我国外交的"思想库"

"思想库"又称"智囊团"或"智库",是决策体系的一个组成部分,也是决策过程中的一个重要环节,其重要性是不言而喻的."思想库"是研究群体的总称,本文只涉及我国总体外交中的咨询机构"思想库".     

How China's New Leaders Think

The return of the Middle Kingdom to the center stage of history is the most significant geo‐civilizaitonal development of the 21st Century. China's rise raises anew the great question, thought settled after the Cold War, of what system of governance will stand on the right or wrong side of history. In this section the leading ideologists of the China model and its “peaceful rise” appear alongside the fiercest critics of China's way.     

Management of Transnational Think Tank Networks

Transnational networks of think tanks are a new and growing phenomenon. Existing networks can be classified into three groups depending on their primary goal, incentives they give for think tanks to participate, basis for membership, and the degree of network coherence. This paper examines eight specific tasks that managers of think tank networks must address and how the tasks differ according to the four characteristics of the network just listed.     

英国的思想库及其政治功能

与其他国家的思想库相比 ,党派属性是英国的思想库显著特点之一 ,其政治功能———诸如提供政策建议、参与政策形成过程等———的发挥在很大程度上与此相联系。但由于英国的思想库本身所具有的特点 ,使得其政治功能有别于政党和利益集团。     

兰德公司--美国著名的智囊库

美国兰德公司(Rabd)是世界著名的思想库,它正式成立于1948年11月.兰德公司成立初期,主要为空军服务,研究武器的改进和战略管理问题.经过50多年的发展,兰德公司的服务对象逐渐扩大到政府、国际机构、工商界等部门,其研究范围也扩展到军事、政治、经济、社会等多个领域.     

Local Councillors: Between Local 'Government' and Local 'Governance'

With a two-dimensional concept of 'New Public Management' as its point of departure, the article points to the development of a specific Danish model of NPM at the local level of government. In the municipalities the market-oriented NPM dimension has been almost absent and the managerial dimension has been interpreted and translated into a 'governance'-oriented model that combines decentralized self- and user-governance from below with centralized goal-steering from above. This combined model institutes new governing roles including a new leadership role for elected councillors as central goal-steering decision and policy makers. Rather than strengthening the local councillors, the new leadership role has turned out to be problematic for the elected councillors. The problems inherent in the new institutional role as goal-steering decision makers are discussed and arguments are put forward in favour of a more 'governance' and less NPM and government-oriented role for elected councillors. What seems to be needed is another new role that stresses local councillors as co-governors and guardians of an inclusive and democratic form of local governance.     

Local Governments and Local Elites

Local government reform 2001 is an important part of the Government of Pakistan's programme for democratic renewal. The main feature of introducing the Local Government System was to empower the people at the grassroots level and to transfer power from the elite to the masses. This paper uses councillors‘ data from north-western Pakistan to examine the economic and social status of village representatives. Land ownership, high income, education and political connections increase the chances of election to public office at the district and sub-district level, but do not have much impact at the village level. There is evidence of genuine change at union (village) level as the majority of councillors (65 per cent) at this level belong to low-income group and small landowners. So the system has changed the identity of the locally politically dominant group. But, at the same time, results suggest that while local governments units are helpful in creating spaces for a broader range of non-elite community leaders to emerge, elite control of decision making is pervasive. However, it is expected that the presence of non-elite members in the councils may change the allocation of resources in favour of the disadvantaged group with the passage of time, provided elections to councils are held regularly.     

Performing Independence. The Apolitical Image of Polish Think Tanks

Think tanks—non-governmental policy institutes engaged in both research and advocacy—occupy a position at the intersection of different societal fields. This interstitial position determines how they operate and what language they use. Their claim to expertise hinges upon their successful presentation as independent actors. In this endeavour, an apolitical image is crucial. This article studies the role of language in legitimising the position of think tanks. How do think tanks negotiate their apolitical image? What organisational and historical reasons sustain their claim to be apolitical? These questions will be addressed here, through original empirical material based on semi-structured interviews with Polish think tank leaders.     

Local Political Leadership and the Modernisation of Local Government

Political leadership has been a key element of central government's attempts to ‘modernise’ local government over the past decade, within a discourse that emphasised ‘strong’ and ‘visible’ leadership and the role of leaders and leadership in driving change within local authorities. In the context of such an approach, and also taking account of academic discourse, this article draws upon interviews with nearly thirty individuals in leadership positions in local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales to assess their experiences of leadership and their views of some aspects of the role and work of councils. It suggests that whilst there is broad convergence between the aspirations of government and the narratives that emerge from these leaders on some aspects of local political leadership, there are also differences, perhaps most notably over the relationship between changes to decision-making structures and the loci of political power.     

Local Governance and Local Democracy: The Barcelona Model

Using Barcelona as a case study, this article examines the relationship between local governance and local democracy. It begins with the terms of the debate and continues by identifying the context in which a particular model of governance arose in Barcelona. The article then looks at the extent to which governance fosters democracy, by strengthening the role of civil society organisations in government and creating new spaces of deliberation between the state and the citizenry. The final section examines the limitations of Barcelona's model of local governance in enhancing local democracy. The key finding is that the predominant role of the local council in facilitating citizen participation has as many strengths as it has weaknesses. In short, when participation becomes public policy it becomes a double-edged sword.     

Glass Cliff or Glass Prison: Think Evil-Think Men in Organizational Leadership

Recent research suggests that women fail in leadership because men in one way or another target them and put them in unusual, difficult, and risky positions where chances for failure are high. The purpose of this article is to examine this argument based on its literature. The study also collects data from two waves of interviews with 62 women holding leadership positions in public and private sector organizations. The study finds that, while gender is the main theme in the glass cliff argument, the impact of other factors––such as jealousy, departmental politics, and self-interests––on women is inadequately examined. The study concludes that, because injustice in the workplace is oversimplified and reduced to a single factor (gender), the literature creates a glass prison that both confines women and reiterates stereotypical assumptions about women’s capabilities. The blaming and demonization of men therefore tends to have an alternative that has been neglected. Future research on women leadership should depart from the trap of genders, and engage in a wider examination of organizational, cultural, economic, political, psychological, and social factors. These factors shape not only the roles of women in leadership, but the entire the workplace.     

Financing Local Government

There has been much debate in the UK over the implications for local government accountability of the high proportion of central funding of local government. The question has received particular attention recently as a key issue in the government's 'Balance of Funding' review. Two forms of accountability can be distinguished: average accountability and marginal accountability. This paper provides an analysis of the relationship between the balance of funding and these two concepts of accountability and concludes that increasing the proportion of local funding would be beneficial. One method of addressing problems caused by high central funding would be to introduce a local income tax alongside council tax, enabling the central grant to be reduced. The paper examines practical issues involved in the introduction of such a tax.