Restoring the Rule of Law to Public Administration: What Frank Goodnow Got Right and Leonard White Didn't

Although the rule of law is universally regarded as a fundamental principle of democratic governance, the field of public administration continues to exhibit the "anti-legal temper" that emerged in the 1920s, when Leonard White's managerialism largely displaced Frank Goodnow's emphasis on the intimacy of law and administration. Although administrative law is a distinguished subfield of scholarship and practice within public administration, the consensus view within the profession seems to be that law is one of many constraints on administrative discretion rather than its source, a challenge to administrative leadership rather than its guiding principle. In addition to unacceptably narrowing the range of values infusing public administration, such a view undermines the profession's ability to contribute to the design of our governance arrangements at a time when constitutional institutions are being seriously challenged. To fulfill its constitutional role, public administration must commit itself to the rule of law as an institution that secures its legitimacy.     

制约和监督权力的三大对策

腐败的实质就是公共权力的非公共运用,即被用来谋取私人利益。防止公共权力非公共运用的关键之点,是对权力实施制约和监督。实现对权力的制约和监督,应做到以法制权、以德制权、以权制权和以民制权。具体来说可从三个方面着手:一是筑牢思想防线。要激发领导干部自我制约和自我监督的内在自觉性,在思想上筑牢道德防线、纪律防线和法律防线。二是推进阳光用权。让权力在阳光下运行,接受民主监督,从而得到公众的理解和支持,赢得公众的信赖和拥护。三是坚持制度管权。制度管权是法治国家制约权力的通行法则,制度要具体实在,针对问题、解决问题,并且确保执行,只有这样才能做到把权力关进制度的笼子里。     

私法在乡村治理法治化中的独特功能

针对如何构建乡村治理体系所涉法治,既有研究多围绕《中华人民共和国村民委员会组织法》等公法展开,故存在不足,亟待考察私法能否发挥某些独特功能。鉴于公法在培养村民的基本法治意识上存在一定的不足,同时,村民与私法的现实联系更为密切,尤其是考虑到私法严格奉行“私法自治”根本原则,由该原则所引申的“私法自治”“合法私利”以及“德法融合”等重要法治意识,不但有益于培养村民的基本法治意识,而且将极大促进在乡村治理进程中,对相通的、根本性的村民法治意识的良好培养。     

The Clash between Security and Liberty in the U.S. Response to Terror

This study examines U.S. public opinion on civil liberties and security in response to the politically pivotal events of September 11, 2001—what shape it is in, what shapes it, and what it shapes. Public opinion is a critical restraint on political and administrative action today because so many regulators, rule makers, and law enforcers are making decisions or advocating policies that directly affect the balance between liberty and security. The general importance that is popularly attributed to terrorism is gauged by its ranking among the most important problems. The ostensibly contradictory public attitudes toward civil liberties are analyzed, as is the supposed inconsistency between perceived personal impact and the general significance attributed to the attacks. The data rebut the allegation that the public is readily disposed to restrict civil liberties as the price of security. Findings show the public does not perceive a personal or immediate threat to civil liberties. The implications for further research and good governance are laid out.     

设区的市地方立法权运行现状之考察

为加强地方法治建设，《立法法》赋予了设区的市地方立法权，并对其立法提出了相应要求。然而，现实运行中，设区的市地方立法存在着追求数量、抄袭同位法、超越立法权限范围并有侵害法治统一的情形。为此，需要对设区的市地方立法事项范围做出明确解释和限定，加强省级人大的批准程序和国家权力机关的备案审查力度，并建立定期评估制度。同时，设区的市也要在坚持立法节约原则的前提下，通过委托第三方起草立法文本、实施有效的公众参与立法等方式，真正提高立法质量。     

宪政背景下公共财政的本质

公共财政是一种财政制度。财政制度的变迁就是从专制、人治财政走向民主、法治财政的过程。公共财政的生成与现代民主政治体制与市场经济体制的产生是同一个过程,它们互为前提,互相促进。宪政背景下,公共财政的本质就是民主财政。建立科学、民主的公共财政制度,既是经济体制改革的任务,更是政治体制改革的任务。     

政府公权力异化的微观经济机理研究

公权力问题是吏治的一个核心问题,政府公权力异化的预防和治理是当代中国法治政府和责任政府建设的一项重要内容。从微观机理探讨公权力异化的成因,以此为基础构建公权力治理的多种途径,对于当代中国吏治研究具有重大的理论和现实意义。     

Common law environmentalism

The necessity to control environmental externalities is almost invariably given as justification for command-and-control regulation and other forms of state intervention in related markets. When even mentioned, common law remedies that protected environmental rights for centuries are quickly dismissed as either being unworkable or ineffective. A review of the common law experience indicates that the rule of law can be effective in protecting environmental rights. Indeed, it is quite possible that common law was too effective, which led to special interest demand for statute law. The rule of politics may be more attractive to rent seekers than the rule of law and markets.     

