Responsible Party Government in a World of Interdependence

This article opens up the closed model of the responsibility of a national government to its national electorate by adding constraints on its capacity to enact effective economic, national security and political policies. These constraints come from policy interdependence. The European Union exerts a denationalising influence through the Council, a multinational effect through the European Parliament, and the eurozone is designed as a transnational technocracy. Intergovernmental institutions spanning continents add further constraints. The result is a growing gap between the efforts of a national government to deliver outputs that match the preferences of voters and a reduction in the capacity of national electorates to hold accountable institutions outside their country that have a major impact on national outcomes. The conclusion considers three prospective possibilities: a growing frustration with a policy-irrelevant rotation of parties in office; institutional reform at the supranational level; and a learning process in which a recognition of the constraints of interdependence leads to a change in expectations.     

美好社会:接续与超越小康社会的新发展目标

2020年是全面建成小康社会的收官之年。随着全面建成小康社会目标的实现,建设新的美好社会,实现由小康社会到美好社会的跨越,已然成为中国经济社会持续发展的新目标指向。小康社会与美好社会是中国经济社会发展中的两个不同但又相互连接的社会形态。从一定意义上讲,小康社会是美好社会的必要准备,美好社会是小康社会的必然趋势。美好社会的具体蓝图需要在实践中逐步展开,但基本轮廓还是清晰可见的。美好社会是富裕的社会、民主的社会、文明的社会、公正的社会、发展的社会。美好社会建设将与全面建设社会主义现代化国家统一起来,实现美好生活、美好社会、美好世界的协同发展。美好社会虽然不是完美的社会,但必定是不断发展进步的社会。“苟日新,日日新,又日新”是美好社会的常态。经由美好社会,中国社会和人类社会发展将进入一种全新的境界。     

论新世纪行政体制改革的目标与路径

进入新世纪，在全面建设小康社会的新形势下，我国行政体制改革的目标是建立和完善公共行政体制。公共行政体制下的政府是公共型政府、公正型政府、民主型政府、法治型政府、有限型政府、分权型政府、透明型政府、服务型政府、效能型政府和责任制政府。建立和完善公共行政体制。必须切实解决传统行政体制中的一系列深层次问题，实现政府体制转型。     

系统哲学视野下的"和谐社会"理念

"社会和谐"表征的是社会生态系统各不同要素之间的友好相处和良性互动的状态,这种具体状态既是在人类社会系统的"和合"运动中创生的,又是人类社会系统"和合"关系的表征.人类社会系统构成要素之间的"和合",既反映了人类社会发展的价值本质,也反映着"和谐社会"的价值本质.因此,人只有在理性的价值关怀的观照下,在理想尺度与现实尺度、整体尺度与个体尺度、目的尺度与工具尺度相统一的价值实践基础之上,才能不断趋近"和谐社会"的理想诉求.     

Nomenklatura,state monopoly,and private enterprise

Using a behavioral model of political decisionmaking, it is argued that an increasing population size and/or an increasing efficiency of production in a private enterprise economy relative to a centrally planned economy may create the conditions for a self-interested nomenklatura in a Soviet-type economy to consider a transition to a market economy. This transition may be thwarted, however, by the threat for prospective private enterpreneurs of exploitation after the change of regime. Some form of political pluralism guaranteeing sufficient political influence to private entrepreneurs appears to be required for a successful transition. The analysis shows that such a combined political and economic reform can be in the interest of the nomenklatura, thereby providing an endogenous behavioral explanation for a change of regime.     

An economic model of regime change: Freedom as a public good

This paper analyses regime change via a peaceful revolution. Under these circumstances, peaceful manifestations of unrest reach a point at which the prevailing political system collapses and is replaced by a system which provides more freedom. Such regime change occurred in East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria. It is shown that the successful quest for freedom may be explained as a dynamic game. The game has a unique strong equilibrium — that is, a Nash equilibrium robust against mass defections — which arises in consequence of a trigger strategy which is similar to the Tit-For-Tat strategy in a repeated Prisoners' Dilemma.     

