Data Protection in Britain: Governance and Learning

This article focuses upon the implementation of data protection as a learning process involving both regulators and those whose information practices are regulated. From this conceptual perspective, and using the British data protection system as an example, it describes the interactions in this process of governance within the context of factors that influence implementation and affect the achievement of policy objectives. It refers to related analytical strategies for understanding governance and learning in this rapidly changing and technologically conditioned field of regulation.     

Policy Learning and the Drink Question in Britain 1850–1950

This article uses the models of Paul Sabatier and Peter Hall, which stress the role of ideas and social learning in the policy process, to illuminate an historical case study over a hundred-year period. This concerns the Drink Question 1850–1950 in Britain and the various techniques for control of alcohol. In turn, the case study is used to suggest ambiguities or problems with the approaches. The case study finds the concept of social learning to be of some utility but casts doubt upon some of the assumptions of Sabatier and Hall: especially the threefold categorization which each author employs. Both models play down unduly the role of external forces in shaping the policy process and do not satisfactorily take into account the changing nature of a political system. In the case study the interplay between social problems, policy objectives and policy techniques is more fluid and complex than their theories suggest.     

The Politics of Social Learning: Finance,Institutions, and Pension Reform in the United States and Canada

Because the traditional concept of social learning has faced significant criticism in recent years, more analytical work is required to back the claim that the lessons drawn from existing institutional legacies can truly impact policy outcomes. Grounded in the historical institutionalist literature, this article formulates an amended concept of social learning through the analysis of the relationship between finance, social learning, and institutional legacies in the 1990s debate over the reform of earnings‐related pension schemes in the United States and Canada. The article shows how social learning related to specific ideological assumptions and policy legacies in the public and the private sectors has affected policymaking processes. At the theoretical level, this contribution stresses the political construction of learning processes, which is distinct from the technocratic model featured in the traditional literature on social learning. This article also distinguishes between high‐ and low‐profile social learning while emphasizing the impact of private policy legacies on learning processes.     

‘No Interest in Land': Legal and Spatial Enclosure of Gypsy-Travellers in Britain

This paper examines the place of Gypsy-Travellers within the British legal system. It considers the function of the law in establishing moral and social norms and pathologising aspects of Traveller life. It examines how a variety of legal principles, discourses and bureaucratic agencies combine to construct travellers as deviant with regard to the moral and social order. It considers the attempts in British law to control Travellers' spatial practices and nomadic lifestyle, and the ambivalent nature of legislation in this area. The Caravan Sites Act 1968 is examined in terms of its formation and implementation. The origin and impact of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 are assessed. It contends that the criminal justice system has its own rationality which may conflict with both that of the formal law and other parts of the state. It is argued that institutional discrimination exists within the legal system, based on ingrained ‘sedentarist' assumptions about what constitutes a normal way of life. Both the 1968 and the 1994 Acts can be criticised in these terms. Travellers have, however, been able to resist many of the practices of legal and spatial enclosure to which they are subject.     

公民参与网络与公共政策过程的有效运行

社会资本的生产、维持和积累主要依赖于两大来源:互利互惠的规范和公民参与网络。公民参与网络与公共政策过程的有效运行存在着内在的逻辑关联,即公共政策的有效制定和执行等与公民参与网络社会资本的储量息息相关。公民参与网络社会资本的充分发育是公民切实进入公共政策过程、讨论特定的政策议题、协力执行公共政策的前提。因此,政府在公共决策过程中必须考虑公民参与网络这个变量,通过有效的制度设计和建构促进公民参与网络社会资本存量的提升,以形成公民参与网络和公共政策过程之间的良性互动关系,从而有利于维持公共政策的公共利益的价值取向。     

Is Trafficking Slavery? Anti-Slavery International in the Twenty-first Century

Why was Anti-Slavery International (ASI) so effective at changing norms slavery and even mobilizing the support that ended the transatlantic slave trade at the end of the nineteenth century, and why has that success not continued on into subsequent eras? This article claims that ASI's organizational structure is the key to understanding why its accomplishments in earlier eras have yet to be replicated, and why today it struggles to make modern forms of slavery, such as human trafficking, salient political issues. Organizational structure is defined by how an NGO distributes power over agenda-setting (proposal and enforcement power) and its implementation. Those NGOs that centralize agenda-setting and decentralize the implementation of that agenda will be most effective at changing international norms. This paper demonstrates the tractability of that claim with a comparative analysis of ASI past and present to show that changes in organizational structure have led to differences in their effect on international norms, in spite of the fact that slavery in its modern forms persists as a political and social problem.     

