借鉴与超越:科层制对于中国行政体制改革的理性辨析

伴随后工业社会的到来,科层制的弊端日益彰显,在西方遭遇了广泛的批判,科层制改革成为政府体制改革的突破口。无独有偶,为了打破中国行政体制改革的僵局,我们必须吸取西方行政体制改革的实践经验,结合本国实际,从以下二维视角出发改革中国的行政体制,一方面,科层制是我国行政组织模式的必然选择,需要不断的完善与发展;另一方面,应针对科层制的局限性加以改革,本文从行政伦理、学习型组织以及民主行政这三个角度,提出了超越科层制的举措。     

合理性理论上的"对话"——哈贝马斯对韦伯合理性理论的改造

韦伯和哈贝马斯都以合理性概念为中心发展了各自的社会理论,而且后者的理论带有浓厚的韦伯式背景。但韦伯将“目的—工具合理性”与合理性一般等同起来,并将其作为分析现代社会的叙述工具,合理性的概念太狭窄。哈贝马斯则从合理性中探寻克服现代社会危机的钥匙,拓宽了合理性的内涵,实现了由“工具合理性”到“交往合理性”的跨越。     

机构改革应注重软件建设

我国建国以来经历了四次大规模的政府行政机构改革，主要是围绕调整中央与地方的关系、调整国民经济结构、调整社会管理重点来讲行的，其最基本的表现形式是缩减机构和精简人员。这四次机构改革，虽然在某些方面取得了一些成果，但并未完全取得预期的效果，而在某些方面反而强化了管理体制上的某些弊端，影响了国家公共行政管理职能的充分有效地发挥。并造成了“精简——膨胀——再精简——再膨胀”的恶性循环。造成恶性循环的原因虽然是多方面的，复杂的，但笔者认为，其中最主要的原因，就是未能充分认识我国社会主义初级阶段国家行政管理…     

县级政府机构编制及人员规模影响因素调查——以A省为例

县级政府人员包括编制人员和编外人员(临聘人员)两部分,其中编制人员是县级政府人员规模的主体。改革开放以来,全国各地按照中央要求,多次推进机构改革,严格压缩县级政府机构规模,有序稳步推进机构编制工作。但我国县级政府人员规模配置的标准基本上还是维持十多年前机构改革时的标准,绝大部分单位的编制没有进行调整,已经不适应地方经济社会发展需求。人口数量、地域面积、经济发展等是影响机关人员规模的主要因素;行政管理体制及管理方式手段、社会管理复杂程度、社会组织发展程度、市场经济发展及开放程度、政府人员的素质能力和结构及工作作风等也是影响机关人员规模的重要因素。     

论县级政府行政改革的战略选择

改革战略的正确选择是县级政府行政改革实现历史性突破的前提。未来的县级政府行政改革必须走出纯粹的组织变革层面,进入组织变革、职能变革与政治变革三重良性互动的全面变革时代。在中央与地方、政府与党委的纵横关系中,增加县级政府在行政改革中的自主性和县域公共利益的代表性,依据县域特殊性寻求政府职能与机构的合理性,变革权力结构,形成政府与社会良好合作的善治格局,是新时期县级政府改革与发展的战略选择。     

公共行政双重合理性契合与服务型政府构建

现代化的过程是走向合理性的过程,立足于形式合理性,韦伯建构起以手段和程序精确计算的官僚体系.形式合理性成为主导西方公共行政的主流预设,但它存在偏颇,必须积极加以规避.建立形式合理性与实质合理性契合的公共行政,与构建服务型政府是共进的同一过程.必须积极从多个层面协调形式合理性与实质合理性的关系,推动二者的契合与服务型政府的构建.     

