Structure, Agency and Ontological Confusion: A Response to Hay

Colin Hay's article 'King Canute and the "Problem" of Structure and Agency' aims to: (1) 'gain an interesting political analytical purchase on a seemingly familiar tale', and (2) 'generate a series of valuable and more general insights into our understanding of the structure–agency relationship'. I argue that he fails on both counts.     

Beyond Marx-Weber: A Diversified and International Approach to the State

Marx initiated the definition of the development of the modern state as a process of expropriation of powers. Weber took over this idea and added to it two more definitions of the state: as the holder of a monopoly of the means of violence and as an authority based on rational-legal legitimation. These three definitions of the state held up well until after the second world war. hut since then new developments require that they he modified. Total expropriation of all powers did not take place. Instead a fusion of state and society ensued. The monopoly of violence has not proved usable and legitimation no longer matters so much in ensuring obedience. Furthermore, politics has moved to a new global international system featuring a number of different types of state: autonomous, community. Client, satellite and independent states. The combination of these five types with the previously defined three factors of expropriation, militarization and legitimacy, constitutes a theoretical approach that can relate internal structural disposition to external global position of the state.     

对策研究的协商式方法

对策研究在公共管理与政策领域具有重要地位,体现了中国的治学传统,也是学界服务社会的重要方式。传统的对策研究方法是建立在调研和访谈基础上的问题—原因—对策三部曲式研究。在处理富有争议的政策问题时,问题界定与对策选择难以摆脱研究者个体的视角和思维框架的局限,容易造成研究结论与现实复杂性、多元性之间的鸿沟,使对策建议缺乏社会认同。协商式政策分析是可以用于对策研究的有效方法。它针对复杂的公共管理与政策问题,聚焦其争议,在进行冲突分析和组织相关方开展协商与共识构建的基础上,寻求能够促进公平以及各方可接受的对策建议。胡同更新整治、散煤治理等实践案例验证了该方法的价值和可行性。     

Agency, Structure and Causality in Political Science: A Comment on Sibeon

Researchers in political science are devoting increasing attention to the ontological commitments of their theories – that is, to what those theories presuppose about the nature of the political world. This article focuses on a recent contribution to this 'ontological turn' in political science ( Sibeon, 1999 ). Tensions are identified in Sibeon's account of the causal interplay between agency and social structure. It is argued that these tensions can be resolved by reflecting explicitly on ontological issues, in particular the causal efficacy of social structure, using a particular approach to the philosophy of the social sciences known as critical realism. The value of such reflection for the explanatory power of political analysis is highlighted.     

The Local Voter: A Geographically Weighted Approach to Ecological Inference

Drawing inferences about individual behavior from aggregate ecological data has been a persistent problem in electoral and behavioral studies, in spite of important methodological advances. In a recent article Anselin and Tam Cho (2002) provided Monte Carlo evidence that King's Ecological Inference (EI) solution will produce biased estimates in the presence of extreme spatial heterogeneity. In this article we provide further empirical evidence that supports their findings and shows that in the presence of spatial effects the residuals of Goodman's naïve model exhibit the same spatial structure that King's local  B ^B _i  estimates. Solving for extreme spatial heterogeneity, it is argued here, requires controlling the omitted variable bias expressed in the spatial structure of much ecological data. In this article we propose a Geographically Weighted Regression approach (GWR) for solving problems of spatial aggregation bias and spatial autocorrelation that affect all known methods of ecological inference. The estimation process is theoretically intuitive and computationally simple, showing that a well-specified GWR approach to Goodman and King's Ecological Inference methods may result in unbiased and consistent local estimates of ecological data that exhibit extreme spatial heterogeneity.     

A Decision Analysis Approach to Policy Issues: The NAFTA Case

This article presents decision analysis concepts and tools that can help scholars and decision makers to get a better understanding of policy issues. It describes the structure of knowledge maps for representing uncertain elements in policy issues, and decision frames for uncovering the information elements behind conflicting positions and helps participants find a common ground for agreement. The article also presents the application of these techniques to issues arising from the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).     