倾向度匹配、救助依赖与瞄准机制——基于社会救助制度实施效应的经验分析

为更好地了解社会救助制度实施状况,笔者第一次尝试性地利用实际调查微观住户数据资料,结合倾向度匹配方法分析了目前中国社会救助体系对贫困家庭的瞄准机制、实施效果等问题。分析结果显示,中国社会救助方式在经济和社会体制转型过程中产生了显著性的改变。并且从"救助依赖"产生的视角来看,中国社会救助制度在设定的过程中能在一定程度上规避制度本身产生的"救助依赖"问题。针对这个问题我们分析了受助群体再就业家庭对社会救助制度待遇高低的反应,通过其再就业行为的变化,提出了规避受助家庭成员在再就业市场上产生的负面影响,从而更好地促进社会救助制度实施正面效应。     

Making User‐boards a School in Democracy? Studying Swedish Local Governments

In its final report, a Swedish Government Commission has argued that representative democracy should be complemented by a high degree of local participation. The Commission argues that user‐boards and citizen panels, for instance, are tools for vitalising democracy by educating people about democratic principles. This argument rests on two assumptions: (a) about the effects of participation in terms of a learning process at the individual level, and (b) about certain specific organisational circumstances that facilitate the learning processes. However, despite having long been evident in democratic theory, the assumptions lack empirical support. Thus, each of the Commission's assumptions poses an interesting empirical challenge: First, does local participation give rise to an individual democratic learning process? Second, does the link between local participation and representative democracy co‐vary with the individual learning process? This article presents results from a process‐oriented comparative study of two Swedish municipalities that introduced user‐boards in the school sector. The article shows that participation in user‐boards gives rise to various degrees of learning processes about democracy for individuals. It also shows that a relation between local governments and user‐boards, characterised by dialogue and cooperation, increases the possibility that participation in user‐boards will give rise to these learning processes.     

宪法实施视域中司法裁判宪法援引的实证分析

全面推进宪法实施采用广义的宪法实施内涵,有利于将宪法基本原则和宪法规范贯彻落实到国家与社会生活的各个领域。司法裁判中的宪法援引是宪法实施在司法领域的具体实践,因此,对宪法援引的实证研究能够获得宪法实施的直观印象。借助于新兴的大数据技术,检索含有宪法援引内容的裁判文书,对其进行统计学处理和分析,形成关于宪法援引案件的系统性认知。在此基础上,运用宪法学原理对宪法援引进行解析,以主体为宪法援引的区分标准,将其分解为当事人宪法援引与法院宪法援引两种不同类型,便于深入考察司法实践中宪法援引的具体方式和实际效果,进一步印证宪法援引在推进宪法全面实施过程中所具有的实践价值。     

PROGRAM EVALUATION AND ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL

What is the role of program evaluation research in making and implementing social policy and how do program evaluators view the social programs they evaluate? This article discusses the findings of two closely related studies that examine these questions from the perspective of organization theory. These studies found that program evaluations rely on methods of research that do not correspond to the extent of uncertainty in social programs over goals and causal knowledge, and that most evaluations define organizational effectiveness solely in terms of goal achievement. In addition, of the various groups with a stake in the evaluation process, only federal and top program administrators influenced the implementation and interpretation of the studies. These findings, when taken together, suggest that program evaluation research acts more to augment administrative control than to increase our understanding of the effects of social policy.     

The National Governance and Policy Context of Social Impact Bond Emergence: A Comparative Analysis of Leaders and Skeptics

Abstract

Proponents of the Social Impact Bond (SIB) model put forward a value-for-money case for SIBs based on new resources, efficiency enhancements and innovation for social service delivery, suggesting broad potential for SIB uptake in varying national contexts. SIB use has however been concentrated in Anglo-Saxon liberal market economies. This paper analyses the possibility that SIBs are proceeding given their alignment with particular governance and policy regimes, as opposed to any universal superiority from a cost-effectiveness or efficiency perspective. A comparative analysis is undertaken of the United Kingdom and the United States, leaders in SIB implementation, with France and Germany. A range of indicators representing the adoption of neoliberal governance approaches are reviewed and linked to their complementarity with the SIB model. Policy implications for SIB governance are then explored.     

转型时期的农民工住房问题——一种政策过程的视角

从政策过程的视角论述农民工住房问题纳入国家政策层面的可行性,可为解决农民工住房问题提供政策方向。本文从杜布林冲突的系统分析模型出发,建构“黑匣子”公共政策过程分析模型,并运用成本-收益分析、政府分权理论等,从政策执行的角度来检验政策方案。通过政策输入过程分析,识别形成农民工住房问题的实质因素,并分析农民工住房问题转变为政策问题的实践约束条件。通过对政策执行约束条件的分析得出：农民工住房政策的逻辑起点不是农民工住房质量,而是附加在户籍制上的城乡二元体制结构。研究认为农民工住房问题本身无法作为良好的政策问题纳入中央政府决策范围。建立农民工住房保障体系并允许农民工有条件地享受城市住房保障政策,或直接取消城乡二元结构,都不是解决农民工住房问题的最优政策,但前者作为渐进的决策途径,还是有助于缓解社会转型矛盾的;政府应当制定改革户籍制的长远目标,并在此框架下坚持改革和创新,逐步实现住房保障的城乡一体化。     

“The Long and Winding Road”: A Comparative Policy Analysis of Multilevel Judicial Implementation of Work‒Life Balance in Spain

ABSTRACT

This article studies how processes of policy implementation and the impact of a multilevel European legal order shape social policies. By using an interdisciplinary approach to comparative policy analysis that investigates policy implementation through the critical study of judicial litigation, the article analyses the case of García Mateos on work?life balance in its different stages before Spanish and supranational courts. It shows that the implementation of work?life balance policy through litigation in Spain is a “long and winding road” paved with discursive and material opportunities and obstacles. While multiple pressures, actors, and framings at different governmental levels contributed to a favourable judicial decision on gender equality, norms about the gendered division of labour limited its transformative potential.     

