Organization and Management of Executive Departments: Executive Summary

From the adoption of the Constitution in 1787, the executive department has been the primary vehicle through which the government of the United States has administered its programs. Their organization and effectiveness are therefore matters that demand constant attention.     

Legislative Capacity and Executive Unilateralism

This article develops a theory of presidential unilateralism in which both ideological divergence with Congress and legislative capacity influence the president's use of executive orders. We argue that when Congress is less capable of constraining the executive, the president will issue more executive orders during periods of divided government. Conversely, in periods of high legislative capacity, the president is less likely to issue executive orders when faced with an opposed Congress. Based on an examination of institutional changes, we identify years prior to the mid‐1940s as characterized by low congressional capacity and the subsequent period as characterized by high capacity. Testing the theory between 1905 and 2013, we find strong support for these predictions and demonstrate that legislative capacity conditions the role of ideological disagreement in shaping presidential action. Overall, this article deepens our current understanding of the dynamics of separation‐of‐powers politics and the limits of executive power.     

Executive Orders and Administrative Control

One of the key recommendations of the Winter Commission was the empowerment of governors over the executive branch. However, key institutions have not evolved in this direction; the long ballot still exists in most states, and the formal powers of governors have strengthened to their probable capacity. The authors suggest that a quasi‐formal power—the gubernatorial use of executive orders—may be a significant tool for empowering the governor in the state administrative realm. Analyzing all executive orders in 49 states for 2004 and 2005, they find variation in the aggregate use of and functions performed through these orders. Many executive orders do allow the government more direction and control of state bureaucracy. Finally, the authors suggest that the study of executive orders may be necessary to understand gubernatorial power in the executive arena and beyond.     

Mini-Symposium: The Federal Executive Budget

James Edwin Kee, Introduction
Bernard Pitsvada, The Executive Budget: An Idea Whose Time Has Passed
Naomi Caiden, Comments
Louise Fisher, Comments
Lance T. LeLoup, Comments     

Perspectives from the Senior Executive Service

Much of the research and scholarship on public administration relies heavily on an ‘outsider’ perspective. There is very little ‘insider’ discussion on the priorities, concerns and personal constructs which influence senior executives’ careers. This small qualitative study captures the perspectives of members of the Senior Executive Service (SES) within Australian public sector agencies and identifies key issues for them as senior executives.     

Executive veto power and credit claiming

The line-item veto has often be heralded as an effective tool in reducing pork barrel spending. A model of veto bargaining over public goods and pork barrel spending in the presence of credit claiming incentives demonstrates that the item veto does not necessarily reduce pork barrel spending and reduces the executive??s ability to attain his preferred level of spending on public goods. The item veto also has an ambiguous effect on the balance of power between the executive and the legislature while strengthening the position of the legislative agenda setter within the legislature.     

The Presidency and the Executive Branch

Books reviewed: John P. Burke, Presidential Transitions: From Politics to Practice. Paul Kengor, Wreath Layer or Policy Player? The Vice President's Role in Foreign Policy. Joel Aberbach and Bert Rockman, In the Web of Politics: Three Decades of the U.S. Federal Executive.     

论高校档案行政执行力

高校档案工作行政执行力低下主要表现在制度执行不力和内部管理制度不健全两个方面;产生原因主要是观念缺失,档案意识薄弱,机构不健全,体制和机制保障不到位;导致的后果是物质投入少,档案内容不完整,难以实现“集中统一,规范有序”的管理目标,从某种程度上影响着高校的“宏观管理”效益;提升行政执行力的对策是加强档案法制教育和档案宣传,完善检查评估机制,在大学文化建设中推动档案工作发展。     

论执行权与执行机构的设置

执行是指法律赋予执行权的国家机关依照法定程序运用国家公权力,将已经发生法律效力的法律文书所确定的内容予以实现的法律活动.执行权应属于行政权.执行工作的内容和行政权的本质属性决定执行权应当由独立于人民法院的、具有行政性质的司法警察机构来行使.司法警察机构与人民法院是服务与被服务、支持与被支持的关系,人民法院通过异议之诉及行政诉讼监督执行工作.     

行政权的演化及启示

行政权是一个不断演化的动态概念。通过对东西方行政权演化历程的考察可以发现,中国与西方国家行政权的演化路径正好相反,但其中的许多共通之处对我们今天建立现代政府仍有所启迪:不同的经济体制对政府职能的要求和选择不同;在社会经济发展的不同历史阶段政府职能亦不相同;行政文化影响深远;行政权的运行要把握适度原则。     

公共精神与政府执行力

政府的执行力是保证政令畅通的首要条件,直接影响政府的公信力,甚至影响政府的合法性。提高政府的执行力仅仅从执行工具上作文章是不能奏效的。执行者的价值取向是影响执行力的关键性因素。公共精神缺失从根本上弱化了政府的执行力,要提高政府的执行力必须大力弘扬公共精神,使政府的行为真正以公平正义为宗旨,以公共利益为取向,以公共责任为依托,以公民参与为支撑。公民社会的发育、公共领域的发展和完善可以从根本上解决政府公共精神缺失问题,提高政府的执行力。     

Defining Executive Power: Constitutional Reform for Grown-ups

Australia is well endowed with constitutions. It has seven, one for the commonwealth and each of the six states, and nine if the documents establishing self-government for the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory are included. This gives plenty of scope for constitutional reform: that is, changing the most important rules which specify how a political community is governed. In the event, public debate over constitutional reform in Australia has been sporadic and concentrated on a narrow range of issues. Perhaps this is as it should be. Constitutions should reflect broad public acceptance of the basic rules governing the operation of government, and if the system is running smoothly, there is little reason for change. Only when events occur that demonstrate that there are shortcomings in the structure of government should constitutional reform be considered.     

Economic Perceptions and Executive Approval in Comparative Perspective

Controversy exists over whether people use retrospective or prospective economic perceptions when evaluating their political leadership. In this article, I argue that the structure of the political-economic system affects which type of economic perception people employ. Specifically, in established democracies with developed economies, people will employ prospective assessments. In contrast, in nations with less well-established democratic systems and less developed economies, people will employ retrospective reasoning. They do so because under such conditions uncertainty about the future is too high for them to make reliable prospective assessments. I test this hypothesis on aggregate survey data taken from 41 nations in 2002. Support for the hypothesis is found. The conclusion puts the findings into perspective and discusses directions for future research.     

美国文官制度的变革与思考

美国文官制度经历了从政党分肥制到现代功绩制的深刻变革，至1978年，卡特政府创建了高级文官制度，在政务官之下、普通文官之上设置高级文官阶层。高级文官作为连接政务官和普通文官的桥梁和纽带，突破了政治与行政的界限，将政治家和官僚的角色融为一体，扮演着既是领导者，又是管理者的角色，在联邦政府中起着承上启下的作用，全面提升了政府的政治和技术回应性。但高级文官中政治任命的非常任高级文官更换频繁，与竞争晋升的常任高级文官和普通文官之间，又产生了新的矛盾和冲突，造成政府优秀人才的流失。从历史的角度，认真总结美国文官制度变革的经验与教训，对于我国公务员制度建设，特别是高级公务员制度建设，具有重要意义。