From Ted to Ed: Electing British Party Leaders

Since 1965, British political parties have radically, and repeatedly, changed the ways in which they choose their leaders. In this article, I explain how and why these changes occurred and assess the consequences of the ‘new’ selection procedures adopted by four ‘mainstream’ parties: Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Party and the Liberal Democrats. In the first section, following Sjoblom and Stark, I outline a theoretical framework which purports to explain the criteria used by parties in parliamentary systems when choosing their leaders. I then examine the four parties in turn and consider two questions. First, how and why has the process of selecting British party leaders changed over time; and secondly, to what extent, and why, have the ‘new’ selection procedures adopted since 1965 produced different outcomes, resulting in the election of leaders who would not have been chosen had the decision rested with their party's elites and/or MPs alone?     

A Tale of Two Leaders: Leadership and Cultural Change at the New Zealand Treasury

Differences in the transformational leadership exercised at the New Zealand Treasury (NZT) by two Secretaries – Henry Lang (1969-1973) and Graham Scott (1986-1996) – are related to differences in their paradigmatic situation rather than a shift away from a serial loyalist public service bargain that caused both to direct their leadership initiatives toward developing and maintaining the trust successive finance ministers placed in NZT advisors. Thus while Lang's leadership was directed toward expanding the reporting role of the NZT to the limits of what could be expected under a relatively stable market failure policy paradigm, the subsequent erosion of the authority of this paradigm meant that, under Scott's leadership, the NZT reinvented itself to avoid implication in a failure to contribute to the policy leadership required to advance a coherent reform strategy.     

University Leaders and the Public Agenda: Talking About Women and Diversity in STEM Fields

We undertake an investigation of public statements and pronouncements from leaders at various universities to gain insight into institutional values and environments relative to women and their participation and advancement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and other disciplinary fields. Employing content analysis techniques to focus on terminological use and keyword interdependencies in these speeches, our findings indicate that, while gender equality is addressed as a separate topic in its own right, university leaders raise issues of gender in the context of STEM participation primarily in conjunction only with other topics. As expected, the data also support arguments suggesting diversity in general as an important goal espoused in the rhetoric of university representatives. Questions remain, however, concerning whether these speeches presage concrete institutional commitments and responses relative to the achievement of diversity, gender equality, and gender equity in the STEM professoriate.     

Management of Australian Water Utilities: The Significance of Transactional and Transformational Leadership

What organisational factor has the most significant impact on the management of water utilities? This article seeks the views of middle managers in several water utilities across four Australian states to address this question. It also examines their views of leadership in their organisation. It draws upon Bass's full‐range leadership theory to examine their views on three models of leadership: transactional leadership, transformational leadership, and a combination of both transactional and transformational leadership. The respondents identify leadership as the most critical enabling factor for the effective management of water utilities. They believe that effective leadership requires a mix of transactional and transformational leadership skills. They state that their supervisor's leadership skills are below their expectation of an effective leader. These leadership issues are discussed in the article.     

Weak and Ineffective? Reassessing the Party Political Leadership of John Major

Interpretations on the party political leadership of John Major are dominated by perceptions of weakness and ineffectiveness. This article examines his party political leadership by considering the relationship between, first, his political ambitions, and, second, his style of political leadership. When evaluating the political ambitions of Major, the article will demonstrate that he was ideologically agnostic and a political pragmatist. When examining his party political leadership style, the article will demonstrate, via an examination of his management of the European policy divide and his Cabinet management, that he was politically indecisive and an avoider of political confrontation. The article concludes, however, that perceptions of his weakness and ineffectiveness should be contextualised due to the following two factors: first, the constraints of inheriting an ideologically divided parliamentary Conservative party; and, second, the contrasting circumstances that ensured that his predecessor and successor appeared strong and effective, which have magnified perceptions of his weakness and ineffectiveness.     

