The Two-Way Street: Government Shaping of Community-Based Advocacy

The interaction between government and community-based advocacy organisations is becoming complex and highly structured. While some analysts seek to explain such interplay within neo-Marxist or public choice frameworks, we argue the relationship is best understood as a two-way street, full of tensions but neither a conspiracy against the public interest nor part of a larger design to deradicalise social movements. Drawing on a wide range of Australian examples, but focusing in particular on peak women's and ethnic communities' organisations, we explore how social movements have been able to exert independent influence on the policy agenda.     

The Significance of The Administrative State

To mark the 60th anniversary of the appearance of The Administrative State by reexamining the politics–administration debate is confining and ignores Waldo's grand enterprise to describe the unique context in which American public administration emerged and developed. Instead of bemoaning or strategizing the reconciliation of a supposed schism, modern scholars should appreciate what is, in fact, a natural and necessary tension.     

The Federal State and the Breakup of Czechoslovakia: An Institutional Analysis

This article examines the breakup of Czechoslovakia from aninstitutionalist perspective. The federal state adopted afterWorld War I failed to accommodate tensions in society and heightenedethnic conflict. After World War II, an "asymmetrical" federationwas created that, while designed to provide a degree of homerule to Slovakia, further alienated Slovaksfrom national politics.Each effort to reform the federal order unintentionally promptednew concerns over the balance of political power. The inabilityto construct an enduring federal state helps explain why thetransition from communism proved fatal for the union that wasCzechoslovakia.     

Democratic Government,Institutional Autonomy and the Dynamics of Change

Against the backdrop of decades of public sector reforms in Europe, this essay aims to make sense of the processes through which institutions, democratic government included, achieve and lose autonomy or primacy and why it is difficult to find a state of equilibrium between democratic government and institutional autonomy. The analytical value of ‘autonomy’ as detachment-from-politics and the apolitical dynamics of change assumed by NPM reformers are challenged. In contrast, the interplay between democratic government and institutional autonomy is interpreted as an artefact of partly de-coupled inter-institutional processes involving struggle for power and status among interdependent and co-evolving institutions that are carriers of competing yet legitimate values, interests and behavioural logics. The problem of finding a stable equilibrium between democratic government, autonomous agencies and non-majoritarian institutions is illustrated by the cases of public administration and the public university.     

The Power Dynamics of Mandated Network Administrative Organizations

In understanding what drives the development of network administrative organizations (NAOs) in mandated networks, power bargaining is central. The authors execute a comparative longitudinal case study of NAOs in two policy‐mandated networks. The article focuses specifically on the role of power in these developments and concludes that differences in NAO development arise from power dependencies, which are attributable in part to sector characteristics. It is proposed that mandated network members’ greater interdependence and greater dependence on external nonmembers, as well as whole network dependence on external actors, partly determine mandated networks’ NAO design. These networks will have larger and more capable NAOs (with more staff), accept sharing control of the NAO executive with the mandating party, and have broader responsibilities.     

国家治理体系现代化的制度样本——评析《重大行政决策程序暂行条例》

《重大行政决策程序暂行条例》是新时代推进国家治理体系和治理能力现代化的制度样本。它统筹协调处理行政决策所涉及的多种关系,以形成良法善治的制度合力。理论上,它对行政决策范围的界定、重大行政决策的判断标准、公众参与的模式、合法性审查的模式、行政决策的终身责任追究等方面进行了回应或取舍。制度上,它对适用主体、重大决策事项划定方式、创新和拓展公众参与渠道、专家库和专家信用体系建设等问题进行了回应与设计。     

现代行政公正的伦理导向：平等、自由与诚信

现代行政不仅需要有服务宗旨,需要责任原则和人道原则,尤其需要公正。只有以公正为基础,坚持加强公共行政伦理建设才能适应当今社会发展的需要和人的需要,才能更好地促进公共行政的建设和发展。现代行政的公正应遵循平等、自由和诚信等基本伦理原则。     

论整体性治理的本土化制度创新——一个基于行政生态的框架性考量

整体性治理是一种新型的行政观和行政方法论的统一,其实质是为应对外部行政生态的新发展,并基于对传统官僚制治理模式和新公共管理模武的深刻反思,对政府内部治理资源配置优化的制度性再调整.要实现整体性治理的本土化制度创新,必须对我国的现实行政生态有清晰的认识.在此基础上,可以遵循外部行政生态--理念--权力--职能机构--手段的改革路径,逐步推进整体性治理的本土化制度创新.     

Transforming the Administrative State: Reform in Hong Kong and the Future of the Developmental State

Hong Kong has been depicted as an administrative state where the civil service is insulated from political and societal forces and enjoys a stable pattern of growth in rewards and status. In these respects, it is similar to other Asian developmental states. In Asia, as in the West, traditions underlying the administrative state are being challenged. The Hong Kong civil service has recently come under serious criticism as a result of a major fiscal crisis and a series of administrative failures, while the unelected status of the chief executive is a focus of growing protest. What is the reform capacity of the Hong Kong bureaucracy in these circumstances? What is the likely trajectory of administrative reform, and can we expect Western models of the neo‐administrative state to be relevant and appropriate to Hong Kong and, by extension, to the rest of Asia?     

乡镇政府行政管理职能与机构改革

市县乡机构改革是2001年全国改革工作总框架的重要组成部分.本文着重就乡镇政府行政管理职能与机构改革问题,从职能定位,存在的问题,改革的必要性和指导思想及探索改革的途径等四个方面进行了探讨.     

Nudging the Neoliberal Agenda: Administrative Opportunities in the Deregulated State

The current climate of neoliberalism in the executive branch is attended by active deregulation and distrust of the administrative state. As protections are rolled back, there is concern that individuals may be susceptible to information asymmetries that will influence their decision making, leading to detrimental outcomes for both their own and the general welfare. Behavioral public administration—the bureaucratic conception of “nudge” theory—offers ways to counter the pitfalls that come with greater freedom of choice, as promoted by the neoliberal agenda. Public administrators may employ alternative mechanisms, such as choice architecture, to help people make better decisions in the absence of explicitly protective regulations. After laying out the argument for a behavioral approach, this article analyzes several neoliberal agenda issues with potential nudge responses for practical implementation, as well as a justifiable call for action to protect the public welfare in the absence of policy guidance.