Different Roads to Unfamiliar Places: UK Experience in Comparative Perspective

This article views the new public management (NPM) as a prime example of the sour laws of unintended consequences in action. Section 1 places the UK in international context by arguing there is no such thing as NPM and suggesting recent public sector reforms vary along six dimensions: privatisation, marketisation, corporate management, regulation, decentralisation and political control. Section 2 updates the UK story by describing developments under New Labour. Section 3 identifies the unintended consequences of reform: fragmentation, steering, accountability, co-ordination, and public service ethics. Section 4 argues the conventional story of public sector reform as marketization and corporate management omits significant changes. British government differentiated its service delivery systems and now employs at least three governing structures: bureaucracy, markets and networks. The final section discusses whether British experience is different. I argue a satisfactory explanation of the differences must include an analysis of governmental traditions that make public sector reform distinctive everywhere.     

Behavioral response to safety regulation

The effectiveness of safety regulation can be enhanced or offset by various forms of behavioral feedback. This study provides estimates of the effectiveness of motorcycle helmet laws in reducing fatalities based on pooled time-series and cross-sectional data for the United States during the years 1975 to 1984. Estimates from the model suggest that the presence of a helmet-wearing law induces a 12 to 22 percent decline in the motorcycle mortality problem. The results are consistent with the view that helmet laws are an effective public health policy, at least in the short run. However, there is also some evidence of gradual risk-compensation behavior: The immediate rise in fatalities following repeal of helmet laws appears to dissipate gradually at a rate of roughly 2.5 percent per year. This result suggests that future studies of safety regulation should consider longrun as well shortrun behavioral responses.     

关中高新技术产业集聚的两条道路

关中高新技术产业带形成过程中,走着两条交织并存的道路:一条是大企业带动道路;另一条是中小企业协同促进道路。这两条道路在分工类型、产业动力、产业组织、产业性质、产业技术进步和产业发展速度等方面均有不同特点和优劣势。清醒认识这两条道路及其特点与优劣势,很有意义。     

深圳文化建设的主要途径与发展方向

在我国社会主义现代化的历史进程中 ,深圳担负着率先基本实现现代化的历史重任。现代化“是一个科学和技术革命影响下 ,社会已经或正在发生着变化的过程。”① 在这个过程中 ,文化现代化直接影响到整个现代化建设的发展速度和发展方向。因此 ,在深圳经济特区 ,建设先进的文化 ,就成为率先实现现代化的重要内涵和重要标志。正确认识和评估深圳文化建设的现状 ,探讨深圳文化建设的主要途径 ,明确深圳文化建设的发展方向 ,也就有着十分重要的理论和实践意义。一、深圳文化建设的基本评估深圳经济特区建立 2 0年来 ,经济腾飞 ,社会进步 ,文化建…     

The Roads to Transformation: Budgeting Issues in the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic 1989–1992

The Czech and Slovak Federal Republic no longer exists, but by the time of its dissolution, the transformation from a socialist to a democratic model of budgeting to another was well under way. This article illustrates some of the major issues facing countries attempting to remodel their systems of budgeting and financial management toward a more liberalized and democratic society.     

The Size Efficiency of Rural Governments: The Case of Low-Volume Rural Roads

The deterioration of the supply of public infrastructure throughoutthe United States has been found to be accelerating. The reasonmost often cited for the increasing rates of deterioration isthe lack of available funding, or fiscal stress, present inmany local governments. A popular short-term solution to fiscalstress is to defer infrastructure repairs and/or replacementprograms. This is particularly true in rural areas where a decliningagricultural base and redirected federal policy have placedsignificant downward pressure on revenues. The search for along-term solution has renewed the debate about the optimalsize of local governments. The research reported here examinesthe issue of size efficiency in the production of low-volumerural roads in the Midwest. At issue is the ability of Midwesttownships to realize size economies. Overall, size inefficiencieswere identified which suggests that cost savings may be realizedfrom the reorganization of the production of low-volume roadservices.     

Educating for safety

He has lectured widely on traffic safety. Among his books are The of Elderly Driversand Rethinking Young Drivers. He is editor of Challenging the Old Order: Towards New Directions in Traffic Safety Theory;all published by Transaction.     

Arenas without Rules and the Policy Change Process: Outsider Groups and British Roads Policy

A key task of governments is to construct and manage systems of consultation whereby the vast array of interest groups seeking to influence public policy can be accommodated. Conventional wisdom holds that key insider groups secure for themselves special privileges, not least of which is an ability to prevent radical policy change. A concomitant view is that public policy emerges from relatively stable networks of actors who have some mutual resource dependencies. One reason why this paradigm is showing signs of intellectual fatigue is that it seems weak in explaining policy change. Yet, policy change does take place. Indeed, it is one of the characteristics of the 1980s and 1990s. This article examines an example of the traditional modalities of consultation failing to accommodate new interests, knowledge and ideas. This breakdown appears to have occurred by the use of alternative policy 'arenas without rules' by outsider groups, leading to a radical new 'framing' of transport policy. Moreover, government has failed to constrain the new policy issues in predictable and stable systems of consultation.     

From Internet to social safety net: The policy consequences of online participation in China

Internet‐based platforms are increasingly being used by governments around the world to facilitate public engagement with citizens. However, it remains an open question whether participation through these platforms can actually enable citizens to influence policies. We address this question by studying the patterns and consequences of online participation at a major electronic petition platform in China, a country with the world's largest Internet‐using population. Content analysis of over 900,000 petitions reveals that a substantial share of them concern lower‐class issues and are originated from less developed rural and suburban areas. Linking variations in petition volumes to an original data set of government policy priorities, we further show that online participation led governments to place greater emphasis on social welfare policies and to increase the coverage of a key low‐income assistance program. These results underscore the potential of online participation as an important mechanism to improve the quality of governance.     

Tracing and periodizing China's food safety regulation: A study on China's food safety regime change

How has China's food safety administrative system changed since it was founded in 1949? How can we periodize the process of this historical transformation in terms of regulators, regulatees, and regulatory tools? This review article offers an analytical framework that distinguishes three regimes in the history of China's food safety governance: an old regime of command and control (1949–1977), an intermediate regime of mixed instruments (1978–1992), and a new regime of regulatory governance (1993–ongoing). In the article the regimes' features, advantages, disadvantages, and development tracks are discussed, and the groundwork is laid for an analysis of China's emerging regulatory state. Finally, a new notion of “transitional regulatory state” is used to define the current Chinese regulatory state based on its food safety regulation.     

Evaluating the effects of automobile safety regulation

Automobile safety standards adopted because of federal legislation have, according to many researchers, failed to save lives; safer cars, they infer, induce more dangerous driving. Results from the major study suggesting this conclusion are shown, however, to be quite sensitive to reasonable changes in the empirical model. An alternative statistical analysis of death rates supports a very different conclusion: Safety standards have saved tens of thousands of lives during the 1970s. More broadly, the article illustrates some general pitfalls in using statistical results in policy analysis, and how they can be avoided.     

论食品安全的法律保障

食品安全的法律保障应当强调执法重于立法、突出抓好日常监管与预警、以防范有毒有害食品为重点、加大处罚力度。