Lessons for the Study of Policy Implementation: Project Renewal in Israel

This article attempts to clarify some of the issues in the debate over the study of policy implementation, in particular the disagreements between proponents of the top-down versus bottom-up approaches. It proposes use of a modified top-down perspective which bridges the assumed dichotomy between policy formulation, enactment, and an implementation process and addresses many of the concerns of the bottom-up research strategy. This new perspective portrays implementation as part of a single ongoing process in which policy is formulated, enacted and continually readjusted and adapted before and after implementation at the local level. The article is based on an analysis of the findings of a case study of the implementation of Israel's Project Renewal, a comprehensive community renewal and development program – a hybrid resembling the American Urban Renewal, Model Cities and the War on Poverty programs. Rather than evaluate the success of this Israeli program, the intent here is to ask what the research findings teach about the study of policy implementation.     

How Japanese wallflowers turned into celebrities: self-mockery and self-revelation of the female comedy duo Harisenbon

ABSTRACT

This study examines the Japanese female comedy duo Harisenbon. By examining their approach to comedy and their reception by Japanese media and society, it discusses how they use their “ugly”, “fat” and “skinny” personas to expose Japanese social pressures upon women. It considers how both comedians present a self-image that apparently matches their stage characters, and how their interactions with mainstream media endorses the very social norms they ridicule, without directly challenging or satirising them, even if this leaves space for destabilising the assumptions on which they are based. It observes that one half of the duo, who is more successful than the other, might be due to her willingness to mock her own appearance more savagely.     

Constructing a Planning Regime: Assessing the Beginning Phases of New Jersey's Plan for Development and Redevelopment

Using the idea of regime formation and cooperation in international political economy as a guide, this paper assesses the first stage (Cross-cceptance) of implementing the New Jersey stateplanning process as an attempt to construct a base of mutually shared norms and interests between state and local governments in the area of land use planning. The conclusion is that the first round of implementation was instrumental in building norms and consensus-especially in the face of strong resistance to state planning from the policy environment. The main reason for the effectiveness of the Cross-Acceptance process was that it brought local, county and state officials to a forum where they were able to discuss areas of consensus and discord.     

农村土地流转政策的执行偏差——对小岗村的实证分析

农村土地承包经营权的流转是完善我国农村工作非常重大的现实问题,但政策执行过程中容易产生偏差。有哪些偏差,其原因何在?街道层官僚理论为分析中国农村土地承包经营权流转的政策执行提供了一个全新的理论视角。以中国改革第一村——小岗村为研究对象,以街道层官僚理论为视角,通过对小岗村的农村土地流转政策执行情况及偏差原因进行实证分析。研究发现,处于公共政策执行末梢环节的街道层官僚在资源稀缺和公共服务弹性需求的夹缝之中,因其特殊的身份、地位和工作性质而持有相当大的政策制定能力,导致公共利益权威分配过程中产生偏差;分析了形成该问题的三个具体原因,对提高我国农村土地流转政策执行的质量具有一定的借鉴意义。     

The social sub-optimality of competitive elections

One of the common normative assumptions about elections is that competitive elections are inherently good, and non-competitive elections are problematic. This paper challenges that assumption. At the level of individual elections, competitive elections produce either sub-optimal results or trivially optimal results, but competitive elections are never uniquely optimal. In aggregation, competitive elections for a set of offices are inherently sub-optimal. From a procedural perspective, the circumstances in which competitive elections are appropriate are rare, and from a diagnostic perspective, we cannot conclude that there are problems in the electoral system based on a lack of competition. In the context of social choice theory, competitive elections are not inherently good.     

Unpacking pivotal politics: exploring the differential effects of the filibuster and veto pivots

Formal models of politics regularly combine assumptions about a variety of actors and institutions to produce equilibrium expectations, which serve as the primary target for empirical testing. Yet the underlying assumptions can vary in their accuracy among actors and across time and context. We focus on the pivotal politics model of lawmaking and argue that a full evaluation of the theory requires a granular analysis of its two primary components: the filibuster and veto “pivots” in Congress. We show that both types of pivots contribute to the success of pivotal politics in explaining postwar lawmaking, but that the relevance of each varies based on institution-specific contexts. Specifically, the filibuster pivot has little explanatory power before the 1970s, when norms of filibuster use were quite restrictive, while the veto pivot’s explanatory power is limited to situations in which the president has sufficient public backing to be a force in the legislative process.