县级政府机构设置：问题与对策

我国县级政府机构存在着机构设置职责同构、部门本位主义突出、行政机构自我服务职能强化等问题,削弱了政府的公共性与社会回应性,降低了政府的综合治理能力。完善决策机构,实现决策的科学民主;加强综合机构,维护职权完整;整合部门机构,力避职能交叉;强化监督机构,完善监督体系是调整与优化县级政府机构的重要目标。强化法制的刚性约束,建立行政组织自我调节机制,倡导县级政府创新则是实现县级政府机构改革的保障措施。     

政府改革困境的制度结构性视角分析

目前,政府改革已成为我国经济改革和社会改革的关键,迫切需要我们深刻把握政府改革的规律.然而在现实中,政府改革面临着严重的实施困难,政府职能转变与政府机构改革双重不到位.从"国家悖论"与"政府失灵"理论出发,一般认为,政府改革面临的困境往往是由于政府制度变迁中制度供给主体缺失造成的,在理论上形成了难以深入分析的死结,也无助于政府改革的推进.认为,政府的角色冲突不是政府改革困境的根源和本质,而只是在考虑整体制度间均衡时的结果,忽略了政府的结构性特征;借鉴了公共管理理论中的政治家-官僚分析范式,以结构性分析的思路为主线,拓展了政府改革的两方博弈框架.从而认为政府改革困境的本质是政治家与官僚间在政府改革中的目标冲突与信息不对称;并分析了阻碍政府改革顺利推进的路径依赖效应与改革激励不足的问题.指出,要打破政府改革面临的困境,可以从改革的社会沟通与激励,财政约束,官僚机构的偏好与理念,以及全面长效监督等方面着手.     

国家行政改革与政府权力的规范运行

行政改革是国家政治体制改革的重要组成部分。在我国现实条件下 ,行政改革是政府权力规范运行和高效运作的条件和保证。适应新形势新任务 ,我国必须深化行政改革 ,以取得显著的行政成就 ,推动国家现代化建设。     

Managing for Results in State Government: Evaluating a Decade of Reform

State governments in the United States have enthusiastically embraced the idea of managing for results. This appears to represent a victory for New Public Management policy ideas transferred from New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Australia. The managing for results doctrine that emerged from these countries called for an increased focus on results but also increased managerial authority to achieve results. In return, it was claimed, governments would enjoy dramatic performance improvement and results-based accountability. This article assesses the implementation of public management reform in the United States and argues that the managing for results doctrine has been only partially adopted. State governments selected some of the New Public Management ideas but largely ignored others. In short, state governments emphasized strategic planning and performance measurement but were less successful in implementing reforms that would enhance managerial authority, undermining the logic that promised high performance improvements.     

地方政府改革中县级行政体制创新与模式转型

当前县级行政管理体制改革和创新面临的主要问题是,理论研究层面欠缺,目标模式选择不确定,现有的行政体制存在制约,政府职能转变不到位.县级行政体制改革创新的目标导向,应是坚持正确的改革方向,确立科学合理的价值理念,采取切实可行的改革和创新措施.其基本路径是以改革为突破口,进行权力结构的调整与革新,调整和完善垂直管理体制,进一步理顺和明确"条"与"块"的权责关系,改革和完善现行的财政管理体制,实现事权与财权相统一,科学界定新形势下县级政府的职能,合理核定县级行政单位的机构设置,探索大部制改革之路.     

论县级政府行政改革的战略选择

改革战略的正确选择是县级政府行政改革实现历史性突破的前提。未来的县级政府行政改革必须走出纯粹的组织变革层面,进入组织变革、职能变革与政治变革三重良性互动的全面变革时代。在中央与地方、政府与党委的纵横关系中,增加县级政府在行政改革中的自主性和县域公共利益的代表性,依据县域特殊性寻求政府职能与机构的合理性,变革权力结构,形成政府与社会良好合作的善治格局,是新时期县级政府改革与发展的战略选择。     

Structural Reform of Local Government in Australia: A Sustainable Amalgamation Model for Country Councils

Abstract. Council amalgamation has always been the major policy instrument for structural reform in Australian local government. While the Australian literature has spawned taxonomic attempts at classifying models of structural change in local government, a serious deficiency in this body of work has been the specification of amalgamation as an undifferentiated category embodying the unconditional merger of many small local authorities into a single larger entity. This paper seeks to remedy this problem by developing a model of sustainable amalgamation and contrasting it with unconditional amalgamation in using a stylised example derived from four existing Western Australian country shires contemplating consolidation.     

Decentralization,Local Government,and the Welfare State

Despite growing interest in decentralized governance, the local government systems that comprise the most common element of decentralization around the world have received little systematic attention. This article, drawing on the first systematic index of decentralization to local government in 21 countries, demonstrates a close relation between Social Democratic welfare states and an intergovernmental infrastructure that in important respects ranks as the most decentralized among advanced industrial countries. This empowerment of local government in these countries was less an outgrowth of Social Democratic welfare state development than a preexisting condition that helped make this type of welfare state possible.     

