Fiscal Policy Learning from Crisis: Comparative Analysis of the Baltic Countries

The experience of a major crisis is often expected to lead to policy learning but the empirical evidence about this is limited. The goal of the paper is to explore comparatively whether the crisis of 2008–2010 has led to fiscal policy learning by civil servants in the three Baltic countries. Despite some differences in the crisis experience, the finance ministry officials in all three countries have identified the same lesson from the crisis: fiscal policy should be counter-cyclical and help to stabilize the economy. The paper also discusses how various factors have influenced policy learning, including the acknowledgment of failure, blame shifting, and analytical tractability.     

Public Management and Administration: a Need for Evolution

Recently, British public management has relied too much on private sector approaches suited to market‐facing situations, to the detriment of systems based on a realistic estimate of the special nature of public business, and its needs for economy and co‐ordination. Accountability processes have suffered from over‐simplification (targetry) and from a gross multiplication of mechanisms focusing on individual error, as opposed to ensuring intelligent assessment of business results. There has been an over‐emphasis on management of inputs and outputs, as opposed to systems gearing the result‐producing mechanisms to means for policy formation and co‐ordination of effort. We need now to re‐think and define properly the systems whereby ministers are advised, account is rendered, resources are allocated and effort is co‐ordinated—and the qualifications of the relevant actors. Suggestions are made to these ends.     

新世纪政府管理改革的新课题

新世纪的到来给各国政府管理改革带来了新的课题。新世纪是信息通讯技术高度发达,公民参与政府管理及政策制定的机会和期望不断增强的朝代;新世纪将是政府机构改革和组织变革需要不断按照企业精神和再造模式广泛推进的时代;新世纪将是政府官员需要在思想观念和行为方式上革心洗面,脱胎换骨,从而要求行政教育培训目标和模式进行相庆变革的时代。这些新的课题正日益引起各国政府和专家学的关注和兴趣,如何积极主动地迎接新世纪     

混沌理论与公共行政

本旨在探讨运用混沌理论分析公共行政的必要性与可能性。公共组织的非线性、复杂性、不确定性和变动性特征表明，主流公共行政学的理论预设并不符合公共行政的实际。为此，运用主要研究系统的非线性特征的混沌理论来理解公共行政现象并解决公共行政问题，不仅可能，而且必需。混沌不仅为我们提供了研究公共行政的的视角，而且为公共行政的改革提供了理论基础。     

公共管理的由来及其与公共行政的内在差异--由传统公共行政到公共管理研究之一

产生并服务于当代西方国家政府改革实践的公共管理,促进了行政科学理论研究的重大变化.这种转变,既丰富了行政科学研究的视野与研究方法,也带来了公共事务治理理念与治理模式的变革,从而为公共事务的有效治理、公共利益的有效实现,开辟了广阔的社会资源和发展前景.本文拟对公共管理的由来、特性及其与传统公共行政的内在差异,进行学理意义上的简要梳理和归纳.     

社会治理转型中的公共行政价值的回应与平衡

公共行政范式转换与社会治理范式变迁相生相伴,每一种社会治理范式实际上都在寻求回应与平衡效率、责任、公平等核心价值,只是在社会治理不同的发展阶段对某一种公共行政价值有所侧重而已.从公共行政价值多元交叉并存的视角来研究和把握社会治理的根本价值和目的,倡导效率、责任与公平等核心价值并重、统一、均衡的科学公共行政价值观,不仅有助于科学把握公共行政理论的发展规律和走向,破解工具性价值与目的性价值的悖论,也有助于社会治理持续均衡发展,从而更好地强化公共行政精神,实现公共利益.     

The Reform of the Local Administration in Spain in Terms of Population

Spanish Local Corporations are playing an increasingly important role in the provision of public services without reducing their function of consolidation and structuring of the current sociopolitical system. This reality implies an increase in their need of financial funds without new compensation resources. Also, there is a certain tendency to loose population in many counties along with a greater organic and territorial dispersion that accelerates their financial weakening. This makes necessary to find management alternatives ensuring the appropriate provision of local public services and thus the Local Corporation reform becomes an alternative. In this context, the present paper approaches the analysis and the results based upon a territorial balance criterion on the population and its distribution, aiming ultimately to design an indicator able to measure the need of the Spanish local government structure according to its population and the size of its municipalities. This indicator might measure the regional impact to any variation both in the distribution of its population and in the number of municipalities.     

公共管理的理论基础与实践发展--由传统公共行政到公共管理研究之二

在公共管理模式形成的过程中,跨学科的综合研究为其提供了多视角的思考和复合性的理论基础;而现实中政府因面临种种治理危机所驱动的持续性政府改革浪潮,为公共管理模式发展提供了源源不断的广阔空间.尽管西方国家政府改革的浪潮仍在持续,公共管理理论研究的理论基础也在不断扩展,但公共管理对传统公共行政的取代,既是必然也是现实.     

政府公共危机处置的阶段划分与管理对策

公共危机管理是现代政府亟待加强的重要职能之一,为了提高政府公共危机的管理能力,应当科学认识政府危机管理的全过程,正确处置危机管理程序.政府危机管理依据工作重点的不同可分为储备、预警、控制和恢复4大阶段,针对政府危机处置的程序,可以从10个方面加强管理.     