地方政府大部制改革的内动力分析

推行大部制改革是克服科层制组织弊端的必然选择,也是地方政府提高行政效率的有效途径。当前以大部制为核心的地方政府行政改革正稳步推进,通过改革,政府职能转变有了新的进展,机构设置更加统一规范     

官僚制理论：理想的文明与片面的合理性——兼谈中国行政组织的改造

官僚制理论相对于它之前的理论来说是理想的,属于理想和进步的文明范畴,它的产生和发展符合了资本主义社会生产和行政管理实践的需要.但是在具体的实践过程中,其优势和弊端都集中于片面的合理性这一点上.通过正确认识和分析官僚制理论,结合我国的行政改革,有三点借鉴要把尊重规则与严格监督结合起来;要舍弃严格依职能划分部门的组织设计理念而采取‘大部'形式"、"在组织行为中应重在强调个性而非整齐划一".     

试论行政管理体制的现代化

从传统农业社会向现代工业社会发展的中国，政府的根本职责“最主要的是搞经济建设，发展国民经济，发展社会生产力”《邓小平文选）1975年－1982年，第240页）。而社会生产力的发展需以政府行政现代化来保障，政府行政现代化的关键则在于行政管理体制现代化。因此，研究行政管理体制现代化，对于我国整个社会主义现代化建设、提高政府工作效率等均有积极的意义。行政管理体制的现代化，主要指在现代行政中确立科学管理观念与理论，建立新型的行政管理制度，采取现代科学管理方式等。行政管理体制现代化是一个过程，在这一过程中，它所追求…     

社会发展合理性:历史唯物主义与价值哲学的一个结合点

合理性问题与发展问题具有内在的关联性,社会发展合理性有其产生的时代背景和特定内涵。事实与价值的内在联系规定着社会发展合理性何以可能,社会发展合理性的评价尺度由此而来,同时又有着特定的规定性。作为思维方式、作为发展过程、作为发展状态、作为人类活动方式的社会发展合理性是社会发展合理性应当蕴涵的基本规定。社会发展合理性的实现应当构建观念层面的社会认识的规范机制、制度层面的社会建制的保障机制及社会发展主体的内源性机制。     

Tony Blair's 'Media' Speech: The Commentators

Tony Blair's speech challenged the media over its standards in his valedictory lecture. Many of his charges about the absence of balance, attacks on motive and a pack mentality stand up, even if some are exaggerated and also applied well before his arrival in 10 Downing Street. Mr Blair's solutions did ot match his critique. What is required is a more self‐questioning media, being held to account on the internet and on specialist blogging sites. Vigorous criticism, requiring justification, is a more credible rout than tighter regulation. Tony Blair's speech on the changing pressures on the media is both interesting and convincing in its diagnosis (although generally reported in ways that did not reveal this). It is less convincing in suggestions for change: the fact that on‐line media will fall under Of‐com, and so under its minimal ‘content regulation’ will have little impact. Effective change could begin with other types of (self or other regulation). Some steps towards change might include minimal requirements for journalists and editors to accept elementary forms of accountability, such as disclosing conflicts of interest and payments made for ‘stories’. The scale of media coverage may be crucial in determining the allocation of aid, yet the attention the media pays to particular causes is arbitrary. Many serious disasters are not reported and as a consequence do not receive adequate aid, so that the victims of the crisis will lose out. Chronic long term problems, like famine, are ignored in favour of ‘sudden emergencies’. Reporting seeks sensation and simple stories which influences the way that aid agencies respond to the media. The complex background to a faraway disaster is often overlooked and not properly reported. Tony Blair's speech describing some of the news media as ‘feral beasts’ contained one paragraph which contained an insight into his views on new media. It was known that the outgoing Prime Minister was uncomfortable with some aspects of new technology but his remarks reveal a wider disappointment with how new media has failed to deliver changes which he had hoped for in political communications.This paper records Mr Blair's problems with new media and argues that by focusing on how the new technologies might provide a better way for politicians to by‐pass the traditional media he has missed the point of their wider benefits.     

