Competing for father's love? The politics of central government agency termination in China

It is well known that public agencies are nearly immortal, but what explains their termination? This article argues that apart from conventional antecedents, political salience defined by top leaders largely shapes government agencies' life cycle. In one of the first large‐N analyses of agency termination in a non‐Western authoritarian regime, we used longitudinal data for the central apparatus in China from 1949 to 1976 to test this hypothesis. We specifically used Chairman Mao's written directives to measure political salience and found that agencies that received more directives were less likely to be terminated. In contrast, agencies less attended to the boss were less likely to survive major restructurings. We also found that peripheral agencies (e.g., smaller, lower‐ranking agencies with noncore functions) benefited more from leaders' attention. We compare the results with the existing literature and suggest some theoretical and policy implications.     

Offending the One Percent: Seven Arguments Against Distributive Desert

The belief that people morally deserve the income they acquire in the market is both powerful and deep-rooted. Nevertheless, most political philosophers are skeptical of the idea that market income is morally deserved. There is thus a large and uncomfortable chasm between the philosophical mainstream and the actual public. The purpose of this article was to inject new intellectual effort in closing this gap. The goal is the ambitious one of a comprehensive demolition of the notion of distributive desert. To this end, I put forward seven critical arguments. Four of them are common in the literature. Since these have been adequately discussed elsewhere, I mention them here briefly and only for completeness. The core of the article focuses on three original arguments. Overall, my aim is to show that, taking these arguments together, the case against distributive desert is conclusive.     

The coastal zone as an administrative entity for governing U.S. marine minerals development

The coastal zone is being promoted as a spatial unit to coordinate and administer offshore minerals development with other coastal uses. Rather than aiding the administration of minerals development , the coastal zone is being used as the reason to block such development. This paper explores the coastal zone concept as an entity for administration. It concludes that just because minerals may be found in a coastal zone does not mean that physical entity is the most appropriate vehicle for administering mineral development. Arbitrariness at to what is included or excluded from a coastal zone as well as many minerals impacts being found outside of the coastal zone militate against such an entity being the sole criterion for decisionmaking. While the coastal zone may be appropriate for some mineral decisions, the choice to implement it must be arrayed against alternative criteria to ensure a high degree of effectiveness and efficiency in those decisions.     

Public budgeting and financial management curriculum reform: A conceptual framework

Public budgeting and financial management (PBFM) education has been undergoing intense scrutiny which can be seen through many professional conferences, journal symposia, and recently, the creation in 1984 of a Task Force on Budgeting and Financial Management Curriculum Reform by the Section on Budgeting and Financial Management of the American Society for Public Administration. This study analyzes pedagogic deficits in PBFM, suggests a comprehensive scope of PBFM, points to some dilemmas in PBFM curriculum design or reform, proposes some models for a curriculum reform, and raises some implementation constraints in each model.     

Human Rigghts: A Culture of Controversy

Many arguments in favour of constitutionally entrenched Bills of Rights are undermined by the inherently controversial nature of human rights with respect to their content, their form, and their valence. Even in the case of civil and political rights, the concretization of rights at the level of specificity required to decide particular cases must always be politically and morally controversial. There is no accepted moral or legal method that can be utilized to give the requisite objectivity to the value choices inherent in human rights jurisprudence. Positivization of human rights increases their utility but compromises their moral status. It follows that legitimate articulation of human rights requires ongoing democratic dialogue and decision-making. Although perceived as a stop-gap measure, the Human Rights Act 1998 could facilitate an enduring partnership between courts and parliaments, placing human rights more firmly on the political agenda and establishing a proper balance between the inputs of courts and parliaments which recognizes that the development of positivized human rights must be primarily located in electorally-based politics.     

Constitutional Rights in the Irish Home Rule Bill of 1893

In 1893, Prime Minister Gladstone introduced the second Irish home rule bill in parliament. The bill broke with tradition in Britain and the empire, as it included provisions from the bill of rights of the United States. Its significance was clear at the time: it was debated for nine days in the committee stage and, with one minor amendment, it remained part of the bill that passed the Commons. However, the bill was defeated in the Lords and, at least in the United Kingdom, bills of rights were dismissed as unnecessary or detrimental to sound governance until well after the second world war. This article therefore tries to understand how this early bill of rights was regarded at the time. Who suggested, or demanded, its inclusion? How did they expect it to be applied? And how did the debate reflect and influence thinking about constitutional law in Britain and the empire?     

美国安全应急体制的改革与启示

作为目前世界上安全应急体制发展最为成熟的国家,美国安全应急体制深受各国政府关注和学者重视。以历史唯物观所强调的社会有机体中生产力、生产关系和上层建筑三者之间的相互联系为依据,为美国安全应急体制设立安全应急环境、安全应急理念和安全应急机制三种变量,并以这三种变量之间的相互作用来分析美国安全应急体制改革历程的内在动力和发展趋势,可以发现,美国安全应急体制是在应对核战争所代表的传统安全威胁、自然灾害所代表的民生安全威胁以及恐怖主义攻击所代表的非传统安全威胁的过程中建立和形成的,这一体制的逐步完善也是其中所涉及的环境、理念和机制等三种变量之间相互作用和影响的结果。其改革发展历程的经验表明,美国安全应急体制能够适应安全环境变化而及时调整安全应急理念,并通过制定相关法律法规和完善组织机构来健全安全应急机制,因而具有积极的借鉴作用。但这一体制的发展往往过度依赖客观环境的推动,也会造成应急管理在主观上的防范疏漏,其中失败的教训也应当加以注意。     

地方政府公共服务供给能力:影响因素与实现路径

公共服务均等化是和谐社会的重要内容,而地方政府公共服务供给能力提升是公共服务均等化目标实现的重要保障。传统观点认为,地方经济或财政实力决定地方政府公共服务供给能力,但是,我们认为公民参与、社会组织、信息沟通、电子政务技术等对地方政府公共服务供给能力提升更具影响力。在公共治理理论框架下,本文分析了影响地方政府公共服务供给能力提升的经济、政治与社会综合因素,并在此基础上,提出了系统提升地方政府公共服务供给能力的实现路径。