社会管理创新的市场化导向研究

在我国,市场化为导向的社会管理创新原则要求:要把握政府的经济能力界限,培育市场经济赖以生存的土壤;把竞争引入到公共行政领域,建立公共服务的竞争机制;采取更为严厉的市场管理手段,维护市场经济秩序,培育市场活动参与者的规则意识和市场意识。     

Public Opinion and the Depth of Labour's Crisis

Labour's current problems are the culmination of long‐term trends flowing from the rising cost of tax‐funded services and welfare and voters’ mounting resistance to higher taxes to pay for them. As a result of this, there is now a big gulf between the attitudes of Labour party members, and in particular the supporters of Jeremy Corbyn, and Labour voters—and an even wider gulf with the extra voters Labour needs to win a future election. This gulf is also wide in relation to a range of other issues, including immigration, education and economic ideology. For Labour to return to government, it needs not just to narrow the gulf in policy, but to persuade voters of its ‘valence’ virtues of trust and competence—qualities in relation to which Labour currently lags the Conservatives by large margins.     

需求溢出理论与公共管理学基础理论的构建

需求溢出理论的提出,意在弥补公共管理学基础理论薄弱的问题,尤其是弥补当前公共管理的流行理论在政府职能定位方面的不足。需求溢出理论主张:个人需求超出其本人及家庭的满足能力即为需求溢出,个人的需求溢出生成社会的公共事务,解决个人的需求溢出问题是公共管理的终极使命;当合法的个人需求之间发生冲突,具有压倒性正义优势因而需要由公共权力来维护的一方的需求溢出,即为公共利益。由此,需求溢出理论以个人的需求溢出为标尺,对政府的职能定位提出了比其他理论更为明确的方向性指导,因而更宜作为公共管理学的基础理论。     

公共管理:社会治理中的一场革命(下)

五、公共管理是一种职业活动 人的职业活动,以及在职业活动中生成的特殊的社会关系,来自于社会生活和社会生产不同领域的分离.在人类社会的早期,社会生产和生活不同领域的分离是以分工的形式出现的,主要是由于社会生产活动的分化造成了职业活动的专门化.到了晚近,职业活动已经不限于生产领域,而是扩大到了生产领域之外的许多领域,几乎遍及社会生产和生活的绝大部分领域.人们在职业活动方面的区别,也不再仅限于活动意义上的"分工",而是职业活动主体意义上的"分群".社会生产的领域有分化、重组、融合的双向运动趋势,而社会生活领域则更多地表现为领域分离的单向运动.     

转轨国家政府俘获理论与中国公共管理变革

政府俘获理论虽然上世纪70年代就已提出,但对转轨国家政府俘获问题的研究却开展得较迟,直到90年代末,在世界银行组织的支持下,丹尼尔·考夫曼等人才以东欧和前苏联为调查研究对象就此进行了专门的研究.本文概述了他们的主要研究成果,并分析政府俘获带来的主要危害,然后结合正处于转轨过程中的中国存在的类似政府俘获现象,提出为了防止落入高掠夺国家的陷阱,中国公共管理需要进行的相关变革.     

公共管理的理论源流与变革

通过“新公共管理运动”而从传统公共行政理论范式中分化出来的“公共管理”，体现了一种新的理论范式整合。传统的公共行政，以韦伯的官僚制来破解庇护主义，以政治／行政分开来化解政党分肥，以官制度来建构行政组织的基本规范，以泰勒主义来保证效率行政的主导地位。这种行政改进逐渐变成公共行政中的教条主义。结果，官僚制成了官僚主义的代名词，政治／行政两分成了“两张皮”，官制度变成了族主义，效率主导变成了缺乏效果的效率。求解这些疑难导致了传统公共行政范式向“新公共管理”范式的转移。而突出公共性、现代性和综合性的公共管理的理论建构，就是以公共行政为底色而对新公共管理或管理主义、政策分析以及20世纪80年代兴起的公共治理理论的一次理论整合。     

违反治安管理行为概念的反思与重构

违反治安管理行为是指违反社会治安管理类的有关法律、法规的规定,产生治安行政法律义务(责任)的行为。其违法主体与责任承担主体并非一致,责任承担方式也非仅行政处罚。行政处理方式的多样性可以促进治安行政执法理念由惩罚性治理向综合性治理转变。     

Collective and Private Resources and the Inequalities of Non-violent Political Protest in European Countries

Abstract

Political participation is deemed to be a fundamental component of democratic regimes. The literature on political participation has shown that some social groups of citizens tend to be less involved in politics than other social groups, and the consequence is that the interests of these specific groups of less involved citizens are underrepresented in the political process. Given the increasing popularity of non-violent protest in contemporary democracies, it is important to understand whether political inequalities are present in this form of political engagement. In this article, we argue that non-violent protest may present inequalities, that examining the consequences of public social spending can help in understanding the cross-national differences in the levels of non-violent political protest, and that political inequalities in non-violent protest may vary according to public social spending. We test our argument using sources that include the European Values Study (1980–2009), multilevel models, and contextual data provided by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.     

The Impact of Fiscal Crisis on Decision‐Making Processes in European Governments: Dynamics of a Centralization Cascade

The Great Recession resulted in fiscal crises for governments across the Western world. Significant cuts in government programs were initiated as many governments scrambled to reduce their growing budget deficits. This article explores how European governments reacted during the recent crisis. In particular, the authors focus on the interlinkages between shifts toward more centralized decision making. The article uses a survey of thousands of public sector executives in 17 European countries. The authors find evidence of a centralization cascade, such that centralizing one element of the decision‐making process leads to greater centralization throughout the system. Results also show that having a high number of organizational goals and facing clear sanctions for failing to achieve goals lead to greater centralization, but greater organizational commitment reduces the need to centralize.