Executive veto power and credit claiming

The line-item veto has often be heralded as an effective tool in reducing pork barrel spending. A model of veto bargaining over public goods and pork barrel spending in the presence of credit claiming incentives demonstrates that the item veto does not necessarily reduce pork barrel spending and reduces the executive??s ability to attain his preferred level of spending on public goods. The item veto also has an ambiguous effect on the balance of power between the executive and the legislature while strengthening the position of the legislative agenda setter within the legislature.     

Executive Encroachments on the Independence of the Commonwealth Auditor-General

Until recently Commonwealth governments have been able to have very extensive executive intrusions in public sector audit accepted largely as benign and untainted by political interests, thereby maintaining an illusion of an unfettered, autonomous public sector audit function. An interpretation of independence has been embedded which has been at odds with the operational reality. A conditional form of independence has been promoted as substantive independence and has thereby created multiple and often conflicting beliefs about what is and what ought to be the nature of independence in public sector audit. Differences in the independence of the person of the auditor-general have been confused with the independence of the office.     

Models of Executive Politics: a Framework for the Study of Executive Power Relations in Parliamentary and Semi–presidential Regimes

The study of executives politics has been characterized by dichotomous country–specific debates about whether there is, for example, prime ministerial or cabinet government. Recent work has established new terms for these debates leading to more pluralistic conceptualizations of executive politics. Nevertheless, this work has not created the conditions for rigorous cross-national comparison. This article establishes a framework to compare executive branch power relations. It identifies six models of executive politics comprising a comprehensive set of ways in which power may be distributed amongst chief executives, cabinets, ministers and bureaucrats. On the basis of this framework it is argued that it is necessary to engage in empirical observation to determine which models of government occur and to identify the reasons why these models emerge.     

Defining Executive Power: Constitutional Reform for Grown-ups

Australia is well endowed with constitutions. It has seven, one for the commonwealth and each of the six states, and nine if the documents establishing self-government for the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory are included. This gives plenty of scope for constitutional reform: that is, changing the most important rules which specify how a political community is governed. In the event, public debate over constitutional reform in Australia has been sporadic and concentrated on a narrow range of issues. Perhaps this is as it should be. Constitutions should reflect broad public acceptance of the basic rules governing the operation of government, and if the system is running smoothly, there is little reason for change. Only when events occur that demonstrate that there are shortcomings in the structure of government should constitutional reform be considered.     

美国文官制度的变革与思考

美国文官制度经历了从政党分肥制到现代功绩制的深刻变革，至1978年，卡特政府创建了高级文官制度，在政务官之下、普通文官之上设置高级文官阶层。高级文官作为连接政务官和普通文官的桥梁和纽带，突破了政治与行政的界限，将政治家和官僚的角色融为一体，扮演着既是领导者，又是管理者的角色，在联邦政府中起着承上启下的作用，全面提升了政府的政治和技术回应性。但高级文官中政治任命的非常任高级文官更换频繁，与竞争晋升的常任高级文官和普通文官之间，又产生了新的矛盾和冲突，造成政府优秀人才的流失。从历史的角度，认真总结美国文官制度变革的经验与教训，对于我国公务员制度建设，特别是高级公务员制度建设，具有重要意义。     

论行政立法与公众的利益表达

随着社会发展的需要，行政立法在世界范围内已成为一种普通现象，但任何形式的法律其存在的目前是为人民谋更大的福利。分析和研究国内外的立法理论与实践可以看出，公众在行政立法过程的利益表达既存在理论基础也具有规范性的依据。然而在行政立法过程中的公众利益表达机制设计必须解决三个前提性的问题，即利益表达的主体的确定、利益外化的承载体和有效的表达方式。     

Legislative Capacity and Executive Unilateralism

This article develops a theory of presidential unilateralism in which both ideological divergence with Congress and legislative capacity influence the president's use of executive orders. We argue that when Congress is less capable of constraining the executive, the president will issue more executive orders during periods of divided government. Conversely, in periods of high legislative capacity, the president is less likely to issue executive orders when faced with an opposed Congress. Based on an examination of institutional changes, we identify years prior to the mid‐1940s as characterized by low congressional capacity and the subsequent period as characterized by high capacity. Testing the theory between 1905 and 2013, we find strong support for these predictions and demonstrate that legislative capacity conditions the role of ideological disagreement in shaping presidential action. Overall, this article deepens our current understanding of the dynamics of separation‐of‐powers politics and the limits of executive power.     

