网络时代政府形象的维护和修复

政府形象直接反映政府的行政理念和能力，是政府得以正常运行的基本条件。网络时代，政府形象面临更多的挑战，影响政府形象的因素也变得更为复杂。政府及其官员只有增强形象意识，树立公共权力观念，进一步完善蓓息公开制度，建立健全责任机制，增强行政能力，才能避免形象危机事件的发生，最大限度地维护和修复政府良好形象。     

维护社会公正建构和谐社会

从上个世纪90年代前期开始,随着中国政治、经济体制改革的全面铺开,在这一过程中贫富悬殊和社会稳定问题的日益凸显,社会公正越来越成为思想界关注的焦点,本文从维护社会公正的视角出发,通过对社会公正若干问题的探讨,进一步深化对和谐社会的理解.     

Cost benefit analysis and the art of motorcycle maintenance

Partially as the result of consumer and environmentalist pressure, proposals for large-scale government and private projects are increasingly coming under the scrutiny of cost-benefit analysis, decision analysis, risk assessment and related approaches. This paper presents a critical overview of such analyses. It discusses (a) their rationale; (b) their acceptability as guides to decision making; (c) the problems such analyses encounter; (d) how they may be misused; and (e) what steps are needed to increase their contribution to society. The discussion is illustrated with a variety of examples, drawn, in particular, from the evaluation of new technologies.Whatever their flaws, such analyses appear to have a critical role in guiding social decision making. It is important, however, for both the analyst and the nonexpert consumer of such analyses to understand the errors to which they are prone in order to maintain a critical perspective. Indeed, the institutionalization of such criticism is essential.Additional research is needed to clarify psychological (subjective) aspects of the analytic process in order to (a) reduce the errors and omissions made by analysts and (b) help policy makers and the public understand the results and the assumptions under which they were reached.This research was supported by the University of California, Los Angeles, Subcontract No. KS59081-0 to Oregon Research Institute.This paper was stimulated by my participation in Risk Benefit Methodology and Application, a conference held September 21–26, 1975, in Pacific Grove, California, and chaired by Dr. D. Okrent. Many of the ideas expressed could be attributed either directly or indirectly to a variety of conference participants. I would like to particularly thank Philip Bereano, Joseph Coates, Barbara Combs, Ward Edwards, Lewis Goldberg, Paul Hoffman, Jack Hirshleifer, Robert Kates, Sarah Lichtenstein, Joanne Linnerooth, David Okrent, Leon Rappoport, Peggy Roecker and Paul Slovic for help in stimulating and clarifying my thinking. The title is borrowed in part fromZen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig (New York: Bantam, 1974) where some related lines of thought are developed.     

Decentralization as a strategy of regime maintenance: The case of Yemen

Proponents of decentralization often argue that decentralization makes governments more accountable and responsive to the governed. This is perhaps why the decentralization literature tends to overlook Middle Eastern regimes as these are among the most authoritarian and most centralized regimes in the world. However, many of these regimes have included decentralization in their legal framework. This article shows how a weak regime can use decentralization as a regime maintenance strategy when formal decentralization reforms strengthens external and internal legitimacy. The articles main argument builds on the literature on decentralization and elite capture to show how weak regimes can use formal decentralization reform to undermine local autonomy. The article uses the case of Yemen to make this argument. Yemen has a long tradition for local bottom-up initiatives and there is widespread internal support for decentralization. Simultaneously, donors have seen decentralization as a way of strengthening the Yemeni state, leading to international support to the formulation of the Local Authority Law of 2000, Law 4/2000, an extensive legal decentralization framework.     

Policy impacts of the New Jersey income maintenance experiment

This paper deals with a major piece of policy relevant social science research, the New Jersey Experiment in Income Maintenance, and a proposed piece of social legislation, the Family Assistance Plan. An attempt is made to assess the impact which the experiment had on political decision-makers, both in the Administration and the Congress, during deliberations over the legislation. The channels of communication between the researchers and the decision-makers are elaborated; the relevance of the research to the concerns of the decision-makers is described; and the impact of the research on these decision-makers is evaluated.It is suggested that there are two major uses of research in the policy process, technical and political. One involves resolving technical details of program design and administration; the other involves convincing decision-makers that a particular policy alternative is the correct one to support. Through analysis of primary documents, it is concluded that the major impact of the experiment to date has been in technical areas. Experimental findings and methods were used by the Administration to support its position and the preliminary data contributed to House discussions.The information sources of the Congress and the Administration are compared and despite disparities, it is pointed out that research cannot change values and values are an important factor in determining a decision-maker's attitude toward an innovation.It is concluded that if systematic thinking and research are to play a role in the process of policy formulation and implementation, each part of the process not only has to have access to research, but also the ability to evaluate that research. It is to be expected that under existing conditions the major immediate contribution of research such as the New Jersey Experiment to policy discussions will be in very technical areas, with the possibility of making a contribution to change in the climate of opinion over time.     

Of time,leadership, and governance: Elite incentives and stability maintenance in China

China's party‐controlled elite appointment system has been praised for contributing to growth and order in recent decades. Inspired by Mancur Olson's insight into elite incentives and governance, we examine how the Chinese practices of elite management affect the character of governance using unique survey and interview data on township leaders and social contention. We find that, first, externally appointed party secretaries experience more petitions and mass incidents during their tenure and are more likely to use coercion to deal with petitions than internally appointed secretaries. Second, these tendencies are moderated when externally appointed party secretaries are paired with internally appointed township heads We explore the implications of such behavioral differences and suggest our findings are of broad significance for understanding governance in China.     

Vietnamese ethnicity networks maintenance process in the urban context Case study in Tainan Park,Taiwan

In Taiwan, the initiated policy for receiving foreign workers from the early 1990s has created prerequisite for workers and migrants from the Southeast Asian countries to access Taiwan labour market, including a great quantity of migrants from Vietnam. The appearance of new wave of immigrants over the past decade has created new ethnoscapes in Taiwan society. This paper considers the formation and characteristics of Vietnam ethnoscape in the urban context. The author adopts Tainan Park as public space--an ethnoscape with big concentration of Vietnamese in Tainan city for analysis. Based on geographical advantage factors and traffic convenience, Tainan Park became an important sociospatial pattern of Vietnam immigrants gathering. The paper then analyzes the locations and roles of immigrant gathering places as sites of ethnicity networks maintenance. The author studies the way to maintain directly opposite relationships in Tainan Park context. This park is an important space pattern for Vietnamese ethnicity networks maintenance.     

The Shah and the Bomb

There are several reasons to fear that Iran will produce nuclear weapons. The country is making an enormous investment in nuclear reactors. The Shah gave a press interview in 1974 hinting at a weapons program. The Indian detonation of a peaceful nuclear device puts pressure on a near-neighbor like Iran.Yet there are also reasons to hope that this move will not be made. The Iranian investment in nuclear industry may not be premature in terms of peaceful economic purposes, and may thus not prove any military intent. A great deal of time will pass in any event before a real weapons potential is reached.A mixed forecast is thus in order, neither optimistic nor pessimistic. The Shah may well feel that Iran is better off keeping the entire Middle East free of nuclear weapons, as through its proposed Nuclear-Free Zone. Yet the policy process in Iran may make it difficult to get enough push behind this proposal.