自治理念与城市社区自治的评价体系

我们讨论城市社区自治,恐怕无法回避自治理念问题。因为如同自由(1iberty)一样,自治(autonomy)也是一个中国化中间“从未尝立以为教”(严复语)的问题。中国,作为一个东方的、具有典型意义的“领土国家”(顾准语),有着悠久的大一统中央集权传统,虽然经历了近代和现代的民主革命,但革命成功以后,国内的现实状况,以及政治、经济和化发展的需要,又承接了这一传统。我们应该看到,传统的影响有碍于自治理念的思想启蒙。     

Changes in Federal Aid and City Finances: A Case Study of Oregon Cities

Federal aid was not found to stimulate spending for cities inOregon during 1984–1989. Oregon cities relied primarilyon their own-source revenues to finance spending increases.The exception was capital spending, where receipt of federalaid in 1989 positively influenced the rate of spending change.This most likely reflected lower spending by those cities thatdid not receive competitive federal grants. The amount of federalaid received is greatly influenced by the grants skill availableto the community. Growth in total direct current spending wassignificantly associated with increases in user fees and charges.A closer look at specific spending categories revealed a hierarchyof reliance on cities' own-source revenues. Cities increaseduser fees and other benefit charges where possible, and seeminglyonly resorted to property-tax increases when these other revenueswere inappropriate.     

中国地方自治立法的开端——清末地方自治

20世纪初年,西方列强入侵,中国内忧外患,清政府发布"变法"、"仿行宪政"的上谕,推行"预备立宪"、"修订法律"等项措施,地方自治是其中的重要内容之一,之后清政府颁布了一系列的地方自治章程,在全国各地加以实施。通过这一系列的措施,地方自治形成了初步架构。作为清末新政重要内容之一的地方自治,是中国近代意义的地方自治的开端,也是中国政治近代化的重要条件和基础,虽然有一定的历史局限性,但更有着重要的历史意义。     

Alternate Routes to Autonomy in Federal and Quasi-Federal Systems

In late twentieth-century federal systems, provinces and stateshave sought greater autonomy because of economic neglect, distinctivenessof society and political culture, administrative inefficiency,and local efficacy. This article examines both structural andpolitical avenues to autonomy in six stable democratic federalsystems. In general, structural attempts to increase provincialor state autonomy in federal systems are found wanting. Becauseamendments to federal constitutions require extraordinary majoritysupport, they tend to centralize power. Referenda may be usedto retard centralization only under exceptional circumstances.Secession has been a successful strategy in only a small numberof cases. Political strategies, such as judicial interpretationof the constitution and conferencing, have been somewhat moreeffective; but political system characteristics impose restrictionson their use. Two types of decentralization that apply universally—devolutionand deconcentration—appear to enhance powers of subnationalunits. However, they require significant facilitating conditionson the national plane. The article calls into question the practicalvalue of structural arrangements, suggesting that alternatepolitical strategies sometimes produce more decentralized effects.     

Local Autonomy, Local Democracy and the 'New Localism'

Most studies of local autonomy and local democracy fail to distinguish adequately between the two terms. As a consequence, there is an assumed bilateral relationship between them in which changes in one are always deemed to affect the other – particularly in policy formulations. This article develops a stronger analytical distinction between them by considering local autonomy in three separate ways: as freedom from central interference; as freedom to effect particular outcomes; and as the reflection of local identity . Each of these conceptualisations raises different challenges for local democracy and its relationship to broader forms of democratic practice. When used to analyse the recent emergence of the 'new localism' as a policy approach within Britain, this separation also shows significant limitations in current policies towards democratic renewal and central policies that are supposedly focused on outcomes rather than processes. Although localities are being afforded some autonomy, most initiatives are not supporting the enhancement of local democracy.     

Federal colonias policy in California: Too broad and too narrow

Abstract

This article presents data on the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the United States to compare the metropolitan population density in the eastern and western parts of the country. The data show that the West often has more densely settled metropolitan areas than the East, especially when compared with the Southeast. The difference is due in part to the arid and rugged environment in the West.

The article also develops a new understanding of Sunbelt development by comparing its eastern and western halves. The growth patterns of the Sunbelt are often contrasted with those of the Northeast and Midwest, the assumption being that its newer metropolitan areas share a common, lower‐density urban form. However, this study shows that intraregional differences within the Sunbelt make such comparisons difficult and deceptive.     

Deficits in Local Government Budgets in Israel: A Reflection of Political Cycles and an Expression of Local Autonomy

This article addresses local government budgeting in the context of two Israeli political cycles: the parliamentary election period and the municipal election period. Deficits are not unusual in any of the three types of Israeli localities: municipalities, local councils, and regional councils. And these deficits exhibit a definite pattern; they are largest in election periods. Specific examples are cited to show this hypothesis holds true for all types of localities (including Israel's three largest cities), and for both Jewish and Arab localities as well.     

