公共事业民营化改革的认识误区及观念重构

公共事业民营化改革是我国公共部门改革中最为引人注意的一项变革,但是,实践表明部分公共事业民营化改革是不成功的,究其原因当然是多方面的,但其主要原因是人们对民营化改革存在认识误区——秉持民营化改革的成效取决于产权的变更,民营化改革的价值取向是效率至上,民营化是包治百病的灵丹妙药,民营化就是私有化等错误观念.公共事业民营化改革欲取得更好的成效,必须走出传统的认识误区,进行观念重构,要深刻地认识到:公共事业民营化改革成功的关键在于引入竞争;公共事业民营化改革不但蕴涵着公共价值危机,而且面临着严峻的风险;公共事业民营化改革需要一个强有力的政府来实施有效的监管.     

Weber and ‘legitimate domination’: a theoretical critique of Weber's conceptualisation of ‘relations of domination’ ∗

In this paper it is argued that Weber cannot provide a consistent account of the maintenance of systems of ‘legitimate domination’. This argument is based upon an examination of Weber's fundamental concepts of ‘actio’ and ‘behaviour’ and their theoretical relation to Weber's ‘ideal-typical’ approach to the phenomenon of ‘domination’. Through this examination it may be seen that Weber fails to determine the specific ‘natural’ and ‘social’ conditions of forms of domination. Furthermore, Weber's theoretical position can be seen to result in an implicit attempt to combine irreconcilable ‘natural’ and ‘ideal’ forms of determination.     

The Hidden History of Social Citizenship

Many accounts claim that social citizenship has declined during the last 20 years in Britain under the Conservative and New Labour Governments. However, the vague definition of social citizenship as given by T. H. Marshall means that it is difficult to see exactly which concepts best characterise social citizenship, let alone which indices measure the extent of their change over time. Some commentators imply an 'ideal type' model of change from a national statist model of post-war citizenship based on rights and equality to a hollowed-out, civil society model based on duties and inclusion. While there is some validity in these views, they do not represent the whole picture. An alternative account, 'the hidden history of social citizenship', points to a more limited, conservative notion of citizenship. It follows that recent trends do not signal such a sharp decline of Marshallian social citizenship as is conventionally assumed.     

Agricultural Retrenchment Revisited: Issue Definition and Venue Change in the United States and European Union

The case of agriculture in the United States and the European Union indicates that retrenchment opportunities wax and wane. In the first half of the 1990s, both the U.S. and the EU instituted significant farm policy reforms. But as the 1990s came to an end, subsidies in both countries increased as policymakers became less enthusiastic about reducing benefits for farmers. This variability highlights the shortcomings of current political science explanations of retrenchment: the literature has yet to explain why policy change occurs in some circumstances but not others. In this paper, I employ the concepts of issue definition and venue change in order to explain why the United States and the European Union fluctuate in their capacity to reduce farm subsidies. I argue that, in agriculture, retrenchment advocates must redefine the issue of subsidies in a manner that highlights the negative externalities associated with farm policy. Second, retrenchment advocates must also exploit opportunities for strategic venue change so that policy decisions in agriculture do not rest solely with those who benefit from the status quo. By adding the concepts of issue definition and venue change to studies of retrenchment, we gain a better understanding of the conditions that make policy change possible, as well as an account of the mechanism through which retrenchment takes place.     

Competition, Marketisation, Public Services and Public Ethics

The topic I address provides an embarrassment of scope. At the same time, it allows the development of a theme that is worthwhile discussing. When in the public sector is it worthwhile to import private sector concepts, principles and practices and when would the adoption of a private sector model be injurious to the state's constituents? The theme is worthwhile discussing, in part because some of Australia's jurisdictions appear to be adopting what they consider to be private sector practices, without an adequate framework to guide them. Because there is no proper framework, mistakes are made which could have been avoided. There is also some evidence that the public is uneasy about the loss of ‘public’ from the term public services. It would not be in the public’s own interests to resist, for no good reason, the adoption of private sector principles where that would allow more cost-effective services. The topic also allows a discussion on the influence on public sector ethics of the trend to place senior public servants on contracts that can be disposed of without a reason or prospect of appeal.     

