"Our Usable Past": A Historical Contextual Approach to Administrative Values

In responding to Professor Lynn's criticism that the field of public administration has been insufficiently attentive to law, this article offers an alternative perspective on the source of administrative legitimacy. Leonard White understood that public administration is shaped by its broader context. It does not assert its own values but, in an effort to maintain legitimacy, reflects the political and cultural values of its environment. In White's time, the extraordinary challenges that the state faced, and its subsequent transformation, demanded a management capacity that previously had not existed. While the role of law as a formal means of control is generally accepted, it must take its place with management and other administrative values in the exercise of legal discretionary behavior. Asserting law, or any other single administrative value, as dominant undercuts other values that act as sources of legitimacy.     

统筹城乡发展背景下的行政管理体制改革——以重庆市为例

重庆市自直辖以来,按照统筹城乡发展的要求,在探索行政管理结构、功能和运行等方面率先行动、敢于创新,积累了宝贵经验。但理性地看,与统筹城乡发展的要求相比,当前的行政管理体制仍存在较大差距,为此,应进一步深化改革,具体包括:优化政府结构,降低行政成本;转变政府职能,优化发展环境;完善运行机制,规范治理结构。     

政府信息公开行政复议运作规则初探

在中外政府信息公开理论与实践中,行政复议制度都被视作保障社会公众知情权的一项重要的行政救济制度。但是．政府信息公开是我国行政法中一个全新的领域,其对我国传统的行政复议制度的具体适用性提出了全新的挑战,尤其是在行政复议的受理规则、申请规则、审理规则和复议决定等方面表现出了极大的特殊性。     

Rural development management in Nepal,Part I: Coordination in the Rasuwa-Nuwakot Integrated Rural Development Programme

Rural development management in Nepal has been criticized for more than a decade now on the grounds of the country's weak aid-absorbing capacity, administrative slowness and poor project management. Though several reforms of the rural development planning and management systems have been staged, at present coordination in integrated rural development projects remains weak. The paper reports on the empirical findings of research on mechanisms, procedures, organizational arrangements and problems of coordination. Although the country's environment, and its socioeconomic and cultural constraints, may negatively influence smooth operations in implementing integrated programmes, several policy considerations for improvement may be formulated. Among these, organizational reform with decentralization and reduction of the number of offices involved, strengthening the resource management system, especially budget release and personnel motivation, and a more integrated method of policy, programme and project formulation are the issues considered most important by the government officers themselves. Part II will appear in vol. 7, no. 3 of this journal, and examines the implementation and management of rural development in the Karnali and Bheri districts of the Mid-Western Development Region of Nepal.     

Innovative Governance and Development in the New Ireland: Social Partnership and the Integrated Approach

Since the mid‐1980s, the economy of the Republic of Ireland has displayed a remarkable turnaround. Its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has grown at a faster rate than any developed country in the world. The government's deficit has been cut severely and the debt‐to‐GDP ration sharply reduced. Average incomes have risen significantly, and the unemployment rate reduced dramatically. This article documents these changes. Its main purpose, however, is to provide a plausible explanation for the “Irish miracle.” While many factors have been important—support for the Economic Union's regional development programs, a favorable tax structure, locational and language advantages for attracting multinational corporations, strong education and training programs—these factors in themselves do not explain the emergence of the “Celtic tiger.” They were in place before the mid‐1980s when Ireland was suffering from a fiscal, economic, and political crisis. Instead, the article argues, it was the creative and innovative response of Irish leaders in government, industry, and labor movement and community organizations to the crisis, and the subsequent institutionalization of this response in a new form of governance, that has been the catalyst for the Irish success story. Based on the thorough background research of the Economic and Social Research Council, a farsighted group of leaders developed a strategic plan in 1987 that provided a blueprint for constructive economic and social change. This was then formally instituted for wage restraint on the part of labor in return for income tax and social supposed provisions by government. Irish social Partnership is modeled to some extent on Northern European corporatism. The article reviews corporatism as an early form of innovative governance, using classical corporatism in Sweden and competitive corporatism in the Netherlands to illustrate how this approach has evolved over the years. Dutch economic success in recent years is due in part to its new form of corporatism that has helped it become globally competitive. It is argued, however, that Irish social partnership goes beyond continental corporatism in several important ways. It is more inclusive, covering a large array of social interests; it is more strategic, with a well‐articulated integrated approach to social and economic development that is self‐corrective and articulated in a new national agreement every three years; and it is more firmly institutionalized in both government and nongovernment agencies in the country. Social partnership and the integrated approach have become part of the culture of the new Ireland. This innovative form of governance underlies the Irish turnaround and augurs well for the future. It can also serve as a model, with appropriate modification tailor‐made to each case, for other jurisdictions hoping to emulate Ireland's success.     

