The paradox of policy analysis: If it is not used,why do we produce so much of it?

This article explores the apparent paradox that our society invests heavily in policy analysis when empirical studies, political science theory, and common wisdom all suggest that analysis is not used by policymakers to make better policy decisions. It offers a critique of the traditional view of policy analysis and presents an alternative view derived from contemporary literature on the policy process and decisionmaking. The alternative view suggests that there are legitimate uses for analysis other than the problem‐solving use originally envisioned but apparently rarely attained. The two views imply different patterns of use of analysis by legislative committees—a contrast that I subject to an empirical test. An examination of quantitative data on policy analysis use by congressional committees from 1985 to 1994 lends support for the alternative view. The research has two implications. First, despite its scientific origins, policy analysis may be a more effective instrument of the democratic process than of the problem‐solving process. Second, the profession of policy analysis may be in better shape than many who are calling for fundamental changes to its practice seem to believe. © 1999 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

论行政诉讼缺席判决制度的目的、功能和司法理想

改造完善行政诉讼缺席判决制度必须解决的三个基本理论问题:行政诉讼缺席判决制度的目的、功能和司法理想。缺席判决制度的设立目的是为人民法院在缺席行政案件审理中运用审判权提供程序保障,维护法律尤其是司法的尊严;缺席判决制度的功能应当是控制缺席情形的发生,保障诉讼当事人的合法权利,保证司法审查权通过诉讼程序得到实现;理想的缺席判决制度应当是能为当事人所理解的具有正当性和高效性的制度。     

第三人利益的保护——善意取得还是无因性原则

我国正在制定的《物权法》,在第三人利益保护的问题上 ,存在着适用善意取得制度或物权无因性原则两种观点的争论。本文认为 ,善意取得制度更能体现法的正义性 ,也更切合我国的国情 ,所以应是我国立法的选择。但善意取得制度应吸取无因性原则的优点 ,对善意的认定应采用客观推定的办法。本文同时提出了其他方面完善的措施。     

略论黑社会性质组织特征

黑社会性质组织是一种特殊的共同犯罪形式,具有共同犯罪形式的一般构成特征。根据相应的综合划分标准,可以将共同犯罪形式分为五种基本形式,即黑社会、黑社会组织、黑社会性质组织、犯罪集团、犯罪团伙。通过比照梳理黑社会性质组织和这四种共同犯罪形式,揭示了黑社会性质组织构成特征,同时特别剖析了黑社会性质组织行为特征。     

Public sector innovation in the Asia-pacific trends,challenges, and opportunities

Public organizations face a multitude of challenges that force them to innovate existing processes, policies, programs, and products. Indeed, in recent years, innovation has become a core topic of study in public administration. However, the vast majority of the public sector innovation literature stems from the United States and Western Europe. The lack of Asia-Pacific studies is particularly striking given that countries like Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan consistently rank high on public sector innovation. This special issue brings together state of the art empirical research on public sector innovation in the Asia-Pacific region that examines a range of drivers and outcomes of innovation, including studies comparing Asia-Pacific countries and countries in the East and the West. The findings show that public sector employees in the studied countries all seek opportunities to innovate, whereas cultural norms and values either constrain or enable innovative behaviour and affect the extent to which employees experience leadership support for displaying such behaviour.     

Voter reaction to legislator dissent across political systems

Research shows that legislators who dissent from the political line of their party are rewarded among constituents. This raises concerns about future party cohesiveness and, in turn, parties’ ability to govern and voters' ability to hold parties accountable. However, nearly all studies are conducted in single-member district systems, such as the United States and United Kingdom, which are generally considered most-likely settings for observing such effects. In this note, we conduct a country comparative study of voter reaction to legislator dissent across single-member and multi-member district systems (US, UK and Denmark). Building off existing theories, we argue that voters in multi-member districts also reward legislator dissent but that the reward is significantly weaker. We support this argument with observational and experimental data. Our results suggest that concerns regarding party governance and accountability associated with legislator party dissent extend to—but are less pertinent in—the more widespread multi-member district systems.     

