Progress and Challenges with Iraq's Multilevel Governance

Nations in the Arab world are largely unitary states, yet Iraq has embarked on a seemingly ambitious agenda of decentralization and devolution mixed with federalism. While local elections have been delayed at least until 2012, and indeed may never take place, Iraq's constitutional commitment to decentralize and subsequent statutory enactments appear to be turning provincial governments into significant actors in Iraqi governance. Progress has taken place at a slower, more deliberate pace than both proponents and opponents feared in 2002–6. This article discusses the current state of implementation of this process as a cornerstone of Iraqi democratic development, from the perspective of a former U.S. Department of State senior governance specialist who served on an embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team in 2009–10. These reconstruction teams were dismantled in the year leading up to September 6, 2011, as the American relationship with Iraq was “normalized,” though they likely will continue in Afghanistan into 2013.     

The Evolution and Continuing Challenges of E‐Governance

E‐governance comprises the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to support public services, government administration, democratic processes, and relationships among citizens, civil society, the private sector, and the state. Developed over more than two decades of technology innovation and policy response, the evolution of e‐governance is examined in terms of five interrelated objectives: a policy framework, enhanced public services, high‐quality and cost‐effective government operations, citizen engagement in democratic processes, and administrative and institutional reform. This summary assessment of e‐governance in U.S. states and local governments shows that the greatest investment and progress have been made in enhanced public services and improved government operations. Policy development has moved forward on several fronts, but new policy issues continually add to an increasingly complex set of concerns. The least progress appears to have occurred in enhancing democracy and exploring the implications of e‐governance for administrative and institutional reform. ICT‐enabled governance will continue to evolve for the foreseeable future providing a dynamic environment for ongoing learning and action.     

合同制治理:城市治理面临的机遇与挑战

由新公共管理运动引发的政府治理方式的重要变革之一,是政府的公共政策和公共行政将越来越依靠合同推进.合同制治理为城市治理带来了机遇:即合同制治理可以提升城市政府管理效率,合同制治理可以带来经济利益和潜在社会收益.在合同制治理框架下我国城市治理也面临着挑战:即在合作方式选择阶段的效率与公共性的考量,在合同设计、谈判阶段的委托-代理与信息不完全,在合同执行、监管阶段的政治风险与法律责任等问题.因此,加强城市政府合同制治理能力建设重在:确保市场主体的充分竞争,创造公平的竞争环境;设立独立的合同执行与监管机构,提高政府合同管理能力;完善相应法律制度,维护合作双方利益.     

State and Local Governance Fifteen Years Later: Enduring and New Challenges

This article draws on the contributions to this issue and related evidence to assay the extent to which the states and larger local governments have moved in directions endorsed by the Winter Commission in 1993 . The commission’s recommendations targeted (1) the political context of state and local governance, with a particular focus on executive leadership, campaign finance reform, and citizen engagement; (2) the specifics of public administration, with primary emphasis on empowering managers through internal deregulation and bolstering human resource capacity; and (3) the nature of the relationship between the national government and the states in a key policy arena. Significant changes in the fabric of state and local governance have occurred in each of these three areas over the last 15 years. Many of these modifications are consonant with the thrust of the Winter Commission report, but the evidence also points to the limits of state and local reform. Further reform initiatives should be built on systematic efforts to advance knowledge concerning the origins, nature, and outcomes of the array of institutions and processes present at the state and local levels.     

Responding to the foreclosure crisis

Abstract

Regional economic downturns, speculation on skyrocketing home prices, and rampant unfair and deceptive mortgage lending practices have combined to create the perfect foreclosure storm in America. More than 2 million foreclosures are expected to occur during the next 12 to 18 months. Common to all three of these contributing factors is the reality that effective regulation of the mortgage market would have greatly limited damage from foreclosures.

This article traces the origins of the subprime market crisis and the resulting impact of foreclosures on the housing market, minority households, and the economy. The article also reviews the effectiveness of current interventions to mitigate or limit foreclosures and recommends broader solutions to help families maintain their homes.     

