论责任政府与政府责任

民主政府必然是责任政府,依法行政必然要求权责一致.在现代中国,中央和地方各级政府由于为人民服务与依法行政的理念所决定,必然要建立责任政府,对人民承担一定的政治责任、道德责任和法律责任.     

责任政府：一个分析框架

从开放和相互依存的角度分析了责任政府的定义、责任的来源、责任履行的要素以及失职带来的后果。政府责任是国家职能的具体化。在现代民主政治中,民主授权和行政授权是政府责任的来源。而民主授权是权力的根本来源。随着全球化进程的推进,政府不仅要承担传统意义上的国内管理职能,还要承担国际义务。对于中国政府来说,责任的履行必须放在制度转型背景下考虑,处理好改革、发展和稳定是政府的核心责任。政府责任是由责任主体、责任客体(或责任对象)、责任实现形式以及责任实现的约束机制诸要素组成的,因此政府失职是这些要素间关系的失衡。要使政府责任得到有效履行,必须强化民主选举制度、明确政府内部各部门责权、扩大公民参与、完善监督机制,还要提高官员能力,树立公共责任意识和精神。从长远来看,建立一种公共责任文化更具有持久性。     

论责任政府及政府责任体系

责任政府是现代民主政治发展的必然要求,也是现代民主政治的基本特征之一。传统责任政府理论在近代问世,它在现代又有若干发展,并对当代政治保持深刻的影响力。责任政府要求政府承担宪法的、政治的、行政的、法律的、道德的责任。同时,责任政府也意味着一整套控制机制,这一整套控制机制保证着政府不同责任形式的落实和实现。     

责任政府的理论及其政策意义

从理论上理解责任政府,至少可以有三个层次,即个体意义上的理解、集体意义上的理解和制度意义上的理解。中国责任政府的实践中比较清晰的责任制有务虚和务实之分。审计风暴具有深远的治道变革的意义,但还存在缺失相关程序的问题,而危机管理使问责制正在逐步走向制度化。进一步推进责任政府建设,最重要的是要在制度上确立种种责任,主要包括:政治责任,行政责任,专业部门的责任,行政执法责任,人大代表、检查官和法官的责任,政府官员的法律责任,以及领导人要承担的道义上的责任等。     

Making Government Accountable: Lessons from a Federal Job Training Program

This article describes the evolution of a performance measurement system in a government job training program. In this program, a federal agency establishes performance measures and standards for substate agencies. The performance measurement system's evolution is at least partly explained as a process of trial and error characterized by a feedback loop: The federal agency establishes performance measures, the local managers learn how to game them, the federal agency learns about gaming and reformulates the performance measures, possibly leading to new gaming, and so on. The dynamics suggest that implementing a performance measurement system in government is not a one-time challenge but benefits from careful monitoring and perhaps frequent revision.     

Responsible Party Government in a World of Interdependence

This article opens up the closed model of the responsibility of a national government to its national electorate by adding constraints on its capacity to enact effective economic, national security and political policies. These constraints come from policy interdependence. The European Union exerts a denationalising influence through the Council, a multinational effect through the European Parliament, and the eurozone is designed as a transnational technocracy. Intergovernmental institutions spanning continents add further constraints. The result is a growing gap between the efforts of a national government to deliver outputs that match the preferences of voters and a reduction in the capacity of national electorates to hold accountable institutions outside their country that have a major impact on national outcomes. The conclusion considers three prospective possibilities: a growing frustration with a policy-irrelevant rotation of parties in office; institutional reform at the supranational level; and a learning process in which a recognition of the constraints of interdependence leads to a change in expectations.     

论建构责任政府的逻辑

责任政府是民主政治时代的产物,是目前世界各国普遍追求的行政目标。责任政府构建的具体过程各不相同,但所依据的内在逻辑是一致的,即沿着“对谁负责”、“对何事负责”、“由谁负责”、“如何负责”的逻辑主线来构架责任政府的不同模式。我们应该从客观意义上来剖析责任政府实现的基本规律,并从共性到个性,以比较的视角分析我国在责任政府实现途径上与发达国家的差异性,为我国责任行政实践起到抛砖引玉的作用。     

责任政府:以公共责任为本位

责任政府作为一种理想的政府形态,其根本特征是政府以公共责任为本位的逻辑安排权力与责任的关系,从而彻底颠覆了传统政府组织以权力为本位的政治逻辑。责任政府的组织建设从责任开始,根据政府履责的需要决定政府权力的配置,以责任勘定政府权力的约束边界,按照履责的需要建构组织机构和配备人员编制。因此,责任政府的建立实现了政府与公民两者关系向民主政治的回归。政府的三项基本组织活动——决策、执行与监督适度分离,有利于政府高效地履责,也有利于对政府进行有效的问责。责任政府应该实现决策责任、执行责任与监督责任的分置与协调,同时建立决策权、执行权与监督权的分立与制约体系。政府问责制作为责任政府得以实现的关键机制,在于建立领导责任追究制度,通过领导责任追究制度,使各级领导真正成为各级政府履责的核心力量,推动责任政府建设,因此,责任政府建设的关键又在于政府问责制的确立。     

The Responsible Party Government Model in House and Senate Elections

Responsible party government theory requires that voters hold parties electorally accountable for their performance in control of government. Existing literature suggests that voters do this only to a limited extent—holding the presidential party's candidates responsible for government performance on Election Day. While this method of voting may hold the executive accountable for his performance, it is not really an effective way to hold the party in control of Congress accountable for its performance. The method falls short particularly when Congress is controlled by a different party than the president, but also whenever a Congress controlled by the same party pursues policies different from the president's. Using surveys of voters leaving the polls in the 1990, 1994, and 1998 midterm congressional elections, this study tests whether voters' evaluations of Congress's job performance also affect their support for majority party candidates in House and Senate elections, during both unified and divided government .     