Executive Orders and Administrative Control

One of the key recommendations of the Winter Commission was the empowerment of governors over the executive branch. However, key institutions have not evolved in this direction; the long ballot still exists in most states, and the formal powers of governors have strengthened to their probable capacity. The authors suggest that a quasi‐formal power—the gubernatorial use of executive orders—may be a significant tool for empowering the governor in the state administrative realm. Analyzing all executive orders in 49 states for 2004 and 2005, they find variation in the aggregate use of and functions performed through these orders. Many executive orders do allow the government more direction and control of state bureaucracy. Finally, the authors suggest that the study of executive orders may be necessary to understand gubernatorial power in the executive arena and beyond.     

Perspectives from the Senior Executive Service

Much of the research and scholarship on public administration relies heavily on an ‘outsider’ perspective. There is very little ‘insider’ discussion on the priorities, concerns and personal constructs which influence senior executives’ careers. This small qualitative study captures the perspectives of members of the Senior Executive Service (SES) within Australian public sector agencies and identifies key issues for them as senior executives.     

The Presidency and the Executive Branch

Books reviewed: John P. Burke, Presidential Transitions: From Politics to Practice. Paul Kengor, Wreath Layer or Policy Player? The Vice President's Role in Foreign Policy. Joel Aberbach and Bert Rockman, In the Web of Politics: Three Decades of the U.S. Federal Executive.     

Mini-Symposium: The Federal Executive Budget

James Edwin Kee, Introduction
Bernard Pitsvada, The Executive Budget: An Idea Whose Time Has Passed
Naomi Caiden, Comments
Louise Fisher, Comments
Lance T. LeLoup, Comments     

The U.S. Federal Executive in an Era of Change

This article examines changes in the background characteristics, attitudes, and behavior patterns of high-level U.S. federal executives. It also considers the impact of the New Public Management (NPM) movement. The data indicate that despite intense struggles about the role of the public sector, top civil servants remain a well-educated, experienced, and highly motivated group, the members of which compare favorably to top executives in the private sector. The data also suggest that the Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA) of 1978 has been effective in producing a more politically responsive corps of career civil servants, and that administrators (both career and noncareer) are increasingly attuned to the more technical and legal aspects of their roles and less oriented to protecting particular interests or clientele groups. NPM-style changes are still in progress and remain controversial, but it appears that political leaders continue to have an excellent (and increasingly diverse) group of career people to work with and a system that—at least in part due to the CSRA reforms—is more responsive to them than before. The top part of the U.S. bureaucracy may have been bent and reshaped in many ways over the last thirty years, but, despite widely publicized fears, it has not broken.     

论高校档案行政执行力

高校档案工作行政执行力低下主要表现在制度执行不力和内部管理制度不健全两个方面;产生原因主要是观念缺失,档案意识薄弱,机构不健全,体制和机制保障不到位;导致的后果是物质投入少,档案内容不完整,难以实现“集中统一,规范有序”的管理目标,从某种程度上影响着高校的“宏观管理”效益;提升行政执行力的对策是加强档案法制教育和档案宣传,完善检查评估机制,在大学文化建设中推动档案工作发展。     

Ethnic Politics and Women's Empowerment in Africa: Ministerial Appointments to Executive Cabinets

Under what conditions do women participate in executive power in multiethnic societies? Previous research has examined how political institutions, socioeconomic factors, and cultural norms affect the appointment of women as cabinet ministers. However, no study has assessed the extent to which the politicization of ethnicity—a cleavage that shapes political life in many countries—affects women's cabinet appointments. Focusing on sub‐Saharan Africa, we argue that women are less likely to become cabinet ministers where incumbents use such appointments to build patronage‐based alliances with politicians who act as advocates for ethnic constituencies. Using an original dataset on the composition of cabinets in 34 African countries from 1980 to 2005, we show that women's share of cabinet appointments is significantly lower in countries where leaders must accommodate a larger number of politicized ethnic groups, but it rises with higher levels of democracy and greater representation of women in parliament.