社会主义新农村建设中的政府能力——公共产品的视角

社会主义新农村建设是我国现代化的一个关键环节.从一定意义上说,社会主义新农村的建设过程就是农村公共产品供给效率的改善及供给结构的优化过程.从公共产品的视角出发,有利于深入探讨社会主义新农村建设中政府能力的本质、问题与成因,政府与乡村自组织的关系等重要方面.我们认为,政府是农村公共产品的主要责任者,政府供给农村公共产品的程度与质量是政府能力的重要表现;农民的自组织化是提高农村公共产品供给效率及促进基层民主发展的内在要求;厘清政府与乡村自组织的关系是社会主义新农村建设的应有之义.推进社会主义新农村建设,要求政府既能够承担农村公共产品的供给责任,又能够在公共产品供给中处理好与乡村自组织的关系,为此,应当划分好政府在农村公共产品供给中的责任;改革乡村治理结构,提升基层政府的能力;培育农村自治组织,提高农村公共产品的供给效率;处理好政府与农村自组织的关系,促进农村基层民主的发展.     

公共政策创新中合法性要素的制度分析

公共政策创新中的政策供给是建构性的,因此,它必须通过各种渠道获得合法性要素的支持方能得以实施,否则,也可能因合法性要素的支持短缺而蔫死在襁褓之中。可见,合法性要素是政策供给的给养,只有给养充分,政策创新才能顺利进行。历史上存在着大量的公共政策创新失败的案例,其重要原因在于缺乏一系列必要的合法性要素的支持,这些要素是共同性支持、同源性支持、关联性支持和社会成员通过利益集团的支持。它们在公共政策创新中缺一不可,否则将导致公共政策创新的最终失败。因此,公共政策创新必须在这些要素的全面支持下获得合法性方能成功。     

农村公共产品的有效供给与政府职能转变

农村公共产品是具有非竞争性和非排他性、用于满足农村公共需要的产品。现阶段,我国农村公共产品供给的现状不容乐观,存在着供给总量不足、供给结构失调、供给机制有失公平和供给监督管理体制缺失等问题。本文在分析农村公共产品供给不足的症结———政府职能的“错位”、“缺位”和“越位”的基础上,提出了转变政府职能,确保农村公共产品的有效供给的对策和措施。     

提升乡镇政府公共产品供给能力与乡镇政府改革

我国农村公共产品供给的现状不容乐观,存在着供给短缺,供给有失公平,供给效率和质量低下等问题。应通过乡镇机构改革,提升乡镇政府提供公共产品能力。     

Public sector unions and public spending

This study examines the influence of public sector unions on the expansion of the public sector. Based on public goods theory, our paper models how unions influence the supply of and demand for public sector activities. On the demand side, public sector unions are special interests which advocate public sector expansion to policy makers; on the supply side, they exert pressure to maintain and expand monopoly powers. Empirical evidence supports the hypothesis that a positive relationship exists between public sector unionism and public spending.     

论农村公共产品供给制度的改革与创新

建设社会主义新农村是我国现代化进程中的重大历史任务。改革农村公共产品供给制度,是社会主义新农村建设的重要内容和有力保障。社会主义新农村建设时期,要从供给主体制度、决策机制、筹资机制以及监督管理机制等方面改革和完善农村公共产品制度,以保证公平地有效地为农村供给足量的农村公共产品。     

村庄公共品供给中的“好混混”

1990年代以后,两湖平原村庄中出现了好混混。好混混的出现源于村庄公共品供给的困境。乡村组织难以抑制公共品供给中的搭便车行为,村庄公共品合作常常因此难以达成。好混混则可以依靠暴力和暴力威胁遏制搭便车行为,维系村庄公共品合作和供给,他们的好由此体现出来。取消农业税后,乡村组织的公共品供给能力更加弱化,农民因此对好混混的需求更甚。好混混这一怪异现象,反映了国家权力在基层社会存在局部不足。     

社区公共物品与社区治理--论城市社区"四轮驱动、一辕协调"的治理结构

城市社区日益成为社会公共物品供给与消费的基本单元.然而,在既有的政府垄断性供给体系下,社区普遍存在公共物品供给短缺.改革传统的管理与服务方式,建立新的公共物品供给体系,满足社区不断增长的需求,已成为城市社区建设的中心任务.在众多的创新实践中,"社区治理"不失为一种可行的思路.本文遵循社区治理的理念,尝试将其深化并落实到体制层面,提出"四轮驱动、一辕协调"的社区治理结构与运作模式,并建议首先在"危改回迁社区"中试点.     

Does Institutional Structure Effect Public Health Expenditures?

