Introduction: Reflections on Two Decades of Congressional Budgeting

Even casual observers of federal policy making cannot help but notice the increasing preeminence of the Congressional budget process. The Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which created this process, brought forth profound changes in budgeting practices, both within Congress and between Congress and the president. In addition, the last decade has seen numerous attempts to use the process for deficit control. The goal of this special symposium is how congressional procedures-adapted over time-have affected the federal budgeting process. Each article examines the original purpose of the 1974 statute and analyzes the statute's impact over more than two decades.     

Why PAR Matters: Reflections after Seven Decades and Beyond

In this last issue under his supervision, PAR’s editor in chief reflects on the value and worth of the journal over the last seven decades and the competitive challenges that PAR faces today, and presents a modest blueprint for strengthening PAR in the future.     

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.     

Institutionalising a National Approach to Performance Reporting: Lessons from Two Decades of Experience with the Report on Government Services

The Report on Government Services (RoGS) to the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) is considered an exemplar of benchmarking in a federal system. Published annually since 1997, RoGS provides performance reporting in the form of cross jurisdictional benchmarking on an unprecedented scale and scope. This paper argues ROGS has institutionalised a national approach to performance measurement and reporting that is now at the centre of the COAG reform agenda. The paper examines the processes and institutional structures that explain how RoGS has transformed performance reporting for social infrastructure services. The final section provides a preliminary assessment of the impact of RoGS.     

The Liberal Economic Reforms of the Last Two Decades: A Review

In reviewing the liberal economic reforms of the last two decades, the paper makes a distinction between three groups of reforms. One involved the improvements in the administration of government functions (managerialism, outsourcing and privatisation). Another involved the adoption of more direct or market-based methods of policy intervention (such as budget subsidies, incentives, taxes and transfers in lieu of regulation, protection and financial controls). These two groups of reforms were economic-driven : they sought to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government. Although many mistakes in design and implementation were made, they largely achieved their intended objectives. With sensitive implementation, the reforms achieved a better balance between efficiency and equity than in most other countries. A third group of reforms embodied a new set of policy paradigms (such as downgrading of full-employment and unconditional need-based welfare relative to other policy goals). They offered few efficiency or economical benefits and were mainly driven by idealogy.     

中国服务型政府核心功能理念反思

在服务型政府问题的研究中,对“服务型政府的核心功能理念到底是什么”这样一个似乎不言而喻的核心问题,人们在认识上却还比较模糊。根据政治行政同一性的方法,有必要去关注和分析服务型政府这个主题,服务型政府核心功能理念本身是服务,对政府服务主体、服务客体、服务主体和客体关系、服务方式等进行系统的反思,有利于我国服务型政府的建设。     

Two Decades of Change: A Ranking of Key Issues Affecting Intergovernmental Relations

This article describes the results of a 1981 survey of 1,000randomly selected scholars of American government and politicswho were asked to rank the most significant intergovernmentalevents and trends of the past twenty years. Responses were receivedfrom almost 40 percent of these scholars; no significant returnbiases were detected. These scholars ranked civil rights andvoting rights acts as the most significant events of these decades.General Revenue Sharing and the reapportionment cases were rankedsecond and third in importance. The increased flow of federaldollars to states and local governments was ranked the mostimportant trend affecting intergovernmental relations, followedby the increased public disaffection with government and thegrowing dependence of local governments on state and federalaid. The Vietnam War and the inflationary spiral it initiatedwas ranked as the most significant social event affecting thecourse of intergovernmental relations, followed closely by theenergy crisis and the beginnings of the "Great Society." Thearticle also examines the effects of party identification, age,year of degree, government experience, region, and city sizeon scholarly attitudes toward these events and trends. Whilethe overall rankings were not dramatically altered, partisanship,region, and city size all were factors found to be noticeablyrelated to scholarly rankings of these important events andtrends.     

关于克林顿政府改革的反思

克林顿政府的行政改革最大的阻力来自于美国政治制度本身,即美国法律体系、国会和联邦体制。同时,重塑政府的核心机构N PR并没有实质的政策制订权和实施权,所推行的绩效管理在实践中遇到了评估难、考核难等问题。再者,美国的行政文化传统也是一个阻力。在理论上,克林顿政府所依据的企业家精神的政府理论遭到了质疑,NPR的核心价值是政府效率、效能至上,没有完善的配套改革来保障在改革中维护社会公平和公正,导致重塑政府信任都出现了不信任等问题。但是,克林顿政府的改革成果和影响是不容忽视的,值得我国反思和注意。     

英国数字政府转型：价值理念、技术工具与制度保障

作为全球数字政府建设的先驱,英国在数字政府建设与数字化转型方面成效显著。基于英国数字政府建设和数字化转型的实践与进展,围绕其在数字政府建设中面临的"碎片化"、跨部门与终端服务间的协同、数据壁垒与数据安全和数字人才等问题,考察英国数字政府转型的缘起及其动因,继而从价值理念、技术工具和制度保障等三个维度对英国数字政府转型的图景加以刻画和诠释。在此基础上,结合数字中国建设战略与发展导向,总结和提炼英国数字政府转型中值得借鉴的经验与启示。     

