Combating Climate Change in the UK: Challenges and Obstacles1

There is a curious disjunction between the Labour Government's international actions and its domestic policy. Although Tony Blair did much to promote the climate change agenda on the international stage, domestically, with carbon emissions rising again, the Government will fail to meet its target of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 20% below 1990 levels by 2010. This article examines the weaknesses in the Labour Government's domestic record and assesses the significance of the recent transformation of climate change politics. Several obstacles to the design and delivery of more effective policies are identified, which can be categorised as either problems of ‘environmental politics’ or ‘environmental governance’. It is argued that the recent politicisation of climate change has overcome some of these obstacles ‐ albeit temporarily ‐ but whether the pressure for further policy measures can be sustained, with a long‐term impact on environmental governance, remains uncertain.     

Wealth,Citizenship and Responsibility: The Views of “Better Off” Citizens in the UK

The retheorisation of citizenship since the 1980s has been marked by an emphasis on responsibility over rights, and a focus on poor citizens. The article discusses why an interest in wealthy citizens is timely, including the argument in the UK that the citizenship responsibilities of those with high incomes should be expressed through the notion of active citizenship, not solely by paying tax. Findings are presented from empirical research in the UK, based on in-depth interviews with better off citizens. It is argued that wealthy citizens have benefited from a reduced obligation to pay taxation but there has not been a corresponding acceptance of active citizenship. Moreover, respondents' actual engagement with active citizenship and the expression of responsibility through an essentially individual ethos of economic independence promote a conception of citizenship that is exclusionary rather than inclusive. The research does not lead to an argument for the diminution of citizenship responsibility, but that there is a need for greater interest in the position of wealthy, not just poor, citizens.     

Between Autonomy and Interdependence: The Challenges of Shared Rule after the Scottish Referendum

Drawing on the distinction between self‐rule and shared rule in multilevel states, this article argues that shared rule has been the neglected element of the UK devolution settlement. The ability of the devolved administrations to participate in, and influence, national decision making through shared rule mechanisms is very limited. The article argues that the lack of shared rule is especially problematic in light of the increasing complexity of the Scottish devolution settlement in the wake of the Scotland Act 2012 and the Smith commission report. Smith, in particular, seems set to increase both the power of the Scottish Parliament and its dependence on UK policy decisions in the areas of tax, welfare and the economy. Creating a more robust intergovernmental system which could manage these new interdependencies will be a significant challenge, and yet, without such a system, the new settlement will be difficult to sustain.     

英国数字政府转型：价值理念、技术工具与制度保障

作为全球数字政府建设的先驱,英国在数字政府建设与数字化转型方面成效显著。基于英国数字政府建设和数字化转型的实践与进展,围绕其在数字政府建设中面临的"碎片化"、跨部门与终端服务间的协同、数据壁垒与数据安全和数字人才等问题,考察英国数字政府转型的缘起及其动因,继而从价值理念、技术工具和制度保障等三个维度对英国数字政府转型的图景加以刻画和诠释。在此基础上,结合数字中国建设战略与发展导向,总结和提炼英国数字政府转型中值得借鉴的经验与启示。     

人民幸福:中国共产党人永远的历史担当

人民幸福是中国共产党人自建党之日起就铭刻在理想旗帜上的奋斗目标。为着这一伟大目标,中国共产党人作出了不懈努力、无私付出和巨大牺牲,同时也取得了伟大成就。在长期的奋斗过程中,我们看到,我们党形成的关于人民幸福的思想,成为了马克思主义理论的重要组成部分;以毛泽东、邓小平、江泽民为核心的历代中国共产党人为人民幸福进行了积极的探索和深入的实践;新时期以胡锦涛为核心的中国共产党人在科学发展观指导下赋予了人民幸福更加丰富的时代内涵,中国共产党人正昂首行进在为人民谋幸福的中国特色社会主义道路上。     

论我国慈善理念的变迁与政府职责

慈善理念是和谐社会内在的道德基础,经历了数千年的发展,也经受了传承与断裂、由传统到现代的转型.培育现代慈善理念,应重视慈善文化建设与慈善政策法规建设中的政府职责,促进传统慈善文化与国际慈善文化的融合,加快慈善事业基本法的立法进程.     

当代工人阶级概念的变迁及历史境遇——基于知识经济和全球化背景的考察

在新技术革命和产业革命的推动和影响下,发达资本主义国家的社会和阶级结构发生了重大变化,工人阶级在数量、素质、结构、特点、内涵等方面都有了新的表现。工人阶级的概念需要从"总体工人"的意义上重新作出诠释。在经济全球化的时代背景下,一场新的阶级阶层分化正在世界范围内发生,伴随现代信息资本主义转型的是全球阶级概念的涌动和浮现,它为世界社会主义运动和雇佣劳动阶级的全面解放提供了新的历史机遇和社会空间。     

历史唯物主义重建之下的民主观念

伍德把民主视为超越资本主义的一种力量。她虽然肯定在资本主义条件下,政治民主有所发展,但更为根本的是,经济并不是民主的,而是充满压迫与强制的。因此,民主的发展,必然要超出资本主义社会。为此,她对历史唯物主义的一些基本范畴进行了重新思考,包括经济"基础"与上层建筑的关系。她不同意把经济与政治视为截然分离的两个领域,而是把资本主义社会所特有的这种分离视为资本主义本身政治功能的分化。伍德的民主理论,是力图从马克思主义视角来回应当代资本主义的民主理论,与所谓的后马克思主义有着重大的差别。     

论理性主义专政和历史唯物主义之间的结构性关系--读施米特《政治的浪漫派》

施米特基于对黑格尔哲学的解释和黑格尔哲学在实践方面可能导致的理性主义专政的历史效应去论断马克思的专政观,试图证明作为一种政治理念,马克思主义的社会主义,其最终的形而上学证明是建立在黑格尔的历史逻辑基础上的.施米特以偏激立论,只取黑格尔辩证法的一个要素--敌对辩证法,且通过一个流俗的列宁形象去审视所谓马克思主义历史观的真正力量.     

