The Paradox of Implementing the Government Performance and Results Act: Top-Down Direction for Bottom-Up Implementation

Research on the implementation of the Government Performance and Results Act generally has not considered how the strategic plan, annual performance plan, and annual performance report are produced and used. Are the documents good decision and management tools, as the act intends, or are agencies internalizing them to meet the unique needs of their organization? Interviews with representatives of 14 cabinet‐level federal agencies suggest that implementation of the act is not standardized. Instead, it is influenced by the unique challenges that agencies face. Further, there is a relationship between the implementation challenges and the overall use of the documents.     

公共危机事件问责的影响因素及理论解释——基于中国新冠肺炎疫情防控问责案例的混合研究

公共危机事件问责是责任政治的重要组成部分。以中国新冠肺炎疫情防控问责事件为例,运用回归分析与定性比较分析相结合的方法,探讨导致公共危机事件问责的影响因素和关键变量。研究发现,责任类型是影响问责强度的核心变量,责任类型、问责职级和政策环境三个变量的组合是影响危机事件问责结果的关键所在。在此基础上,从责任政治理论的观念、结构、行为三个维度,阐释了公共危机事件问责的发生逻辑。对中国应对公共危机事件背后的问责机制进行分析,有助于深化对问责实践的理论认识。     

COVID-19 in Nigeria and South Africa

COVID-19 is likely to affect Nigeria’s and South Africa’s economies adversely, amplifying preexisting macroeconomic weaknesses. Support for necessary public health measures remains flimsy in light of their harsh socio-economic impact, and will likely erode further should reported case numbers remain relatively low.     

COVID-19 and the US military

COVID-19 has challenged US military readiness and raised some strategic concerns. Overall, however, the military's response appears to have struck a sensible and effective balance so far, establishing procedures for containing the disease while continuing deployments and crucial operations.     

The Politics of Blaming: the Narrative Battle between China and the US over COVID-19

Journal of Chinese Political Science - During the COVID-19 pandemic, we are witnessing a surge of nationalism throughout an ostensibly globalized world. In this article, we focus on the...     

Fighting fake news in the COVID-19 era: policy insights from an equilibrium model

Policy Sciences - The COVID-19 crisis has revealed structural failures in governance and coordination on a global scale. With related policy interventions dependent on verifiable evidence,...     

COVID-19 and the policy sciences: initial reactions and perspectives

Policy Sciences - The world is in the grip of a crisis that stands unprecedented in living memory. The COVID-19 pandemic is urgent, global in scale, and massive in impacts. Following Harold D....     

Connecting with New Partners in COVID-19 Response

The COVID-19 crisis has called for the mobilization of diverse resources and coordination through administrative networks. This mobilization has brought to light the challenges involved in the recruitment and retention of diverse administrative networks. This Viewpoint essay reviews the importance and difficulties of maintaining diverse administrative networks. The review is followed by concrete strategies for building and maintaining diverse networks in Norman, Oklahoma. The lessons emphasize the role of active and imaginative recruitment and a realistic assessment of the challenges facing members of the network that can interfere with their participation.     

Building Network Implementation Capacity: Evidence from China

ABSTRACT

Network research increasingly draws attention to capacity affecting outcomes. This study examines network implementation capacity and develops a framework that focuses on three dimensions: financial, managerial, and technical capacity. It also contributes by focusing on the Network Administrator Organization (NAO)-type network. Based on a case study of two large eco-financing networks in China, this study finds positive impacts of network implementation capacity on policy outcomes. It also draws attention to network strategies and their impact on capacity. It identifies the positive effect of efforts to maintain network stability as well as negotiation and participation strategies on network implementation capacity. This study draws attention to implementation capacity as a determinant of network outcomes and suggests that studies in public administration give greater attention to NAO-type networks.     

The European Central Bank and the COVID-19 recession

The ECB, turning a page from its sluggish response the 2008–09 financial crisis, has responded to the COVID-19 recession by quickly stabilising banks and flooding the eurozone with cheap capital. Yet the crisis has caused fiscal imbalances – most notably between Germany and Italy – to worsen, with no prospect of making political headway towards mutualising the debts of individual member states.     

Political Control and Public Sector Savings: Evidence from the States

The right to access (and ultimately spend)public sector savings is determined by the party which can control the politicaloutcome. This implies that anticipatedfuture changes in the state's controllingpolitical party may systematicallyadversely affect current savings. Extendingthe Life Cycle/Permanent Income model, Ishow that a representative legislator willopt to forgo current saving in favor ofspending when his prospects for futurepolitical control diminish. Estimating apanel data model of 39 states from1973–1995, I find that an actual futurechange in the controlling party of astate's lower house significantly reducescurrent saving.     