This paper explores supply‐side costs and institutional structure in a shared authority state public health system. It is found that in a shared governance public health system, intermediary district structure influences the movement of limited resources to serve populations and persons most in need. This early empirical test suggests that policy making and public administration concerning public health expenditures in a shared governance system are in a practical sense local, but decisions made at the intermediary level by regional district administration are an important influence on local public health expenditures.     

Institutional Constraints,Managerial Choices,and Conflicts in Public Sector Supply Chains

In this research, we compare the governance mechanisms that public sector managers and private sector managers leverage when responding to conflict in supply chain relationships. We find evidence that public sector managers are more likely than private sector managers to rely on written (formal) contract mechanisms, but that both public and private managers use relational (informal) governance mechanisms to similar extents. We also find that managers from both sectors perceive an improvement to the quality of the exchange relationship when a relational approach is emphasized in managing the conflict. Our research provides an important contribution to our understanding about the actions public managers take in dealing with supply chain conflicts and suggests potential policy alternatives to foster contracting efficiency and effectiveness.     

Political strategies of large companies and their significance for the implementation of the European single electricity market: the examples of France and Germany

Electricity supply in the European member states has been a closed national public sector service without competition for a long time. Currently, the European electricity industry is subject to radical change resulting from the European directive establishing common rules for the internal market in electricity, which came into force in 1997. This paper attempts to explain the varying forms of implementation of the internal electricity market in France and Germany. First, it clarifies the special characteristics of electricity supply and European electricity policy. Secondly, the paper shows the divergent sectoral arrangements of the French and German electricity industries. Thirdly, it points out that the different degrees of linkage between the public players and the electricity companies in France and Germany produce different political strategies which are followed by the companies at the European level, especially those strategies which seek direct influence on the European Commission. Finally, the paper reveals the significance of these strategies in Brussels in terms of the implementation of the single electricity market in both member states. Copyright © 2003 Henry Stewart Publications     

Day care and female employment in Mexico: descriptive evidence and policy considerations

"This paper analyzes the supply and organization of public day care in Mexico and presents a series of considerations as to the formulation of future policy. The research concentrates on the evolution of public policies to provide day care to working women in the formal sector through the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS). Data on the evolution of female labor force participation, changes in family structure, the supply of day care and patterns of child care arrangements, suggest that access to formal facilities falls short of demand.... Innovative policies for the reorganization and expansion of the provision of day care are presently under consideration." (EXCERPT)     

What could be achieved with greater public hospital autonomy? Comparison of public and PNFP hospitals in Uganda

The policy of hospital autonomy has been discussed for some time in Uganda. There is little evidence from Uganda or elsewhere that increased autonomy will improve hospital performance. This article compares the performance of three private not‐for‐profit (PNFP) and public hospital pairs to address this question. PNFP and public hospitals have similar management structures but PNFP hospitals had better trained managers and a church affiliated chair in the hospital management committee. Both types have problems with personnel management but these appear more pronounced in public hospitals. Drug supply management appears better in PNFP hospitals. Overall, workloads are similar, but analysis of patterns of utilisation and prices across services suggest that patient choice of facilities is influenced by relative price levels, and that willingness to pay is higher for PNFP services. PNFP hospitals are more successful at generating revenue. There are no clear differences in efficiency between PNFP and public hospitals but there is some evidence of higher quality levels in PNFP hospitals. PNFP hospitals' performance is plausibly related to three areas of managerial autonomy. First, better management of drug supply is facilitated by their freedom to purchase drugs from the open market. Second, greater success with personnel management is plausibly related to their greater autonomy over staffing. Third, higher levels of cost recovery are enabled by their freedom to set fees. However, differences in accountability and competence of hospital management, and population willingness to pay for services may also help to explain differences. Further, the use of PNFP financing strategy by public hospitals has implications for universal access to hospital services. Although there appear to be potential advantages from greater public hospital autonomy, the Ugandan government should ensure it has developed strategies to enhance public hospital management and to protect access to public hospitals before advancing further with hospital autonomy policy. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

地方政府公共服务创新：驱动机制与路径选择——中国情境下的分析框架和经验证据

不断推进地方政府公共服务创新是破解当前公共服务供给困境,构建我国治理体系和治理能力现代化的重要组成部分。在对国内外相关文献分析的基础上,从政治制度、社会需求和资源支撑等视角出发,构建了中国情境下地方政府公共服务创新驱动机制的分析框架,通过模糊集定性比较分析的方法,对"中国地方政府创新奖"下公共服务创新类项目进行了系统比较分析。研究发现,在中国情境下,晋升激励是引致地方政府创新成功的充分条件,领导支持是驱动地方政府创新成功的必要条件;而在创新的代表性路径中,公民参与和媒体报道也发挥着重要作用,经济发展水平和改革本身的难度对创新工作的影响有限;行政主导型、需求诱发型和多方互动型的创新模式是我国地方政府公共服务创新时选择的主要路径模式。未来中央应更注重从制度层面激发地方政府公共服务的创新热情,降低社会公共服务需求的政府进入门槛,同时应注重激发公共服务创新要素组合的叠加效应。     

