Toward a Constitutional School for American Public Administration

A central tenet of The Federalist is that good government depends on good administration. Two hundred and twenty‐three years have passed since Publius began writing this extraordinary text. As American democratic institutions have grown larger and more complex than what the founders ever imagined, many of the ideas expressed in The Federalist remain as relevant today as when James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay first advanced them in 1787. The author argues that public administration should move toward a constitutional school that would connect the U.S. Constitution with all aspects of American public administration theory and practice. While the author readily acknowledges this new school’s apparent defects, its most important contribution recognizes that the American Constitution matters, and indeed should serve as a lodestar for our entire field.     

Breaking the Constitutional Silence: the Public Services Industry and Government

Analysis of constitutional arrangements has been too narrow in the past, confined to examination of explicitly governmental arrangements. But corporate enterprises perform such important public functions, especially in the age of outsourcing, that they need to be incorporated into the constitution. The article develops this argument and proposes a framework for such incorporation.     

The Supreme Court's New Constitutional Federalism: Implications for Public Administration

Since the early 1990s, the Supreme Court has been issuing decisions that, taken together, constitute a new judicial federalism. This effort is rearranging intergovernmental relations as we have known them for several decades. However, the boundaries of this new doctrine and its implications for public administration are not well understood. This article analyzes the principal constitutional bases for the Court's actions and gauges the balance of this new judicial federalism. It then sorts out the implications for public administration and projects where the Court may be going with this doctrine in the future.     

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。     

Poll Driven Government: A Review of Public Administration in 2001

The approach of the Howard Coalition government to public administration in 2001 was consistent with the conventional wisdom that governments typically 'play it safe' in an election year. The government's preoccupation with winning a third term in office was a significant determinant of the policy responses of the government on a number of key issues. The events of 2001 serve as a vivid reminder that policy considerations are ultimately subject to the dictates of the electoral cycle. This is the sixth administrative essay publsihed in the journal since the editors resumed the administrative chronicles in 1996. Earlier administrative essays include J Stewart 55(1) 196; S Prasser 56(1) 1997; J Homeshaw 57(3) 1998; J Moon 58(2) 1999; C Broughton and J Chalmers 60(1) 2000.     

行政透明化：打造“善治”政府的切入点

二十世纪末以来,随着经济的发展和公民社会力量的壮大,善治理论得以提出,并引起社会的广泛关注。从相关国家实践的结果来看,“善治”政府是符合现代社会历史发展需求的,具有强大的生命力。处于转型时期的中国要在政府职能转变的过程中进一步促进经济发展和社会稳定,就必须提高善治水平,而善治水平的提高离不开行政透明化建设。可以说,行政透明化是打造“善治”政府的切入点,是实现善治的关键。善治视角下我国行政透明化建设的思路在于:首先,要完善制度保障,建立健全促进行政透明化的信息披露机制;其次,要加强国家立法,尽快制定并完善关于行政透明的相关法规;最后,要加强电子政府建设,充分重视网络对行政透明化建设的影响。     

Public Administration, the History of Ideas, and the Reinventing Government Movement

Public administration writers, with some notable exceptions, generally have not paid a great deal of attention to the history of ideas. However, public administration inquiry is profoundly affected by longstanding political and social ideas. This article shows how the idea of the state as a purposive association—that is to say, a collective enterprise that is driven by some set of substantive ends or purposes—has helped to shape the thinking and discourse of some public administration writers, particularly those of the reinventing government movement. The implications of this for public administration inquiry and education are examined.     

政府公共管理新理念及其在社会实践中的运用

随着我国改革开放的深入和社会主义市场经济体制建设的日益完善,传统公共行政的那种僵化的、等级森严的官僚制式的观念正在被新的政府公共管理理念所替代。本文透析了我国政府在进行行政管理改革的进程中所暴露出的一系列有关政府公共管理事务能力、国民素质、非政府组织、政府外交管理事务、政府行政改革滞后于经济改革等方面的问题。最后认为,当前我国应该采纳新的政府公共管理理论,重塑公共政策的价值起点,加快新一轮的政府体制和职能改革,早日使我们的政府变成真正的“统一、高效、公正、廉洁”的政府。     