Fighting COVID-19 through Government Initiatives and Collaborative Governance: The Taiwan Experience

Taiwan is situated less than 200 kilometers from the first COVID-19 outbreak state, China, and it has millions of international visitors yearly. Taiwan's collective efforts to block and eliminate the invisible enemy (COVID-19) from the island have resulted in relatively low infection and death numbers and have been hailed as a successful anomaly amid the global pandemic. This review provides some background on the systems and organizations that helped Taiwan streamline a task force (command center) in a timely manner to launch related initiatives, mobilize the public, and engage private resources to implement strategies and policies that were further enhanced by collaborative behaviors and volunteers. Even subject to threatening conditions such as cruise ship stopover and numerous foreign immigrant workers, there were no outbreaks of community infection in Taiwan similar to those in Singapore, Japan, and other countries. Taiwan's successful measures offer a good example for future comparative studies.     

Disrespect for Human Rights and Contentious Participation: Evidence from China

Journal of Chinese Political Science - This study examines the relationship between the perception of human rights conditions and individual participation in contentious political activities in...     

确立并践行新理念是形式主义问题的治本之策——以新冠肺炎疫情防控为例

形式主义是个老大难问题,治理起来相当困难。在新冠肺炎疫情防控过程中,尤其是在初期和一些地方,形式主义问题不仅存在还比较严重。在防控疫情这一“准战时”状态下,形式主义问题危害性更大。形式主义问题的根源是官僚主义,而官僚主义的形成有体制和思想两个层面的原因。从这两个层面施治,都属于治本之策,其中思想或理念层面的引领尤为重要。党的十八大以来,习近平总书记倡导并形成了三大新理念,即问题导向、结果导向和民意导向。与新理念相对立的旧理念正是形式主义问题的思想根源。新理念不只是理念,还是一套行动指南。只要确立并践行新理念,就能有效抑制形式主义问题的滋生,从而起到重要的治本作用。     

Australian Quarantine Policy: From Centralization to Coordination with Mid-Pandemic COVID-19 Shifts

Combining a historical institutionalism approach with institutional isomorphism and punctuated equilibrium, this article analyzes quarantine policy change across 120 years of Australian quarantine history. By anchoring its analysis within specific time periods (the years before the Spanish flu, seven decades of inaction, and multiple post-1997 pandemic updates and responses), the authors highlight when and why policies did or did not change and how the constant push-and-pull between state and Commonwealth institutional ownership altered policy possibilities. The heart of the analysis showcases how Australia's successful COVID-19 response is a unique output of prior quarantine policies, institutional evolution, and mid-pandemic alterations of key national pandemic response plans.     

The Sincerest Form of Flattery: Nationalist Emulation during the COVID-19 Pandemic

As COVID-19 rapidly spread across the globe, every government in the world has been forced to enact policies to slow the spread of the virus. While leaders often claim responses are based on the best available advice from scientists and public health experts, recent policy diffusion research suggests that countries are emulating the COVID-19 policies of their neighbors instead of responding to domestic conditions. Political and geographic considerations play a role in determining which countries imitate one another, but even among countries that are politically or geographically distant, nationalist regimes seem to favor certain approaches towards the pandemic. We investigate why this is the case by examining whether countries that embrace a nationalist ideology are more likely to emulate the COVID-19 policies of similarly nationalist regimes. We demonstrate that, even after controlling for domestic circumstances and linguistic, trade, geographic, and political connections, nationalist countries are emulating each other’s responses. These results are robust and shed light not only on new mechanisms of policy diffusion but also on the growing international cooperation of nationalist regimes and leaders.

     

新冠肺炎疫情对中国宏观经济的影响与对策探讨

从50种重要生产资料市场价格的近期波动和同期对比来看,新冠肺炎疫情对我国宏观经济运行的确产生了显著的负面冲击。尽管这种冲击是暂时的,并没有改变我国经济总体向好的基本态势,但仍对我国主要宏观经济变量产生了不可忽视的重要影响。一方面,导致我国就业出现"前紧后难"态势,并可能改变未来的就业结构;另一方面,使我国外需所面临的不确定性提高,内需则可能会出现明显的结构性分化。与此同时,疫情将加大政府财政增支和减收双重压力,导致我国物价水平波动加剧,并存在诱发新一轮通货膨胀的潜在风险。针对挑战,需要从就业、需求和宏观调控等三个角度予以应对。     

Unfunded Mandates and Fiscal Structure: Empirical Evidence from a Synthetic Control Model

An unfunded expenditure mandate occurs when governments are required to provide a good or service by a higher level of government without an accompanying revenue source. There are no empirical studies providing causal evidence on the fiscal influence of intergovernmental mandates. This article examines Florida's 1990 constitutional Amendment 3, which sought to limit unfunded state mandates on municipal and county governments. The synthetic control method, an empirical technique for drawing causal inferences from case studies, estimates the effect of Amendment 3 on state expenditures and total transfers to local governments. The results indicate that state expenditures increased by an annual average of 9.5 percent, while state transfers to all local governments were unaffected. However, the municipalities protected by Amendment 3 saw intergovernmental revenue from the state decrease by 10 percent annually, which suggests that remaining mandates likely targeted special districts, encouraging the fragmentation of local public service delivery.