Policy errors in executive and legislative decision-making

Policy makers get information about the likely outcomes of policy options from experts before they make their decisions. In the executive branch, policy experts tend to reflect the views of the chief executive, whereas in the legislative branch members seek policy advisors whose views reflect their own. The result is a more diverse group of policy advisors in the legislative branch than in the executive branch, which under plausible conditions generates more accurate policy projections. Policy errors will tend to be smaller in legislative than in executive decision-making, providing an argument for making policy decisions in the legislative branch rather than the executive branch.     

Ideological Competition and Conflict in the Judicial Hierarchy

Circuit splits, or conflicting rules across multiple U.S. Courts of Appeals, have important policy implications and dramatic effects on Supreme Court case selection, yet we know little about the incentives ideological lower courts face when deciding whether to initiate conflict. This article develops a formal model of a judicial hierarchy where lower court judges are subject to review by a high court with distaste for unresolved conflict, termed “split-intolerance,” and with uncertain preferences over policy. Lower courts may compete by investing costly effort in legal quality to make their rules more attractive. In equilibrium, lower courts may initiate conflict even when the odds of success before the high court are remote. Surprisingly, lower courts grow more likely to create conflict as the high court's split-intolerance increases; however, split-intolerance can also incentivize greater lower court effort. I present qualitative evidence illustrating the model's explanatory power.     

权利冲突中的少数主义原则

权利冲突问题一直以来都是法学研究的一个热点,同时也是一个难点,而多数人权利与少数人权利的冲突问题,则可以说是难点中的难点:因为处理不好它有可能导致民主制度的颠覆或多数人的暴政等问题.考虑到法学首先是一种实践性学科,因而对这个在实践中经常遇见的问题进行理论上的分析并提出解决之道就是法学的当有之责--而"少数主义原则"正是对这一问题的可能答案.     

The fragmented French executive: Ministerial cabinets in the Fifth Republic

Ministerial cabinets are small informal groups of personal advisers attached to each Minister. Originally a political body they have in the Fifth Republic become a pivot in the politico‐administrative system. To a large extent the role of cabinets can be understood by analysing their environment—that is the needs of the Minister to whom they are responsible, the central administration and the nature of the cabinet itself. These three variables form a useful framework within which the activities of cabinets can be assessed. ¹     

Shaping the Scope of Conflict in Scotland’s Fracking Debate: Conflict Management and the Narrative Policy Framework

This study applies a narrative lens to policy actors’ discursive strategies in the Scottish debate over fracking. Based on a sample of 226 newspaper articles (2011–2017) and drawing on key elements of the narrative policy framework (NPF), the research examines how policy coalitions have characterized their supporters, their opponents, and the main regulator (Scottish government). It also explores how actors have sought to expand or contain the scope of conflict to favor their policy objectives. Empirically, only the government strives for conflict containment, whereas both pro‐ and anti‐fracking groups prioritize conflict expansion through characterization contests and the diffusion and concentration of the costs/risks and benefits of fracking. In theoretical terms, the study proposes that Sarah Pralle’s conflict management model, which emphasizes symmetrical strategies of conflict expansion by both coalitions, is a potential tool to revise extant NPF expectations about the different narrative strategies of winning and losing coalitions. Moreover, the fact that policy actors mostly employ negatively rather than positively framed characters in their narratives may be a valid expectation for similar policy conflicts, particularly under conditions of regulatory uncertainty.     

合作的课程改革中的冲突与交流

寻求较为广泛的参与和合作是确保课程改革顺利进行的重要条件。大学与中小学合作,以及教师参与课程改革,无论对教师自身的专业发展,还是对课程素质的提升,都具有重要的意义。但合作中大学人员与中小学教师存在着明显的差异甚至冲突,这就必然要求课程改革参与者之间加强交流,建立畅通而有效的交流渠道和新型的体制。     

Policy Conflict Framework

This essay introduces a Policy Conflict Framework to guide and organize theoretical, practical, and empirical research to fill the vacuum that surrounds policy conflicts. The framework centers on a conceptual definition of an episode of policy conflict that distinguishes between cognitive and behavioral characteristics. The cognitive characteristics of a policy conflict episode include divergence in policy positions among two or more actors, perceived threats from opponents’ policy positions, and unwillingness to compromise. These cognitive characteristics manifest in a range of behavioral characteristics (e.g., framing contests, lobbying, building networks). Episodes of policy conflicts are shaped by a policy setting, which consists of different levels of action where conflicts may emerge (political, policy subsystem and policy action situations), interpersonal and intrapersonal policy actor attributes, events, and the policy issue. In turn, the outputs and outcomes of policy conflicts produce feedback effects that shape the policy setting. This essay ends with an agenda for advancing studies of policy conflicts, both methodologically and theoretically.     

