Using Local Government Corporate Plans in Victoria

The Victorian state government has required local governments to publish their corporate plans and this paper explores the information provided by their corporate plans. These plans demonstrate diversity in the form and content, but several themes emerge. First, despite the purpose of corporate plans being to demonstrate accountability to the local community, the lack of performance targets reduces the usefulness of these plans for accountability purposes. It also explores objectives which are of major importance to the sector, such as local economic development, which is an issue difficult to control in the local area, being largely determined by federal and state policy. Other important objectives include financial and asset management together with emphases on the local community and accountability, issues which were the drivers of the state government's reform agenda. This article assists those who want to enhance the practice of corporate (strategic) planning in local government.     

French Corporate Governance in the New Global Economy: Mechanisms of Change and Hybridisation within Models of Capitalism

This article analyses the implications of the internationalisation of capital markets, and the influx of Anglo-Saxon institutional investors, for the French model of capitalism. Its central contention is that the global convergence thesis misrepresents contemporary evolutions because it pays insufficient attention to mechanisms of change within models of capitalism. Secondly, framing analysis in terms of hybridisation and fragmentation of national models, rather than convergence, offers greater explanatory purchase over the French model, constitutes a more accurate characterisation, and helps avoid the 'convergence or persistence' impasse within models of capitalism analysis. In exploring French corporate governance, it emphasises the importance of specifying the role of institutional mechanisms as transmission belts of change as a precursor to an assessment of how far shifts in international political economic context bring about changes within French capitalism. Focusing on financial market regulation regime, new legislation in corporate governance and company law, and the market for corporate control as three key potential mechanisms of change, it finds that pre-existing norms and structures endure, mediating the nature of a national political economy's articulation with the international context. Hybridisation and recombination of capitalist institutions drawn from different models provide a far more persuasive account than convergence.     

公司累积投票制之法律经济学分析

2005年《公司法》第106条首次写入了累积投票的公司董事选举方式,虽仅是依照国际通行的做法将之规定为任意性规则,但仍然博得了不少学者专家以及中小股东的热情追捧。然而,仔细观察之,累积投票制这一表决权规则违背了公司股东平等的原则,有背弃"一股一票"原则之嫌。并且,从法律经济学的视角考察,累积投票制扭曲了股东剩余索取权和投票权重相匹配的原则,将引发不必要的代理成本。此外,该选举制下产生的董事将具有明显的异质性,可能会导致公司原本最有效率的机构(董事会)成为"异议堂",不利于股东整体福利的最大化。对于外部要约收购市场而言,由于累积投票制的引入,也会产生额外的不确定性和收购成本,从而弱化该市场的效率,导致资源的非优化配置。     

State Corporate and Federal Securities Law: Dual Regulation in a Federal System

Corporate law in the United States involves dual regulation.Although state and federal corporate law typically functionwithout mutual interference, the last thirty years have revealedpotential conflicts, chiefly in two situations. One involvescivil remedies for investors under federal securities statutes;the other is state anti-takeover regulation and its relationshipto the federal Williams Act. The postwar years until 1975 sawperhaps too much reliance on the federal component of corporateregulation. Since 1975, there has been a renaissance of statelaw. Recently, however, appreciation for state regulatory authoritymay have degenerated into hostility to the will of Congress.The authors argue that the core interpretive task in federalsecurities law is preservation of both regimes to maximum effect,because the Congress has expressly declared that state authorityshould continue adjacent to federal regulation.     

Divided Government and the Fragmentation of American Law

We investigate institutional explanations for Congress's choice to fragment statutory frameworks for policy implementation. We argue that divided party government, which fuels legislative‐executive conflict over control of the bureaucracy, motivates Congress to fragment implementation power as a strategy to enhance its control over implementation. We develop a novel measure of fragmentation in policy implementation, collect data on it over the period 1947–2008, and test hypotheses linking separation‐of‐powers structures to legislative design of fragmented implementation power. We find that divided party government is powerfully associated with fragmentation in policy implementation, and that this association contributed to the long‐run growth of fragmentation in the postwar United States. We further find that legislative coalitions are more likely to fragment implementation power in the face of greater uncertainty about remaining in the majority.     

我国基层政府依法行政:困境与出路

现今我国改革处于深水区,各方利益冲突尤为明显,社会法治诉求的不断改变和提高,逐渐要求政府职能转变和制度创新供给,以求社会秩序的良好运行。在基层法治政府的建设中,只有进行权力下放,使有限政府和社会自治相结合,改革行政运行机制,建立中国社会主义法治体系,依法行政以开拓社会自治机制,才能达到社会需求和制度供给的动态平衡、社会和谐。     

《政府采购法》对塑造高效政府形象的作用

《中华人民共和国政府采购法》的施行,是我国社会经济生活特别是财政经济活动中的一件大事。充分认识和揭示这一法律制度的内涵和功能,对于切实提高政府采购资金使用效益和政府办事效率,塑造高效政府形象具有重大意义。     

《物权法》与法治政府行为理念的塑造

《物权法》的制定和出台是我国法治建设中的大事,它对法治政府行为理念将产生的影响表现在:确立国家、集体和私人财产权的平等保护观念,保障市场经济主体平等参与竞争;增强私有财产的保护意识,维系公益与私益的恰当平衡,构建完善的控权和权利救济机制;倡导高效利民的服务理念,精简机构,提高效率,积极履行职责,提供优质服务;深化对有限管制的具体认识,转变管理方式,从传统上的微观、直接管理转向宏观、间接管理。     

西方法治政府建设对我国的启示

法治政府作为一种制度实践始于近代西方国家,并随着资本主义社会的发展处于不断调整和演进之中。在此,拟对此作些考察,来探寻西方国家法治政府建设的共同趋势、基本经验及其蕴含的行政法治发展规律,以期对我国法治政府建设有所借鉴和启迪。     

论法治政府下行政立法听证制度的构想

法治政府是法治国家的必然要求。要建设法治政府,需要规范行政立法听证行为,我国《立法法》虽然对行政立法听证制度有明文规定,但条文过于简单,不具有操作性。因此,我国行政立法听证的范围、听证的物质保障、听证的主持人制度、参与人制度、笔录效力制度、运行程序制度都有进一步探讨的必要。     

湖南法治政府：思想源流、路径选择与制度创新

湖湘法律文化源远流长,具有经世济民的时代精神、心忧天下的家国情怀、敢为人先的创造意识以及服务大众的民本思想。湖南法治政府建设在传承湖湘丰富法律资源的基础上,创新发展模式,以政府为主导,以程序为重点,以政治家与法学家的结合为方法,以阳光政府为价值追求,创立了法治政府建设的“湖南模式”,并在行政决策、规范性文件的制定、执法程序、行政公开、责任追究等制度建设方面推陈出新,使湖南法治政府建设走在了全国的前沿。