Playing games of governance: How and why Fair Trade pioneers evade corporate capture

The concept of power in political governance has traditionally focused on domination and the preservation of the status quo. In an economic context, institutional and organizational studies have expressed growing interest in the dynamics of agency and institutional change, captured in the concept of “institutional entrepreneurship.” In the context of global free trade, the Fair Trade movement's experience shows that ongoing institutional entrepreneurship is important for entrepreneurs to transcend absorption by corporate hegemony. In this article I examine the capacity for agency in market institutions through the lens of “defiance” to illuminate the imaginative “game players” who evade institutional capture in the evolution of market governance.     

治理结构、运行机制、与政府关系: 非营利组织有效性分析--浙江省义乌市玩具行业协会个案

非营利组织的治理结构、运行机制、与政府关系对于非营利组织的发展特别重要.行业协会是非营利组织的一种形态.通过分析浙江省义乌市玩具行业协会个案,运用制度变迁和合作博弈理论,剖析协会的治理结构、运行机制、与政府关系,探讨非营利组织的有效性.     

Unraveling the Chinese Miracle: A Perspective of Interlinked Relational Contract

This paper is an attempt to provide an explanation for the socioeconomic foundation which underlies China’s economic miracle. As suggested by the theory of interlinked contract, the transition from a planning economy to a market economy is a multifaceted process. In terms of market dynamics interlinking markets replace specialized markets, while in terms of governance dynamics, interlinked contracts give way to formal contracts. A good match between the markets structure and contractual structure is key to the success of transition. In particular, some China-specific institutions, like TVEs, the financial system and the restructuring of SOEs can be better understood within this framework. Broadly, the whole reform package in China also is in good accordance with the spirit of interlinked contract. Wang thanks Project 985 of Fudan University, China Social Science Foundation Project (05CJL014), the MOE Project of Key Research Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences at Universities (07JJD790130 and Shanghai Leading Academic Discipline Project (B101) for financial support. Thanks also go to Sam Bowles, Sujian Guo, Peter Zeitz and anonymous referees for their helpful comments. Errors are solely ours.     

中国行政审批制度的结构与历史变迁——基于历史制度主义的分析范式

用历史制度主义的分析范式,检视中国行政审批制度的结构与历史变迁,是解读该项制度变迁全貌的一个新的视角.国家宏大制度背景决定行政审批制度的选择,国家制度背景的变迁也导致行政审批制度的不断变更与革新;各种相关政治变量,包括经济水平、利益关系以及意识形态等因素与行政审批制度之间存在一种序列结构,行政审批制度与其它政府政策或制度之间也存在类似的序列结构,这种政治变量序列结构使行政审批制度处于一个制度矩阵当中,影响并制约着行政审批制度的安排;制度与制度制定及执行者之行为的互动模式则推动行政审批制度的变迁.行政审批制度变迁具有路径依赖性,也存在"历史否决点",而制度激励和制度创新是打破"历史否决点",提升制度绩效的必要手段.为此,行政审批制度的进一步变迁需要重塑政府理念,打造治理型政府,并转变政府职能,推进行政体制改革.而且,行政审批制度的进一步变迁必须契合社会主义市场经济体制的客观需要,适应加入WTO新形势的迫切要求.     

Comparative Analysis of Sweden’s Wind Energy Policy: The Evolution of “Coordinated” Networks

Abstract

In search of an appropriate institutional structure for successful environmental policy, many researchers focus on network governance. And while it provides the flexibility and adaptability needed for climate change initiatives, the paper argues that many networks collaborate too loosely to have the capacity to reach strategic goals or mobilize local players. There is often a disconnect between national policy goals and on-the-ground dynamics. Instead, government should adopt a network perspective which does not eliminate state action, but involves network management institutions at arm’s length of government. As an example for this mode of network governance, the research looks at the Swedish “National Network for Wind Power”, which was initiated by government and is now led by four wind coordinators managing the development of on- and off-shore wind electricity. The paper compares Swedish performance before and after the introduction of the wind network and shows how these government efforts have transformed Sweden from a weak performer to being a frontrunner in Europe.     

