碎片化政党格局下德国绿党崛起的原因及影响

2017年联邦大选之后,德国出现了碎片化的政党格局,两大主流政党走衰,而绿党则在这一政党格局下实现了强势崛起。其中的原因何在?在"议题所有权"视角下,绿党长期关注环境和气候议题,拥有气候政治的议题所有权;两大主流政党借助其在国家治理和国际话语权上的优势,不仅在国内政治层面努力推动气候治理,而且在欧盟和全球层面积极作为,是气候政治议题的关联所有者。当气候政治议题在选民心目中的地位上升时,议题所有权的关联性维度发挥作用,为绿党重新挽回了混淆了政党偏好和议题所有权的选民。而两大主流政党在气候政治议题上"能力"的折损也为绿党的崛起提供了空间。由于气候政治议题的全球属性,崛起后的绿党不仅会在国内治理层面发挥作用,还会努力增加其在国际政治中的话语权。     

全球环境问题对国际关系的影响

气候变化问题在2007年逐渐加热，成为许多重要国际多边会议上讨论的热点议题。如在世界经济论坛、欧盟苜脑会议、八目集团峰会、亚欧峰会、亚太经合组织会议上。尤其是2007年底召开的联合国气候框架公约缔约方会议第13次会议（联合国气候变化大会），以及在这次会议上美国与国际社会在气候变化问题上的明显分歧，更是将气候变化议题推到国际政治的主要议程。2008年1月23日，世界经济论坛年会在瑞士达沃斯举行。在为期5天的会议上，气候变化问题再次成为大会的主要议题。与会者再次呼吁各国一致行动，应对气候变化给全球带来的挑战。     

特朗普政府与美国的气候政治

特朗普政府宣布退出应对气候变化的《巴黎协定》以后,美国国内气候政治的后续动向及其国际影响一直备受关注。从目前看,虽然特朗普政府对待气候变化议题的态度没有发生根本改变,但2018年美国中期选举后,其反气候治理的政策在联邦层面将面临更多阻碍。民主党重获众议院控制权势必会在气候变化议题上对特朗普政府发起反击。同时,美国地方政府参与气候治理的意愿出现了更多的积极变化。此外,美国第四次《国家气候评估》报告和联合国政府间气候变化专门委员会《全球升温1.5℃特别报告》的发布,以及美国国内极端天气事件的频繁发生,进一步证实特朗普对气候变化的错误认知。以上情况的出现可能成为美国政界及民众重新认识气候变化影响与进行利益计算的重要因素。     

"退向未来":全球气候政治的伦理反思

气候变化是国际问题研究的热点与难点,也是全球治理理论与实践的重要议题.肇始于西方世界工业化时代的全球气候变化问题,是一种典型的集体行动难题.全球气候政治博弈反衬出新的全球失序,全球气候治理机制亦一度失灵并面临诸多现实困境.实现全球气候政治的公平正义,是确保全球气候治理善治和全球气候政治发展航向的根本遵循."退向未来",进行必要的伦理反思,促进自然的和谐与人的复归,才能更好解决日益严峻的气候治理困境.     

《气候变化法》与英国能源气候政策演变

哥本哈根会议表明,国际气候政治斗争最终落脚于国际政治经济新制度的建构,这启示我们深入研究西方发达国家关于气候制度的安排。英国是世界上积极应对气候变化的倡导者和先行者,2009又实施了《气候变化法》,成为世界第一个以立法手段单方面为国内二氧化碳的排放量设下限额的国家。本文立足该法,从整体上研究了英国能源气候政策的演变轨迹,对于其向低碳经济转型的路径和做法进行分析;本文认为,借鉴其有利于我国实施科学发展的部分,可以为我国实施能源气候战略决策,走低碳发展道路提供参考。     

国际政治博弈中的气候变化问题

近日在德国举行的八国首脑峰会上,环境保护和气候变化成为中心议题之一,西方国家将气候变化问题政治化趋势明显,气候变化开始成为多边外交和国际政治博弈中的一张王牌。多年来,控制气候变化和温室气体排放是欧盟国家内政外交的一面大旗,各种减排计划和法规在国家政策文件和战略报告中频频闪现。今年3月,欧盟首脑会议通过了《欧盟关于2012年后国际气候制度目标》文件,     