Governance in the Post‐Soviet Era: Challenges and Opportunities

In the aftermath of the Soviet Union's demise, the countries formerly comprising it embarked on massive reforms to transition from socialist to market‐driven economies. This transition also required substantial transformation of their governance systems. In this Viewpoint essay, the authors reflect on critical reforms in human resource management, ethics management, and anti‐corruption, and highlight successful initiatives in these fields. They also discuss the role of the Astana Civil Service Hub in helping the countries in the region to jointly look for solutions to common governance challenges and to learn from policies and strategies that proved effective for their peers. The authors conclude by identifying the common elements of effective public administration reforms in the post‐Soviet setting.     

人工智能时代政府治理的挑战与回应

随着新科技革命的迅猛发展,人工智能的崛起深刻地影响着人类的思维方式、生产方式和生活方式。在公共部门管理领域,人工智能不仅改善了政府治理要素和政府治理结构,而且降低了政府治理成本和提升了政府治理效能,对于推进政府治理体系和治理能力现代化具有重要的革命性意义,但是人工智能也给政府治理带来一些问题,对已"格式化"的治理技术、行政伦理、科层法治和社会安全构成严峻的挑战,因此我们需要从"科技挑战"和"人文回应"两个断面与四个角度来正确理解和认真对待人工智能时代的政府治理。人工智能时代的政府治理,在治理技术方面,面临工具魅惑和算法魅惑,需要进行理性回应;在行政伦理方面,面临人性冲突和道德冲突,需要进行价值回应;在科层法治方面,面临关系失范和行为失范,需要进行规制回应;在社会安全方面,面临生产异化和生活异化,需要进行责任回应。总之,完美释放"人工智能+政府治理"的效能,需要在科技应用与人文关怀之间寻求平衡并作出有效回应。     

适应型风险治理框架的构建与应用——以基层政府因应金融风险为例

社会稳定风险评估依循"命令—控制"逻辑展开,但现实风险管理往往面临风险所具有的动态性和潜藏性带来的挑战,从而需要适应型风险治理模式。以基层政府面临的金融风险为基本风险情境,聚焦适应型风险治理的基本框架构建及其实现机制,提出需要革新风险管理的基本思维,在改变治理结构的基础上还应当进一步实现新结构的有效运转,整合大数据技术与传统研判方法便是基本路径。本文为基层政府在动态变化的外部条件下积极应对金融风险提供了方法路径。     

Putting the Public Back into Governance: The Challenges of Citizen Participation and Its Future

The past two decades have seen a proliferation of large‐ and small‐scale experiments in participatory governance. This article takes stock of claims about the potential of citizen participation to advance three values of democratic governance: effectiveness, legitimacy, and social justice. Increasing constraints on the public sector in many societies, combined with increasing demand for individual engagement and the affordances of digital technology, have paved the way for participatory innovations aimed at effective governance. Deepening legitimation deficits of representative government create opportunities for legitimacy‐enhancing forms of citizen participation, but so far, the effect of participation on legitimacy is unclear. Efforts to increase social justice through citizen participation face the greatest obstacles. The article concludes by highlighting three challenges to creating successful participatory governance: the absence of systematic leadership, the lack of popular or elite consensus on the place of direct citizen participation, and the limited scope and powers of participatory innovations.     

应对突发事件要注重导向机制建设

强化应对突发事件中的导向机制建设应主要从三个方面入手:一是思想导向机制建设,其主要是抓好基本国情和形势教育、党的惠民工程教育、社会主义利益观教育;二是心理导向机制建设,其主要是抓好个体心理导向和群体心理导向;三是舆论导向机制建设,其主要是加强舆情收集与预警、加强网络媒体建设、通过议程设置引导公众.     