特大城市政府公共服务制度供给能力提升的路径探析

从价值与理念:坚持公共性取向和善治城市理念;过程与流程:完善制度生产过程并优化供给流程;框架与规则:加强政府行政能力建设;方法与工具:运用科学方法和先进技术提升制度供给能力等四个方面探析提升特大城市政府公共服务制度供给能力的路径,从而为进一步推进我国特大城市服务型政府建设,提升政府为经济社会发展服务、为人民服务的能力和水平,提供必要的理论支持和政策参考.     

A Prescription Rejected: Market Solutions to Problems of Public Sector Governance

The New Public Management includes the idea of incorporating market mechanisms in public sector governance. In the Danish case, market reforms have scarcely been used; private sector supplies of public services have not increased during the last decade. The lack of success of market reform in Denmark is explained by the strong institutions of traditional public sector governance operating at the micro-level. Formal and informal hierarchy and formal and informal corporatism hold a strong grip on public sector governance. The very decentralized structure of the Danish public sector decreases the importance of central government in terms of reform strategies. Strong interests and institutional constraints keep reforms in the Danish public sector within a hierarchical mode of governance.     

统筹城乡发展与地方政府——基于浙江省长兴县的研究

统筹城乡发展、建设新农村是全面贯彻落实科学发展观、构建和谐社会的重要内容和途径。其中,政府必须扮演关键性的角色,而在各级政府中,县级政府又负有最直接的责任。浙江省长兴县统筹城乡发展、建设新农村的基本经验是:政府必须承担统筹城乡发展、建设新农村的主要责任,通过建立领导机制、政府体制创新等有效地整合资源、制订规划、组织实施;政府必须在建设农村基础设施、治理和保护农村自然环境、建立健全医疗、养老等农民社会保障体系、支持农业生产、发展教育事业等方面发挥关键性作用;政府必须尊重市场规律,重视社会力量,尊重农民的主体地位、首创精神和权利,形成政府、企业、社会三者之间互补、合作的良好格局,合力解决实际进程中的困难;政府必须因地制宜,因时制宜,制订并实施基于当地现实、适应当地现实、全面、渐进解决当地现实问题的公共政策。     

新中国70年机关事务治理的制度变迁:一项历史制度主义的考察

机关事务治理制度是国家治理体系的一项重要内容,有机融汇于新中国成立70年来的历史叙事之中。如何理解我国机关事务治理制度的历史变迁,是影响国家治理体系和治理能力现代化的一个重要命题。我国的机关事务治理从以"后勤服务"为主要表现形态的传统机关事务管理向以"运行保障"为主要表现形态的现代机关事务治理转型,经历了雏形渐成、改革发展、深化改革三次重大的制度变迁。基于历史制度主义的分析范式,机关事务治理制度变迁过程中制度背景、政治变量、路径依赖和关键节点的"混合体"模式深刻影响着机关事务治理制度的变迁历程,国家治理范式下的政治、经济、文化、社会因素则是制度变迁的动力所在。展望未来,机关事务治理现代化要正视新时代赋予的新要求,加强制度创新消解路径依赖逆向张力,推进机关事务治理职能法定化,完善多元协同的机关事务治理模式,从而推进新时代机关事务工作高质量发展。     

The gender politics of economic competitiveness in Malaysia's transition to a knowledge economy

Abstract

Many academic commentators have pointed to how the widening and deepening of a neoliberal reform agenda in Southeast Asia has brought about the end of developmental forms of state governance and the emergence of less directly market interventionist states pursuing economic ‘competitiveness’. In this paper, I note how notions of competitiveness are increasingly fused with ideas regarding the contribution of gender equity and women's empowerment to national economic success. However, drawing upon a case study of Malaysia, this paper highlights how government policies stressing both the marketisation of social reproduction and the need to expand women's productive roles are constantly brought into tension with embedded social structures. Such an emphasis is essential to any understanding of the role of the Malaysian state in economic development – a role that has been fundamentally shaped by a localised politics of ethnicity. The paper draws upon examples from government policy-making that conceptualise women as key workers in the emerging knowledge-driven economy and as microentrepreneurs driving pro-poor economic growth and illustrates how such policies are brought into tension with traditionalist discourses concerning the appropriate role of women in society.     

