Intergovernmental Relations: Ensuring Informed Cooperation in Strategic Policy Development

COAG was formed out of a concern by commonwealth, state and territory governments to improve intergovernmental cooperation. In particular, COAG allowed leaders and central agencies to discuss and coordinate policy frameworks from a whole-of-government perspective. It also has increased the prospects of further reform to Australia's political system in the areas of financial arrangements, international treaties and constitutional reform.     

In Arms We Trust: the Economic and Strategic Factors Motivating China-Iran Relations

This article examines contemporary China-Iran relations, focusing on the economic and strategic ties that have helped solidify the relationship since 1979. We begin with an overview of the arms and technology transfers that mark the early years of the relationship, analyzing the benefits each side gained from these transactions. In addition to discussing the short-term financial benefits behind forging stronger ties, we examine how the regional ascent of both states has also presented several long term factors that helped motivate their cooperation. These developments shed light on the important role the U.S. has played, both in terms of where it has tried to intervene and what success it has had influencing the Sino-Iranian relationship.     

理解公共领域：从“经济人”到“公共人”

公共选择理论用古典经济学的"经济人"假设来分析市场经济条件下"政府失灵"的原因并提出对策,认为政治家和行政人员也是追求个人利益最大化的"经济人",也是按照成本一收益原则来行事的,所以,公共领域也应该按照私人领域的运行方式来运行.但是,用"经济人"假设来分析公共领域只会颠覆公共领域存在的根本原则,只会导致政府与公众信任关系的急剧恶化.为了维系和重建政府与公众的信任关系,不应该根据"经济人"假设来重建公共领域、而应当大力倡导服务型政府的建立.     

全面提升山西外经贸总量的战略思考

随着经济全球化的发展和我国加入WTO ,对外经贸在拉动经济增长、调整经济结构方面的作用日益凸显。当前 ,总量偏小、结构不优、环境欠佳是制约山西外经贸发展的主要问题。我们只有以优化经济结构为出发点 ,实施科学适用的进出口商品发展战略、进出口市场发展战略、外经贸经营主体发展战略、加工贸易发展战略、科技兴贸战略、服务贸易发展战略和人才战略 ,才能全面提升山西外经贸总量 ,拉动山西经济的更快发展     

Governing the Economic Transition: How Taiwan Transformed its Industrial System to Attain Virtuous Cycle Development

This study explores the transitional processes of Taiwan's innovation system over the past half century, evolving from being rooted in traditional industries to attaining development in a virtuous cycle of development. Our approach is inspired by the Arena of Development theory and acknowledges the system of transformation failures, in which we highlighted the types of failures that might impede economic progress and how they were overcome in the evolutionary targeting of Taiwan's industrial development. Our findings demonstrate that the success of Taiwan's economic transition is targeted on, and evolves with, a series of macrolevel policies in the early phase of development; mesolevel institutional mechanisms to attain the industrial emergence settings; and, in pursuit of the virtuous cycle of development, the microlevel collaboration platform. We attribute the success of Taiwan's industrial system to this series of systematic government interventions. This study provides novel and salient normative principles that guide transformational policymakers in governing transitional processes of innovation system.     

Introduction: Understanding Public Policy through Its Instruments—From the Nature of Instruments to the Sociology of Public Policy Instrumentation

Public policy instrumentation and its choice of tools and modes of operation are treated either as a kind of evidence (governing means making regulations, taxing, entering into contracts, communicating, etc.) or as if the questions it raises (the properties of instruments, justifications for choosing them, their applicability, etc.) are part of a rationality of methods without any autonomous meaning. This paper aims to explain the significance of a political sociology approach to public policy instruments in accounting for processes of public policy change: (1) public policy instrumentation is a major issue in public policy, since it reveals a (fairly explicit) theorization of the relationship between the governing and the governed: every instrument constitutes a condensed form of knowledge about social control and ways of exercising it; and (2) instruments at work are not neutral devices: they produce specific effects, independently of the objective pursued (the aims ascribed to them), which structure public policy according to their own logic.     

