THE EVALUATION OF GOVERNMENT POLICIES FOR INNOVATION

This article is based on two premises: current innovation polices are based on very limited understanding of how Innovation occurs and the contribution to understanding that available policy research might make is severely limited by its fragmentation. The author cites Nelson's three models of the policy process as an example of the different paradigms that have guided innovation research. But, he argues, new developments suggest that the rigid boundaries are breaking down. Three examples are offered in support, each nominally based in one of the three paradigms but representing a loosening of its strictures.     

THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC POLICY: IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING

Increasingly, the nations of the world are becoming more interdependent among themselves. This is true not only in an economic sense, but in a political sense as well. The field of public administration has become internationalized, presenting a new challenge to both teachers and students of the discipline. The article argues that special attention should be given to teaching students how to manage policy interdependency. Furthermore, the interdisciplinary approach is advocated as a method of broadening students' perspectives in public administration. In concluding the article, the author offers several recommendations for improving public administration programs.     

The Conditions of Care: Reframing the Debate about Public Sector Ethic

While a growing body of research argues for increased attention to ethics within public administration, scholars diverge on how to conceptualize the character of public ethics. Likewise, empirical evidence regarding the role that ethics plays in the quality of service delivery is rare. The author argues that the concept of a public ethics of care is useful for public administration in welfare states. She examines the idea empirically through a large‐N analysis of frontline bureaucrats within the Swedish Social Insurance Administration. The analysis develops two general measures of a public ethics of care as well as a public ethics of justice. The author proceeds to show a clear presence of an ethics of care in the Swedish public sector. Further, analysis shows that these two ethics measures are supplementary, not contradictory, and that age is the main individual determinant behind ethics of care, strongly correlating with number of years in office. The conclusion underscores how public ethics of care results from acquired experience in fulfilling care‐oriented tasks.     

Theorising Disability: Beyond 'Common Sense'

This article seeks to introduce the topic of disability to political theory via a discussion of some of the literature produced by disability theorists. The author argues that these more radical approaches conceptualise disability in ways that conflict with 'common-sense' notions of disability that tend to underpin political theoretical considerations of the topic. Furthermore, the author suggests that these more radical conceptualisations have profound implications for current debates on social justice, equality and citizenship that highlight the extent to which these notions are also currently underpinned by 'common-sense' notions of 'normality'. ¹     

Wage subsidies as a labour market policy tool

In this paper, the author argues that wage subsidy is a valuable policy tool in the face of structural changes such as would result from the removal of tariffs, or in the face of a need to assist the disadvantaged or redress distributional inequity. After discussing wage subsidies that target specific segments of the population, which has the potential to improve both static and dynamic efficiency, the author goes on to discuss and contrast his universal wage subsidy proposal with the negative income tax and the minimum wage legislation, all of which are designed mainly for distributional purposes.     

Henry Shue on Basic Rights: A Defense

In light of the many recent criticisms of Henry Shue's philosophy, this article provides a defense of Shue's philosophical argument for basic rights. The author demonstrates that the latest criticisms made by Thomas Pogge, Michael Payne, and Andrew Cohen misconstrue Shue's position, and therefore fail to overturn the soundness of Shue's argument. Against those who contend that basic rights demand too much, both logically and morally, the author argues that basic rights serve as the minimal threshold for human dignity and the foundation for all other rights. Consequentially, the overall moral landscape is skewed if basic rights are absent.     

The untouchables of law

This paper discusses two main theses in Ronald Dworkin’s legal theory: (i) law is institutionalized political morality and (ii) there is pervasive theoretical disagreement about how to fix truth conditions for the propositions of law. The author argues that the first thesis is compatible with the distinction between the law as it is and the law as it should be. Regarding the second thesis, the author attempts to show that the need for a fulcrum of disagreement requires accepting that law contains certain institutional parts whose role makes them unsuitable subjects for a moral reading.     

"I SPEAK FOR THE TREES…"

This article concentrates on the need for greater information resources management (IRM) education in public administration programs. The author argues that current management information systems training is much too limited in its approach, concentrating only on the technology of information transfers. A more comprehensive technique, emphasizing all of the issues of data handling from collection to distribution, is put forward. Because policy decisions are affected by critical information, public administrators must be keenly aware of their information resources. In concluding the article, the author offers a possible IRM curriculum that would prepare students of the discipline to be lucid practitioners.     

History,historians and the naming of foreign policy: a postmodern reflection on American strategic thinking during the Truman administration

Over the last decade a spate of new works has appeared that attempt to re-evaluate early American Cold War objectives. Intelligence scholars have been on the forefront of this race to rename US strategy. In this article the author examines the recent arguments put forward and argues that despite all of these efforts we have still failed to offer a viable framework for understanding American strategic thinking in the post-war world.     