Policy Adoption and the Redefinition of Operating Procedures: Comparison Cases at UMTA

Political scientists often consider the place of standard operating procedures (SOPS) in shaping bureaucratic responsiveness to “top-down” direction, but our writing only infrequently considers the processes and ease by which bureaucratic routines, decision standards, and SOPS adjust to produce nm outputs. This article explores the change of routines, decision standards, and SOPs from a behavioral perspective to portray bureaucratic behavior and policy as something other than a static function of extant SOPs or a fully and fluidly malleable function of internal preferences and external incentives. In particular, the role of two organizationally “bottom-up” factors — careerists' policy approval and their policy-relevant working schema — are explored to suggest how readily “top-down” preferences for policy translate into pragmatic working arrangements. The empirical basis for the article is a structured set of cases in the Urban Mass Transportation Administration through the latter 1970s and early 1980s.     

问责制中政治责任内涵的四维审视

政治责任的模糊性和不确定性源于政治内涵的广泛包容性。从政治多元涵义的角度来检视,我们把政治责任内涵界定为:掌握国家公共权力的政治责任主体应履行好对政治、经济、文化等事项的管理义务,正确处理好人民内部矛盾,以服务于经济建设的大局,最终实现人民群众的根本利益。反之,就要承担接受谴责、处罚直至丧失行使国家公共权力的消极后果。其中,掌握国家公共权力是承担政治责任的前提,有无违背人民群众的根本利益是是否承担政治责任的核心标准。     

Defeat in Iraq: The Challenges for Obama and the Region

Abstract

Though community policing is widely promoted by donors and criticized by academics, there has been little research on its practice in Africa. This essay examines one of the main elements of community policing, namely community forums, in Freetown, Sierra Leone. They were examined from the point of view of the police, Partnership Board executives and local communities. The triangulation of response provided an evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses. Positively they have improved communication between police and communities and provided intelligence, investigation, intervention, arrest and dispute resolution. Negatively they are elite dominated and most of the activities, initiatives and even finance come from the community. Despite the difficulties, the Partnership Boards are universally valued and are not seen as unwelcome foreign imports.     

Putting Equality in Place: The Normative Foundations of Geographic Equality of Opportunity

This article explores the normative principles underlying the geography of opportunity perspective and provides a justification for equalizing the geographic dimensions of economic opportunity. The article proposes a conception of geographic equality of opportunity (GEO) that provides an account of: (a) why geographic equality matters; (b) why opportunities are the appropriate currency of geographic equality; and (c) how the geographic distribution of resources and residential mobility relate to equality of opportunity. GEO requires that certain geographic resources be spatially uniform or equally accessible, and that any differences in economic outcomes be traceable to autonomous choices and not morally arbitrary conditions such as one’s race or birth location.     

Caught in the Act: The Smoking Gun View of Ministerial Responsibility

While any discussion of ministerial responsibility must in part focus on ministerial resignations, finding out when ministers resign is only the tip of the iceberg. A full assessment of ministerial responsibility would look at the relations between ministers and their senior bureaucrats, as discussed in Bill Blick’s article. It would look at the impact of managerialism on ministerial accountability, especially in the light of privatisation and contracting out. It would assess the impact of other mechanisms of accountability, including the senate. The subject of this article must always be put into a broader context. This article concentrates on ministerial resignations drawing on evidence from Britain, Canada, the federal government in Australia and the government of New South Wales. When do ministers resign?     

Testing Times: The Growing Primacy of Responsibility in the Euro Area

The aim of this paper is to address one of the growing causes of tension between responsiveness to electorates and responsibility to partners by analysing the new rule-bound system of economic governance that is evolving within the euro area in response to the crisis. The key argument is that the nature and depth of the external constraints that have been agreed since 2010 represent a step-change in the intrusion of external actors in the domestic government and politics of the euro states. Responsibility to the collective has emerged as the central norm of the framework of economic governance that is evolving. The norm is backed by a strong regulatory framework including sanctions. The paper concludes with an analysis of the likely impact of the new system on domestic politics and political parties under the rubric of the politics of constrained choice.     

The Responsibility to Protect: Libya and the Problem of Transnational Solidarity

The first part of this article examines some of the legal, ethical, and political dimensions of the Responsibility to Protect doctrine by engaging with cosmopolitan proposals for its application to Libya before the international military action to enforce it was initiated in March 2011. It presents reflections of a historical kind on state sovereignty, international community, and the political theology of humanitarian intervention while assessing the nature of the moral imperative underpinning cosmopolitan assertions of responsibility to save lives in Libya. Considering the official recognition of the Transitional National Council by the enforcers of the Responsibility to Protect doctrine as the sole legitimate authority on Libyan territory, the second part of the article situates this act of recognition within a history of colonial practices that include the legal mechanism of “the protectorate.” It also discusses the prominence of imperial affects in the Responsibility to Protect doctrine. The third part of the article evaluates disagreements among certain anti-imperialist commentators over the desirability of a military intervention in Libya in order to reflect on the politics of transnational solidarity from an angle that may present itself as an alternative to the Responsibility to Protect framework. While calling for a renewed critique of violence, the article concludes with an examination of telling difficulties that afflict attempts to differentiate acts of “foreign intervention” from acts of “transnational solidarity.”