Rural development management in Nepal,Part II: Implementation in the Karnali—Bheri Integrated Rural Development Programme

This paper looks at the implementation of rural development management in Nepal, especially how the implementation of the Karnali—Bheri Integrated Rural Development Programme is managed. The empirical data are provided by the officials themselves, and touch on organizational competence and responsibilities, the role of district line agencies. management mechanisms, inter-organizational cooperation, local leadership and local support of organizations and people. It is concluded that several reorganizations of power relationships, resource allocation and administrative mandates are needed to improve the feasibility of effectively managed implementation in the Karnali—Bheri programme. In a wider context, rural development management in Nepal will only be possible if the development administration reforms itself for greater management and implementation potential.     

农村公共服务高质量发展：结构视域、内在逻辑与现实进路

推动农村公共服务高质量发展,是优先发展农业农村、全面推进乡村振兴的题中应有之义和有效手段之一。作为一个结构性命题,农村公共服务高质量发展蕴含着从"局部聚焦"到"全景关怀"、从"单层供给"到"多层多类"、从"一元主导"到"多元合作"的趋向,并最终指向构建新型工农城乡关系、实现质与量的阶段性适配、推动供与需的高效能平衡等三大目标。农村公共服务高质量发展旨在坚持以人民为中心的发展理念,在中等收入向高收入发展阶段转进、社会主要矛盾和历史方位发生变化、缩小工农城乡差距以使改革成果更好惠及农村农民的现实背景下,遵循农村公共服务发展客观规律,推动实现农业农村现代化和全体人民共同富裕的美好愿景。文章指出,农村公共服务高质量发展是供给、需求与制度的协同演进升级的过程,当前要以供给侧结构性改革为主线,完善农村公共服务分层分类协同供给体系,健全农村公共服务多元主体资金投入机制,优化农村公共服务需求识别机制,创新农村公共服务信息技术赋能机制,强化农村公共服务"六位一体"质量保障机制。     

Sustainable Development as a Policy Telos: A New Approach to Political Problem-Solving

The world seems to be characterized by political pluralization (the emergence of 'polities' other than the nation state) in addition to an already existing state of moral pluralism. This severely complicates political attempts at problem-solving on, for example, a global scale. One of the most stressing potential problems is the coexistence of mutually effacing or contradictory systems of political norms. To tackle such problems, we argue that policy teloi – shared conceptions giving direction to cooperative political ventures (particularly sustainable development ) – can be helpful. The conditions of success for policy teloi in the case of environmental sustainability are investigated.     

Governance Structure and Administrative Corruption in Japan: An Organizational Network Approach

Traditional studies of the Japanese bureaucracy have emphasized effective governance through a close government–business nexus. Yet this network relation creates corruption, especially at a high level of administration. Adopting an organizational network approach, this article provides a critical analysis of the causality between network structures and administrative corruption. Examining financial and public works policies, this article finds that amakudari- and zoku-driven network relationships, which have been reinforced by sociocultural bases, are vertically and exclusively structured and substantiate corruption in administration. Policy making on the basis of such network relations not only results in mismanagement in administration and the distortion of the market disciplines but also delegitimizes the governance system by destroying public trust in government. This article suggests that bringing greater heterogeneity and citizen participation to administration through diversity management and e-government would reduce administrative corruption in Japanese governance.