Poll Driven Government: A Review of Public Administration in 2001

The approach of the Howard Coalition government to public administration in 2001 was consistent with the conventional wisdom that governments typically 'play it safe' in an election year. The government's preoccupation with winning a third term in office was a significant determinant of the policy responses of the government on a number of key issues. The events of 2001 serve as a vivid reminder that policy considerations are ultimately subject to the dictates of the electoral cycle. This is the sixth administrative essay publsihed in the journal since the editors resumed the administrative chronicles in 1996. Earlier administrative essays include J Stewart 55(1) 196; S Prasser 56(1) 1997; J Homeshaw 57(3) 1998; J Moon 58(2) 1999; C Broughton and J Chalmers 60(1) 2000.     

深化行政改革推行服务行政

当今国际行政管理体制改革的趋势是从管理型转变为服务型,即走向服务行政。行政现代化的一个重要特征就是从统治行政向服务行政转变。本文主要围绕推行服务行政应注意的若干问题进行讨论。     

行政透明化：打造“善治”政府的切入点

二十世纪末以来,随着经济的发展和公民社会力量的壮大,善治理论得以提出,并引起社会的广泛关注。从相关国家实践的结果来看,“善治”政府是符合现代社会历史发展需求的,具有强大的生命力。处于转型时期的中国要在政府职能转变的过程中进一步促进经济发展和社会稳定,就必须提高善治水平,而善治水平的提高离不开行政透明化建设。可以说,行政透明化是打造“善治”政府的切入点,是实现善治的关键。善治视角下我国行政透明化建设的思路在于:首先,要完善制度保障,建立健全促进行政透明化的信息披露机制;其次,要加强国家立法,尽快制定并完善关于行政透明的相关法规;最后,要加强电子政府建设,充分重视网络对行政透明化建设的影响。     

公共服务、公共管理与法国公共行政的现代化

本文基于胡德(Hood)的新公共管理思想和霍尔(Hall)与赖特(Wright)的新历史制度主义观点,分析了法国最近的几次改革及其相关理念,认为如果不同的政府都采用私营部门的管理方法来解决相似的问题,那么,改革的具体内容则依每个国家自身的环境,或先天条件而定.     

我国公共服务市场化及政府责任

长期以来,由于我国在公共产品和服务提供方面实行政府高度垄断,并且政府公共支出重经济建设服务、轻社会服务,这些导致我国政府目前的公共服务供给能力不足,不能保证基本的社会公平,并已经成为影响我国社会稳定、阻碍我国市场经济改革进一步推进的重要因素。因此,必须对我国的公共服务供给机制进行改革。这种改革可以借鉴西方发达国家在新公共管理运动中的做法,实行公共服务市场化改革。在市场化过程中,我国政府应努力创造和完善推行市场化的各种条件。     

论公共服务市场化与政府职能转化

本文根据我国现阶段市场经济的一些发展情况,讨论了实施公共服务市场化的必要性,以及具体实施的设想.     

Institution of Public Administration Australia: Some Observations About the Profession of Public Service

What does the future hold for the great institution of public service in this country? I will try to answer that in the traditional way by going through some of the more interesting of the many challenges we face. But first let me observe that what public administration in most Western democracies has been through in the past two decades is nothing short of a revolution.     

政府公共服务效能提升的对策研究

在全球化的城市体系下,世界国与国之间、城市与城市之间的竞争变得异常激烈,政府公共服务效能和质量的高低将成为影响国家和城市竞争力的重要因素,因此提升政府的公共服务效能是提升城市竞争力和政府形象的有效途径。虽然我国政府公共服务效能提升已取得一定的成效,但是与发达国家和政府的公共服务效能相比还存在不小的差距,因此应通过政府公共服务均等化、加大政府公共服务投入、建立政府公共服务绩效排行制度等措施提升政府的公共服务效能,建设真正的"服务型政府"。     

政府公共服务输出的市场化

政府公共服务输出的市场化是世界各国行政改革的共同趋向.它是在政府公共服务输出领域引进市场机制,将政府权威与市场交换的功能优势有机组合,提高政府功能输出的能力.西方工业化国家的成功经验对我们不仅具有具体改革对策上的借鉴意义,更具有理念上的启示.     

College Administrators as Public Servants

This article deploys Q methodology in an exploration of the public service orientation in the context of American postsecondary leadership. Thirty‐seven senior college administrators were asked to rank a series of statements regarding the administrative values, motives, and attitudes that underlie their own subjective views on administrative conduct. Analysis proceeded in two stages: (1) factor analysis of the administrative perspectives offered by participants and (2) qualitative comparison of these perspectives to extant scholarly portrayals of the public service orientation. Results indicate the existence of two dominant perspectives among participants. Factor 1, Societal Trusteeship, is fundamentally oriented toward the needs of external society and expresses a willingness to leverage institutional resources to improve the human condition. Factor 2, Organizational Stewardship, by contrast, is an internally oriented perspective that emphasizes institutional performance. Importantly, the factors are not dichotomous and suggest considerable cognitive complexity in the professional orientations of college executives.     