The Federal Concessioner System: Linking Policy to Opportunities for Local Service Providers

Every year millions of tourists hit the open road to enjoy America's public recreation lands. Upon arrival at their destinations, visitors enjoy a host of service amenities ranging from hotels and lodges to ski resorts and back country adventures, all compliments of concessioners. These public lands concessioner operations are a multibillion dollar business. This decades‐long analysis finds that local service providers have generally failed to secure concessioner contracts on public lands. A focus among more politically adept participants upon other policy priorities has eclipsed local provider preferences despite periodic opportunities for change and economic need.     

Subsidiarity or Subterfuge? Resolving the Future of Local Government in the Australian Federal System

During Australia's centenary of federation (2001), the author, Local Government Association of Queensland and Courier–Mail newspaper surveyed 1,264 Queenslanders for their attitudes to future constitutional change, including a sample of 259 local government opinion leaders from across the state. The results of this pilot suggest ongoing political, functional and theoretical challenges surrounding the position of local government in Australia. Only 22 percent of local government respondents indicated a preference for the federal system to remain the same in another 100 years, against 70+ percent preferring significant structural change (50 percent seeking regional governments that replace the states). This higher–than–expected interest in change suggests that ongoing national reviews of the position of local government will need to reconsider federalism's values and structures from first principles, including engagement by Commonwealth and states alike with the principle of 'subsidiarity', if they are to deliver any long–term gains.     

Performance Funding in Federal Agencies: A Case Study of a Federal Job Training Program

Our case study highlights important details that enter into developing performance contingent budgeting schemes—details that do not emerge in more general discussions of the subject—and shows how the handling of these details can be crucial to these schemes' success. We study a federal job training program that gives state and local decision makers discretion over the program's operation, but through performance funding holds them accountable for achieving specific objectives. We find that states' modifications to the scheme's construction produced over time highly individualized performance funding schemes that likely varied in their effectiveness.     

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.     

Federal and Local Interests in the Nation's Capital: Congress and District of Columbia Appropriations

Canadian political scientist Donald C. Rowat posits the thesis that there is a "conflict of interest" in all federal capital cities between the national government and the local residents. Federal and local interests in the nation's capital have been so intertwined that it is difficult to define or separate them. Congress has used the appropriations process to intervene in local policy matters even when the federal interest is not involved.     

城市社区自治是社会主义新型民主的生长点

我国城市社区建设开始于20世纪80年代的中期。最初，城市社区建设主要以社区服务为突破口和龙头，然后逐步扩展到社区文化、社区卫生、社区环境和社区治安等。目前，我国城市社区建设正转向以社区自治为龙头，以社区组织建设为重点，以社区组织建设带动社区事业建设的全方位社区建设的新阶段。     

The Federal, and the State and Local Roles in Government Expenditures

This article compares government expenditures by functional category of the federal government relative to state and local governments and the changes in their respective roles since 1955. The article includes a review of the federal role relative to the state and local role on a function-by-function basis for these three and a half decades. This analysis demonstrates considerable stability in the federal sector and the state and local sector, but also the capacity for change.     

Federal Aid to Local Governments in the West: An Irony of the Reagan Revolution

Despite the fact that the Reagan election was viewed as a power shift toward the West, the decade of the 1980s produced cruel disappointment. The region was generally left out of the economic recmery of the nation because of the bust in the agricultural and mineral industries. These state and local gmernments which sufferfrom high costs and low resources were particularly dependent on the national gmernment at the very time when the Reagan Administration was cutting federal aid and transferring power to the states. Unlike Nixon's New Federalism which helped the state and local governments of the West, Reagan's policies caused their relative position in federal aid flows to deteriorate. Although the Reagan revolution in cutting domestic programs was viewed as the embodiment of western rugged individualism, the region lost in terms of federal aid to small rural local governments.     

Federal Grants and Local Capital Improvements: The Impact of Reagan Budgets

Changes in intergovernmental grants for local capital improvements during the Reagan Administration are explored from a national perspective and from the experiences of two mid-sized communities, Tulsa, Oklahoma and Toledo, Ohio. Nationally, a roller coaster pattern was identified with a strong down-turn in the most recent data and a notable shift from redevelopment to expansion/development grants such as highway and airport construction. Locally, the first dilemma is that the change in the mix of grants available is having a greater impact on the older Toledo than the newer Tulsa because their capital needs vary. Yet as federal grants declined, both cities responded affirmatively by raising new local revenues for capital improvements. The second dilemma is that the differences in their wealth and needs make revenue enhancement more difficult for Toledo than Tulsa.     

Local Autonomy and Groundwater District Formation in High-Plains West Texas

In response to pressure from declining underground water reservesand state government demands, West Texas agriculture is organizingunder local groundwater conservation districts. The districtsuse persuasion, education, and access to low-interest loansand grants to encourage water conservation. Little regulatoryauthority is vested in district managers and, outside of statefunds to subsidize irrigation technology, the state has limitedinfluence. This article narrates the creation and operationsof West Texas groundwater districts and analyzes the reasonsfor a recent increase in district organizing as well as theirsuccess in acquiring state funds for conservation.