会议主持词写作应把握的几个问题

主持词是会议文件的组成部分。写好会议主持词,用好会议主持词,对开好会议,取得预期效果具有十分重要的作用。主持词是一种经常接触和使用而又常常被人们忽视的文书。只有认清意义,把握特点,掌握格式,明确要求,才能提高自身撰写会议主持词的水平,提升会议主持词的办文质量。     

Constitutional Design and Government Formation: The Expected Consequences of Negative Parliamentarism

In the early 1970s the Swedish parties designed new rules for government formation. In this study it is shown that the choice of a new voting rule stemmed from a combination of goaloriented behaviour and a process of socialization. In a cross national comparison, it is also shown that there exists an empirical correlation between the Swedish type of rule and (1) a high frequency of minority governments, (2) a high frequency of small minority governments and (3) a short government formation process. From the perspective of coalition formation theory, this is a challenging finding.     

创建高绩效政府是行政体制改革的必然要求

创建高绩效政府是世界性的政府改革趋势,是当前行政体制改革深化发展的必然要求。高绩效政府具有较高的政府绩效,体现了政府的强大能力,能够服务于当前和未来的社会需求,是政府形象建设的一个重要方面。在此过程中,需要以公众满意度作为衡量高绩效政府的最重要指标,进一步完善政府绩效管理,共同参与高绩效政府的创建,把创建高绩效政府作为行政体制改革的切入点。     

The political economy linkage between trade liberalization and domestic environmental regulations

This paper considers the political economy linkage between trade liberalization and domestic environmental regulations in a duopolistic product market. We investigate the environmental consequences and welfare implications of a home country’s unilateral tariff reduction on a polluting good. In a framework where the domestic environmental tax is subject to the influence of the home firm, we find that a tariff reduction on a good producing a consumption-type externality will improve the home country’s environmental quality. Moreover, we find that the home country’s tariff reduction will unambiguously enhance the home country’s welfare; and it will damage the foreign firm’s profits and thus the foreign country’s welfare, provided that the weight that the home government attaches to its social welfare is sufficiently small. This result also suggests the possibility that a unilateral tariff reduction will achieve a Pareto improvement.     

中国特色大国外交的传承与创新:命运共同体的视角

新中国成立70年来,中国外交经历了革命外交、经济外交、和谐世界外交到命运共同体外交等不同时期,这一过程同时也显示了从道义共同体、利益共同体、区域发展共同体到人类命运共同体的逻辑发展。党的十八大以来,中国特色大国外交全面铺开,构建人类命运共同体成为新时代中国外交的新旗帜、新任务和新目标。构建人类命运共同体既是对前几任领导人外交思想的传承和延续,更是新一代领导人奋发有为的开拓与创新:开启了大国外交新时代,开垦了全域外交新空间,开发了主场外交新形式,开辟了“一带一路”外交新平台,标志着中国外交的跨越性升华,彰显了新时代大国外交的中国特色、中国风格和中国气派。     

Tax earmarking, party politics and gubernatorial veto: theory and evidence from US states

This paper provides a theory of earmarking based on the relative power of a legislature and executive. The politically powerful use earmarking as a means of resolving uncertainty and insulating preferred policy from the reach of future government. Tax revenue will be earmarked more often when political power is unified under one party or when a party has the legislative majority needed to overturn a gubernatorial veto. An empirical test of the theoretical predictions are conducted using a panel of data for US states. A state with a legislature controlled by a single party with a large enough majority to overturn a gubernatorial veto will earmark 5% more of its tax revenue than other states and a state with a unified government will earmark 6.5% more. Together these explain 18.5% of the observed decrease in the percentage of state tax revenues earmarked from 1954 to 1997.     

Prospects for Solving the Cyprus Problem and the Role of the European Union

Although the Cyprus problem is basically an international questionand a geopolitical issue, the problem's domestic aspects aredirectly related to its international dimension. Resolutionof the problem's domestic aspects, within the framework of afederal constitutional arrangement based on the high-level agreementsof 1977 and 1979, the relevant United Nations resolutions, andthe provisions of the European Union acquis communautaire isperhaps possible. A federal system is a compromise between aunitary state, as initially desired by the Greek Cypriot majority-community,and a confederation, as currently pursued by the Turkish Cypriotminority-community with the support of Turkey. Nevertheless,even though federation is the agreed framework for a solution,a sizable proportion of Greek Cypriots express misgivings abouta federal solution because they fear that what is actually beingdiscussed is a system lying between federation and confederation.A viable federal solution would create a pluralist democraticstate with a market-oriented economy in the Eastern Mediterranean.Given that the Republic of Cyprus is on its way to joining theEU, the EU could play a substantive role in promoting such anoutcome. From a geopolitical perspective, a united Cyprus, asa member of the EU, would be an asset to the EU and also contributeto stability and security in the Eastern Mediterranean.     