气候变化与北极地区地缘政治经济变迁

随着气候变暖、北极海冰融化加速,北极区域的安全风险成为全球治理的重要议题。气候变化对于北极的影响远不限于生态环境本身,也对资源竞争和地缘政治等提出了新的挑战,并对国际安全产生深层次影响。在生态环境方面,气候变化对北极生态系统造成负面影响,进而冲击全球生态系统稳定;在资源安全方面,气候变化引发了北极资源开发热潮,在资源可持续发展、原住民保护和规则建设方面产生矛盾和竞争;在地缘政治方面,气候变化引发北冰洋海域的争夺和跨界冲突等将会改变北极地缘政治现状。气候变化不断推动北极生态系统和政治经济地缘关系处于变化之中,相关域内和域外国家仍将围绕环境保护、资源开发和地缘利益等进行合作与竞争。     

气候议题：奥巴马政府形象外交之重

奥巴马执政一年以来在多领域开展形象外交，努力重．塑美国在国际社会中的领袖形象。奥巴马政府以“气候议题”为着力点，对内推广新能源和低碳经济战略，推出《气候法案》，对外建立并参与气候变化国际合作机制，做出减排承诺，举全国之力树立美国在世界中的低碳经济领袖地位。然而，奥巴马政府以气候议题带动形象外交的道路能否坚持如一，仍取决于新政府在该领域的举措能否为维护美国国家利益和增强国际领导力带来实质性效果。     

荷兰2002年大选评析

本文对荷兰2002年5月大选的竞选过程及其结果做了初步分析,认为由于欧洲右翼化政治转向和国内突发事件特别是新极右翼政治家佛图被暗杀的共同影响,新极右翼政治议题和政党主导了本次大选.像其它许多欧盟国家一样,已连续两届执政的工党联盟政府尽管取得了相当不错的经济政绩却成为最大的输家,而温和保守的基督教民主党领导的中右联盟成了选民的政治选择.     

“气候变化与中国的国家战略”学术研讨会综述

气候变化是当今世界最具综合性和全球性的议题之一。应对气候变化对中国既是巨大的挑战，又是重大的机遇，需要从长远、全局和战略层面着眼，制定对策。北京大学国际关系学院与《国际政治研究》杂志编辑部于2009年9月17日在北京大学国际关系学院联合举办了“气候变化与中国的国际战略”学术研讨会。     

Recasting Leadership Reform in Australian Local Government: A Typology from Political Theory

Changes to elected leadership in Australian local government have seen greater authority assigned to mayors in several jurisdictions. A Discussion Paper recently released under the auspices of the Australian Centre for Excellence in Local Government (ACELG) has recommended further reforms, arguing inter alia that mayors ought to enjoy a personal mandate and a stronger strategic role. This paper places these suggested reforms into context by developing a typology of local government leadership from political theory. We argue that this quadrilateral typology provides a critical portrait of recommendations for stronger leadership which, in this instance, have been transposed from two unitary systems of government (England and New Zealand) to the Australian federal system, without due consideration of the literature examining stronger mayoral roles. It is argued that caution should be exercised when redrafting legislation governing mayoral authority, a process presently underway in New South Wales (NSW).     

Traditions of Australian governance

Australia's traditions of governance tend to be pragmatic and to blend different ideologies. Its traditions are less dependent on political party ideologies, and more on competing conceptions of the significant problems and the way that they should be addressed. In this article we identify five principal traditions, namely: settler–state developmentalism; civilizing capitalism; the development of a social–liberal constitutional tradition; traditions of federalism; and the exclusiveness/ inclusiveness of the state and society. These traditions have been robust and have developed over time. We show how political actors operating from within this plurality of traditions have understood the public sector and how their understandings have led to changes in the way the public sector is structured.     

Policy Transfer Over Time: A Case of Growing Complexity

The article indicates that policy transfer has played an important role in the development of policy and legislation in Australia. Indeed, much of what is regarded as Australian policy is borrowed, usually in small part, but sometimes in its entirety, from elsewhere. One of the implications of this view is that Australian policy making processes are often, at least in part, dynamic, policy processes that draw upon a number of sources, both domestic and international. The focus of this article is upon the sources of transfer in the Australian context, both domestic and international, and how the sources drawn upon by Australian state and federal governments have changed over time. The article also indicates that on the evidence available the Australian experience with transfer can be divided into a number of phases. The first, from European colonisation to approximately the middle of the nineteenth century, the second from roughly the middle of the nineteenth century to federation at the beginning of the twentieth century, the third from the establishment of the Australian federation in 1901, to the Second World War, and the fourth phase, from the Second World War to the present.     

Merger Melancholia: An Empirical Analysis of the Perceptions of the Residents of the Forcibly Amalgamated Manilla Shire Council

Notwithstanding cogent reasons for the continued existence of small local authorities in the sparsely populated Australian hinterland, compulsory council consolidation has been a recurring theme throughout the history of Australian local government. Despite its ubiquity, especially in rural, regional and remote Australian communities, its local consequences have not yet been fully examined by scholars or policy makers. The present paper seeks to remedy this neglect with an exploratory study of the social and economic consequences of forced local government amalgamations through the lens of the ‘lived experience’ of the small rural community of Manilla, which was forced in merge with the much larger Tamworth in 2004.     