论社会主义法治一体建设

社会主义法治一体建设的实质，是统筹协调社会主义法治的各个领域、各个环节、各个层面，把社会主义法治视为一个整体，以一体建设的思维，全面推进社会主义法治。社会主义法治一体建设具有多方面的指向。从目标来看，法治国家、法治政府、法治社会需要一体建设。从主体来看，依法治国、依法执政、依法行政需要一体建设。从环节来看，科学立法、严格执法、公正司法、全民守法需要一体建设。此外，依法治国与以德治国也需要一体建设。社会主义法治一体建设既是社会主义的法治世界观，也是社会主义的法治方法论，可以在社会主义法治实践中得到普遍运用。     

THE BEHAVIOUR OF LEGISLATORS AND BUREAUCRATS AND POLICING EXPENDITURES: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND SOME EMPIRICAL RESULTS*

Abstract: This paper is concerned with an analysis of legislation, public administration and government expenditure decisions on policing activities. These three dimensions of government can be used as mechanisms of social control. Whether they are or not is an empirical question that has to be determined in each case. It is shown that there are no strict relationships between the three dimensions of government activity: separate decision-making is undertaken for each of the three dimensions. It is indicated that there are eight possible combinations of the three dimensions, assuming that the three dimensions of government activity are bivariate and discrete. The empirical analysis relates to the state of Queensland and it is concluded that Queensland can be described as a case consisting of authoritarian legislation, public administration contrary to the rule of law, and low policing expenditures.     

社区治理共同体建设——新时代社区治理制度化的理论逻辑与实现路径

社区治理共同体是社会治理共同体的基础单元,社区治理共同体建设的制度化程度直接关乎社会治理现代化的制度化水平和总体质量.进入新时代,推动社区治理共同体的制度建设,必须坚持和完善党对社区治理工作的全面领导,发挥党组织的政治引领、组织引领、能力引领、机制引领作用.同时,构建政府负责下简约高效的基层社会管理体制,通过政府向社会力量购买服务机制实现社区公共服务的社会协同供给,以民主协商的方式实现社区治理的公众参与.还要以法治为保障、以科技为支撑,提升和推动社区治理和服务的法治化水平和信息化建设,进而建设人人有责、人人尽责、人人享有的社区治理共同体.     

市场经济现代转型中的法治与责任政府

政府在我国市场经济的建立和转型中发挥着重要的作用.然而诺斯"国家悖论"所揭示的两难困境告诫我们在充分利用政府作用的同时,必须对行政权力的不当干预和政府失责的负面影响加以防范.我国已建立了初级市场经济并正在向现代市场经济转型,现代市场经济的基础是法治,现代市场经济转型的关键在于法治的确立.而法治下的政府应该是一个责任政府,我国要顺利实现市场经济的现代转型,建立良好的市场秩序和有效保护产权,就要建立责任政府.法治是责任政府不可或缺的制度保障,责任政府是法治理念在公共行政领域的体现.责任政府作为现代市场经济体系的重要组成部分,是一切向现代市场经济转型国家必须确立的政治基础.责任政府需要一系列制度构架确保政府对人民责任关系的确立.责任政府制度构架的基本方面包括:政府责任规范体制、政府责任履行的评价制度和政府责任的问责制度.     

公共管理定式中的公益内涵：比较、辨析、界分

公共管理的范畴及属性决定了公共管理的目标在于诉求公共利益，并成为公共管理的核心价值，因而公共利益在公共管理定式中具特定的内涵。公共利益与共同利益、国家利益、社会利益在概念上有许多相似之处，然则其内涵有差异，不能同一而用。比较、辨析、界分公共管理定式中的公共利益内涵，并从法治层面厘清国家利益与社会公益之界限，防止假国家利益之名侵犯社会公共利益发生，这对转型期中国社会发展有着重要的意义。     

依法治国的历史进程及其未来发展前瞻

依法治国或者法治是一个历史的概念 ,在不同的时代有着不同的实质、内涵和发展特点。法治在近代中国的发展可以说是道路坎坷 ,行程艰难 ,有些许成功和诸多失败 ,其经验教训发人深思。新中国法治发展走了一条曲折的道路 ,沉痛的教训有之 ,成功的经验更多。瞻望未来中国法治发展 ,前景广阔 ,形势复杂 ,工程艰巨 ,需要我们从多方面寻找对策 ,做出努力 ,以尽快把我国建设成为社会主义法治国家。     

The international rule of law

ABSTRACT

The rule of law is a moral ideal that protects distinctive legal values such as generality, equality before the law, the independence of courts, and due process rights. I argue that one of the main goals of an international rule of the law is the protection of individual and state autonomy from the arbitrary interference of international institutions, and that the best way to codify this protection is through constitutional rules restraining the reach of international law into the internal affairs of a state. State autonomy does not have any intrinsic value or moral status of its own. Its value is derivative, resulting from the role it plays as the most efficient means of protecting autonomy for individuals and groups. Therefore, the goal of protecting state autonomy form the encroachment of international law will have to be constrained by, and balanced against the more fundamental goal of an international rule of law, the protection of the autonomy of individual persons, best realized through the entrenchment of basic human rights.     