Egalitarian justice and interpersonal comparison

Abstract. This paper surveys the strengths and weaknesses of three widely–discussed egalitarian standards of interpersonal comparison: welfare, resource , and capability . We argue that welfare egalitarianism is beset by numerous serious problems, and should be rejected. Capability and resourcist standards conform with egalitarian convictions more closely, but each faces distinctive problems. We itemise a set of desiderata which a fully adequate account of interpersonal comparison would satisfy. We conclude that the choice between capability and resourcist standards turns on the relative importance of such an account being able to accommodate reasonable pluralism and identify inequality in a publicly verifiable manner.     

Territory and Power Revisited: Theorising Territorial Politics in the United Kingdom after Devolution

The article seeks to contribute to theoretical analysis of political decentralisation in the UK occasioned by devolution to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in 1998–9. It examines the contribution that can be made by Jim Bulpitt's 1983 book, Territory and Power in the United Kingdom . First, it argues that Bulpitt's critique of conventional wisdoms in the early 1980s remains highly relevant to reflecting on shortcomings in the literature today. Key among these is the lack of a common conceptual language for analysis, and Bulpitt's overarching re-conceptualisation of the field as the study of 'territorial politics' would repay renewed reflection. Secondly, the article clarifies Bulpitt's own centre perspective and argues that its application is best understood today as a realist historical institutionalist account of UK territorial politics. In so doing Bulpitt also provides an enduring methodological and interpretative challenge to assumptions of state centralism. Thirdly, the article argues that key methodological/interpretative insights can be adapted from Territory and Power in analysis of UK territorial politics and the advent of devolution. This reinforces the utility of Bulpitt's historical institutionalism to contemporary analysis. Finally, it argues that Territory and Power 's concepts and methods, understood in these ways, would bear application in comparative studies of political decentralisation.     

Social Choice and the Grammar of Rights and Freedoms

The techniques of social choice and game theory are increasingly being used to analyse concepts in political theory. Although these techniques may prove invaluable for teasing out contradictory formulations, puzzles and problems with traditional concepts, formal writers often begin their analysis with simplistic intuitive accounts rather than building on earlier traditions in analytic political theory. This is no more obvious than with the social-choice and game-theory analysis of rights and freedoms. This paper reviews these approaches and demonstrates that by ignoring the grammar of rights and freedoms, social-choice and game-theory analysis goes wrong from the very beginning. Formal writers need to take more account of the history of their subject, as developed in the analytic theory tradition.     

Why study political cycles?

Abstract. Throughout the history of social science, cyclical theories have had an intrinsic fascination for the explanation of social change. Confronted with the manyfold deviations and fluctuations of social development which could not be explained by linear-evolutionary, let alone equilibrium theory, cyclical concepts claim to improve theory building. These concepts are based on the assumption that empirical deviations from a trend should not be handled as random error but can be interpreted substantially. Correspondingly the change from equilibrium to cyclical theory demarcates the changed perception of social systems from static to dynamic stability. Therefore the newer concepts, however, no longer thematize holistic changes of a social system but componential changes within a system. This article discusses the problems arising from this changed perspective, in terms of definition and statistical assessment of cycles. Further, three groups of micro-level explanations causing cyclical development are discussed: predator-prey and saturation concepts and theories of institutional inertia.     

The dynamics of racial exclusion and expulsion: racist politics in western Europe

Abstract. The concept of political racism is necessarily more specific than the more universal concepts of racism used in social science outside the sphere of politics. Thus, despite the common tendency to explain political racism using theories developed to account for other forms of racism, one turns most profitably to a range of political factors operating differently in time and/or location in order to arrive at the most thorough understanding of the expression of political racism. However, that does not deny the relevance of certain theories of more general racism in recognizing those circumstances that predispose to political racism. Some major theories in sociology and social psychology that might be applicable to political racism are described and their respective usefulness is assessed on the basis of available evidence about support for political racism in four west European countries.     

