Discovering the Dark Side of Power: The Principal’s Moral Hazard in Political-Bureaucratic Relations

Principal agent (PA) is among the most prominent concepts for analyzing the relationship between politics and bureaucracy. Nonethelesss, the inherent bias of PA scholars to attribute moral hazard almost exclusively to the agent, usually referred to as “bureaucratic drift”, requires re-examination. Building on the spare literature in which moral hazard of the principal is considered, this paper provides empirical evidence for a neglected aspect of the PA concept. Three cases of German regulatory agencies responsible for drug control, financial services and rail safety are analyzed in critical situations which were largely perceived as bureaucratic failures. The analysis reveals that a good deal of these failures, ranging from negligence to suppressing crucial information, has to be attributed to the political principal. This is called the dark side of power because the intention is to shift blame or to dodge political responsibility. Turning conventional PA reasoning upside down, the conclusion is that the principal’s moral hazard should be considered more routinely as a potential explanation for political-bureaucratic interactions.     

政治与学术的张力:蔡元培“去行政化”教育管理思想论略

蔡元培在现实与理想的困顿中追求教育管理"去行政化":对内官僚袪除,强化专家治校,取得很大成就;对外政治抗拒,倡教育独立,但成效了了。蔡元培"去行政化"教育管理思想与实践告诉我们,教育"去行政化"应有所为有所不为:要构建专业型学校管理文化,实行校长管理专业化;建立服务与监督的府校关系,而不能以反官僚的名义片面追求教育自由与教育独立。     

It Takes a Coalition: The Community Impacts of Collaboration

Members of Congress frequently collaborate on policy initiatives, reaching out to colleagues in both parties to find common ground on solutions for the problems faced by their constituents. Using a novel dataset of over 30,000 “Dear Colleague” letters sent by members of the 111th Congress, I use the collaborative relationships that exist in the earliest stages of the policy process to measure the social influence of legislators. I demonstrate that districts represented by members of Congress who are better connected to their colleagues receive a greater share of federal grant money. I argue that this is because collaborative legislators are well‐positioned to be influential allies to strategic bureaucrats who want to maintain a broad base of support for their programs in Congress. Thus, devoting resources to building relationships with their colleagues is one way members of Congress can more effectively support the communities they represent.     

重新审视韦伯的官僚制理论

韦伯对官僚制的研究乃是基于其对现代社会与政治的全面反思.官僚制是指一种无所不在的现代科层现象,它以自身的“理性”特征区别于其他的支配类型,影响着人们的日常生活以及精神状态.同时,韦伯将正当支配类型分为三种并非武断,而是有其理论关切的.通过对官僚制支配与超凡魅力型支配进行对比考察,韦伯从“日常/非日常”的视角揭示了它们所处理的事务在性质上的差异,由此说明了官僚制特有的局限性以及卡里斯玛型权威的必要性.此外,韦伯式的官僚制研究并不是为了生产专业知识,而是为了获得见识,并且帮助人们更好地对事物作出价值判断.     

Russia’s civil service: professional or patrimonial? Executive-level officials in five federal ministries

ABSTRACT

The issue of poor performance of the Russian federal bureaucracy is addressed by linking performance to type of official, through analysis of biographical data on deputy ministers and division (departament) heads in five federal ministries since 2012, supplemented by internet searches on behavior, particularly of a corrupt nature. Education, previous career experience, and recruitment, including its timing relative to superiors and subordinates, are analyzed, in order to determine whether officials behave primarily as members of patrimonial teams, as members of problem-solving organizations, as self-serving individuals, as the instruments of capture by commercial organizations, or as servants of bureaucratic agency interests. The data do not strongly support any one conclusion, but problem-solving officials have the strongest presence.     

Fiscal Policy Learning from Crisis: Comparative Analysis of the Baltic Countries

The experience of a major crisis is often expected to lead to policy learning but the empirical evidence about this is limited. The goal of the paper is to explore comparatively whether the crisis of 2008–2010 has led to fiscal policy learning by civil servants in the three Baltic countries. Despite some differences in the crisis experience, the finance ministry officials in all three countries have identified the same lesson from the crisis: fiscal policy should be counter-cyclical and help to stabilize the economy. The paper also discusses how various factors have influenced policy learning, including the acknowledgment of failure, blame shifting, and analytical tractability.     

中国古代官僚制审视——兼与现代官僚制的比较

马克斯·韦伯提出的理性官僚制理论适应并促进了资本主义的工业文明,在很长的历史时期,官僚制组织成为西方社会的基本组织形态。中国在秦朝时期就建立了中央集权制的封建国家,其行政组织体系具有自己独特的组织规则和运作过程,具备现代官僚制组织的某些特征。但是,中国传统官僚制度是建立在以家长制形式组织起来的家族制度基础之上的,与马克斯.韦伯所倡导的现代理性官僚制存在着根本的区别。对二者的差异进行分析和比较,有助于加深对现代官僚制的理解,从而为现阶段我国行政管理体制改革提供借鉴和启示。     

马克斯·韦伯的法理型统治学说探析

在《经济与社会》一书中马克斯·韦伯阐述了理想类型的体系，其中有关统治的类型情况则集中地表。达了马克斯·韦伯关于统治类型的学说，魅力型统治、传统型统治、法理型统治是合法性统治的三种类型。探析马克斯·韦伯关于法理型统治及其基本条件的学说和观点，对推进社会主义法治国家的构建具有重要的意义。     

对韦伯科层制的一种三维解构及其结论

本文通过对韦伯官僚制受到的批判与发展之争的省思，先对韦伯官僚制用制度维和理念维解构了其思想，在此基础上提出了伦理维向度。然後通过分析认为後工业社会的电子政务模式所承担的是提升效率的技术角色，认为目前的电子政务组织模式尚无法担当起超越官僚制的使命，最後做出了伦理要素将成为信息时代韦伯官僚制度存在和演变取向的判断。     

关于工会工作方式存在的问题及对策研究

工会组织要代表和维护职工利益必须采取群众化的工作方式,但工会存在的机关化和行政化工作方式严重的制约着工会作用的发挥。为此,工会必须实现工作方式上的转变,实现工会工作方式的群众化,把工会建设成为能切实代表和维护会员和职工群众利益的工人阶级群众组织。