建立社保基金投资管理体系的战略思考

我国社保基金的投资管理一直处于十分混乱状态:沉淀于地方省市的1600多亿缴费余额统账混用,没有统一的投资管理策略,回报率低下,存在巨大的金融风险;“全国社保基金”投资策略不尽合理;中央政府不得不额外每年财政转移予以专项补助。将上述三块资源统筹考虑,提出将账户基金、统筹基金、储备基金分离出来,为其设计了不同的投资策略与制度:账户基金应实施完全的资本市场的投资;储备基金应完全走向国际资本市场;统筹基金增值保值问题是个世界性难题,提出应首先完成省级统筹,实行“三离开”的投资原则,并首次提出须避免和谨防“东亚化”的投资倾向,吸取东亚的教训,应为其设立三个投资管理体系。为配合上述投资体系的建立,提出了调整社保缴费比例的设想,认为这个基本框架既符合国际惯例,又符合具体国情,具有中国特色;既有制度创新,又为未来诸如地方开放地方债市等发展留下了空间;既保持了职工收入替代率没有降低,又增强了社保制度的财政可持续性;同时还减轻了国家的财政负担。     

Equity at the Intersection: Public Administration and the Study of Gender

While gender has emerged as an important research subject, the development of a feminist theory has been slow. This paper calls for a commitment to the development of a feminist theory of public administration. As part of this development, the author argues that the field also must embrace research focused on the intersection of multiple identity categories such as race and class.     

国有企业改制中的工人集体行动的解释框架--以西北某省X市H纺织公司的一场抗争为例

20世纪90年代后期以产权为导向的国有企业改制从根本上改变了中国工人的命运.集体无行动和集体行动理论为分析当代中国工人抗争提供了两种十分鲜明的视角.集体无行动理论认为传统意识形态的灌输、工人阶级分裂性特点和政府制度性补救等措施消解了工人的有组织行动.结合发生于西北某省的一个大型纺织公司工人的一次集体抗争来观察中国国企改革困境及中国工人的抗争策略.急剧恶化的生存现实、相对剥夺感的不断强化以及改制中的种种不公正导致工人的抗争运动越来越激烈,用集体无行动理论已经无法解释现实.我们认为尽管这些抗争在手段和策略上还很不成熟,尽管它离西方意义上的社会运动还有距离,但它已经具备了集体行动的特点,符合西方集体行动理论的解释框架.这些抗争行动要求我们必须更理性探索劳动关系新模式,在政府、资本和劳工三方之间达成新的共识.     

Two Diasporas: Overseas Chinese and Non-resident Indians in Their Homelands’ Political Economy

This paper, through a comparative study of the roles Chinese and Indian diasporas in the United States play in the political economy of their respective homelands, explores the relationship between the diaspora and homeland development and how this dynamic relationship contributes to economic growth and foreign relations of the homelands. The author argues that the roles of Indian and Chinese diasporas in their respective homelands’ development consistently reflect, and are heavily influenced by, their homelands’ economic development strategies as well as political history and culture. The author also argues that the impact of the diaspora on the foreign relations of their homelands is conditional upon the state of bilateral relations between their homeland and the country of residence. This study raises issues for future research, such as the relationship between the diaspora and regime type of the homeland. The author concludes by suggesting that since activities of overseas Chinese and non-resident Indians provide a unique perspective in the comparative study of Chinese and Indian political economy, the two diasporas warrant more scholarly and policy attention. Zhiqun Zhu, Ph.D. is currently Assistant Professor and Chair of International Political Economy and Diplomacy at the University of Bridgeport, Connecticut. He is the author of US-China Relations in the 21 ^st Century: Power Transition and Peace (Routledge, 2006). His research and teaching interests include international political economy, East Asian politics, and US-China relations. He wishes to thank panelists at the 102^nd annual conference of the American Political Science Association in Philadelphia for their helpful comments. He also wants to acknowledge Dr. Dave Benjamin’s useful suggestions and editorial assistance.     

