Governing Under Pressure: German Policy Making During the Coronavirus Crisis

The global threat of the coronavirus pandemic has forced policy makers to react quickly with totally new policy-making approaches under conditions of uncertainty. This article focuses on such crisis-driven policy learning, examining how the experiences of China and South Korea as early responder states influenced the subsequent coronavirus crisis management in Germany. The first reaction of the German core executive was the quick concentration of decision-making power at the top of the political hierarchy. Asserting the prerogatives of the executive included the radical simplification of the relationship between politics, law and science. State actors took emergency measures by recourse to a single piece of legislation—the ‘infection protection law’ (Infektionsschutzgesetz)—overriding other elements of the legal order. They also limited the government’s use of scientific expertise to a small number of advisors, thereby cutting short debates about the appropriateness or otherwise of the government’s crisis measures. Finally, German actors failed to understand that some of the earlier Chinese and Korean responses required a precondition—namely public willingness to sacrifice privacy for public health—that is absent in the German case.     

Tools for Governing: Privatization, Public-Private Partnerships, and Entrepreneurial Management

Books reviewed:
E.S. Savas, Privatization and Public-Private Partnerships
Pauline Vaillancourt Rosenau, ed., Public-Private Policy Partnerships
Van R. Johnston, ed., Entrepreneurial Management and Public Policy
Paul J. Andrisani, Simon Hakim, and Eva Leeds, eds., Making Government Work: Lessons from America's Governors and Mayors     

从政策网络到网络化治理:一组概念辨析

社会科学领域与网络有关的概念有多个,极易引起混淆.国外的研究主要沿着两条相对独立的路径演进,分别是政策网络和网络化治理.前者起源于美国发展于欧洲,后分化为利益调和和治理两大学派;后者则以美国的研究为主,在工商管理和公共管理领域都有所发展.国内与网络有关的概念使用频率较高的有社会网络、政策网络、政策网络治理、网络治理和网络化治理等.其中社会网络引入最早,主要被社会学领域的学者所关注;政策网络和政策网络治理与西方政策网络研究的两大学派相对应;网络治理与网络化治理的使用主要与翻译、学术传承以及使用习惯有关,但每个概念皆有三重来源.西方两条研究路径都涉及治理,而两种治理的内涵有明显区别,主要体现在运行机理、价值标准、主要问题以及政府的角色定位四个方面.     

Governing through Governance: Education Policy Control under New Labour

Central to the debates on governance is the extent to which this process erodes state power. This article looks at the control of education policy since 1997. Education has not been immune from the developing process of governance. Moreover, Labour government education policies have accelerated this process: there has been greater fragmentation of policy-making, with a proliferation of cross-sectoral and multi-level participation. However, in this case, central government has not only retained control over policy-making but has been able to achieve its policy goals more effectively. Two case studies: 'New Labour and the Local Education Authorities' and 'New Labour and the Funding of Education', demonstrate the advantages for the centre in voluntarily governing through governance.     

Climate Adaptation in Canada: Governing a Complex Policy Regime

Climate adaptation is a complex policy area, in which knowledge, authority, and resources are fragmented among numerous public agencies, multiple levels of government, and a wide range of nongovernmental actors. Mobilizing and coordinating disparate public and private efforts is a key challenge in this policy domain, and this has focused research attention on the governance of adaptation, including the dynamics of interaction among interests and the institutions that facilitate collective action. This paper contributes to the study of adaptation governance by adopting the policy regimes perspective, an analytical framework designed to make sense of the loose governing arrangements surrounding complex, fragmented problems. The perspective's constructs are applied to a longitudinal case study of adaptation governance in Canada, which identifies, analyzes, and evaluates the policy ideas, institutions, and interests that comprise Canada's adaptation policy regime.     

以政策贯彻政策:政策执行、创新与调适

政策执行本身是复杂而多样的过程,多数政策执行的真实情况,是要经过各级政策主体研究出台地方政策或实施意见,通过"以致策贯彻政策"逐级传导,最终化作具体项目和行动,使政策得以执行和落实."以政策贯彻政策",作为政策执行和创新的重要环节,过去并没有引起足够重视.加强对这个问题的研究,对于理解政策执行的理论与实践都具有重要意义.     

Policy Change,Policy Feedback,and Interest Mobilization: The Politics of Nuclear Waste Management

Many of the leading theories of the policy process are aimed at providing insights into the factors that make policy change more (or less) likely. In general, policy change is seen as a result of shifting dynamics within policy subsystems. However, building on theories of policy feedback and interest mobilization, this article examines whether policy change, apart from being an effect of subsystem dynamics, can be a cause of shifting dynamics as latent actors are motivated to participate in the subsystem as a result of policy change. Two hypotheses regarding post‐policy change mobilization are developed and tested using data on participation in congressional hearings concerning the management of nuclear waste. The findings suggest that policy change can activate latent policy actors, specifically those actors that view themselves as “losing” as a result of the policy change. These results point to the need for scholars to examine the potential impacts of post‐policy change dynamics on policy development.     

Government versus Opposition at the Polls: How Governing Status Affects the Impact of Policy Positions

We argue that governing status affects how voters react to extreme versus moderate policy positions. Being in government forces parties to compromise and to accept ideologically unappealing choices as the best among available alternatives. Steady exposure to government parties in this role and frequent policy compromise by governing parties lead voters to discount the positions of parties when they are in government. Hence, government parties do better in elections when they offset this discounting by taking relatively extreme positions. The relative absence of this discounting dynamic for opposition parties, on the other hand, means that they perform better by taking more moderate positions, as the standard Downsian model would predict. We present evidence from national elections in Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, 1971–2005, to support this claim.     

Top Management Turnover: The Role of Governing Board Structures

The convergence of performance accountability policies, a graying bureaucracy, and shorter executive tenures highlights the timeliness of investigating executive turnover. Prior public administration research has examined pull and push factors linked to these departures, but it has yet to fully explore the influence of governing board structures and political pressures that stem from such structures. Using data on 123 public four‐year research universities in the United States from 1993 to 2012, this article finds that governing board structures play a pivotal role in predicting the departure decisions of university presidents. While the size of the board increases the risk of departure, boards overseeing multiple institutions and boards with a faculty or student representative lower the risk of departure. Additional evidence suggests that both the share of gubernatorial and legislative appointees on the board and the party division of the legislature have a direct influence on departure.     

Water Policy in a Time of Climate Change: Coping with Complexity

The unpredictable impacts of climate change, combined with significant social and economic changes, mean that policy analysis is becoming inordinately more complex. Coping with this increasing complexity while engaging with a full range of stakeholders and the community requires a new approach to leadership and governance. Water planners (and others involved in the planning processes) need new skills in active listening and constructive cultural behavior, and all agencies need to recognize that thinking and acting only in the interests of their own silo of responsibilities will inevitably produce suboptimal outcomes. Leadership focused on constructive behavior that recognizes and rewards generosity of spirit across disciplines and between organizations is the foundation of this new approach.