Commentary: In Response to the Paper by Oran R. Young,How Can International Regimes Solve Environmental Problems? (see pp. 9–29)

International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics -     

Profit sharing and job anxiety: moving public policy toward a win-win solution

Interest in profit sharing as a form of flexible pay is part of a larger interest in more flexible personnel practices. The interest in flexibility, in turn, reflects a perceived increase in product-market uncertainty. Where in the past employers have offered job security - due to legal mandate or practice - increased product market uncertainty makes such job “insurance” more costly. Job security protections can be viewed as an employee option to sell labor at the going wage, even when its value to the firm has dropped. As is true of financial options, the cost increases with the variability of the value of the underlying asset. Recent political trends in the U.S. suggest that there are social costs to the flexibility in American labor markets about which mainstream politicians have little to offer.     

Meritocracy Is a Good Thing

Political meritocracy is the idea that a political system is dcsigned with the aim of selecting political leaders with above average ability to make morally informed political judgments.Political meritocracy has been largely eclipsed from political theorizing in the modern world,but there are three important reasons for reviving and reinterpreting this political ideal,particularly in a Chinese context.First,political meritocracy has been,and continues to be,central to Chinese political culture.Second,democracy is a flawed political system and meritocracy can help to remedy some of its flaws.Third,the Communist Party of China (CPC) itself has become a more meritocratic organization over the last three decades or so.     

Research use capacity in provincial governments

Despite advances in research‐informed public policy, research remains underutilized in government. To develop a firmer understanding of governmental capacity to use research in decision making, we investigate Canadian provincial ministries overseeing education, higher education, and science and technology. The findings from semi‐structured interviews indicate that capacity to generate and access research is limited. However, we find evidence of a recent change in which provincial agencies sought to bolster capacity with research use strategies and by leveraging relationships with researchers. Leaders’ support for well‐coordinated research use initiatives also seems critical to instilling a culture of research‐informed decision making in government agencies.