Economic Voting and Multilevel Governance: A Comparative Individual-Level Analysis

An important component of incumbent support is the reward/punishment calculus of economic voting. Previous work has shown that "clarity of responsibility" within the central state government conditions national economic effects on incumbent vote choice: where clarity is high (low), economic effects are greater (less). This article advances the "clarity of responsibility" argument by considering the effect of multilevel governance on economic voting. In institutional contexts of multilevel governance, the process of correctly assigning responsibility for economic outcomes can be difficult. This article tests the proposition that multilevel governance mutes effects of national economic conditions by undermining responsibility linkages to the national government. Individual-level data from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems Module 1 are used to test this proposition. Results demonstrate that economic voting is weakest in countries where multilevel governance is most prominent. Findings are discussed in light of the contribution to the economic voting literature and the potential implications of multilevel governance.     

An exploration of the application of universities as artificial institutional entrepreneurs: The case of China

Universities worldwide have increasingly been encouraged to incubate and create business enterprises in order to fulfil national and regional economic development objectives via rapid research commercialization, technology transfer, and open innovation. The definitions of university-level entrepreneurship appear to be controversial in the extant literature, with special reference to government–university–industry partnerships under the overarching theoretical framework of institutional entrepreneurship. No longer do universities act only as agents for knowledge transmission and diffusion but also as business enterprises to help change formal institutional arrangements to meet evolving economic and social demands and to graft the entrepreneurial paradigm into academic culture and structures. As a transitional economy, have China's universities also acted as institutional entrepreneurs for change? In this paper, we address this research question by exploring the nature of government–university–industry links and the application of “institutional entrepreneurship” to Chinese universities. We use a case analysis of the Industry Technology Research Institute of Geo-Resources and Environment Co. Ltd. established by the China University of Geosciences to support our argument that Chinese universities are artificial institutional entrepreneurs. As a result of our analysis, we identified several success factors and constraints on universities as institutional entrepreneurs in the context of China.     

Governing the Chinese Economy: Regulatory Reform in the Service of the State

Pursuant to its extensive program of market reforms, China’s government tried to restructure itself to support a market‐dominated economy. Reform efforts have included elements that are familiar to scholars of public administration: streamlining government, strengthening bureaucratic capacity, distancing government from firms, and establishing independent regulators. But how deep have these reforms been, and with what ultimate goals? This article examines a crucial segment of the economy—China’s so‐called lifeline industries—to show how reforms to China’s economic governance system have been mapped onto an existing system characterized by extreme institutional fragmentation and an inability to imbue new governmental bodies with authority. Moreover, for these key industrial sectors, the Chinese party‐state’s strong interests in ownership, revenues, and social policy dictate that it use a variety of tools to protect these interests.     

Market Visions: The Interplay of Ideas and Institutions in Chinese Financial Restructuring

In studies of transitional systems, negative economic outcomes are often associated with 'partial' or 'stalled' reform – a reform that signifies an institutional departure from standard market operation. Such departures are often traced to socio-political contestation or political preferences. Focusing on China's intertwined financial and enterprise reforms, this paper challenges that approach on two fronts. First, it argues that institutional change and resultant economic outcomes are driven less by contestation than by societally held assumptions regarding the nature of economic causation in market contexts. The analytical lenses that actors employ to understand their environment shape expectations about how markets function, influence the manner by which economic problems are diagnosed, and profoundly affect the ultimate institutional evolution of the system. Second, such lenses are necessitated by substantial uncertainties at the theoretical level regarding market function – uncertainties that make characterizations of economic behavior as 'irrational' highly problematic.     

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.     

