Public Sector Change,Organisational Culture and Financial Information: A Study of Local Government

Local government has undergone substantial change in Victoria, but the reforms have not necessarily resulted in improved financial management practices. This article examines the organisational culture of a sample of local governments, the critical events which have impacted on them, and their use of accounting, budgetary and financial (ABF) information. We find that despite the change process, organisational culture is not focused on competitive practices, although compulsory competitive tendering remains the most influential event. Consistent with the aims of reform, the quality and use of ABF information has improved over the last decade. This article will be of interest to those in government wishing to implement change programs aimed at increasing financial resource use efficiency.     

Referendum Design: An Exercise in Applied Social Choice Theory

The formal status of the referendum institution in democratic system varies from consultative and optional to mandatory and binding. Despit the formal status, it can be argued that in all systems the legislators can hardly ignore the referendum results. The article presents two arguments: (1) The results of social choice theory suggest that the number of alternatives in referenda should to be restricted to two in order to a void severe problems of interpretation and agenda manipulation. (2) The consultative referendum system may lead to quite dramatic norm conflicts for both legislators and voters. Taken together, these two arguments imply that referenda are appropriate only in cases where there is natural way to dichotomize the issue at hand. Moreover, whenever a referendum is called, its result should be binding.     

Interpreting the Chinese Dream: An Exercise of Political Hermeneutics

Using an approach described as political hermeneutics, this paper interprets the Chinese Dream as a discourse that is historically and politically situated and contextualized within a number of other ongoing narratives and policies in China. This approach is especially apt because, in many respects, the purpose of the Chinese Dream is to round out while also reframe and reemphasize the Party’s longstanding vision of Chinese political and economic development, and to do so ahead of difficult reforms and transitions. Thus, we show how the Chinese Dream should be understood as being a part of a larger historical discourse and pressing needs for change. Consequently, we assemble and discuss the broader narratives that surround and suffuse the Chinese Dream and illustrate how it aims to function as a metanarrative—one that attempts a discursive “reset” under a new leader. As a positive discourse, the Chinese Dream aims to express official visions of the past, present and future; but it must also be understood as part of a web of activities designed to advance Party interests and the various challenges these face. Accordingly, we interpret the Chinese Dream in tandem with discussions of other recent developments, including what appears to be a national rectification campaign as Xi Jinping continues to consolidate power, curtail Party factions and corruption, discipline critics, and prepare the Party and nation for some measure of reform and, likely, some measure of more of the same.     

Foreign Policy and Human Rights Advocacy: An Exercise in Measurement and Explanation

This article addresses three questions: How can we define and measure what constitutes a foreign policy in human rights? How is it possible to explain both the activism of a state and its ideological orientation in the international promotion of human rights? What is the empirical evidence found when we try to answer these questions in intermediate states? Research done on four cases (Argentina, Australia, Brazil and South Africa) suggests a correlation between domestic efforts in the promotion of human rights and international advocacy. It also shows that the greater the power of intermediate states, the greater their activism in human rights. Further, as development grows states show less support for economic, social and cultural rights. Last, the strategic relation with the USA shapes how states vote regarding human rights violators states.     

Corruption and Political Culture in America: An Empirical Perspective

Political culture helps define the boundaries of permissiblepolitical action. Thus, it should affect the amounts and typesof political corruption occurring in political systems, as wellas responses to corruption when it is discovered. This articlecompares the distribution of corruption convictions among federaljudicial districts over a three-year period to social and politicalcharacteristics of the districts, and to scaled measures ofElazar's moralistic, individualistic, and traditionalistic politicalsubcultures. Nationally, strong moralistic subcultures and highvoter turnouts are associated with numerous convictions, bothbefore and after district population is controlled. Analysisof regional patterns reveals a different model in the South,however, one suggesting ideas about the dynamics of traditionalisticpolitics. Corruption, and the impact of federal laws againstit, are best understood within their political and culturalsettings. ^* I am indebted to George Calafut and Philip Sidel of the SocialScience Computer Research Institute, University of Pittsburgh,who gave me many hours of assistance in assembling data. LeonardKuntz and William Nelson of the Universitys Office of Research,Father Bernard Quinn of the Glenmary Research Center, and WilliamNewman of the University of Connecticut helped me locate religiouscensus results. The County and City Data Book is published ontape by the Inter-University Consortium for Political and SocialResearch. Daniel J. Elazar, Michael Margolis, Bert A. Rockman,and two anonymous referees gave me extremely helpful commentson this study.     

中关村企业文化刍论

章探讨了中关村企业化形成与发展的过程，中关村企业化形成与发展的化背景，中关村企业化的内容与特色，以及中关村企业化面临的挑战等问题。     

浅析社会变革中的文化因素

改革开放以来中国社会进入变革时期。这种变革是社会整体的变迁,包括政治结构、经济结构和文化的变迁。笔者认为从某种意义上讲,文化是社会变革能否成功的根本问题。在社会变革中,许多最复杂、最艰难的问题都反映在文化上,文化所受到的冲击非常大,其剧烈程度远远超过社会的其他领域。因此,本文试图通过分析文化对政治、经济领域改革的重要影响,强调文化在社会变革中的重要作用。     

Changing Roles for a State Agriculture Department: Driving Forces and Organisational Responses in the 21st Century

This article examines the forces of change that have been operating on a state agriculture department over recent decades. These forces of change include pressures for the department to meet community expectations on issues such as animal welfare and ecological sustainability — issues which were not emphasised in its former focus on agricultural production. The article then goes on to look at the responses that have occurred in a public sector agency to these forces and what these may mean for the future of this traditionally conservative arm of government in terms of changes to what have been its primary client groups and its most important priorities.     