Global Citizenship and Empire

Global citizenship is a concept that has been both propounded and critiqued on a number of grounds in recent scholarship, but little attention has been paid to what it might mean in an age of empire. Beginning with an analysis of American empire, the author argues that there has been an important shift in the meaning of imperial rule from what was initially a “realpolitik” version of empire in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 to what has become a more “liberal” form of imperial power since late 2003. Whereas the former sought national security in a seemingly anarchical and hostile world, the latter has sought to spread a particular kind of globalized citizenship to the world, particularly in the Middle East. The author argues that the ideological grounding for such an imperial “civilizing mission” needs to be challenged through an alternative theorization of global citizenship. Thus, the second half of the article suggests a new theory of global citizenship rooted in two basic principles: social rights (in order to address the least well off) and shared fate (in order to draw the links between the north/south and east/west). Taken together, they provide a starting point for an alternative theory of global citizenship that speaks not simply against empire but to it.     

Autonomy,residence, and return

This article argues that those unjustly displaced from a particular territory T cannot involuntarily lose their rights to reside there, or, as a consequence, their rights of return to it, even if they develop territorially grounded conceptions of the good where they now reside. The contrary position fails to accord the unjustly displaced the respect due to them in virtue of their personal autonomy. Facts commonly alleged to justify the supersession of rights of return to T only provide evidence that the unjustly displaced have abandoned their rights to reside there, or would do so if given a just opportunity to return. The rights of those now residing in T, which author argues may include those responsible for the unjust displacement, may limit the right of return but are unlikely to preclude it altogether.     

Why we will miss Ye,Teddy

• In this commentary, written by senior commentator and presidential advisor Michael Sommer, who served all three Kennedy brothers, the author argues that the dying Senator Ted Kennedy has always truly fought for all Americans, has opponents but no enemies, that the world knows it, and that his liberalism is “the best American political philosophy” that America has. The author maintains that the Senator “represents the best that is in Americans, what America really stands for,” and that the world recognizes that, too. The author believes that President‐elect Obama will once again vigorously show the world the same Kennedy‐like enabling vision, hope, great leadership and true American spirit, that the world has tragically missed from America for the past eight years.

Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

中产阶层对于自身政治参与有效性的评价——比较中国与越南中产阶层的政治效能感

本文认为,对于市场经济转型国家,新兴中产阶层政治效能感强弱与国家放权让利的程度有关:国家权力收缩,会增强其政治效能感;当国家给予中产阶层参政议政的空间较小时,专业技术型中产因为远离权力架构,会在政治效能感上弱于管理型中产。     

The convergence of nonequity housing models in Canada: Changes to housing policy since 1990

Abstract

This study examines the impact of housing policy convergence on the nonequity housing system in Ontario, Canada. Ontario has four distinct nonequity housing models— public, nonprofit cooperative, municipal nonprofit, and private nonprofit. This article argues that since 1990, housing policy in Canada, and particularly in Ontario, has become increasingly influenced by the neoconservative agenda of downsizing and decentralization of government functions found in the United States.

The findings reveal that changes to housing policy have caused the convergence of nonequity housing models in the areas of management and administration. Drawing on the present findings and on an experimental project in tenant management, this article argues that the trend toward convergence will continue and will likely result in one nonequity housing model in Canada. This pattern is interpreted in light of the neoconservative agenda of both countries that emphasizes private sector solutions to housing low‐income families.     

The Rationality Crisis in US Higher Education

Over the course of the last century, many of the stresses and contradictions of advanced capitalism have been displaced onto colleges and universities, which are now directly attached to the state—whether legally, politically, or financially—as an important component of the ideological and economic state apparatuses. As a component of the ideological and economic state apparatuses, the university is implicated in the state's ongoing fiscal crisis as both a cause of the crisis and a solution to the crisis. The author argues that the possibilities for crisis management within the existing corporate model of higher education have been exhausted in a rationality crisis that threatens to implode the administrative apparatus in higher education. The author calls for a radical reconstruction of power relationships within the university and in its relationships to capital and the state.     

Setting Agendas and Designing Alternatives: Policymaking and the Strategic Role of Meetings1

This paper investigates the role of strategic forums—such as special commissions, task forces, roundtables, working groups, summits—in the policy process. Reviewing prominent theories about policymaking, the author suggests ways in which strategic forums might fit within these frameworks as an analytically distinct policy lever. The paper examines existing literature on such forums, and identifies characteristics of “meetings that matter”—those gatherings that appear to have achieved some policy traction in a given domain. Finally, the paper investigates a particular field, cultural policy, to evaluate the extent to which meetings are serving policy purposes. The author concludes that meetings can serve an important role in the policy process by framing public problems and highlighting policy alternatives; creating and sustaining policy communities; fostering policy transfer and knowledge uptake; and developing networks among policy entrepreneurs. Nonetheless, with regard to cultural policy, the author argues that, compared to other policy domains, strategic policy-focused convenings are not a regular part of the arts and culture landscape and remain underused policy tools.