Examining Policy Implementation in Health Care: Rule Abidance and Deviation in Emergency Medical Services

Passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) has served to refocus attention on the complexity of health care delivery in the United States, with particular attention to concepts of quality, access, and outcomes. This article argues that our understanding of the ACA must be informed by an examination of policy implementation in health care, including the core public function of emergency medical services (EMS). Key concepts of implementation in frontline service—notably, rule abidance and deviation—are examined from the perspective of street‐level EMS workers. Results indicate that the intersection of rules, patient needs, and professional culture creates instances of both rule abidance and deviation, both of which contribute substantively to concepts of quality in a health care setting.     

The Limits to Evidence‐Based Policy: Evidence,Emotion and Criminal Justice1

While ‘evidence‐based’ or ‘rationalist’ approaches to criminal policy may appeal to technocrats, bureaucrats and a number of academics, they often fail to compete successfully with the affective approaches to law and order policies which resonate with the public and which appear to meet deep‐seated psychological needs. They also often fail to recognise that ‘policy’ and ‘politics’ are related concepts and that debates about criminal justice are played out in broader arenas than the academy, the bureau or the agency. To be successful, penal reform must take account of the emotions people feel in the face of wrongdoing. Further, successful reform must take into account changes in public ‘mood’ or emotions over time and be sensitive to different political and social cultures. This article argues that criminal justice policies are more likely to be adopted if, in addition to the gathering and presentation of evidence, they recognise and deal with the roles of emotions, symbols, faith, belief and religion in the criminal justice system. It also recognises that evidence alone is unlikely to be the major determinant of policy outcomes and that the creation and successful implementation of policy also requires extensive engagement and evidence‐based dialogue with interested and affected parties. This necessitates a different kind of modelling for evidence‐based policy processes.     

Changing the method for calculating quarters of coverage: the impact on workers' insured status

The 1977 Social Security Amendments specified that, beginning in 1978, a worker would be credited with one quarter of coverage for a designated amount of annual earnings. For 1978, a worker received one quarter of coverage (up to a total of four) for each $250 in annual earnings from employment or self-employment. Before 1978, a worker who was paid $50 in wages in a calendar quarter was credited with a quarter of coverage. A person who had $400 or more in self-employment income in a year was credited with four quarters of coverage. Some workers received more quarters of coverage under the new provisions than they would have under the old, and other workers received less. Since a worker's receipt of benefits depends on his or her insured status, which is based on quarters of coverage, this change can affect a worker's eligibility for benefits. This study indicates that if $250 in annual earnings had been required for one quarter of coverage in 1977, more than 2.1 million workers would have had a change in their insured status for disabled worker benefits, and about 700,000 workers would have had a change in their insured status for survivor benefits. Those whose insured status was affected were most likely to have had marginal earnings records--for example, they had four to seven quarters of coverage when six were needed. (This effect was expected when the legislation was passed.) This article examines those whose eligibility for benefits was most likely to have been affected.     

Taking dictatorship seriously: a reply to Quesada

Antonio Quesada (Public Choice 130:395–400, 2007) argues that a dictator has no more than two to three times the ‘average power’ of a non-dictatorial voter. If Quesada is correct, then his argument has major consequences for social choice theory; for instance, it warrants reconsidering the significance of Arrow’s Theorem. If Quesada is incorrect, however, then his position is dangerously misleading. This paper argues that Quesada is wrong. His argument depends on his own formal account of power, an account that is implausible because it disregards a basic insight common to the standard characterisations of voting power: the idea that one has power over an outcome to the extent that one is able to change that outcome. Claims about power have a counterfactual component; to assert that an individual actually has determined an outcome is also to make an assertion about what would have been the case had that individual acted differently. We can employ David Lewis’s influential account of counterfactuals to show, contra Quesada, that in a dictatorship, non-dictatorial individuals and groups cannot possibly determine a social preference. In short, Quesada is fundamentally mistaken about power, and thus also about the distribution of power in a dictatorship.     