Short Circuit: Federal-State Relations in the California Energy Crisis

This article examines the changing roles of the federal andstate governments in electricity regulatory policy, includingthe history of electricity regulation and the development ofstate and federal regulatory powers. The case of Californiasuggests that deregulation has elevated the role of federalregulators and increased their responsibility to protect theinterests of the states beyond those of the market. The inabilityof the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to protect Californiafrom predatory market manipulation demonstrates the necessityfor states to plan carefully to protect their multiple policyinterests.     

政治文化论域中的大学生价值观分析与对策研究

从政治文化视角研究大学生价值观的现状和培育,有助于丰富对思想政治教育本质和内涵的认识,提升对大学文化教育本质和功能的体认层次,增强高校育人的应对意识和文化深度,从而提高思想政治教育的针对性和实效性.     

The Mostly-Sovereign People: Sophisticated Voting and Public Opinion About Term Limits in California

This study finds that citizens are capable of purposeful issue and sophisticated voting in referendum elections. These conclusions are drawn from an analysis of the 1990 vote for term limits in California. As theory suggests, the voting public in California does not live up to some idealized picture of decision makers with complete information, but rather they rely on partisan cues and their own underlying policy preferences to help decide on a voting strategy for term limits. This suggests that voters are capable of making complex and sophisticated choices about politics. If problems exist with the current system of initiative and referendum in California, the problems are not endemic but are found in the implementation of this particular version of direct democracy.     

Increased protection in the 1980s: Exchange rates and institutions

The strong appreciation of the U.S. dollar between 1980 and 1985 encouraged the substitution of imports for domestically produced goods for a variety of products. This, in turn, increased the demand for trade protection. Many of these demands were satisfied via “apolitical” U.S. antidumping and countervail regulations, yieldingad valorem tariffs well above current average statutory duties. The supply of trade protection is developed via a principal-agent model that describes the potential gains to both the regulatory agency and the legislator. Empirical results support the model specification, finding both exchange rate and political cycles in the use of “apolitical” trade protection.     

中国形态协商民主的政治文化资源探析

中国的政治文化中存在着许多契合于现代协商民主的思想因子。传统优秀政治文化为中国形态协商民主建设保留了深厚的文化基础,近代政治文化为中国形态协商民主建设移植了丰富的精神资源,现当代政治文化为中国形态协商民主建设提供了系统的理论资源。发掘契合于现代中国形态协商民主的政治文化资源,对推进社会主义政治文明建设具有重要的意义。     

Culture in Action: Nicaragua's Revolutionary Identities Reconsidered

Rather than assume revolutionary subjectivity during insurrectionary conditions as an ideological historical given, I begin my inquiry into revolutionary action by considering the "contextual point" from the actual participants. "Culture in Action" challenges the notion that revolutionary actors are ipso facto ideologically defined during pre-overthrow conditions. Building on the social movement, revolution, and other pertinent literature as well as using interview data, secondary sources, and historical analysis, I demonstrate that the majority of Sandinista sympathizers were able to transform their social-political reality, not through Marxist-like ideology, but through the radical use of pre-existing idiomatic currencies, with Christian idioms and folkloric Sandinismo as the central vocabularies that helped embodied revolutionary subjecthoods. The piece seeks to shed light on the historico-cultural conditions within which revolutionary actors are constituted, and as such sets out to demonstrate the disruptive potential of culture. An attempt is also made to explore the relationship between idiom and ideology.     

Intensifying Social Exchange Relationships in Public Organizations: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment

In accordance with social exchange theory, prominent streams of management research emphasize the importance of reciprocal exchange relationships between organizations and their employees. When employees perceive themselves as supported by the organization, they reciprocate with increased work motivation. However, we do not know how this knowledge can be developed into management initiatives that increase public employees’ perceived support, because severe endogeneity problems make it difficult to estimate the effect of organizational support on employee commitment outside the laboratory. We use a randomized field experiment involving more than 800 public employees to estimate the effect. We find no average effect of the organizational support treatment on the employees’ perceived organizational support. Yet, a subgroup analysis shows a positive treatment effect when the employees’ local front‐line managers felt less supported prior to the intervention. We discuss the implications for theory and management practice. ©2012 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

State Sovereignty and the Eleventh Amendment in the U.S. Supreme Court: The 1988 Term

During its 1988 term, the U.S. Supreme Court addressed two importantaspects of the Eleventh Amendment, which generally protectsstates from being sued in federal courts. First, the Court heldthat the Congress has power to abrogate states' immunity fromsuit—to subject states to suits in federal courts fordamages—under Congress' expansive commerce-clause power.Second, the Court made clear that such abrogation would be foundonly where the text of the statute itself, as distinct fromits legislative history, clearly and specifically so provided.This article describes these decisions, and analyzes some oftheir implications for judicial federalism.     

Citizenship Education: Anti-political Culture and Political Education in Britain

The British Government white paper 'Excellence in Schools' and the subsequent report of the Advisory Group on Citizenship Education for Citizenship recommend that schools educate pupils in citizenship and democracy. This recommendation is considered in the context of reasons why there has traditionally been no formal or well articulated political education in schools. Among these reasons a pervasive antipathy to politics and to government is identified as one of the most powerful. This antipathy is expressed from the left and the right wings of the political spectrum, and the 'critical' opposition to both, as well as from interests such as those defending professional and personal autonomy. These arguments imply that 'politics' is optional, not a set of practices and institutions with which individuals must be familiar. It is argued that this proposition cannot be valid.