping individuals and organizations take leadership roles in their communities, strengthening and enforcing fair housing and antidiscrimination laws, earmarking economic resources to encourage neighborhood diversity, and creating community safety and jobs programs.     

Governance through civil society? An Anglo-Italian comparison of democratic renewal and local regeneration

Abstract

The UK has become a prime case for the implementation of the ‘new governance’ of partnership between central government and civil society. This perspective has become central to New Labour policies for both local socio-economic regeneration and democratic renewal in the United Kingdom. However, limitations in its redistribution of power, its transparency in the policy-making process, including the representativeness of civil society participants, and, in the effectiveness of its outcomes have all been alleged by academic critics. These issues are explored by contrasting a robust, British case of local, participatory governance in Bristol with a quite different, and more conventional approach to democratic renewal in the Italian city of Naples. Despite similar problems of socio-economic dereliction and similar schemes of regeneration in the two cases, the Italian approach emphasized the exclusive role of a renewed constitutional democracy, while in Bristol central government agencies promoted an accentuation of local trends to participation by local civil society organizations. Applying an analytical framework composed of national policies and regulations, institutional rules and norms, and the collective ‘identity’ factors identified by social capital theory, governance changes are here treated as ‘exogenous shocks’ and/or as opportunities for choice. However, over and above differences in these institutional frameworks the key factors are shown to be the longer-standing political cultures influencing local actors and their own repertoires of action; with repertoires influenced by objective validations of previous policy choices, or economic or electoral successes. The study finds that the achievements of the ‘inclusive’, participative governance approach do not significantly exceed those of an exclusivist, ‘neo-constitutionalism’, as practised by a more autonomous local government in Naples. Thus, on this evidence, enhanced civil society engagement still requires greater freedom from central government direction.     

Housing Subsidies and Early Childhood Development: A Comprehensive Review of Policies and Demonstration Projects

ABSTRACT

In this article, we ask how housing subsidies might influence young children. We examine two national housing policies – public housing assistance and the Section 8 vouchers program – and two demonstration projects that aimed to improve the administration of providing housing subsidies – HOPE (Homeownership Opportunities for People Everywhere) VI and Moving to Opportunity. This article is a critical examination of these policies and demonstration projects in relation to the following housing dimensions that promote the healthy development of young children: income supplements residential stability, physical environment, access to services and amenities, housing choice, neighborhood safety, and social capital. We compared advantages and limitations of each of these national housing policies and demonstration projects and examined ways in which they might influence children in these housing dimensions. The article concludes with implications and future research directions for U.S. housing policy by discussing its most recent U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) initiative, Rental Assistance Demonstration, in addressing limitations of housing policies and demonstration projects we examined.     

Policy Innovation of Local Officials in China: the Administrative Choice

Local policy innovation is considered one of the major drives for China’s rapid economic development, especially during the first 35 years of reform in China. Given the new central policies and constant anti-corruption campaigns under the Xi administration, this article examines a timely question of why and how local officials continue to develop new innovative policies and projects. Based on previous theoretical building, the article analyzes such key institutional factors as new rules of game and their impact on local officials’ competition for survival and career advancement. Selecting cases across all the districts from a typical city in China, this article compares and identifies the changing patterns in local policy innovation. Policy innovations are administrative choices made by local officials in response to new and changing institutional opportunities and constraints. The discussion in this article makes significant contributions both theoretically and empirically to the China studies.

     

Diffusion through Democracy

Many argue that international norms influence government behavior, and that policies diffuse from country to country, because of idea exchanges within elite networks. However, politicians are not free to follow their foreign counterparts, because domestic constituencies constrain them. This article examines how electoral concerns shape diffusion patterns and argues that foreign templates and international organization recommendations can shift voters’ policy positions and produce electoral incentives for politicians to mimic certain foreign models. Experimental individual‐level data from the field of family policy illustrates that even U.S. voters shift positions substantially when informed about UN recommendations and foreign countries’ choices. However, voters receive limited information about international developments, biased towards the policy choices of large and proximate countries. Aggregate data on the family policy choices of OECD countries show how voters’ limited information about international models shapes government decisions: governments are disproportionately likely to mimic countries whose news citizens follow, and international organizations are most influential in countries with internationally oriented citizens.     

Analytical debates and policy learning: analysis and change in the federal bureaucracy

One of the primary agents of change within federal organizations is the policy analyst. This is so because analysts are formally charged with critiquing existing policies and the organizations that implement them, and with proposing new policies and implementation procedures. But it is often forgotten by both proponents and critics of policy analysis that analysts themselves work within — are are responsive to — an organizational context. This paper provides an attempt to view analysis as a process that initiates and responds to policy change, and that is constrained by the organizational context within which analysis takes place. A set of cases, drawn from energy policy at the federal level, are used to illustrate that process.     

Governance modes,policy regimes and operational plans: A multi-level nested model of policy instrument choice and policy design

Policy goals and means exist at different levels of abstraction and application and policies can be seen to be comprised of a number of components or elements, not all of which are as amenable to (re)design as others. Defining and thinking about polices and policy-making in this way is very useful because it highlights how policy design is all about the effort to match goals and instruments both within and across categories. That is, successful policy design requires (1) that policy aims, objectives, and targets be coherent; (2) that implementation preferences, policy tools and tool calibrations should also be consistent; and (3) that policy aims and implementation preferences; policy objectives, and policy tools; and policy targets and tool calibrations, should also be congruent and convergent. Policy instrument choices can thus be seen to result from a nested or embedded relationship within a larger framework of established governance modes and policy regime logics. In this contextual model, the range of choices left at the level of concrete targeted policy instrument calibrations—the typical subject of policy tool analysis—is restricted by the kinds of decisions made about policy objectives and the appropriate tools to attain them, and both of these, in turn, by the kind of choices made at the highest level setting out general policy aims and implementation preferences.