Police in the Development Space: Australia's international police capacity builders

Abstract

International police now contribute the second largest proportion of personnel to peacekeeping missions after militaries. They are thus key contributors to post-conflict transitions in developing countries. In the past decade Australian police have played a major role in a range of international missions in the Asia-Pacific region, partially funded by Australia's international development budget. Increasingly the Australian Federal Police, as Australia's lead agency in this area, has explicitly adopted the development language of capacity building to describe a significant part of their role. This paper considers the contribution of Australian police to building or developing the capacity of new and/or re-formed police forces following conflict. It also examines the degree to which international police missions are able to contribute to broader development goals and achievements within these settings. In doing so, it engages with the question of ‘outsiders’ (non-development professionals) performing development work in the increasingly populated space of post-conflict recovery and reconstruction.     

The Implications of the Lyons Report into Local Government in England for Structural Reform in Australian Local Government

The Lyons Inquiry into English local government presented its Final Report in 2007. It has significant implications for local government jurisdictions beyond England. This article considers the import of the Lyons Inquiry for reform to Australian local government. It is argued that the Lyons Inquiry adds weight to other work that questions the traditional reliance on amalgamation as the chief instrument of Australian local government reform. In particular, the “place-shaping” thesis developed in the Lyons Inquiry shows that the Australian emphasis on structural reform has been misdirected. Further, the Lyons Report offers a range of policy options besides municipal amalgamation.     

Australian Government Failure and the Green Loans Program

Since the 2007 federal election, the Australian government has implemented numerous new programs, many with dual economic and environmental objectives. A significant number of these initiatives have not only proved unsuccessful, but have also been criticized for their implementation and subsequent management. Using the conceptual prisms offered by the literature on decentralization, augmented by the government failure paradigm, this article considers the aborted Green Loans Program, which commenced in July 2009 with the aim of encouraging water and energy efficiency in existing homes through financial assistance for investment in water and energy-efficient technologies.     

MODELLING BUREAUCRACY: THE CASE OF THE AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL BUDGET SECTOR 1982-1992

A substantial literature exists on the economic analysis of bureaucracy, which includes formal models of bureaucratic behaviour by Niskanen (1971) and Dunleavy (1991). This article develops hypotheses from those models about changes in size of bureaux over time and tests them against data on the Australian federal budget sector in 1982–83 and 1991–92. The models predict that bureaucrats usually will be able to influence the size or structure of their bureaux in line with their personal preferences. However, the Australian data suggest that the extent of such influence may be less than is assumed in either model and that the preferences of politicians are more influential than the models allow. One conclusion is that, if bureaucracy is to be modelled, a principal-agent approach will have more to offer than the neo-classical maximizing framework adopted by Niskanen in particular. A further conclusion, at odds with those of Niskanen and weakening his case for wholesale privatization, is that bureaucratic dysfunctions may be amenable to reform of the political and bureaucratic rules and systems.     

The ‘African gangs’ narrative: associating Blackness with criminality and other anti-Black racist tropes in Australia

ABSTRACT

This article explores and theorizes anti-Black racist discourses that shape the ways in which the Australian media and other mainstream Australian institutions talk about and view Black Africans. It argues that the long-standing racist trope of synonymizing Blackness with criminality is widespread in Australia. Thus, among other things, this paper theorizes the Australian media narrative of ‘African gangs’ who are supposedly causing havoc in the State of Victoria, Australia. It argues that the January 2018 media reporting about the so-called ‘African gangs’ is a good example that illustrates how the long-standing racist trope of conflating Blackness with criminality is employed in Australia. The discussion is framed within a Black/African Diaspora theoretical framework that allows this study to conceptualize and connect the lived experiences of Black people globally.     

ADAPTIVE AND MALADAPTIVE RESPONSES OF MANAGERS TO CHANGING ENVIRONMENTS: A STUDY OF AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC SECTOR SENIOR EXECUTIVES

This paper examines data collected from senior executives in two Australian government agencies to identify patterns of adaptive and maladaptive responses to change in public sector environments. The conceptual categories of passive maladaptive, active maladaptive and active adaptive responses are all supported by the interview data, with half of the executives expressing predominantly active adaptive responses to external change and uncertainty and half displaying various kinds of passive and active maladaptive responses. The implications of the findings for managers as agents of organizational learning and adaptation in public sector environments are discussed.