Tracing Foreign Policy Decisions: A Study of Citizens' Use of Heuristics

Public opinion researchers agree that citizens use simplifying heuristics to reach real, stable preferences. In domestic policy, the focus has been on citizens delegating judgement to opinion leaders, notably political parties. By contrast, citizens have been held to deduce foreign policy opinions from their own values or principles. Yet there is ample scope for delegation in the foreign policy sphere. In this exploratory study I use a 'process-tracing' method to test directly for delegation heuristic processing in university students' judgements on the Iranian nuclear issue. A substantial minority sought guidance on foreign policy decisions, either from parties, international actors or newspapers. This was not always simple delegation; some used such heuristics within more complex decision-making processes. However, others relied on simple delegation, raising questions about the 'effectiveness' of their processing.     

When politics prevails: Parties,elections and loyalty in the European Parliament

In many political systems, legislators serve multiple principals who compete for their loyalty in legislative votes. This article explores the political conditions under which legislators choose between their competing principals in multilevel systems, with a focus on how election proximity shapes legislative behaviour across democratic arenas. Empirically, the effect of electoral cycles on national party delegations’ ‘collective disloyalty’ with their political groups in the European Parliament (EP) is analysed. It is argued that election proximity changes the time horizons, political incentives and risk perceptions of both delegations and their principals, ‘punctuating’ cost‐benefit calculations around defection as well as around controlling, sanctioning and accommodating. Under the shadow of elections, national delegations’ collective disloyalty with their transnational groups should, therefore, increase. Using a new dataset with roll‐call votes cast under legislative codecision by delegations between July 1999 and July 2014, the article shows that the proximity of planned national and European elections drives up disloyalty in the EP, particularly by delegations from member states with party‐centred electoral rules. The results also support a ‘politicisation’ effect: overall, delegations become more loyal over time, but the impact of election proximity as a driver of disloyalty is strongest in the latest parliament analysed (i.e., 2009–2014). Furthermore, disloyalty is more likely in votes on contested and salient legislation, and under conditions of Euroscepticism; by contrast, disloyalty is less likely in votes on codification files, when a delegation holds the rapporteurship and when the national party participates in government. The analysis sheds new light on electoral politics as a determinant of legislative choice under competing principals, and on the conditions under which politics ‘travels’ across democratic arenas in the European Union's multilevel polity.     

人性化立法与立法语言的优化

人性化立法涉及立法工作中的民本思想。自改革开放以来,我国社会主义法制逐步完善,但立法中存在一些缺陷:1.重义务规定而忽视权利规定;2.重实体内容而轻视立法表达技术;3.立法表达不够完整;4.立法表述中的语病。如何做到人性化立法与立法语言优化?1.要以人为本,树立人性化立法的理念;2.要克服重实体内容、轻视立法表达技术的思维倾向;3.要重视对立法语言的研究;4.立法过程中要多听取法学家和语言学家的意见。     

完全的实体权利消灭主义:我国诉讼时效效力立法的应然选择——诉讼时效基本理论的反思与我国诉讼时效立法的重新选择(之四)

既有的关于诉讼时效法律效力立法模式中的诉权消灭、胜诉权消灭和不完全的实体权利消灭主义,存在理论上不可克服的内在逻辑矛盾.抗辩权产生主义的立法模式在法律逻辑上可行,但难以充分发挥诉讼时效的债权信用保障功能,与诉讼时效的理论基础不完全吻合,仍然可能对交易安全构成伤害.我国关于诉讼时效法律效力的民事立法,应当抛弃所有既存模式,以完全的实体权利消灭主义作为选择.在实行完全的实体权利消灭主义同时,可适度延长诉讼时效期间,借助于债法的不当得利和撤销权制度,弥补完全的实体权利消灭主义立法模式可能带来的不公平.