论公共服务型政府的文化创新

政府文化是政府管理的软环境,是政府管理的灵魂。建设公共服务型的政府,积极推进政府文化创新是非常关键的一环。公共服务型政府文化理念具体包括:民主法治、有限责任、公开透明、服务健全、廉洁高效。我们必须用市场经济的观念和方法创新公共服务型政府文化,即:强化“以人为本”的政府服务意识;构建“顾客至上”型的政府行为模式;探索“结果导向”的绩效评估机制。     

Live Bureaucrats and Dead Public Servants: How People in Government Are Discussed on the Floor of the House

This article examines how members of Congress refer to individuals in government on the House floor. Using content analysis, floor speeches from the 103rd and 104th Congresses were examined to determine the way in which terms such as "bureaucrats" and "public servants" were manipulated in floor speeches, and the political gain members seek to achieve from these moves. The data show that the Republican takeover of Congress led to a marked change in the tone of debate, and a sharp increase in pejorative discussions of individuals in government. Republicans tended to use bureaucrats in legislative debate in their efforts to shape the debate over the size and role of government.     

地方政府公共服务供给侧改革研究

地方政府作为国家重要组成机构,承载着公共服务的重要职能,是国家公共服务的核心体现和基础。伴随着公共需求的发展与变化,公共服务需求与供给之间矛盾突出,对地方政府公共服务提出了新的挑战。将供给侧改革引入地方政府公共服务领域,通过供给端改革发力向需求端传导,是实现公共服务供需均衡,提升公共服务效率的创新途径。地方政府公共服务供给侧改革的关键是明确公共服务供给侧改革的价值取向与供给主体定位,以良性协作、达成行动为归依,利用社会与市场机制完善资源配置,调整供给结构,提高供给主体的供给能力,构建政府、市场与社会间多元供给机制,完善供给侧改革的配套机制,以供给侧改革促进供需平衡,实现供需"双到位"。     

Behavioral Public Administration: Combining Insights from Public Administration and Psychology

Behavioral public administration is the analysis of public administration from the micro‐level perspective of individual behavior and attitudes by drawing on insights from psychology on the behavior of individuals and groups. The authors discuss how scholars in public administration currently draw on theories and methods from psychology and related fields and point to research in public administration that could benefit from further integration. An analysis of public administration topics through a psychological lens can be useful to confirm, add nuance to, or extend classical public administration theories. As such, behavioral public administration complements traditional public administration. Furthermore, it could be a two‐way street for psychologists who want to test the external validity of their theories in a political‐administrative setting. Finally, four principles are proposed to narrow the gap between public administration and psychology.     

Government Responses to Terrorism: Critical Views of Their Impacts on People and Public Administration

Following the tragic, massive terrorist attacks on the United States in September 2001, many antiterrorist laws, policies, and institutions have emerged to wage war on terrorism. These antiterrorist initiatives have major consequences for individuals, societies, and nations all over the world. Although controversies have proliferated with regard to the implications of counterterrorism for people's basic rights, the debate remains fragmented and often unfocused. This article examines the critical impact of new antiterrorist initiatives on the fundamental rights and responsibilities of citizens and others, with special reference to public administration.     

The Importance of Trust in Government for Public Administration: The Case of Zoning

Many scholars argue that citizens with higher levels of political trust are more likely to grant bureaucratic discretion to public administrators than citizens with lower levels of trust. Trust, therefore, can relieve the tension between managerial flexibility and political accountability in the modern administrative state. Unfortunately, there is little empirical evidence showing that trust is actually associated with citizens' willingness to cede policy-making power to government. This article tests theories about political trust and citizen competence using the case of zoning. Trust in local government is found to be an important predictor of support for zoning, but trust in state government and trust in national government have no effect. These findings suggest that trust affects policy choice and helps determine how much power citizens grant to local administrators.     

The Centralization/Decentralization Paradox in Civil Service Reform: How Government Structure Affects Democratic Training of Civil Servants

We hypothesize that the structural characteristics (i.e., centralization versus decentralization) of government affect the availability of training in values and skills that are fundamental to democratization. We test our hypothesis in statistical models predicting anticorruption training and policy skills training, using a model of technical skills training for comparison. We find that centralized government structure significantly increases the odds of receiving both anticorruption training and policy skills training. In contrast, we find no statistical correlation between government structure and receipt of technical skills training. In light of these empirical results, we describe a theoretical paradox in civil service reform associated with democratization: While the end goal of such reform is decentralized government with local services and a professionalized civil service, reform itself may best supported by a centralized environment to achieve the democratic value and skills training needed to support transition to democracy.