Behavioral Public Administration: Combining Insights from Public Administration and Psychology

Behavioral public administration is the analysis of public administration from the micro‐level perspective of individual behavior and attitudes by drawing on insights from psychology on the behavior of individuals and groups. The authors discuss how scholars in public administration currently draw on theories and methods from psychology and related fields and point to research in public administration that could benefit from further integration. An analysis of public administration topics through a psychological lens can be useful to confirm, add nuance to, or extend classical public administration theories. As such, behavioral public administration complements traditional public administration. Furthermore, it could be a two‐way street for psychologists who want to test the external validity of their theories in a political‐administrative setting. Finally, four principles are proposed to narrow the gap between public administration and psychology.     

公共行政学视角下社会性规制的基本理论探析

社会性规制是政府履行社会经济管理职能的重要手段,是公共行政的重要内容。然而,目前对社会性规制的研究仅局限于经济学,行政学界尚未予以足够的关注。从公共行政学的视角出发,对社会性规制的内涵、研究视角和意义等基本理论问题进行探讨,具有十分重要的意义。     

Reputation and Public Administration

This article examines the application of organizational reputation to public administration. Organizational reputation is defined as a set of beliefs about an organization’s capacities, intentions, history, and mission that are embedded in a network of multiple audiences. The authors assert that the way in which organizational reputations are formed and subsequently cultivated is fundamental to understanding the role of public administration in a democracy. A review of the basic assumptions and empirical work on organizational reputation in the public sector identifies a series of stylized facts that extends our understanding of the functioning of public agencies. In particular, the authors examine the relationship between organizational reputation and bureaucratic autonomy.     

Government Responses to Terrorism: Critical Views of Their Impacts on People and Public Administration

Following the tragic, massive terrorist attacks on the United States in September 2001, many antiterrorist laws, policies, and institutions have emerged to wage war on terrorism. These antiterrorist initiatives have major consequences for individuals, societies, and nations all over the world. Although controversies have proliferated with regard to the implications of counterterrorism for people's basic rights, the debate remains fragmented and often unfocused. This article examines the critical impact of new antiterrorist initiatives on the fundamental rights and responsibilities of citizens and others, with special reference to public administration.     

论宪政约束下的电子政府模式

随着数字技术、信息技术和网络技术的发展,电子政府正在成为一场政府改革运动.本文认为,电子政府建设使信息控制权成为影响宪政结构的权力因素,同时对公民也提出了更高的素质要求,影响了公民权利平等;要使电子政府服务于宪政,服从于宪政对国家权力的安排和公民平等的基本原则,就需要对信息控制权进行宪政规划,对政府的边界进行改造,这在我国电子政府建设初期,尤其重要.     

论公共空间与公共管理

公共空间与公共管理之间存在内在关联,公共空间的构建和扩展源自公共管理职能的改变,而公共空间的变化也反过来促使公共管理范式变迁.浙江近三十年来公共管理实践经验表明,公共管理职能的转变,导致原来单一的公共权力空间转变为涵盖政治、经济、文化和社会等领域的多元公共空间,而公共管理方式的转变,促使公共空间在宏观、中观、微观三个层次空间的深度得到极大延伸.因此,从公共空间的视角来看待中国公共管理的未来,其关键方向在于进一步拓展公共空间的广度和深度,通过制度创新搭建各种利益主体沟通交流的平台,平衡利益冲突和矛盾,体现公平和正义的价值.     

The Importance of Trust in Government for Public Administration: The Case of Zoning

Many scholars argue that citizens with higher levels of political trust are more likely to grant bureaucratic discretion to public administrators than citizens with lower levels of trust. Trust, therefore, can relieve the tension between managerial flexibility and political accountability in the modern administrative state. Unfortunately, there is little empirical evidence showing that trust is actually associated with citizens' willingness to cede policy-making power to government. This article tests theories about political trust and citizen competence using the case of zoning. Trust in local government is found to be an important predictor of support for zoning, but trust in state government and trust in national government have no effect. These findings suggest that trust affects policy choice and helps determine how much power citizens grant to local administrators.