制度性危机规律与制度性合作特色——从义乌经验看改革开放30年中国工会的变迁

对于现在的中国工会,人们经常讨论它具有什么特色？我们观察到这样一种特色的现象：胡锦涛同志在党的十七大前后多次强调把握人民群众的新期待;在同全国总工会新一届领导班子成员和中国工会十五大代表座谈时强调,继续推动工会工作改革创新,加强和改善党对工会工作的领导,最广泛地把广大职工群众组织到工会中来,把更多资源和手段赋予工会组织。     

Internet Taxation and U.S. Intergovernmental Relations: From Quill to the Present

One of the most contentious issues involving federal, state,and local relations today is Internet taxation. Internet taxationis a significant battleground because it involves issues ofgreat import to federalism, including state and local autonomyand revenue adequacy. Since the U.S. Supreme Court's 1992 decisionin Quill v. North Dakota, the taxability of online transactionshas been governed by the court's physical presence nexus rule.This nexus rule has recently been called into question by variousorganizations, corporations, and elected officials. Proposalsto alter the nexus rule abound from various sources. This articleexamines the roles played by these various actors in the Internettaxation debate and explores the potential implications of changesto the nexus for federalism and intergovernmental relations.     

Changing Patterns of Party Competition in Austria: From Multipolar to Bipolar System

The Austrian party system has entered a new phase since the controversial ÖVP-FPÖ coalition came into office in February 2000. The party system literature offers two contradicting expectations about party system mechanics in multi-party systems without relevant extremist parties: competition structured by party alliances and strictly competitive relations between government and opposition parties (as suggested by <citeref rid="b30">Sartori 1976</citeref>) versus competition structured by individual parties and some mix of competition and co-operation and perhaps even power-sharing in extra-governmental arenas between government and opposition parties (as suggested by <citeref rid="b3">Dahl 1966</citeref>). Our empirical analysis of party system competitiveness in the electoral, parliamentary and other arenas (in particular, the corporatist arena) between 2000 and 2003 shows that the relations between the government and opposition parties were strictly competitive (i.e. of a zero-sum character) in the electoral arena. Likewise, there was no trading between government and opposition in the parliamentary arena. Finally, the government substantially increased its impact on the official sites (i.e. arenas controlled by the government) and used fire and hire methods more than any of its predecessors to build up its positions in public sector institutions. The opposition parties, in turn, perceived the government parties as a bloc and were united in their goal of undermining the government parties' majority. Yet, while relations between the government and opposition parties remained highly competitive throughout the entire period, relations between the parties on each side of the government-opposition divide became more fluid, partly for tactical considerations and partly for reasons of genuine preferences. In sum, the post-2000 Austrian party system is a weak version of a two-bloc system.     

From International Relations to Global Governance Theory: Conceptualizing NGOs after the Rio Breakthrough of 1992

Abstract

This essay systematizes the ontology of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the processes of their inclusion in world politics. It tracks conceptualizations of NGOs, their integration into IR theory, and the resultant move toward global governance (GG) theory. First, I provide an interdisciplinary ontological evolution of NGOs in international relations (IR): as international interest groups, then transnational social movement organizations, then transnational advocacy networks, and most recently as global civil society. All stress different features of NGO activism, but none have successfully replaced the term ‘NGO.’ Second, this new ontology requires a new process for participation in world politics—GG. GG theory expands on IR theory to include NGOs in multi-actor, issue-driven relationships.     

合作中的竞争：非营利组织与政府的新型关系

非营利组织与政府合作关系的作用已经被许多学者所重视。由于对抗关系的历史缺位,在我国非营利组织的成长过程中这种合作关系缺乏独立性,无法使政府与非营利组织建立真正的合作关系。在两者的合作中加入竞争的因素,建立一种合作中竞争的新型关系,对解决我国目前非营利组织与政府关系存在的问题起着重要的作用,并在此基础上,通过增强非营利组织的自主性,提高政府的行政效率。     

加快我国区域经济合作步伐构建中华自由贸易区

作为政治大国和经济大国,除积极同其他区域经济合作组织进行合作外,无论是从全球战略还是地区战略的角度,中国都需要建立以自身为核心的、完整的、健全的、综合的地区一体化战略。香港、澳门、台湾是中国的三个单独关税区,又是互为重要的贸易与投资伙伴。两岸四方建立自由贸易区即“中华自由贸易区”,是两岸四地经济繁荣与发展的需要,是顺应历史潮流的举措,也是新世纪“一国两制”的新发展。     