义务冲突研究

义务冲突作为排除犯罪性事由之一种在西方刑法学界是一个颇有争议的领域,我国学界对此则涉足甚少。在研究方法上,尤其是我国刑法学界对此多作静态意义的研究,没有从符合构成要件行为与排除犯罪性事由这种立体动态的关系中对其进行思考,我们愿稍作尝试。     

Managing Value Conflict in Public Policy

Policy issues are often characterized by conflicting values. Conventionally, students of public policy have conceptualized government's response to value conflicts as a matter of "balancing" competing goals, or striking trade-offs among values. In this paper we argue that this way of managing value conflicts represents only one possibility from a larger and more varied repertoire of strategies that draw from more complex models of practical reasoning. Policy actors do sometimes try to strike a "balance" among conflicting values, but they often avail themselves of other strategies as well: they cycle between values by emphasizing one value and then the other; they assign responsibilities for each value to different institutional structures; or they gather and consult a taxonomy of specific cases where similar conflicts arose. We argue that each of these strategies can be rational in some institutional contexts, and that conclusion challenges the view that policy values must always be treated as commensurable for rational policy choices to be made. Government responds to value conflict in ways that are more varied and changing than existing views of public policy imply.     

Corruption and women in cabinets: Informal barriers to recruitment in the executive

Research on corruption and women in politics has mainly focused on legislatures, generally finding that corruption decreases the election of women. This article turns the spotlight to the executive branch—an arena where selection is less transparent than recruitment to legislative seats—and examines if corruption decrease the share of ministers who are women. Drawing on feminist institutionalist theories, we posit that in an environment of high political corruption, (male) elites involved in cabinet formation will tend to appoint ministers whom they can trust with secretive tasks. In systems with corrupt networks, relative newcomers, such as women, should face obstacles to career advancement. The article tests this reasoning empirically on a global sample of countries across time. Using a new indicator measuring corruption in executive bodies, we find support for our argument; corruption tends to hinder women's presence in cabinets, albeit only in democracies and not autocracies.     

Conflict and impasse in South Sudan

President Salva Kiir and exiled first vice president Riek Machar, the two key political figures in South Sudan, remain at odds, and there is little sign of a political solution to the country's three-year-old civil war. There is some hope that the African Union will energise efforts to enforce the 2015 peace agreement and promote political dialogue.     

如何进一步掌握意识形态斗争的主动权

面对意识形态领域内的残酷斗争,着力打好主动仗,要始终坚持用党的创新理论武装官兵头脑,用党中央、中央军委和胡主席的决策指示统一思想,不断夯实永远做党和人民忠诚卫士的思想政治基础。坚持紧贴任务实际展开思想政治工作,不断激发官兵敢于斗争、敢于胜利的战斗热情,下大力落实好纪律规定,确保部队政治坚定和纯洁巩固。坚持用强烈的政治敏锐性正确研判国际国内复杂形势,时刻保持清醒头脑,大抓先进文化建设,切实用先进文化占领警营阵地。     

Peace and Conflict: Alternative Strategies of Governance and Conflict Resolution

This article examines the present discourse of conflict resolution and offers an alternative framework for analyzing the generic sources of conflict at the community, state, and interstate levels. In particular, we argue that although peace is a universal value, there are no universally best strategies to achieve it. This, however, does not mean that the path to peace is fundamentally different in every context. We claim that stable democratic political structures in general lead to peace both in the international and the domestic realms. As such, democratization does lead to peace, but the paths to stable democracy are context sensitive. Therefore, the success of efforts aimed at creating long-term peace, both among and within nations, depends on the extent to which, democratization incorporates the norms and values of the societies in question. The article begins with a brief overview of some of the problems associated with defining peace. We suggest that peace should be looked at as a universal value, as democracy has been in the recent past. We provide a more detailed theoretical assessment of the linkage between democracy and peace. Our general argument is illustrated in the South Asian, specifically the Indian, context.     

对“文明冲突论”的另一种解读

文明冲突论是冷战后在西方影响比较大的国际关系理论之一,它最大的特点是改变了人们在冷战时期习惯以社会制度和意识形态来评判国际形势,试图以文明的冲突来取代社会制度的对抗,大大拓展了国际关系研究的领域和方向,成为世人关注的焦点。