Third Way Regulation? Community Legal Service Partnerships

This article examines recent changes in the civil legal aid scheme in England and Wales (now called the Community Legal Service) and the creation of Community Legal Service Partnerships in particular. The article explores three main interests: it illustrates how third way thinking has been applied to the reform of the legal aid scheme under the Access to Justice Act 1999; it explores how partnership fits within theories of public regulation; and it illustrates how professionalism is being re-shaped by a combination of new public management, contractualism and partnership. It points to important limitations in new public law theories of extended accountability and democratised governance as manifested in partnerships.     

高官问责制度构建模式的多维比较——以中国内地和香港为分析案例

不同国家和地区发展阶段、历史传统和现实环境,决定了其面临不同的制约与困境,进而形成了不同的问责制度构建模式。选择中国内地和香港地区为案例,以集中比较分析为理论视角,经由对两地问责制度出台背景与内涵特征的对比研究,挖掘出二者在构建模式上的多维差异并得出结论:从决策程序层面,内地高官问责制度是以危机决策形式发生,而香港高官问责制度则遵循了一般意义上的常规决策程序;从制度构成层面,内地高官问责制是基于单项规则的推进,而香港高官问责制更强调制度体系的整体构建;从改革性质层面,内地选择在行政管理改革框架内推行高官问责制,而香港高官问责制则属于政治体制层面的尝试性改革。在此基础上进一步认为,在制度背景和改革序列意义上,两地问责制度的构建模式并无优劣之分,而只是路径依赖作用下的理性选择。     

论我国警察权控制模式的完善

从对＂警察＂词源的发展的研究来看,对警察权的法律控制存在很大的困难。借鉴国外警察权控制的经验,我国应从立法、警察负责制、警察职能、警察权行使救济机制以及警察培训内容这五个方面完善警察权控制体系。     

Economic voting in Latin America: A general model

Economics and elections have been much-studied in the highincome democracies of North America and Europe. However, little is known, especially comparatively, about economic voting in low-income democracies, such as those of Latin America. Here we offer the first comparative election study of the economic vote in this region. We apply a series of ever-more demanding statistical tests to an election survey pool of 12 Latin American nations, measured at three time periods (total N > 7000). Unambiguously, the finding is of highly significant, even strong, sociotropic retrospective economic effects on the incumbent vote. In Latin America, as in other democratic nations studied thus far, governments are rewarded or punished, according to the economic performance they command.     

我国行政问责的法治化思考

我国行政问责经历了一个从权力问责到制度问责、再由制度问责趋向法治问责即问责法治化的过程。问责法治化不等于问责制度化,问责制度化是问责法治化的一种表象。我国行政问责法治化对推进法治国家建设、促进社会和谐进步、加强公民权利保障和完善反腐倡廉机制都有重要的现实意义。行政问责法治化的基本理念应包括公众参与、规范统一、程序公正、权责一致、救济有力五个方面,其中公众参与理念是核心。     

行政问责制:浦东的实践与思考

以上海浦东新区行政问责制为研究视角,在阐析"十一五"期间,浦东在推进综合配套改革试点和建设服务型政府的进程中,积极探索和建立具有地方特色的行政问责制的主要做法、成效,以及当前存在主要问题的基础上,从强化异体问责,健全多元行政问责体系;规范问责方式,加强问责结果与问责事由的对应关系;加强行政问责制度的体系建设,深入推进权力公开透明运行;细化行政问责的工作流程,进一步规范问责程序;完善绩效评估,奠定行政问责制的依据和基础等五个方面,提出进一步健全浦东新区行政问责制的对策和建议。     

Education and training in public administration: transference of segmenting organizational behavior

Organizations can survive, let alone progress, only if they carry out meaningful transactions with society at large. This process requires they differentiate their “organizational being” to respond to clientele needs and/or user demands. The inherent problem is that these differentiated structures may become segmented into tightly closed systems, being in effect organizations within organization characterized by self-serving vested interests. Expediency becomes the operating rule. Segmentation is common to all societies, but it is especially prevalent in situations of decline.

Advanced in this discussion is that the segmentation process may be accelerated and consolidated by in-house training and education, and especially by those of a public management character. A plea is made for universities to become more actively engaged in (a) the preparation and placement of “quality” educated persons and (b) the search/development of new public organization.     

Accountability and Authoritarianism: Human Rights in Malaysia and Singapore

The concept of accountability enjoys wide and growing appeal, its advocates submitting both normative and functional arguments for institutions limiting discretionary powers of political and economic elites. This development is seen as facilitative of democratisation, especially in post-authoritarian societies. Yet it has gone almost unnoticed that not all authoritarian regimes have dismissed accountability reform and some are adopting reforms in its name. This article contrasts the patterns in Malaysia and Singapore on a specific accountability institution – human rights commissions – offering explanations for why the former has established one and the latter not. It is argued that intra-state conflicts associated with Malaysian capitalism have created pressures and opportunities for accountability reform not matched in Singapore where there is a more cohesive ruling elite. Moreover, the PAP's acute ideological emphasis on meritocracy concedes no space for horizontal political accountability.     

Audit Committees and Accountability in Local Government: A National Survey

Abstract

Financial scandals in city governments have received increased publicity in recent years. Audit committees have been suggested as a way review and improve standards and procedures for financial accountability. Audit committees assist local government managers in overseeing and monitoring the financial accounting and auditing process. They provide a communication link between elected officials, municipal managers, and independent auditors. This study relies on national survey data to examine the prevalence, role, and composition of audit committees in cities with populations over 65,000 and the conditions affecting their use and effectiveness. Interviews and a brief case study supplement survey data to provide richer detail regarding the performance of audit committees in ensuring improved accountability.     

Localism and Accountability in a Post-Collaborative Era: Where Does It Leave the Community Right to Challenge?

Since the establishment of subsidiarity in the early 1990s, the European-wide move to devolve governance has been interpreted by previous and present UK governments adopting differing ideological positions within a ‘localism agenda’. Interpretations have changed the dynamics of the community right to challenge, as well as the structure and mechanisms for community accountability. This article adopts the typology of forms of local governance developed by Lowndes and Sullivan (2008, How low can you go? Rationales and challenges for neighbourhood governance. Public Administration, 86 (1), 1–22) to explore the hypothesis that the localism agenda realigns the synergy between neighbourhood rationales; citizen engagement in service delivery and the opportunity for public scrutiny and accountability. It concludes that opportunities for communities to challenge service delivery and ensure increased accountability to the local level will be tempered by increased complexity and demands on local authorities to develop new relationships with both service users and providers.