The Strange Career of British Democracy: John Milton to Gordon Brown

Political debate in modern Britain has been structured by four narratives or traditions, called here ‘Whig imperialist’, ‘Tory nationalist’, ‘democratic collectivist’ and ‘democratic republican’. The Whig imperialist tradition goes back to Edmund Burke; it is a tradition of responsive evolution, flexible statecraft, genial optimism and abhorrence of dogmatic absolutes. It prevailed for most of the nineteenth century, for most of the interwar period and for most of the 1950s and early‐1960s. Its Tory nationalist counterpart is tense, rebarbative and often shrill. At its core lies a primal fear of the dissolution of authority and a collapse of the social order. Its most notable exponents include Lord Salisbury, Enoch Powell and Margaret Thatcher. The democratic collectivist tradition stresses ineluctable progress towards a just and rational society, to be achieved by a strong, essentially technocratic central state, with the power and will to replace the wasteful, unjust chaos of the market place by planned co‐ordination. Formative influences on it were the great Fabian socialists, George Bernard Shaw and Sidney and Beatrice Webb; it achieved its apotheosis under the Attlee Government of 1945‐51. The democratic republican tradition is much more inchoate: its exponents have been the awkward squad of British democracy. The most glittering stars in the democratic republican firmament were probably John Milton, John Stuart Mill and R.H. Tawney. It stresses active self‐government and republican self respect, embodied in a vigorous civil society and strong local authorities. During the ninety‐odd years since Britain belatedly acquired a more‐or‐less democratic suffrage, the first three traditions have all been tested, almost to destruction. But though the fourth has had great influence on social movements of all kinds, governments at the centre have done little more than toy with it, usually for brief periods. The great question now is whether Britain is about to experience a democratic republican moment.     

Trustworthiness: the Commentators

Mark Thompson deplores the decline in the public trust of government and of public service institutions such as the BBC. But there has also been a decline in another form of trust: government's trust in the ability of professionals such as doctors and teachers to deliver high quality public services. And, unlike Thompson's type of trust, this decline was inevitable, because it was based on untenable assumptions concerning professional motivation. The author discusses the importance of trust in an unwritten constitution, including trust in the use made of public resources, trust that appointments are being made on merit, trust that the civil service is ‘speaking truth unto power’ behind the scenes and ultimately trust that it retains the ability to serve future governments. In a world where trust in institutions is diminishing, there are still surprising levels of trust in the world of private philanthropy. The public are only too ready to give donations without seeking to question, especially in the wake of major disasters. Yet the nature of aid agencies has changed dramatically in the past thirty years into major global enterprises with sophisticated media and marketing operations. In this case a greater degree of scepticism from those who donate and paradoxically less trust might actually result in better outcomes from aid and better use of funding. Trust is critical to the mission of the FCO. The public needs to trust the competence and sound judgment of the professional diplomats. The diplomats themselves need to be able to rely on the commonsense of their fellow colleagues. Ministers and diplomats need to trust each other. And other governments need to have confidence in the discretion of their British counterparts. This is an increasing challenge in the world of instant news. Trust can be quickly lost by indiscreet or self‐serving revelations. But the key is to be as open and transparent as possible about the processes of diplomacy. A new survey commissioned by the British Journalism Review demonstrates that public confidence in journalism has collapsed over the last five years. This is particularly true for the commercial broadcasters ITV and Channel 4, whose journalism has traditionally commanded as much public esteem as the BBC. Trust in the BBC and print journalists has also declined, and journalism suffered more than any of the other 16 occupational groups being assessed. This is partly due to the cumulative effect of various “fakery” scandals that have afflicted broadcasters over the last 18 months and partly down to a more widespread cynicism directed at those in authority.     

The Language of Race

The 1991 Census form for households in Great Britain included, for the first time, a question about ethnic group. The question had nine boxes, eight for named ethnic groups and one for 'any other'. One box had to be ticked for each member of the household. Brian Klug discusses his own reaction to the (so-called) ethnic question, and explains why, as a Jew of European extraction, he did not tick the box marked White. He examines several issues raised by the ethnic question, including the following: why this question is different from other questions on the form; the definition and use of the words 'racial' and 'ethnic'; the vocabulary of colour ('black', 'white' etc.) in the language of race; the idea that 'white' is an ethnic category; the claim that the ethnic question is an instrument for combatting racism; one proposal for improving the question by removing the 'racial' components in the categories.     