Direct Democracy and its Critics: Support for Direct Democracy and ‘Stealth’ Democracy in Finland

In this article support for direct democracy and for stealth democracy in Finland is analysed. Stealth democracy represents a step towards a democracy in which there would be even less citizen involvement than in the representative form of today's democracy. The authors found that both options gained significant support among the Finnish electorate. Additionally, they found that it is mostly the same variables that contribute to the probability of citizens being supporters of either direct democracy or stealth democracy. It is the people with less education, who do not know much about politics and who feel that the current system does not respond to citizens' needs, that want change. The direction of change appears to be a matter of secondary interest. Political ideology affects which of the two options respondents favour. Right-wing citizens are more likely to favour stealth democracy. Citizens leaning to the left are more interested in direct democracy.     

邻避概念的多重污名化与工程人文风险框架的构建

"邻避"一词是舶来品,但在中国却得到了广泛的应用."邻避"概念集合包括"邻避效应""邻避情结""邻避设施""邻避冲突"等."邻避设施"的经建,使居民产生"邻避情结",进而导致"邻避冲突",此观点可以概括为"邻避效应".通过对"邻避"概念的系统反思,可以发现其遭遇了来自民众、政府、专家等利益相关群体所构建的"多重污名化"的情况,同时"邻避"概念的使用还存在权力思维、价值思维、技术思维、拿来思维误区,对于中国经验的解释也十分有限."工程人文风险"概念框架的构建,提供了一个包括敏感人、敏感性工程、主观风险等概念构成学术概念集合和逻辑关系,这有助于探索出一个新的解释框架,减少由于"邻避"概念所造成的问题,也有助于形成更符合中国经验的新的话语体系.     

Models of Political Accountability and Concepts of Australian Government

Models of political accountability are drawn from views about the nature of government. Too often, however, these views are flawed and/or not made explicit. In particular, the traditional model of government accountability - which will be outlined below - misunderstands the British 'parent' system of responsible government. One immediate task for those interested in accountability is to map the basic features of the Australian system (best understood as 'executive federalism') in order to provide foundations for new accountability models. As well as delaying the map drawing task, the dominance of the traditional account has also 'crowded out' other concepts of accountability. The 'efficiency' and 'democracy' approaches will be discussed below as basically complementary addition to the current Australian debate over accountability. It is thus argued here that a more eclectic approach drawing from diverse but longstanding strands in the public administration tradition can not only enrich the debate but also help to throw light on new public policy developments such as contracting out.     

Generations and Socialization into Electoral Participation in Finland

This article examines the extent to which political socialization accounts for generational differences in electoral participation found in recent studies. Political socialization is defined as the learning process in which an individual adopts various political attitudes, values and patterns of actions from his or her environment. The analysis is based on the Finnish National Elections Study 2003. The results show that even though politics has had the smallest role during the formative years of the youngest generation and they most often do not know their parents' partisanship, this generation has received the most encouragement for voting and the attitudinal change towards voting within an individual's life span has been the most positive. Consequently, the study shows that if there were no differences in the socialization between the youngest and the older generations, the difference in turnout would be larger if only sex and socioeconomic factors were taken into account. Based on these results, the author draws the conclusion that, rather than political socialization, the factors behind the low turnout among the young generation have to be searched for elsewhere.     

Public Expenditure Management Reform in India via Intergovernmental Transfers

This paper explores the possibility of using the channel of intergovernmental transfers for Public Expenditure Management reform in India. It seeks to introduce a quantifiable measure of expenditure quality which would influence intergovernmental transfers. The central message of this study is that a Quality Control Fund should be created by the Finance Commission. Inter‐se distribution from this would be in the nature of a reward to the states for their performance in the context of expenditure quality. The funds received from this incentive fund could be tied to spending on education and health. It would be a major change of approach if the Finance Commission mandated the States to set out some realistic output targets which could be monitored (would be reviewed by the next Finance Commission). This would be a big stride toward results‐based output‐oriented transfers and could herald a sea change in the very approach of budgeting and intergovernmental relations in India!