The Australian Public Service and Policy Advising: Meeting the Challenges of 21st Century Governance

This concluding article summarises the case study findings comprising the Special Issue on ‘Advising Australian Federal Governments: Assessing the Evolving Capacity and Role of the Australian Public Service’, identifies and discusses cross‐cutting issues, and considers strategic implications for future practice and research. It reviews key findings from six case studies – Treasury, Prime Minister and Cabinet, Intergovernmental Relations, Housing, the BER Stimulus program, and Defence – and assesses the policy advising capacity of the Australian Public Service, with a focus on the policy‐political interface between governments and officials. Putting recent experience in historical context, it considers the performance of the Commonwealth's policy advisory system, the impact of prime ministers and centralisation, the link between advising and analytic capacities, the system's resilience and readiness, whether recent dissatisfaction over APS advising reflect lack of capacity or a culture clash, and the responsibility for ensuring high‐quality policy advice. It recommends developing a more systematic approach to assessing policy advising capability, building on recent APS reforms.     

Counter-Terrorism,Security and Intelligence in the EU: Governance Challenges for Collection,Exchange and Analysis

In this article we seek to address the emerging role of the European Union (EU) as a security and intelligence actor from the perspective of counter-terrorism. Intelligence as a process and product has been strongly promoted by the EU as a useful and necessary tool in the fight against terrorism, radicalization, organized crime and public order problems. A range of agencies has been established that collect, analyze and operationalize intelligence in view of strategically defined security threats. Examples are Europol and Frontex. This article makes an inventory of their roles and competences in the field of intelligence and looks at the list of instruments that encourage the sharing of intelligence between different law enforcement and security agencies. Moreover, it is argued in this article that as intelligence becomes more hybrid and as the EU only holds light powers of oversight on ownership and integrity of data, considerable governance challenges lurk around the corner. As ‘intelligence’ is usually a complex and sensitive product, it often travels outside formal bureaucratic channels, which undermines accountability and transparency of where, how and for what purpose the intelligence was gathered.     

家电下乡:质疑与回应——以江西省为例

当前,各界对家电下乡政策多有质疑,主要观点有:一是认为家电下乡政策补富不补贫,显失公平;二是认为现行的"谁购买,补贴谁"的补贴方式不如家电消费券好;三是认为下乡产品质量低劣,农民的满意度和积极性均较低。基于江西省314户农民的调查,有效回应了这些质疑,调查结果显示:多数已经购买和打算购买下乡家电产品的农户分别为中等及中等偏低收入农户而不是相对富裕农户;确实有更多的农民偏爱家电消费券,但并不认为现行的补贴方式很麻烦;农民的满意度较高,少数农户缺乏积极性是因为缺钱,而不是担心下乡家电有瑕疵。这表明,现有的对家电下乡政策的质疑大部分并不成立,但扩大农村家电消费根本上还要依靠农民收入的增长。     

Responding to COVID-19 through Surveys of Public Servants

Responding to COVID-19 presents unprecedented challenges for public sector practitioners. Addressing those challenges requires knowledge about the problems that public sector workers face. This Viewpoint essay argues that timely, up-to-date surveys of public sector workers are essential tools for identifying problems, resolving bottlenecks, and enabling public sector workers to operate effectively during and in response to the challenges posed by the pandemic. This essay presents the COVID-19 Survey of Public Servants, which is currently being rolled out in several countries by the Global Survey of Public Servants Consortium to assist governments in strategically compiling evidence to operate effectively during the COVID-19 pandemic.     

Fighting COVID-19 with Agility,Transparency, and Participation: Wicked Policy Problems and New Governance Challenges

Governments are being put to the test as they struggle with the fast and wide spread of COVID-19. This article discusses the compelling challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic by examining how this wicked problem has been managed by the South Korean government with agile-adaptive, transparent actions to mitigate the surge of COVID-19. Unlike many Western countries, South Korea has been able to contain the spread of COVID-19 without a harsh forced lockdown of the epicenter of the virus. This essay argues that an agile-adaptive approach, a policy of transparency in communicating risk, and citizens’ voluntary cooperation are critical factors. It also suggests that the South Korean government learned costly lessons from the MERS failure of 2015. This essay suggests ways that Western countries can manage future wicked problems such as COVID-19 without paying too much cost and maintaining quality of life in open and free societies.