From Hybridity to Standardization: Rethinking State-Making in Contexts of Fragility

Having been top of the agenda for the past two decades, debates on state fragility have recently witnessed the emergence of pluralist concepts. While the concept of ‘hybrid political orders’ has invigorated our thinking about fragile states, it yields to the fallacy that pluralism constitutes the birth certificate of statehood. This article introduces an alternative concept to better grasp state trajectories, proposing an understanding of state developments in terms of institutional and identity standardization. Rooted in existing accounts of state-making, the analytical prism of ‘rule standardization’ is original in that it conceptually bridges the gap between statebuilding and nation-building as well as between state-making and state-breaking. Substantiating the theoretical discussion with three case studies from the Somali territories, the paper fundamentally proposes that what is required to sustain states should not be confused with what is required to initiate them.     

从多层次到多支柱:养老保障体系改革再思考

在对多层次养老保险体系反思的基础上,从多支柱理论和我国现实国情出发,构建了以多支柱为核心特征的养老保障体系。零支柱:以低收入者和农民为对象的普惠制国民养老金,旨在防止老年贫困。第一支柱:以正式就业者为对象,由基本养老保险社会统筹部分改造而来的基本养老金,目标在于保障就业者退休后的基本生活,突出社会再分配。第二支柱:以正式就业者为对象,由基本养老保险个人账户部分和企业年金计划合并而来的职业年金计划,使退休职工生活水平比单一的第一支柱有所改善,同时有助于应对老龄化危机。第三支柱:自愿性的个人养老储蓄计划,为有较高需求的高收入者提供的更高层次的保护。     

Opening the Black Box of Administrative Reform: A Strategic-Relational Analysis of Agency Responses to Termination Threats

ABSTRACT

How do public agencies respond when reform proposals threaten downsizing, reduction in functions, or termination? Agency survival during administrative reform is conventionally explained by structural characteristics, informed by the hardwiring thesis derived from the politics of the U.S. federal government. Parliamentary systems provide greater opportunity for agency reform, but there is little evidence of how agencies respond to such proposals or how proposals are altered prior to decision. We consider agencies as active participants in the reform processes, using strategic-relational theory to analyse their strategizing. The article employs detailed empirical evidence on 12 agencies subject to reform by the UK government between 2010 and 2013. We identify three archetypical defence strategies—technical expert, network node, and marginal adaptor—and argue that coding agency strategies alongside structural analysis can help better explain reform outcomes.     

中华优秀传统文化对乡村振兴的价值探讨

全面实施乡村振兴战略应当重视对中华优秀传统文化的传承与发展,中华优秀传统文化可以提升农民的综合素质并培育新型农民,坚定农民的文化自信并借此培育当代中国精神。在传承中华优秀传统文化过程中要充分调动广大农民群众的积极主动性和创造性,将中华优秀传统文化思想融入乡村振兴公共文化服务体系,利用乡贤的典型事迹和优秀品质引领和传承独特的地方传统文化,更好地保护和传承中华优秀传统文化,促进乡村振兴战略的全面实施。     

Rethinking international migration: a review and critique

A new style of international migration, temporary and often illegal immigration in order to work, began to emerge after World War II. Many countries initiated immigration policies that gave the appearance of control, while their back doors remained open and, possibly, unclosable. In the US, it is slowly becoming obvious that foreign workers cannot be used as a temporary labor force at will. 2 usual theories of migration are the classical and the conflicts schools. The classical school presents migration as a rational, economic act that leads to economic adjustment between sending and receiving countries. The conflict school, often Marxist, views migration as an unequal process that leads to the inclusion of developing countries into the world capitalist system and to a widenin gap between rich and poor countries. The convergence of these 2 theories leads to the idea that although migration may be a survival strategy of individuals and households, it is also determined by a country's integration in the world economic system. The author reviews several books on immigration theory, which appreciate the complexity and worldwide character of migration; indicate that migration patterns are persistent; and support the view that migration is an economic, social, and political problem; and recommend that policies must be integrated and address the entire issue.     

公众信心与反腐败机构改革:基于香港案例的分析

重视公众信心的获取与维持,是香港廉政公署成立的主要原因,也是香港反腐败机构改革的基本价值。公众对于反腐败机构历次信心危机,是香港反腐败机构改革的动因与契机。对反腐败机构的公众信心主要涵括其公正履职、反腐效能、反腐特权不被滥用三个方面,并由此决定了反腐败机构改革的基本逻辑,即确保反腐效能前提下力求独立公正以及权责平衡。对于反腐败机构的公众信心是反腐败制度得以存在并维持的基石。香港地区反腐败机构的基本价值与改革逻辑,可以为当前中国反腐败机构的改革提供有益的借鉴与启示。