深入理解按贡献分配需要把握的几个关系

深入理解按贡献分配理论 ,需要把握分配与生产、按贡献分配与按要素分配、按贡献分配与市场经济、按贡献分配与现行主体分配制度、按贡献分配原则与具体分配模式、活劳动贡献与其他贡献、要素与产权、贡献与收入等八个方面的关系。     

重新审视冷战时期的中美关系--评《从对峙走向缓和--冷战时期中美关系再探讨》

中美关系一直是学者探讨的焦点与热点。由姜长斌、罗伯特·罗斯主编、世界知识出版社出版的新书《从对峙走向缓和——冷战时期中美关系再探讨》（以下简称《再探讨》）,在国际问题和外交史学界引起了广泛的注意。该书以翔实可靠的最新史料为基础,着力从不同的角度,重新审视了冷战时期的中美关系。该书有以下几个特点。 一、视角的突破。多角度的透视更能准确全面地把握事物的本来面目,提炼出事物的本质,甄别轻重,区分主次。中、美、英、加四国十六位学者以不同的知识结构,植根于不同的文化,进行中美关系史的发现与解读。这种多角度…     

Understanding Strategic Planning and the Formulation and Implementation of Strategic Plans as a Way of Knowing: The Contributions of Actor-Network Theory

ABSTRACT

This article has two purposes: first, to take seriously the notion of strategic planning as a way of knowing, and second, to argue that actor-network theory provides a particularly apposite method for understanding whether and how strategic planning works in particular circumstances. Pursuit of these purposes also helps illuminate possible contributions of strategic planning to inclusive, participative, and democratic public management. The paper is illustrated with examples from the 1995 and 2007 strategic planning and subsequent implementation efforts of MetroGIS, an organization created to foster widespread sharing of geospatial information primarily among public organizatons serving the Twin Cities metropolitan area of Minnesota, USA, and further, to enhance their individual and collective effectiveness. The Metropolitan Council, the regional government, is the primary sponsor of MetroGIS, which is comprised of over 300 organizational partners across the region. Conclusions are offered about the importance of viewing and studying strategic planning as a way of knowing and as a potential vehicle for inclusive public management in a democratic society.

[A table featuring a complete timeline of the major MetroGIS accomplishments between 1995 and 2008; the controversies, participants, processes, technologies, and artifacts involved; and the outcomes or major consequences resulting from the accomplishment is included as an online supplement on the publisher's website.]     

Theory to Practice: Policy Recommendations for Fostering Economic Development through Social Capital

Proponents of social capital theory have long argued not only that it is in the best interest of civic life to build social capital but also that social capital is vital for the economic health of communities. This has been confirmed by recent research showing that social capital, especially in its bridging form, is positively associated with job creation at the metropolitan statistical area level. At the same time, social capital is often viewed as something either inherent or absent within a community. This article takes on that assumption by presenting a policy‐based approach to developing social capital. It provides two theoretical explanations for how social capital affects economic development and identifies four lessons for economic development practitioners to use to enhance social capital. These research‐based recommendations for economic development practitioners and policy makers seek to improve the social capital and, consequently, the economic development of their community.     

从补缺式模式到定制式模式:非营利组织参与公共服务供给体制的战略转型

公共服务供给模式的选择,体现了政府职能的定位与公共事务治理之道。补缺式模式是改革开放以来非营利组织参与公共服务供给的一种基本形态,有效地填补了政府的缺位,为民众适时地提供了力所能及的公共服务。在政府逐渐履行其基本公共服务职责后,非营利组织在这些领域的角色越来越弱化,需要有一个角色的战略性转型和功能的全新提升,相应的,中国的公共服务供给模式逐渐从补缺式公共服务供给模式走向定制式公共服务供给模式。作为公共服务供给模式的革新方向,其目标就是建构非营利组织与政府的战略性合作联盟这一理想模式。这种战略性联盟是以政府为主导、政府与非营利组织合作的公共服务供给新体制,即通过政府购买服务方式提升合作治理的制度化水平,以及通过个性化、差异化的定制方式提升政府回应性水平,进而形成一种战略性联盟,并在此基础上,以深化流程再造方式来全面提升公共服务供给模式的服务质量。