Guest editor's introduction

In 1933 the army of the nascent Iraqi state launched an exterminatory attack on members of the Assyrian community who had fled to Iraq during the First World War. 'The Assyrian affair' which at the time sent shock-waves around the world has now been largely forgotten. But an examination of its origins and causation reveals much about the nature and pattern of modern genocide. Levene argues that typecasting genocide as the outcome of prejudice, racism or even xenophobia, while these may be significant ingredients, proves to be insufficient as a comprehensive explanation. Rather, these factors need to be analysed within the context of an emerging international system of nation-states. This itself may be a factor in helping to catalyse the most extreme and radically ideological responses, especially from new and untried national elites seeking to overcome perceived obstacles to their state's development and genuine independence.     

'Shovelling out your paupers': The British State and Irish Famine Migration 1846-50

Gray considers the determinants of British policy towards emigration (and particularly towards state-assisted 'colonization') from Ireland during the Great Famine of 184-50. He surveys the idea of 'colonization' as advocated by Charles Buller in 1843, and its varying appeal (changing over time) in Ireland, Britain and the settlement colonies of the British empire. He also considers the issue in the light of pro- and anti-Malthusian interpretations of Irish population pressure, and the emergence of the alternative idea of 'internal colonization'. Gray argues that the failure of the state to adopt an emigration policy in 1846-50 as part of its response to the Famine was the consequence of a combination of anti-Irish prejudice in Britain and the colonies (which was sharpened by the arrival of large numbers of economic refugees in 1847 and the political conspiracies of 1848), and the prevalence of an economic doctrine that prioritized the need for Irish self-help and moral transformation over state assistance. He traces the debate over colonization within the Whig government headed by Lord John Russell, and concludes that some form of assisted emigration was a feasible policy measure, and that its rejection had adverse consequences in terms of additional famine mortality.     

Beyond the ‘Auschwitz syndrome’: Holocaust historiography after the Cold War

ABSTRACT

The end of the Cold war has seen an explosion in Holocaust history, and some significant changes in the main historiographical explanations. The ‘return of ideology’ that began displacing the ‘functionalist’ or ‘structuralist’ dominance of the 1980s remains strong. But it is being supplemented by very detailed regional and local studies, by analyses of different experiences of ghettoization in different places, and by a focus on the widespread plunder and corruption that accompanied the killing process. This enormous attention to detail reveals that the Holocaust unfolded differently in different places; but it also demonstrates the existence of an overall framework in which all the operations took place, what we might call an ‘antisemitic consensus’. Simultaneously, historians have broadened the discussion of the Holocaust, situating it into a transnational or world-historical context of imperialism and colonialism. Stone outlines in broad brush some of these themes, and asks what effects they have had and will continue to have on Europeans' self-understanding in an age in which the post-war anti-fascist consensus has been dismantled while Holocaust-consciousness is officially enshrined into European identity.     

On Public Action

Abstract

This essay explores Hannah Arendt’s contribution to our understanding of the rhetorical as opposed to the aesthetic quality of public speech, with an emphasis upon her conception of opinion and glory. Arendt’s focus on the revelatory quality of public action in speech is widely understood to preclude or seriously limit its communicative aspect. I argue that this is a misunderstanding, and that accepting it would reduce speech not merely to the discussion of a sharply limited set of topics, but to no topics at all. Public action is speech that reveals the speaker as “answering, talking back and measuring up to whatever happened or was done.” Such revelatory speech is most appropriately judged by the standard of the glorious and the inglorious. Because such speech must inform as well as reveals, so does glorious or great speech rise to the level of greatness in part because of what is said, to whom, where, and how. Arendt’s understanding of this is shown to have significant parallels to the ordinary language philosophy of Stanley Cavell.     

道德规范表现形式的历史演进

道德规范的产生和形成,有着深刻的社会经济根源,是由一定的社会物质生活条件和社会关系决定的。道德规范随着社会的发展而不断发展,具有历史性和继承性。在人类漫长的道德生活中,道德规范曾有过形态各异的表现形式,大体可以概括为图腾、禁忌、礼仪、风俗、箴言、准则、义务、责任等几种主要的表现形武。道德规范表现形式的历史演进,是一个由蒙昧到理性、由自发到自觉、由低级到高级的发展过程。