行政赔偿制度的完善与责任政府的保障

在新世纪，中国需要一个由现代行政法律制度加以规范和控制的责任政府。行政赔偿制度的建立与完善，既是责任政府的重要标志，也是责任政府的现实保障。追究行政赔偿责任，有利于增强政府依法行政的能力，提高政府行政的责任性，从而最终实现行政法治的目标。     

责任政府对行政伦理责任的内在诉求

责任政府对行政伦理责任的基本要求,即责任本位、服务本位和法治本位.在社会主义市场经济飞速发展和社会急剧转型的过程中,政府治理领域出现了集体腐败、行政不公、行政不廉和行政不实等诸多伦理问题.这些问题凸显了政府伦理责任的实现机制存在严重不足.在此背景下,责任政府成为当代中国政府治理模式的必然选择.提升和实现行政伦理责任是建设责任政府的关键,即确立正确的政府理念,从宏观层面上阐释行政伦理责任的基本价值取向,即以体现行政伦理责任的政府理念来指导行政管理实践;加快行政伦理制度化建设,从中观层面上提出行政伦理制度化建设的基本途径;加强行政伦理的内部控制机制建设,从微观层面上探讨行政主体伦理责任意识的培育.     

代议制民主政体的缺陷与改进

斯图亚特·密尔推崇代议制民主政府是最理想的政府形式 ,同时也具有智力偏低和特殊利益立法的可怕危险。密尔致力于考虑从选举制度和议会制度设计上作出改善 ,以在不损害民主政体的前提下 ,通过影响议会内部的代表构成等方式来提高公正与普遍利益在民意及代议机关中的影响 ,在人民控制与危险预防之间达成平衡     

The Limits to Public Value,or Rescuing Responsible Government from the Platonic Guardians

In various guises, public value has become extraordinarily popular in recent years. We challenge the relevance and usefulness of the approach in Westminster systems with their dominant hierarchies of control, strong roles for ministers, and tight authorising regimes underpinned by disciplined two‐party systems. We start by spelling out the core assumptions behind the public value approach. We identify two key confusions; about public value as theory, and in defining ‘public managers’. We identify five linked core assumptions in public value: the benign view of large‐scale organisations; the primacy of management; the relevance of private sector experience; the downgrading of party politics; and public servants as Platonic guardians. We then focus on the last two assumptions because they are the least applicable in Westminster systems. We defend the ‘primacy of party politics’ and we criticise the notion that public managers should play the role of Platonic guardians deciding the public interest. The final section of the article presents a ‘ladder of public value’ by which to gauge the utility of the approach for public managers in Westminster systems.     

市场经济现代转型中的法治与责任政府

政府在我国市场经济的建立和转型中发挥着重要的作用.然而诺斯"国家悖论"所揭示的两难困境告诫我们在充分利用政府作用的同时,必须对行政权力的不当干预和政府失责的负面影响加以防范.我国已建立了初级市场经济并正在向现代市场经济转型,现代市场经济的基础是法治,现代市场经济转型的关键在于法治的确立.而法治下的政府应该是一个责任政府,我国要顺利实现市场经济的现代转型,建立良好的市场秩序和有效保护产权,就要建立责任政府.法治是责任政府不可或缺的制度保障,责任政府是法治理念在公共行政领域的体现.责任政府作为现代市场经济体系的重要组成部分,是一切向现代市场经济转型国家必须确立的政治基础.责任政府需要一系列制度构架确保政府对人民责任关系的确立.责任政府制度构架的基本方面包括:政府责任规范体制、政府责任履行的评价制度和政府责任的问责制度.     

Race, Region, and Representative Bureaucracy

Scholars of representative bureaucracy have long been interested in the linkage between passive representation in public agencies and the pursuit of specific policies designed to benefit minority groups. Research in this area suggests that the structural characteristics of those organizations, the external political environment, and the perceptions of individual bureaucrats each help to facilitate that relationship. Work to date has not, however, sufficiently investigated the impact of region on representation behavior, which is surprising given the emphasis that it receives in the broader literature on race and politics. Drawing on that literature, this study argues that, for black bureaucrats, region of residence is an important moderator of active representation because it helps to determine the salience of race as an issue and the degree of identification with racial group interests. It tests hypotheses related to that general argument in a nationally representative sample of more than 3,000 public schools. The results suggest that black teachers produce greater benefits for black students in the South, relative to other regions. A supplementary analysis also confirms the theoretical supposition that race is a more salient issue for Southern black bureaucrats, when compared with their non-Southern counterparts.     

John Stuart Mill's Theory of Bureaucracy within Representative Government: Balancing Competence and Participation

The relationship between bureaucracy and representative government has been a subject of concern to public administration since its inception. John Stuart Mill addressed this question in an 1861 essay, in which he explained his theory of government. Mill suggests a role for public administration that is not only legitimate, but also necessary for good government. His writings contain remarkable references to the concerns addressed in current theories of public administration. Mill worked to balance the spirit of popular government with governance by the most educated, skilled, and experienced of the nation, whether they were citizens, elected representatives, or administrative officials. This article examines Mill's theory and the contribution it makes to current public administration discussion.