Learning from the Philippine occupation: nation‐building and institutional development in Iraq and other high security risk nations

Outcomes of armed conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq indicate that the U.S. has been unprepared to fully address problems related to establishing social and economic stability, security and governance in the aftermath of war. This is unfortunate, given that U.S. policy makers' nation‐building efforts to achieve stability, security and good governance in these nations do not reflect what they should already have learnt about organisational and institutional development from past experiences providing significant development assistance to highly unstable nations. Based on the analysis rendered in this article, ‘smart practice’ development administration in such nations comprises the following key points that link nation building to institutional/organisational development:

• Nation building (creating new national sovereignty) is different from, and harder than, building government capacity (creating or strengthening institutions and organisations).
• Given that building government capacity typically requires years of patient assistance and financing, it is better to build on existing indigenous institutions like the civil service and military.
• The time and expense of development assistance to high security risk nations means that it is advisable to establish a multi‐lateral development assistance plan and a multi‐national, multi‐institutional framework for financing development to pay for all that is necessary over a long period of time (i.e. 20–50 years).
• Policy makers should emphasise social stability and stable economic growth under self‐governance to prevent actual or perceived economic exploitation.
• Policy makers' diplomatic efforts should secure accommodation of various stakeholders sufficient to permit compromise leading to formation of an independent government.
• Where occupation appears necessary to achieve security and stability, policy makers should allocate enough troops and money to do the job, and accurately assess and report all costs of military occupation and nation building.
• Once occupation has occurred, policy makers should not withdraw military support in a way that would increase the likelihood of civil war.
• Premature withdrawal of security, economic and political support prior to the point where high security risk nations are capable of governing themselves will cause a power vacuum, and may result in fragmented regional leadership by warlords. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

     

Another lost decade? The future of reform in Latin America

The 1990s ended equivocally in Latin America. What has gone wrong? Is economic failure the cause or the consequence of the democratic decay and the erosion of governance throughout the region? The review essay revisits the debate on the intricate links between politics and economics in the second stage of reform. Moving beyond standard typologies of regime type, it explores the interactions between the quality of democratic governance and the performance of economic policy under democratic auspices, in particular its credibility. It is now amply recognized that reforms have been hindered by inefficient unreliable and unaccountable government institutions. Furthermore, the manner in which market reforms have been implemented has undermined governance and accountability. The importance of policy credibility has essentially been neglected as a pivotal condition for effective economic reform. Consequently, policymakers propose a new round of reforms, centring on strengthening the institutions of governance and modifying the incentives shaping public policy. The essay argues that restoring the credibility of policy requires a fundamental redefinition of the state and reforming the methods of government and the styles of policymaking. The defining challenge of Latin American countries is to strengthen capacity to adequately implement policy and credibly commit to policy reform. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

经济转型期的政府职能与土地市场发育

土地市场的发育和繁荣与政府所提供的制度规则与激励是分不开的。但由于经济转型期政府职能的“缺位”与“错位”等问题使土地市场的发育仍然存在许多不足。对经济转型期政府在土地市场发育中的职能缺乏规范的分析,对政府在土地市场发育中的职能认识不清是产生上述问题的原因。经济转型期政府职能定位不同于成熟的市场经济国家,对市场的培育非常重要。因此,政府应该在明晰土地权利、培育竞争主体、维护土地市场竞争秩序等方面发挥作用;同时,实施有效的公共政策供给以调控土地市场,从而维护土地市场的良性发育。     

Economic crises and augmenting financial bureaucratic power in South Korea

Despite negative public opinion, the role of the Korean government has expanded, while overcoming two rounds of global financial crises. The phenomenon of the re-swelling state is mainly attributed to the strengthening of the central bureaucracy, in particular the financial bureaucracy, rather than the whole central government or the state. The argument of the strengthening of the ‘state’ or the ‘government’ after economic crises might be subject to the error of generalization. Through the two rounds of economic crises, the financial bureaucracy succeeded in acquiring the authority of market supervision and industrial support. In consequence, the bureaucracy's institutional supremacy within the government grew less challenged. The central bureaucracy was no longer the loyal servant to the President. It has reinforced its institutional strength and autonomy vis-a-vis the President, the National Assembly, the Central Bank and civil society, under the pretext of building up the rational and autonomous market and democratic politics.     

大连市低碳旅游发展研究

发展低碳旅游是旅游业发展的必然趋势,指出大连发展低碳旅游存在着诸多问题,例如,旅游业经营过程中对环境造成的污染;政府对低碳旅游缺少系统性的规定以及旅游者环保生态意识淡薄。并分析提出了发展大连低碳旅游,应当打造低碳旅游设施,制定完善有利于大连低碳旅游发展的制度和标准,引导旅游者使用低碳旅游消费方式。