Full Range Leadership Styles and Government IT Team Performance: The Critical Roles of Follower and Team Competence

Abstract

In this study, we explore how leadership affects team performance from a team and follower competence perspective. We base our study on the Full Range Leadership (FRL) model, which proposes three different leadership styles: passive/avoidant, transactional, and transformational. The FRL has been well-studied outside the public administration environment, but rarely considering the three leadership styles simultaneously, or with team level outcomes. We propose a sequential mediation model in which leadership styles relate to follower competencies, which in turn relate to team competence, and then team performance. Our research design is distinctive in that we study all three FRL styles simultaneously, examine team performance as opposed to individual performance, and utilize data from three levels of a municipal government IT department. We found that transformational leadership was directly and indirectly related to team performance in the expected positive directions. Transactional leadership was mostly ineffective, while passive/avoidant leadership had complicated relationships with team performance that were both positive (direct) and negative (indirect through competence). We conclude that the three FRL styles have varying degrees of effectiveness as direct and indirect predictors of team performance. We discuss the implications of our results for leadership of public administration organizations.     

公私之辨在儒学脉络里的极端发展——以《明夷待访录》为案例

公私之辨古已有之,但在宋明思想里才逐渐突出,《明夷待访录》便是一个极端案例。黄宗羲在《明夷待访录》里对公私之辨作了特别的运用,表达了对君主制的强烈质疑,这个质疑的要义在于揭示了君主制道德上的内在困境。黄宗羲的公私之辨与原初儒学有重大差异,却又的确是宋明儒学曲折演变的产物,是儒学脉络内部的一个极端发展。     

从政党与公民社会的关系看当代西方政党的发展趋势

当代西方国家基本上完成了国家和社会的分离,形成了较为成熟的公民社会。①在此背景下,从政党和公民社会的关系的视角来研究当代西方政党的发展趋势。共分为三个部分,在第一部分,简要地阐述了西方政党与公民社会的历史关系;在第二部分,主要论述了当代西方政党和公民社会的关系;第三部分,对当代西方政党的发展趋势进行了简单的探讨。     

民办高校学生党建工作探赜

民办高校学生党建工作是关系到能否全面贯彻党的教育方针,坚持社会主义办学方向,培养德智体美全面发展合格人才的根本性问题。民办高校学生的特殊性决定了学生党建工作的特殊性和难度。我们积极探索民办高校学生入党积极分子的培养、教育途径和模式,夯实学生党员发展基础,将学生党建工作与思想政治教育有机结合,促进了学生健康成长和全面发展。     

Party Polarization and Party Structuring of Policy Attitudes: A Comparison of Three NES Panel Studies

The conventional wisdom in the partisan change literature predicts that increasing party conflict on one issue agenda leads to a decline in party conflict on another agenda—a process called conflict displacement. We have argued that recent party politics in the United States has experienced conflict extension, with the Democratic and Republican parties in the electorate growing more polarized on cultural, racial, and social welfare issues, rather than conflict displacement. Here, we suggest that the failure of the literature to account for conflict extension results from incomplete assumptions about individual-level partisan change. The partisan change literature typically considers only issue-based change in party identification, which necessarily leads to the aggregate prediction of conflict displacement. This ignores the possibility of party-based change in issue attitudes. If party-based issue conversion does occur, the aggregate result can be conflict extension rather than conflict displacement. Our analysis uses data from the three-wave panel studies conducted by the National Election Studies in 1956, 1958, and 1960; in 1972, 1974, and 1976; and in 1992, 1994, and 1996 to assess our alternative account of individual-level partisan change. We show that when Democratic and Republican elites are polarized on an issue, and party identifiers are aware of those differences, some individuals respond by adjusting their party ties to conform to their issue positions, but others respond by adjusting their issue positions to conform to their party identification.     

公与私：中国行业协会的矛盾定位解析

改革开放以来,随着市场经济的发展,行业协会作为一种同类企业间的联合互益组织在社会经济生活中起着日益重要的作用。但由于行业协会本身所蕴含的的市场性以及我国对行业协会的特殊定位,其公益性与私益性的冲突已经成为制约我国行业协会发展的首要因素,因此唯有在认真探讨市场化的主流趋势与非营利化的新兴走向之间的异同,才能重新定义我国行业协会的发展路径,以期实现行业的善治。     

民族复兴的逻辑与中共的历史使命

发达国家现代化发展历程持续发展的重要原因之一,是资产阶级统治在政治建设上的成功设计和相关实践。中国现代化的持续发展面临同样的逻辑,而切实需要把科学发展观作为保证政治体制改革沿着正确方向发展的统领。政治体制改革必须为经济基础服务,它不应仅仅是某种抽象理念的"外化"。中国必须有一二百年以上的稳定可持续发展,才可能使民族的全面复兴达到历史的新高。     