Enhancing Delivery and Assessment: A Case Study in Module Redesign for Improved Transition Into Higher Education

Understanding student transition into higher education is an important aspect of module design, linking content, delivery, and assessment with a student’s prior educational experience and knowledge bases. However, reflections on how modules designed choices are, generally, not widely disseminated. Here, we document the reflections of a junior lecturer responsible for redesigning a Level-4 Political Systems module and analyze the intentions of change via a transition pedagogy perspective, presenting a program renewal that establishes connected curriculum as an enabling infrastructure for students to actively engage with learning. First-year experience is considered as a major impacting factor of a student’s subsequent success on a program of higher education and the diversification of student cohorts requires teaching staff to consider a wider number of intersectional factors that may impact on a student’s opportunity to succeed in their studies. With a focus on simulations and active-learning, by providing examples of the thinking behind the resultant activities and assessment realignment we hope to provide an example of how a transition approach to a first-year module can be explored.     

On democracy and debt

As we explained there is really little a priori reasoning for a clear prediction that authoritarian regimes will incur more foreign debt. In fact, some other empirical literature reveals that such regimes will face a higher supply price for such debt. Anderson presents a study of a single year using an admittedly crude measure of authoritarianism that finds that such regimes do issue more debt.This study provides a fuller examination of the empirical relationship between foreign debt and the nature of the polity's regime. Utilizing a continuous democracy variable and a continuous political liberty variable, it tests the relationship between debt and political variables. It finds little empirical support for the thesis that democracy or autocracy influence foreign debt levels. Generally the continuous variables are not significant if we use a linear in the logs specification. While a linear specification obtains results more consistent with the idea that level of democracy decreases debt, it also obtains results even less favorable to the idea that extreme forms of autocracy increase debt.     

The Citizen Makes an Entrée: Redefining the National Community in Quebec

This paper focuses on the well-orchestrated and much publicised project regarding the construction and implementation by the Quebec state of a citoyennetéquébécoise. This endeavour is viewed here as the most recent phase of a process of boundary definition that began with the Quiet Revolution in the early 1960s, and that proceeded from the cultural definition of an ethnic nation to a pluralist conception of the territory, and then from a pluralist definition of the community to the present elaboration of a specifically Québécois citizenship, which merges here with nationality. In spite of a shift from a cultural to a territorially based definition of the community, I argue that the citizenship presently developed is anchored in a homogenised notion of cultural belonging, as the Quebec state is attempting to define a 'universal' national identity that would subordinate all others. The national model of citizenship is preferred over the postnational, the republican over the pluralist, the undifferentiated over the differentiated, at least when it comes to cultural identity. Language is viewed as the bearer of a culture, but also as a common property and a threatened good that must be protected by all residents. This fosters the redefinition of a collective project that can include non-French Canadians and be less past-oriented than previously. Whether such a strategy will appear more palatable to non-French Canadians remains to be seen, in a context where the case for multicultural rights and differentiated postnational identities remains very strong on the international scene.     

Central-Local Government Relations in Transition: The Case of Swedish Child Care

The provision of subsidized child care has grown to become asizeable economic activity in Sweden during recent decades.This paper examines the changed financial relation betweencentral and local governments and the impact of child-caregrants on local government behaviour. We find that during anearlier regime, with a system of matching grants, localgovernments responded strongly to the incentives of the rules.This resulted in both intended and unintended outcomes, aswell as a distortion of information to the central government.Experiences from a recent transition of regime towards a kindof closed block grant system, illustrates new types ofadaptive behaviour but also the problem of finding a formulafor a fair allocation of resources among local governments.When designing a block grant system a distinction must be madebetween expenditures and resource needs; cost expenditure datado not necessarily reflect resource needs in cases where thereare national categorical equity goals related to socialservices of a merit-want character.