Prospects for future Australian‐United States defence cooperation

Singapore’s governing elite is less bureaucratic and less separated from private interests than commonly thought. The bureaucracy has little independent strength and the political leadership is entwined with leading members of the business community, particularly the financial sector, to the point that the line between public and private is frequently indistinct. Given that democratic or interest-group constraints are minimal, transparency low and the rule of law in doubt, why Singapore’s activist economic policies have not decayed into a search for private rewards is rather puzzling. This article argues that Singapore’s record of sound government rests on informal governing institutions as well as attributes of the formal government sector. The informal institutions encompass nominally public and private actors in a systematized way, structuring the incorporation of private actors to embed the values of performance-based merit and working with, not against, government. The system of government is, however, fragile and may be showing signs of decay.     

论政府管制以及良好政府管制的原则

政府管制是政府运用公共权力，通过制定一定规则，对个人和组织的行为进行限制与调控的活动。政府管制有助于防止垄断，解决信息、外部性、内部性问题以及维护社会公正。政府管制并非万能的，也存在管制失灵的现象。政府管制改革的目的在于实现良好的管制。良好政府管制约基本原则包括：公共利益、必要性、可行性、开放性、法治、有效、协调、信息、比例、简明。良好管制是中国政府管制改革的标杆。     

The political and practical obstacles to the reform of the judiciary and the establishment of a rule of law in China

Is China’s “socialist rule by law” (社会主义法制) qualified to be called “rule of law” (法治) or a “thin rule of law” proposed by Randall Peeremboon, without abolishing the political supremacy of the Chinese Communist Party and the establishment of an independent judiciary? Since the mid-1990s, the Chinese legal system and its judiciary have gone through reforms and on the whole modernized. However, the Chinese judiciary still faces many problems, and among them the lack of professional jurists, corruption and local protectionism appear as crucial ones. The current political and institutional arrangements and lack of freedom of the press and freedom of association clearly intensify these problems. “Rule of law” (法治) or “rule by law” (法制) in China is still more often interpreted in the light of the respective political, bureaucratic and economic powers of the parties involved than according to principles of law or equity. The modernization of the legal system will continue, but the political translation of the legal demands of society and the international community will take time to materialize. In the meantime, risks, setbacks and difficulties will continue to prevent China from establishing a truly independent judiciary and what is universally called a rule of law.     

The Chinese Paradox of High Growth and Low Quality of Government: The Cadre Organization Meets Max Weber

Much research has argued for the importance of state's administrative capacity for development. Disregard for the rule of law and failure to get corruption under control are seen as detrimental to economic and social development. The China paradox refers to the fact that in all commonly used measures of levels of corruption and the quality of government, China is a country that scores quite low. China also lacks the Weberian model of bureaucracy that is seen as central for development. It is argued that this paradox is the result of disregarding the existence of a different public administration model in China—the cadre organization. Instead of rule following, this organization is marked by high commitment to a specific policy doctrine. The argument is that while very different from Weberian bureaucracy, this organization is well suited for effectively implementing policies for economic and social development.     

Contested hybridization of regulation: Failure of the Dutch regulatory system to protect minors from harmful media

The hybridization of regulatory modes and instruments is currently a popular way to improve public regulation. However, it is still unclear whether combinations of hard law and soft law, co-regulation, and legally enforced self-regulation really make regulation more effective. Using the analytical framework of the “really responsive regulation” approach, in this article we explore effectiveness problems in a hybrid regulatory system that tries to protect minors from harmful media. In our analysis of low compliance rates in the context of system failures, we argue that effectiveness problems seem to arise from poorly informed staff members, lack of internal and external controls, low rule enforcement, insufficient overlap between public and private interests, poor social responsibility in the Dutch media sector, deficiencies in the institutional framework, an inconsistent regulatory strategy, and inadequate responses from responsible regulators. Furthermore, based on our case study we argue that institutional dynamics of standard-setting activities can be detrimental to regulatory goal achievement if there is no compensation at the systemic level. Ongoing “regulatory care” through control, corrective responses, and rule enforcement seems to be crucial for a hybrid regulatory system to perform well.