论加强新时代党的全面领导的法规制度建设

新时代党的领导以全面领导为特征,以法治化为基本方向,为此,必须在准确把握党的全面领导内涵的前提下,完善党的全面领导的法规制度,使党的全面领导做到有法可依、有法必依。党的全面领导以政治领导为核心和根本,在党的全面领导的法规制度建设中,要着重围绕政治领导,首先从《宪法》《党章》层面对党的全面领导做出规定,同时也要在党的全面领导的主要领域做到有规可依,注重用党内法规制度解决党的全面领导存在的突出问题,这样才能更好地保证党的全面领导要求得到真正贯彻落实。     

The contested nature of political leadership in the European Union: conceptual and methodological cross-fertilisation

Abstract

European leaders have struggled to find common responses to the polycrisis the EU is facing. This crisis of leadership makes it urgent that scholars provide a better understanding of the role and impact of leadership in EU politics and policy making. This article prepares the ground for a collection of contributions that addresses this need by strengthening old and building new bridges between the academic domains of European studies and leadership studies. It opens with a discussion of the contested concept of leadership in the context of the European polity and politics, challenging the conventional view that leadership is necessarily a matter of hierarchy. Moreover, it argues that rather than leaderless, the EU is an intensely ‘leaderful’ polity. Subsequently, this introduction identifies four key debates in contemporary EU leadership research and discusses the value and insights the contributions in this special issue bring to these debates.     

从最高境界到底线突破——新中国道德秩序建立过程的全视域检视

国人道德水准的滑落并非始自改革开放,从追求最高境界到突破道德底线,其实是一个渐进的过程。通过检视道德的全视域构成,很容易发现滑落的始端是新中国成立后很快开始的政治运动。从那时开始,在道德构成的全视域内,部分根基开始被严重蚕食。突出的特点是不同的阶段,被蚕食而消逝的内容有很大的不同;而共同的特点是消逝速度很快,一种传承数千年的德性,可以在十年、甚至几年内彻底消亡,但是这种德性的再生过程肯定会相当漫长。     

Why Party Leaders are More Extreme than Their Members: Modeling Sequential Elimination Elections in the U.S. House of Representatives

Grofman et al. (forthcoming) find thatparty leaders in the U.S. House ofRepresentatives tend to be more extremethan the median member of their party, andthat they tend to come from the party'sideological ``heartland'' between the medianand the mode. This paper shows that if thedistribution of preferences is skewed (asis the case with both parties in theHouse), then we should expect sequentialelimination elections to choose on averageleaders between the median and modalpositions. We show that this is the casewhether or not the party is factionalized.     

十六大以来中央领导集体党建理论的新发展

十六大以来,以胡锦涛为总书记的党中央坚持以马列主义、毛泽东思想、邓小平理论和"三个代表"重要思想为指导,在党的建设问题上进行新的探索,及时总结党建新经验,取得了一系列重大的理论成果。     

从社会转型看政府在公私领域价值取向的重心偏移

在我国社会转型过程中,政府在公私领域价值取向重心对社会将产生重大影响。转型初期的政府采取效率优先、兼顾公平的理念,价值取向重心向私域偏移。在经济高速发展的同时,社会矛盾逐渐凸显。在和谐社会构建过程中,政府价值取向重心应逐步向公域偏移,做到效率与公平并重。     

The 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission: Lessons for the Conduct of Inquiries in Australia

Royal commissions with their wide powers, independence and uncertain outcomes are adopted sparingly by government. Hence, those charged with establishing such an inquiry are often left to begin anew. The 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission (VBRC) provides a means of exploring lessons for public administration in light of its inquiry approach and internal operation. Similarly, recent reports on the conduct of statutory inquiries provide the opportunity to examine good practice. This article explores the central issue of what mode of inquiry is suited for particular circumstances. It characterises three different types of inquiry and analyses their features. The author provides participant observer insights from the VBRC and reflects on lessons learned.     

农村党建新课题:重点解决农民党员政治入党问题

农村党组织是新农村建设的领导核心,也是维护农村稳定的第一道防线。由于各种原因,目前农村部分党员政治信念淡薄、政治意志衰退等问题日渐突出。在坚持思想入党原则的基础上,明确提出党员政治入党的要求,采取有效措施重点提高农民党员政治素质,已经成为加强农村党建的新课题。