Perceptions of Discretion in Street-Level Public Service: Examining Administrative Governance in Romania

ABSTRACT

Street-level bureaucrats have long been seen as key figures in program and policy implementation, often occupying unique positions that encompass executive, legislative, and judicial functions. Osborne’s concept of the New Public Governance addresses concepts of policy implementation and interpretive activities that characterize street-level bureaucracy. Current understanding of street-level bureaucracy is, however, dominated by research focused on the United States and the United Kingdom, both of which demonstrate differences from countries in Eastern Europe. This study uses survey data to examine street-level bureaucracy in Romania, with attention to the determinants of bureaucratic perceptions of discretion. Results indicate that proactive personality, prosocial motivation, autonomy, job satisfaction, and years of experience are related to individual perceptions of discretionary latitude among front-line workers.     

Dynamics of Policymaking: Stepping Back to Leap Forward,Stepping Forward to Keep Back

We study dynamic policymaking when today's policy agreement becomes tomorrow's status quo, agents account for the consequences of today's policies for future policy outcomes, and there is uncertainty about who will hold future political power to propose and veto future policy changes. Today's agenda setter holds back from fully exploiting present opportunities to move policy toward her ideal point whenever future proposer and veto players are likely to be aligned either in favor of reform or against it. Otherwise, agenda setters advance their short‐run interests. Optimal proposals can vary discontinuously and nonmonotonically with political fundamentals.     

The Physiological Expression of Living in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods for Youth

Evidence suggests that the consequences of chronic exposure to stressors extend beyond psychological effects, and that adolescents living in socio-economically disadvantaged neighborhoods may experience an accumulation of exposure to stressors that wears down the physical systems in the body, resulting in hyper-activation of the stress response. This research examines the relationship between exposure to neighborhood stressors and salivary cortisol reactivity in a sample of 163 at-risk African American adolescents (average age 21; 50 % female) living in disadvantaged urban neighborhoods. More specifically, the relationship between neighborhood stressors and physiological stress, measured by baseline cortisol and cortisol reactivity is assessed. This research also examines several moderating pathways between exposure to neighborhood disadvantage and cortisol reactivity including substance use, high effort coping, psychological stress and social support. Results indicate that both individual and neighborhood-level factors influence adolescent cortisol. High effort coping and psychological stress were associated with cortisol in the sample, and exposure to neighborhood socio-economic disadvantage resulted in an atypical cortisol response. In addition, neighborhood disadvantage interacted with intra- and interpersonal factors to affect cortisol indirectly. Thus, living in disadvantaged neighborhoods may take a psychological and physiological toll on adolescents, and it also may exert synergistic effects through individual coping and vulnerabilities.     

Information,power, and location: World Bank staff decentralization and aid project success

Using data on World Bank staff identity and field placement, this article examines the relationship between staff presence in recipient countries and aid project performance. I find that merely placing World Bank staff in developing countries has little effect on the success of development projects. Greater field decision rights are, however, associated with differential project performance. In the most fragile states, the presence of senior personnel (World Bank Country Directors) is associated with greater project success after the “Strategic Compact” increased Country Directors' power. However—consistent with a bargaining model in which greater World Bank authority is in tension with recipient country direction of projects—as countries become less fragile, the net effect of the presence of Country Directors becomes negative. The impact of World Bank staff decentralization is mixed and appears to be driven primarily by the power of senior personnel in the field, not the ability of field staff to gather local information.     

Receptivity to Violence in Ethnically Divided Societies: A Micro-Level Mechanism of Perceived Horizontal Inequalities

Although past scholarship shows that group inequalities in economic and political power (“Horizontal Inequalities”) correlate with dissent, violence, and civil wars, there is no direct empirical test of the perceptual explanation for this relationship at the individual level. Such explanation is vital to understanding how integration, inclusion in power-sharing agreements, and exclusion from political power filter down to mass publics. Moreover, subjective perceptions of group conditions do not always correspond to objective group realities. We hypothesize subjective perceptions attenuate the effect of objective exclusion on support for violence in ethnically divided societies. Cross-national comparative multilevel analyses of the 2005/6 Afrobarometer dataset (N = 19,278) confirm that subjective perceptions both amplify the effect of exclusion on acceptance of violence and alter the readiness of included groups to dissent. These findings carry implications for research, state-building, and conflict management.     

破产原因的反思与解析——兼对《企业破产法》第2条的解读

破产原因是债务人是否被宣告破产的关键,其破产原因的法律界定影响着破产法维护社会经济秩序功能的发挥。从破产原因的一般理论出发,借鉴国外破产原因的立法规定,反思我国1986年破产法中的破产原因,进一步解析2006年《中华人民共和国破产法》第2条,将破产原因区分为不能清偿到期债务且资不抵债和不能清偿到期债务且停止支付两种,分别适用于债务人自愿提出破产申请和债权人提出破产申请的情况。     

论相对不诉的司法适用及完善

我国刑事诉讼法第142条第2款规定：＂对于犯罪情节轻微,依照刑法规定不需要判处刑罚或者免除刑罚的,人民检察院可以作出不起诉决定。＂相对不起诉,赋予检察机关对具体案件提起控诉的自由裁量权,但实践中其适用却并不充分。本文从相对不诉案件司法适用,实践中存在问题,以及对相对不诉适用的完善等方面进行了论述。     

论刑事政策学的研究对象

刑事政策学是源起于欧洲大陆国家的一门与刑法、刑事诉讼法、犯罪学、政治学、社会学等涉及刑事司法的社会科学相关联的学科。对其研究对象的理解和适用直接和一国一时的政治制度紧密相连。本文以对刑事政策学的研究对象的梳理与回顾,来探寻刑事政策作为刑事政策学的研究对象在现实的刑事司法活动中的具体作用,从而使我国的刑事政策更好地以我国的公共政策为依托,并和公共政策保持相对的一致性。     

反思世界主义——从法国种族中心主义谈起

随着世界种族冲突问题的日益突出,种族中心主义(l'ethnocentrisme)已成为人们越来越关注的问题。现实生活中由于受报刊、杂志等传媒的影响,特别是第二次世界大战德国