Understanding Employee Turnover in the Public Sector: Insights from Research on Teacher Mobility

Employee turnover is a key area for public administration research, but one about which there is much still to be learned. Insights from an extensive body of research on employee turnover in a specific area of the public sector—public education—contributes to the understanding of employee mobility in public organizations more generally. The authors present a conceptual framework for understanding employee turnover that is grounded in economic theories of labor supply and demand, which have formed the foundation of many studies of teacher turnover. The main findings of this body of work are documented, noting connections to the literature on public employee turnover, lessons that can be learned, and potential new areas for empirical inquiry for scholars of turnover in the public sector.     

Can private governance boost public policy? Insights from public–private governance interactions in the fisheries and electricity sectors

Based on the inductive analysis of two parallel cases of private environmental governance – private, market-driven fisheries governance and private, market-driven governance for electricity decarbonization – this paper uncovers a trigger for positive public policy spillovers from private environmental governance. It identifies circumstances that prompt groups of business actors working as private regulators to also take on a role as public policy advocates and supporters, revealing a potential for private governance initiatives that are targeted at a particular environmental problem to serve as a bolster for the public regulatory governance of that problem as well. Both private governance cases at the basis of this analysis feature groups of business actors seeking to meet voluntary sustainability goals through the tools of private governance (specifically, through flexing buyer power and private authority in an effort to reform environmentally problematic practices among particular groups of suppliers). In both cases, the business's inability to attain private sustainability goals though private governance means alone has given rise to business demand for facilitative public environmental policy and regulation. The analysis presented in this paper thus points to the occurrence of a particular and intriguing pattern of complementarity between private authority and public policy – one where public policy is called on to fill gaps left by private environmental governance and authority. And it identifies key conditions for such private-governance-driven recentering of public policy to occur, namely the presence of private supply chain greening goals and commitments that are economically, reputationally, and/or competitively critical for businesses to attain, combined with shortfalls in the capacity of businesses' private authority to bring about such attainment. The two case analysis further suggests the importance of ENGOs in identifying and activating some of the opportunities for leveraging shortfalls in private environmental governance to the advantage of public environmental policy and regulation.     

Privatization of public-sector services in practice: Experience and potential

Privatization—the transfer of assets and service responsibility from the public to the private sector—has been expanding at the state and local level. Empirical studies document significant cost savings, apparently due to incentives introduced by competition. The outlook is for continued expansion of privatization, including such areas as highways, transit, water supply, and education.     

文化事业单位改革模式选择与推进战略

文化事业单位改革既是文化体制改革的重要环节,也是事业单位分类改革的重要内容。虽经30年改革,文化事业单位的计划体制特征依然明显,诸多深层次改革难题尚未破解。改革的目标模式是传统事业单位向"公立文化事业法人"转型;改革战略是分步推进分类改革,构建现代事业制度,创新人事管理机制,完善政府文化管理体制,形成文化服务多元供给模式。     

Local choice of property taxation: evidence from Norway

In a paper published in this journal, Cowen (2002) argues that whenever compliance with norms is supported by the forces of esteem, there is “too little” norm compliance. In this paper, we show that Cowen’s logic is flawed – that when the operation of esteem-based norms is formally modelled, no such general a priori conclusion follows. We investigate the conditions that would be necessary to ensure that esteem incentives for public goods contributions generate optimality in public goods supply, and indicate on that basis the conditions for voluntary sub-optimal and supra-optimal public goods provision in the esteem context.     

Accountability in the Privatized State

As well as better efficiency and improved services, privatization has also often promised improved accountability. But how does the empirical evidence on this look and what are the lessons here? This article looks at the notion of accountability and the degree to which privatizing public sector activities might improve or worsen such mechanisms. It then looks specifically at the different systems of accountability existing following three privatization activities in Victoria and compares these against that existing previously under public operation. The sale of electricity sector enterprises, the operation of urban rail service franchises, and the implementation of a public–private partnership project to supply transport infrastructure are adopted as case studies. For each case study, accountability systems are articulated and the operation of these systems is discussed. Overall, the article analyses the effectiveness of accountability systems now operating in the privatized state from the perspective of stakeholders. Importantly, the degree to which trade‐offs may have been made under new accountability arrangements is also discussed. Finally, the article draws together some general lessons on accountability for future privatization activities and proposes a conceptual model for a pyramid of accountability.