中国政府与国企关系的回顾与思考

20世纪70年代末期,政企分离作为经济体制改革的一个基本目标被确立下来,如何重新安排政府和企业在市场中的各自角色,建立适应市场经济要求的新型政企关系,成为改革的焦点,总结30年政企关系改革的经验,有着十分重要的现实意义。     

Citizenship and Solidarity: Reflections on the Canadian Way

Numerous accounts of contemporary liberal democratic citizenship focus on the introduction and subsequent erosion of social citizenship rights through neo-liberal governing practices. These studies demonstrate that the progressive erosion of social entitlements and social policies has aggravated poverty, economic insecurity, and social exclusion, especially among already marginalized groups and those with tenuous links to the wage economy. Less attention, however, has been directed to the implications of withering social citizenship rights and associated social policies for the ongoing generation of social solidarities and collective identities. This article draws upon the Speeches from the Throne of the Federal Parliament to demonstrate the recent and complex interrelationships among social citizenship, national identity, and social solidarity in Canada. It argues that, in the immediate post-World War Two years, the idea of social citizenship was conflated with federally inspired discourses of pan-Canadian nationalism. The decline in social programs during the past two decades in Canada thus has represented more than simply a shift in governing philosophies and practices. Rather, neo-liberal governance has challenged Canadians', especially English Canadians', sense of shared identity and national community. The article concludes by examining the most recent and unsuccessful attempts by the federal government to rebuild and reaffirm a sense of shared identity and community.     

'All things richly to enjoy': Economics and Politics in Locke's Two Treatises of Government

For all its importance, what is actually said about money in Two Treatises is highly obscure. Comparison with Locke's 1668–74 writings on interest reveals a common understanding of the function of money, akin to that of contemporary mercantilists, which illuminates many difficulties in the chapter on property. These writings are the source of the main economic concepts in the Treatises ; namely, labour as the active source of wealth (which along with the Roman Law notion of self-ownership provides the basis of Locke's theory of property); money overcoming the 'spoliation limit' on the accumulation of consumables, and the idea that money is created by and derives its value from consent (which Two Treatises exploits as a justification of the unequal distribution of property). Finally, the early writings suggest how implausible it is to read a labour theory of exchange value into the Treatises .     

深圳两次政府审批制度改革的作法与成效

1997年,深圳开始进行政府审批制度改革,拉开了全国审批制度改革的序幕。时至今日改革已进行了两次。1997年和1998年进行第一次改革,2001年进行第二次改革。深圳通过前后两次改革,审批核准事项大大减少,两次改革共减少审批核准事项696项,减少幅度已达63．8%。     

中国公共管理学的危机与出路:恢复重建三十年后的反思

尽管经过三十余年的发展,当下中国公共管理学却深陷严重的身份、理论、方法、价值和发展危机。造成这些危机的主要原因是缺乏必要的理论和文化自信、国际学术的隐形扩张、过度的人为干预、急功近利的学术氛围。要解决这些危机,必须做到:从国内和国际两个方面,重塑学科的独立地位和身份;加强理论和思想创新,要敢于和勇于形成自己的理论传统和思想体系;加强研究方法,提高研究规范性和科学性,反对形式主义和唯方法主义;加强价值研究,形成学科特有的价值体系,提高学科社会价值;创造一切条件,积极主动推动学科发展。     

Lessons Learned from Two Decades of Alternative Dispute Resolution Programs and Processes at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Mediation, facilitation, and other alternative dispute resolution (ADR) techniques are being used in federal agencies, state and local governments, private-sector organizations, and among private citizens in an effort to prevent and resolve disputes in a timely, cost-effective, and less adversarial manner. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), one of the pioneers in the application of ADR processes and techniques to public policy disputes, recently announced that it plans to in-crease the use of ADR techniques and practices across all agency programs. This article reports the results of a four-part evaluation of the use of ADR in enforcement actions at the EPA during the last two decades. Funded by the Hewlett Foundation, this effort utilized in-depth telephone interviews, government statistics, and archival records. The four groups interviewed were EPA's alternative dispute resolution specialists, potentially responsible parties (defendants) to EPA enforcement lawsuits, mediators and facilitators to EPA cases, and agency enforcement attorneys who had participated in agency enforcement ADR processes. Concluding that there are generally high levels of satisfaction with the EPA's enforcement ADR program, this article examines the sources of obstacles and assistance to ADR efforts at the EPA, suggests ways in which the EPA might improve its ADR programs, and draws lessons from the EPA's experiences that may be helpful to other public programs or organizations.     

加入WTO后县级政府职能探析

加入WTO后首先是各级政府如何转变职能适应世贸组织的要求,但不同层级的政府职能转变的重点又有所不同。县级地方政府要成为服务的政府、透明的政府和诚信的政府,以此为基础实现职能的转变。     

Left on the Shelf: Local Government and the Australian Constitution

When the Australian Constitution was first written, those framing it did not include specific reference to local government. The authors have examined the federation conventions, papers and formal discussions of the 1890s and noted the little prominence given to the case for including local government in the Australian Constitution. It appears that the leaders of the federation movement did not deliberately exclude local government; rather, there was little pressure to include local agendas and concerns, and few were willing to champion the case for the inclusion of local government.