改革开放40年来政府改革的动力转换——基于1979—2018年国务院政府工作报告的文本分析

基于1979—2018年国务院政府工作报告的文本进行分析,发现改革开放40年来政府改革的动力经历不同转换:由政策驱动到制度驱动,由经济秩序驱动到社会秩序驱动,由外动力驱动到内动力驱动,由权威驱动到利益驱动,人民诉求不断成为政府改革的核心驱动。在此过程中,政府改革形态与改革策略经历由局部性改革到总体性改革,由适应性改革到自主性改革,由计划性改革到回应性改革,由简政到放权,由精简机构到职能转变再到改革行政管理体制,由对"物"的改革到对"人"的改革等一系列变化。未来中国政府改革须构建以真实的人民诉求为核心的综合动力系统,才能获得持续而稳定的动力支持。     

State Reform in Turkey: Reasons, Needs and Strategies

The state structure in Turkey including all its branches of government (executive, legislative and judicial) at both the national and local levels has been shown to be ineffective, even irrelevant, to the ingrained demographic, social, economic and political exigencies of the country. One of the main reasons behind this is the collapse of public finance. Conventional rhetoric limiting solutions to administrative reform fails to provide a sufficiently broad enough context within which public sector reform in Turkey can be discussed. Turkey's determination to become a full member of the EU also necessitates a comprehensive and radical overhaul of the Turkish public sector with respect to efficiency and productivity. Five main strategies are proposed to assist Turkey in overcoming its state governance predicament: initiating and carrying out a state-wide reform by employing modern principles of public management; understanding and solving the problem of internal and external debts; enhancing the conditions of governance; reintroduc-ing and strengthening the principle of meritocracy in public sector and cooperating more with the EU.     

State of Change: Global Turmoil and Government Reinvention

The current global credit crisis is unfolding in a context in which new dynamics in the engagement of the public sector and the market are taking shape. This article explores some of these dynamics, especially the reemergence of (re)nationalization initiatives, as well as the growing use of private methodologies for asset management on the part of some governments, which behave as both financial market players and domestic economic stabilizers. Hence, the article discusses the return of the state as a traditional "public leviathan" involved in financial regulation, as well as the work of sovereign wealth funds. The author concludes that at the heart of capitalism's endurance lies this diversity of public responses, which ultimately reveal governments' adaptable agendas and heterogeneous tasks.

I think that capitalism, wisely managed, can probably be made more efficient for attaining economic ends than any alternative system yet in sight, but that in itself it is in many ways extremely objectionable. Our problem is to work out a social organisation which shall be as efficient as possible without offending our notions of a satisfactory way of life.
—John Maynard Keynes, The End of Laissez-Faire , 1926
The all-powerful market which is always right is finished.…We have to have a new balance between the state and the market.
—French president Nicolas Sarkozy, 2008

     

State Government Influence in the National Policy Process: Lessons from the 104th Congress

During the last several decades, state officials increasinglyconcluded that their interests are not adequately representedin national policymaking and sought to increase their influencethrough the constitutional amendment process, the federal judiciary,and the political process. This article evaluates the extentto which these institutional mechanisms were effective in advancingstate interests during the 104th Congress. United States Constitutionalamendments were improbable and ineffective devices. Litigationwas slightly more successful, though it provided an uncertainsource of long-term security for state interests. Efforts towork through the political process, either through securingthe passage of legislation that increases congressional responsivenessor by engaging in direct lobbying, were moderately effectiveunder certain conditions.     

Local Government in Tasmania: Reform and Restructuring

Tasmania has a long history of failed attempts at restructuring local government boundaries yet managed a major reform process of 'modernisation' between 1990 and 1993 that incorporated major changes to council operations together with a restructuring of boundaries and a reduction from 46 to 29 councils. This process can be compared with a recent attempt to reduce further the number of local governments. In April 1997 the Liberal Premier announced reforms ('Directions for Tasmania') that led to a further reduction in the number of councils. This process collapsed following legal challenges and the proroguing of parliament prior to the 1998 state election. The defeat of the Liberal government saw the abandonment of the proposed amalgamations and establishment of 'partnerships' between the new ALP state government and councils. This paper compares the 1990–93 and 1997–98 reform processes and evaluates the outcomes of the amalgamations in 1990–93. It argues that the success of amalgamation and reform in local government has been strongly influenced by the degree of local government involvement and support in the reform process, lessons that have wider application.     

基于转型期我国城市化视阈下的政府改革

社会转型期我国城市化具有特殊性,即政府主导型城市化。我国在取得巨大经济建设成就的同时,城市化也取得了很大成就,但依然存在着诸多需要解决的问题,譬如城市化水平有待提高、城市化进程中出现了某些城市病、城市化进程中农民利益需要得到更充分的保障、土地城市化大于人口城市化等。我国城市化过程当中出现的一些问题对我国政府改革提出了新的要求。政府应该努力做好以下几个方面的工作:政府应该努力加快政府职能的转变;政府必须坚持对城市化的进程、城市人口的增长、城市区域布局、城市规模扩大等方面实施必要的宏观调控;政府要切实充分保障农民权益。     

回顾与建议：政府机构改革三十年

经过近30年6轮的机构改革,今天中国的政府机构与编制设置状况以及政府过程本身都已经发生了巨大的变化.在服务市场经济建设、机构改革思路、公务员规模控制、制度化和改革技术细节等方面取得了显著成绩.同时,机构改革也遗留了大量需要解决的问题,主要表现为中央机构改革没有与地方政府机构改革、党群机构改革、事业单位改革、公务员内部结构调整、政府过程完善和行政区划调整等很好地结合起采.因此,应努力通过适当拉大改革周期、重新确定机构改革目标、加强政府职能分类分层次指导等途径,推动政府机构改革向更具实质的阶段发展.