The Second Time as Tragedy? Welfare Reform under Thatcher and the Coalition

The welfare reforms of the Coalition government are marked by the legacy of Thatcherism. Social security reforms in the 1980s reshaped the system towards reliance on means‐tested benefits. Negative policy feedback created by the opacity and perverse effects of means‐testing has made these benefits an easy target for the Coalition, at least so far as working age people are concerned. Different policy feedbacks affect policy towards old age pensions. The government is locked into promoting private pensions, and is extending this commitment with automatic enrolment. To make private pensions pay, it has to reverse the slide to means‐testing. The implication is that the pronounced bias against the working poor and in favour of older people in Coalition policy is not simply a matter of electoral preferences: rather, it reflects the political effects of previous policy decisions.     

中国公共政策过程的研究:西方学者的视角及其启示

1950年后,西方开始兴起中国政策过程研究的热潮。从五六十年代到九十年代,以美国学者为主的西方学者的研究视角从精英、派系逐渐转向官僚组织,其政策过程的模式包括理性决策模型、权力斗争模型、讨价还价模型、各自为政模型、竞争性说服模型等。本文总结了中国政策过程的特点和影响因素,即政策议程设定与政治高度相关、政策目标追求“模糊共识”、政策决策过程“讨价还价”、政策执行呈现出显著的差异性和多样性、政策变动周期不稳定等。     

Searching for a “Sound Negro Policy”: A Racial Agenda for the Housing Acts of 1949 and 1954

Abstract

The Housing Acts of 1949 and 1954 provided the foundation for slum clearance and urban renewal. Despite efforts to finesse the issue, race remained central to the formation and implementation of public policy. The Racial Relations Service (RRS), an institutional remnant of the New Deal, tried unsuccessfully to prevent local authorities from using the new federal resources to reinforce existing “ghettos.” Searching for a “sound Negro policy,” the RRS warned housing officials against pursuing such a course and offered bureaucratic resistance to individual projects deemed inimical to minority interests.

The coincidence of demographic and political change in the 1950s, the subsequent dismantling of the RRS, the reaction to the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education, and the passage of the Housing Act of 1954 all contributed to the use of urban renewal to create and sustain racially separate neighborhoods even as the civil rights movement gained momentum.     

The Evolution of Low‐Income Housing Policy, 1949 to 1999

Abstract

The evolution of low‐income housing policy during the past 50 years can be divided roughly into two segments: the first running from 1949 to the 1973 Nixon moratorium on subsidized production programs and the second from 1973 to the present, marked by a diminished federal leadership role and an increased state and local role. After tracing the rise of the federal leadership role represented in the Housing Acts of 1949 and 1968, this article focuses on the development of three important policy instruments that mark the devolution of housing policy: housing vouchers, housing block grants, and the Low‐Income Housing Tax Credit.

The three‐pronged strategy of vouchers, block grants, and tax credits has achieved reasonably good results and attracted an unusual degree of political consensus. A steady expansion of all three offers the most promising path to the “realization as soon as feasible” of the national housing goal.     

Short notices

Eastern Asia: An Introductory History, edited by Colin Mackerras. Longman Cheshire Pty Ltd., Melbourne, 1992. xiv + 639 pp., illus., tables, maps. Aus $18.99. ISBN 0–582–87005–4.

Asia Pacific: A view of its role in the New World Order, by M.S. Dobbs‐Higginson. Longman Asia Ltd., Hong Kong, 1993. xxviii + 422 pp., maps. £25.00. ISBN 962–000105–2

Korea Briefing 1993: Festival of Korea, edited by Donald N. Clark. Westview Press, Boulder CO, San Francisco and Oxford, in cooperation with The Asia Society, 1993. x + 249 pp. £9.95 paperback. ISBN 0–8133–8770–1.

Southeast Asian Affairs 1992, edited by Daljit Singh. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 1992. x + 364 pp. S$ 26.00. ISSN 0377–5437.     

社会资本办医：准入政策和投资建议

社会资本办医是新医改的重要内容之一,国务院、卫生部、各地政府先后出台了相关政策,为社会资本办医铺平了道路。通过对全国20个省区市近年来出台的鼓励和支持社会资本办医政策的梳理与对比分析,可以发现各地鼓励发展的非公立医院大致可分为高端医疗机构、特色专科医疗机构、特需性医疗机构三种类型,鼓励社会资本办医的领域呈现＂扶弱＂和＂做强＂的两极化特点,今后社会资本办医投资应着眼高端、因地制宜。     

《劳动合同法》修改建议

在对《劳动合同法》的修改中,应对劳务派遣单位和劳务派遣用工实行严格限制;进一步强化劳动者权益保障条款;吸收《劳动合同法实施条例》中成熟合理的部分;增加有利于用人单位合理经营、健康发展的内容;并对部分条款表述作必要的调整。     

行政处罚种类扩张论批判

在此次《行政处罚法》修订过程中,处罚种类扩张论得到广泛支持。学者们将实践中出现的一些新型行为措施定性为行政处罚,并且基于提升公共治理能力、规范行政公权力的良好愿景,主张扩张处罚种类。修订通过后的《行政处罚法》有限度地扩张了处罚种类。然而,从行政处罚内涵和立法政策两个方面进行考察可以发现,处罚种类扩张论并不合理。一方面,通过考察刑罚处罚的特征和狭义行政管理权与行政处罚权之区别可以发现,科处额外负担和非难是处罚的本质要素,典型非处罚行为应当排除在行政处罚之外。另一方面,提升公共治理能力与扩张行政处罚种类并无直接关系,为了规范公权力而扩张处罚种类之考量也将随着行政法制的不断完善而逐渐式微,贸然扩张处罚种类可能造成法律适用上的障碍,因而中间类型行为不宜纳入处罚种类。确立"少而精"的处罚种类,才有利于实现对行政处罚的专业性精准规制。     

党内法规执行机制研究

中国共产党的党内法规执行包含理论和实践双重探索,但我国理论界对党内法规的执行机制却少有提及。本文尝试对十八大后党规执行机制模式进行梳理,党委党组全面领导,贯彻于党规执行;纪委保障党规执行,对违反党规行为予以处理;党的职能部门具体履行党规执行;党的基层组织通过党建方式推动党规执行。     

系统论视阈下教育现代化发展政策调适体系构建

党的十九届五中全会描绘出2035年基本实现社会主义现代化的远景目标。教育现代化是实现社会主义现代化的奠基工程,党和国家在加快推进教育现代化过程中,各项战略部署充分彰显了整体性、层次性、开放性、动态性等系统性治理思维,为总体实现教育现代化目标奠定了重要的方法论基础,生动阐释了中国特色社会主义教育的制度优势。坚持系统观念完善教育现代化体系,亟须构建“动态监测——政策调适——科学督导——质量提升”的循环闭合型运行系统,整体提升政策的运行、监测、调适和执行的力度,加快推进高质量教育体系建设。