REINVENTING THE AMERICAN FEDERAL GOVERNMENT: REFORM REDUX OR REAL CHANGE?

Reinventing government in the United States is the most recent of several efforts to reform public organizations and management. A cornerstone of the Clinton Administration's agenda for change, reinvention is proceeding on several levels. One is that of political symbolism and rhetoric: reduce waste, eliminate unnecessary programmes, and improve efficiency. Another level is found in the reinvention laboratories created throughout the federal government. Here the focus is on quality, customer service, streamlining processes and procedures, and eliminating unnecessary rules and regulations. A third level is found in policy and system changes; here the emphasis is on examining broad functions, decentralizing major activities, and providing legislative support for necessary changes.
Implementation of reinvention activities has been decentralized and loosely monitored. Many of the initiatives in the reinvention laboratories are difficult to track and analyse; changes at this level do appear, however, to be extensive and diverse. Broader legislative changes have not been so extensive and the Clinton Administration has been slow to introduce key legislative packages. The role of Congress is unclear.
Despite uneven progress and failure to ask key policy and implementation questions, reinvention is creating significant change in the federal government. The outcome of those changes and the long-term future of reinvention depend on the continued commitment of the members of the public service, as well as much clearer political support and will.     

Transforming Administrative Policy

Administrative policies and practices may evolve and change slowly and incrementally or they may be transformed intentionally. Intentional efforts to change administrative policy by transforming the structure, processes, or personnel of public sector organizations define an active administrative policy. Ideally, an active administrative policy takes as given that the organizational form to be used is open to choice, that administrative goals are clear, that a tight coupling exists between ends and means, that different organizational forms have different effects, and that there are criteria that may be used to assess those effects. This article focuses on the fulfilment of these preconditions in the three national contexts – Norway, Sweden and the United States of America – in order to determine the relevance of a transformative perspective for understanding the process of administrative change. We examine what impact constraints like polity features, historical-institutional traditions and external pressure, particularly through popular international administrative doctrines like New Public Management ideas and financial crises, have on the possibilities to enhance an active national administrative policy.     

The Politics of Federal Technology Policy: 1980–1988

This paper examines the politics of federal initiatives in technology during the period 1980–1988 that promote economic competitiveness. It finds that the ideological consistency of these new initiatives with the prevailing political climate, and the presence of business constituencies for technology are key to the adoption of new technology initiatives. In the absence of a strong business interest, agency politics and efforts dealing with the budget deficit dominate. Progress by new technology policy initiativesfbunders m is incremental at best. This paper also discusses the trend toward "industry-led" technology policy.     

BRITISH FARCE, FRENCH DRAMA AND TALES OF TWO CITIES: REORGANIZATIONS OF PARIS AND LONDON GOVERNMENTS 1957–86

Comparing the evidence of London and Paris reorganizations in the last three decades confirms that political interventions are often autonomous of administrative or class logic. Reorganizations are not mere registers of the subterranean workings of socio-economic forces. However, the reorganizations show that these political interventions are not autonomous from the characteristics of their respective political systems.     

毛泽东关于党的群众路线思想的精髓和新的历史条件下践行党的群众路线的真谛

毛泽东关于党的群众路线的重要思想,是将马克思列宁主义基本原理同中国实际相结合,在深入回答和解决中国革命和建设的特殊问题过程中形成并不断发展的。这一重要思想,既是指世界观,又是指方法论;既讲到＂为了谁、依靠谁＂的根本立场问题,又讲到关心和解决人民群众生产生活的具体利益问题;既深刻体现了马克思主义的认识论,又深刻体现了共产党人来自于人民、服务于人民的优秀品格;既有关于革命战争年代加强群众工作的大量论述,又有关于社会主义建设时期改善党群关系的明确观点。而贯穿始终的一条主线,就是正确认识和处理我们党同人民群众的关系问题。这可以说是毛泽东关于党的群众路线思想的本质与精髓。毛泽东关于党同人民群众关系的精辟思想,对于新的历史条件下进一步加强党的群众工作,密切党群关系,巩固党执政的社会基础,具有强烈的现实指导意义     

BRINGING THE POLITICS BACK IN: PUBLIC VALUE IN WESTMINSTER PARLIAMENTARY GOVERNMENT

We challenge the usefulness of the 'public value' approach in Westminster systems with their dominant hierarchies of control, strong roles for ministers, and tight authorizing regimes underpinned by disciplined two-party systems. We identify two key confusions: about public value as theory, and in defining who are 'public managers'. We identify five linked core assumptions in public value: the benign view of large-scale organizations; the primacy of management; the relevance of private sector experience; the downgrading of party politics; and public servants as platonic guardians. We identify two key dilemmas around the 'primacy of party politics' and the notion that public managers should play the role of platonic guardians deciding the public interest. We illustrate our argument with short case studies of: the David Kelly story from the UK; the 'children overboard' scandal in Australia; the 'mad cow disease' outbreak in the UK; the Yorkshire health authority's 'tea-parties', and the Cave Creek disaster in New Zealand.     

着眼于“透明”的网络问诘与能动回应——基于司法公信力提高的时代分析

不断提高司法公信力是建设社会主义法治国家的基本要求,网络民意、网络审判、网络法治成为现代化背景下影响司法场域输出司法正义的重要因素。能动回应网络时代对司法公信的质疑,从而提高司法公信力是司法体制内外的共同任务。案情公开、证据公开、判决理由公开、允许网络法治存在、为司法松绑是司法秩序摆脱"寻租性"监督,实现司法秩序独立,回归司法原点,提高司法公信能动回应网络问诘的有效措施。