Winning the Bid: Analyzing the International Olympic Committee's Host City Selections

Previous scholarship has relied on case study analysis and anecdotal evidence to explain the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Olympic host city selection process. This has resulted in several provocative claims regarding why the IOC selects particular cities to host the Olympics. Large-n analysis can dispel some of these assertions by identifying the systematic tendencies in the IOC's host city choices. After reviewing the selection process and the different influences on the IOC's choice of a host city, rank-ordered conditional logit estimation is applied to data proxies of bid candidate characteristics from 1959 through 2005. The IOC shows a statistical tendency to base its decision on the economic vitality of a bid city's home country and on the need to maintain continental diversity.     

Between competition and centralization: the new infrastructures of European finance

Ongoing European financial market integration relies on the creation of harmonized and centralized market infrastructures: the little-known institutions and systems that settle financial transactions across borders. Since the constitutional conception of market integration within the EU entails creating ‘a level playing field’ for competition, a fundamental problem emerges of how to provide that centralization and harmonization without violating the core principles of an open market economy either through private monopolization or public privatization. The paper presents a socio-technological study of a recent major infrastructure initiative by the European Central Bank, called Target2 Securities (T2S). Embedding the analysis of the struggles and debates around the birth and development of T2S in an analysis of the structural problem of competition and centralization in European financial market integration, the paper suggests an alternative perspective to that of performativity currently dominating the research field.     

晚清公羊学复兴的社会文化条件与演进特点

春秋公羊学在传统儒学体系中独树一帜,而其历史命运腾挪跌宕,在西汉时期盛行于世,东汉以后曾消沉一千余年,到了清朝嘉道年间重新复兴,至戊戌维新时期再度风靡于世。围绕晚清公羊学复兴这一中心课题,深入地分析、总结以下各项:晚清社会环境何以与公羊学的学术宗旨相呼应、相激荡;公羊学复兴所经历的重振声势—改造发展—达到高潮三个阶段的主要特点是什么;晚清公羊学名家有哪些理论精华;公羊学说为何能与西方政治思想相糅合,而被锻造成为维新变法的理论武器。着力探讨以上问题,不仅能深入揭示出晚清社会进程和学术变迁的实质性内涵,而且能更好地展示出公羊学说这一传统学术的独特魅力,具有重要的当代价值。     

International advocacy for contract-based public private partnerships through case studies: a re-interpretation of Southern Cross Station,Melbourne

In response to urban infrastructure deficits, international organisations, such as the United Nations, encourage governments to harness private finance. Contract-based Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) represent one policy option enabling infrastructure to be privately financed and constructed, and for service provision to occur. With PPPs also a contested policy option, private sector policy intermediaries advocate for their adoption, including through the selective promotion of case studies. In recognition that favourable case study narratives may leach out local context, a multi-dimensional analytical framework is introduced distinguishing between de-institutionalised, aspatial, non-historical, uncritical and non-futuristic perspectives. Recently the private sector-led World Economic Forum published ‘Harnessing Public-Private Cooperation to Deliver the New Urban Agenda’, which reported upon the PPP-led development of Spencer Street (or Southern Cross) Station in Melbourne, Australia. In deploying the framework, this paper concludes that case study narratives can be reductionist and locally detached in various ways. The role of policy intermediaries in the transfer of policy information therefore requires carefully interpretation, not least because of the malleable use of case studies to reveal desired conclusions.     

A Bridge in Flux: Narratives and the Policy Process in the Pacific Northwest

Policy narratives play an important role in the policy process. Often policy narratives originate from advocacy coalitions seeking increased support from the public for their policy stance. Although most Narrative Policy Framework studies have focused on national policy issues, this study examines a state and local economic development project by exploring the policy narratives from competing coalitions in favor and opposed to the project. Specifically, in the Portland–Vancouver area of Oregon and Washington, local policy discussions have been dominated by a proposal for a new mega bridge on Interstate‐5 connecting the two cities across the Columbia River. A new government agency (CRC—Columbia River Crossing) was formed for the implementation of this project. Upon approval of a proposal, CRC experienced heavy backlash from citizens, local businesses, community leaders, and other stakeholders leading to the formation of two competing coalitions in opposition and support of the bridge. This study, using content analysis of 370 public documents, finds that competing coalitions utilize policy narratives in strategic ways to characterize the opposing coalition, themselves, and other actors in the policy subsystem. This study also suggests that the strength and cohesion of a coalition's narrative contributes to its policy success and the winning/losing status of a coalition potentially determines the types of strategies they will use. Last, this study introduces and tests a new narrative strategy called the impotent shift testing a coalition's strategic use of the victim character.     

