The Politics of Regulatory Change: National Forest Management Planning under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush

This paper examines regulatory change from the William J. Clinton administration through the presidency of George W. Bush by focusing on their respective efforts to alter national forest planning procedures mandated by the National Forest Management Act of 1976 (NFMA). While rule making has become an important alternative pathway for making policy, the strategies used to develop a new rule may vary among presidents because of differing values and management styles. Both presidents were adept at framing the planning regulation to reflect dominant values such as preserving ecosystems (Clinton) or administrative efficiency (Bush). Between‐administration differences in regulatory tactics also tended to alter the relative importance of institutional venues and, by extension, the influence exercised by differing political constituencies.     

The Politics of Social Welfare Reform in Urban China: Social Welfare Preferences and Reform Policies

China’s social welfare reform since the mid-1980s has been characterized as incremental and fragmented in three dimensions—social insurance, privatization, and targeting. This paper attempts to explore the micro-foundation of China’s urban social welfare reform by examining the diverse social welfare preferences and the cleavages among societal groups. It argues that the diversity of the societal groups’ preferences for social welfare has given rise to two lines of cleavage in urban China with respect to social welfare—between state sector and non-state sector employees and between labor market insiders and outsiders. The Chinese authoritarian regime’s political priority—economic growth with social stability—has induced the government to accommodate public social welfare preferences in social welfare policies. Therefore, the three dimensions of Chinese social welfare reform policies since the mid-1980s reflect and respond to the social cleavages derived from societal groups’ different preferences for social welfare.     

State Poverty Rates: Do the New Welfare Policies Make a Difference?

This article uses four models to identify the best predictors of state poverty levels and changes in state poverty rates since the implementation of welfare reform. The policy decisions based on the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) by the states are tested along with more traditional variables identified in the literature. Using several measures of state poverty, the analysis finds that those states with the lowest poverty rates are those with the healthiest economies, and the most generous state spending on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). States with the highest percentage of their TANF rolls made up of black citizens tend to have the highest rates of poverty. Initial poverty rates are found to be important in that states with higher initial poverty levels are capable of generating a larger reduction in poverty than states with lower initial rates. With the exception of limited evidence on sanctions, none of the PRWORA–based policies were found to have any effect on poverty rates.     

The Clinton Budget for FY 1994: Taking Aim At The Deficit

President Clinton's budget for FY 1994 takes a high-risk approach to deficit reduction. By calling for the largest peace-time tax increase in American history as the centerpiece of his five-year economic plan, Clinton invited the possibility of either an outright defeat, unwelcome compromise in Congress, or a "victory" that might severely impair the prospects for economic growth. His willingness to accept such risks may be taken as strong evidence that reducing the deficit was the new administration's top priority.     

Congressional Partisanship and Presidential Success: The Case of the Clinton and Bush Presidencies

Recent scholarship has documented the increased cohesion and influence of the congressional parties. In this new context, the status of the government as either unified or divided should function as an independent variable in determining presidential success rates. Occurring in just such a period, the Bush and Clinton presidencies can be used to test whether presidential success rates vary according to whether the national government is unified or divided. All the relevant data and comparisons confirm the hypothesis. In addition, a comparison of the presidential success rates for Carter and Nixon's first four years indicate that in the preceding period of less cohesive congressional parties there was a much weaker relationship between presidential success and the status of government as either unified or divided.     

党领导农村基层民主建设的对策研究——基于实证分析的视角

目前,在发展农村基层民主中,农村党组织面临着许多复杂矛盾和深层次问题。解决这些矛盾和问题,其根本出路是要加强党领导农村基层民主建设。为此,一要完善科学民主决策的工作机制,二要完善党组织选举与群众选举相结合的方式,三要完善实践中民主要素的构成。     

和谐社会视阈下现阶段中国阶层分化与党的执政基础问题研究

随着改革开放和社会主义市场经济的发展完善,我国逐渐进入了向现代化转型的特殊时期,在激荡变化的过程中,原有社会阶层产生了新的分化,这种分化的趋势在不断加快,私有阶层不断扩大,中间势力不断增强,与之而来的分化给各个新分化的阶层之间带来了种种矛盾,也带来了一系列社会问题。中国共产党作为国家执政党,在社会转型期,应协调现阶段各阶层之间的关系,推动政治发展和维护社会稳定,引导和推动阶层分化健康发展,使之成为社会经济发展的强大动力。