Adaptive Management for Oil and Gas Development on Public Lands: An Innovative Approach to Resource Protection,or Symbolic Placation of Public Interests?

Energy development on public lands in the intermountain west is often contentious due to concerns over detrimental impacts to wildlife. To mitigate harm to ungulates and other species, federal agencies often utilize adaptive management, a structured decision‐making framework predicated on “learning while doing.” But in the context of recent energy development, does adaptive management represent an innovative approach to conservation, or is it a largely symbolic policy used to contain the scope of conflict? This article, rooted in the agenda‐setting literature, applies Sarah Pralle's (2006) framework to strategies of conflict containment used by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and industry in three contentious energy development projects in Wyoming. The findings indicate that the BLM's use of adaptive management can be understood as a strategy for conflict containment, rather than as a substantive policy change in public lands oil and gas development.     

Comparative Implementation Research: Directions and Dualities

Abstract

The study of policy implementation developed steadily and considerably in the 1970s and 1980s through two generations of research. Since then progress towards a more rigorous scientific “third generation research paradigm”, assumed to be crucial for further theoretical development, has been much slower and more uneven. Comparative studies figure prominently in this respect. On one hand they are strongly encouraged but on the other they are difficult to conduct according to best practice advice in the textbooks. Comparative implementation research is the theme of this special issue. In this Introduction the articles included are presented, focusing on how they deal with some of the issues posed by the norms of a rigorous “third generation” approach. Reasons for the state of affairs in implementation research are discussed. Some inherent dualities and tensions in contemporary comparative implementation research are identified as particular challenges.     

Crucial Factors in Implementing Radical Policy Change: A Comparative Longitudinal Study of Nordic Central Agency Relocation Programs

Abstract

Why do public policies succeed or fail? The aim of this article is to contribute to answering this enduring research question in policy research through a comparative study of the variable efforts by Nordic governments to relocate their central agencies from the capital regions over a period of several decades. This was a radical redistributive policy program premised on a policy instrument – coercion – which was very alien to political systems characterized as consensual democracies. Hence, it is no surprise that only two out of seven relocation programs of any substance were successful. The really intriguing research question here is how any relocation program was achievable at all in a policy context where this was very unlikely. A broadly based multi-theoretical analytical framework linking interest groups, institutions, human agency in the form of policy entrepreneurship/design and situational factors is employed to solve this research puzzle. Findings from this study offer important contributions to the following research fields: comparative public policy, radical policy change and most specifically the so-called third generation of public policy implementation research.     

Theory and the scientific basis for forensic anthropology

Forensic anthropology has long been criticized for its lack of a strong theoretical and scientific foundation. This paper addresses this problem by examining the role of theory in forensic anthropology at different hierarchical levels (high-level, middle-range, and low-level) and the relevance of various theoretical concepts (taphonomic, agency, behavioral archaeology, nonlinear systems, and methodological theories) to the interpretation of forensic contexts. Application of these theories to a case study involving the search for the WWII Goettge Patrol illustrates the explanatory power these theories offer to the interpretation of forensic events as the end product of an often complex set of environmental constraints and behavioral interactions and choices. It also emphasizes the importance of case studies in theory building and hypothesis testing. A theoretical foundation does indeed currently exist in forensic anthropology; however, a recognition and broader implementation of anthropological (archaeological) theory is warranted and will further define forensic anthropology as a scientific endeavor.     

网络道德信息素养：青少年道德学习的现实需要

提升当代青少年道德能力,在道德教育方式上急需实现由教育者强制性道德教育向青少年自主性道德学习的转型。现代社会,虚拟网络情境正在成为青少年道德学习的“第二空间”,面对纷繁复杂的网络道德信息,培养青少年对道德信息内容的真伪判断能力、锻炼青少年对道德信息评价的辩证思维方法、引导青少年树立文明健康的网络娱乐生活方式,已成为促进青少年道德学习的现实需要。