Multiple Streams in Hawaii: How the Aloha State Adopted a 100% Renewable Portfolio Standard

Renewable portfolio standards (RPS) are an important policy tool for reducing carbon emissions and advancing the global shift toward renewable energy. As the U.S. federal government backs away from commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, subnational governments play an increasingly important role in mitigating climate change. In June 2015, Hawaii became the first state in the United States to adopt a 100% RPS. Through understanding the conditions that gave rise to Hawaii’s RPS, policy actors will be better informed as they navigate policy processes in other states and jurisdictions. This study uses Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) to explore the policy process that led to Hawaii’s 100% RPS. Data were collected during the summer of 2016 via interviews with 25 key policy actors and informants in Hawaii. Expectations based on the MSF are confirmed, and the results suggest factors that might be included or explored in future studies of RPS adoption.     

Conservation in Context: Toward a Systems Framing of Decentralized Governance and Public Participation in Wildlife Management

Governance scholars have long championed the adaptive utility of decentralized management institutions, in part due to their ability to bring diverse stakeholders into decision‐making processes. However, research into the link between decentralization and participation often looks at policy design but bypasses important system feedbacks that shape sustained participation over time. To paint a more robust picture detailing how decentralization and participation are related, this paper uses a complex systems framework to explore interacting structural, operational, and cultural components of decentralized wildlife governance institutions in the United States and Botswana. Through this comparative analysis, I argue that the landscape of public participation in decentralized governance institutions appears to be significantly impacted by three factors: 1) how decentralization processes occurred, 2) where in the process of decision making participation is situated, and 3) perceptions of power distribution between groups with competing interests.     

Governing Unconventional Oil and Gas Extraction: The Case of Pennsylvania

Over the past decade, directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing enabled an unconventional oil and gas extraction (UOGE) boom in many regions of the United States, including parts of Pennsylvania. This revolution has created serious concerns about the capability of existing institutions to govern important societal outcomes associated with UOGE. We present a conceptual framework for assessing key societal outcomes influenced by UOGE governance. In applying this framework to Pennsylvania, we discern certain institutional strengths that have allowed the Commonwealth to reap appreciable short‐term economic growth from rich resource endowments. We also find, however, that several institutional weaknesses have allowed costs externalized to the environment, public health, and community integrity to offset some proportion of those economic benefits. Likewise, we find that governance of UOGE in Pennsylvania has contributed to a bifurcated sociopolitical landscape wherein adversarial coalitions dispute the legitimacy of the industry and its governance.     

The devil we know and the angel that did not fly: An examination of devil/angel shift in twitter fracking “debates” in NY 2008–2018

Recent work has applied the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) to examine narrative strategies in policy debates on social media platforms. We contribute to the literature by applying the NPF to fracking policy debates in New York using well-established Natural Language Processing tools, including sentiment analysis. We combine this computational approach with a qualitative hand-coding of pro- and antifracking Twitter influentials. This approach allows us to consider a much larger corpus of tweets over a much longer time frame than has been done thus far. We adapt and test NPF propositions related to the use of the devil/angel shift strategies before and after a major state-wide policy change, that is, a state-wide moratorium on high volume hydraulic fracturing or fracking. Overall, we find evidence for the use of the devil shift narrative strategy by the pro-fracking coalition aimed at the Governor prior to the moratorium. After the moratorium, the relative percentage of Tweets containing devil shift sentiments decreases as the pro-fracking coalition generally downshifts in its use of angel shift language without a corresponding increase in devil shift language, whereas, conversely, the anti-fracking coalition generally downshifts in its use of devil shift language without a general increase in angel shift language. When we shifted our analysis to Tweets containing fracking and the Governor, we found a similar postban decrease in devil shift language among anti-fracking users. Our findings offer lessons for using computational tools in the NPF as an approach to expand analytic ability and for the operationalization of concepts such as narrative strategies and policy entrepreneurs.     

以法制教育深入推进法制环境建设

深入开展法制宣传教育,弘扬法治精神,积极探索适应油区特点的法制宣传教育的形式和载体,努力推进构建油区法制环境。不断适应油区法制建设的新特点,积极创造法制宣传教育新平台,并不断加强推进法制环境建设的保障机制,加快油区社会主义法制建设。     

女性文学批评本土化过程中的语境差异

西方女性主义文学批评进入中国后遇到了完全不同于其理论源头的接受环境。这些接受环境差异包括:一、历史背景的差异,其主要表现为西方女性主义文学批评是先“破”后“立”,而中国本土则是先“立”后“破”;二、意识形态差异,主要表现为西方文化中的民主传统与中国传统文化中的集权思想形成的对照;三、学术背景差异,西方女性主义文学批评是以反拨“新批评”的学术革命开始的,而中国本土则得益于马克思主义的社会历史批评的滋养。这些差异既决定了中国女性主义文学批评的独特面貌,同时又呼唤西方理论本土化研究的新思路。     

关于我国民营企业法制环境现状的分析

当前民营企业是中国经济发展中的重要力量,但是与民营企业广阔的发展前景不相符合的是我国目前与之相配套的法制环境。本文从民营企业面临的内部、外部两大法制环境的缺陷入手,分析了当前法制环境对民营企业发展的制约因素,并提出了建设良好法制环境,促进民营企业发展的初步设想。     

论新媒体环境下大学生思想政治教育面临的新机遇

新媒体环境下,大学生思想政治教育既面临着新的挑战,也面临新的机遇。各类新媒体给高校思想政治教育客体的学习生活带来了积极影响,极大地丰富了思想政治教育的内容,增强了其时效性、互动性和针对性,拓宽了思想政治教育的范围和空间,有利于思想政治教育新的方式方法的运用。     

越南私营企业发展的制度因素

革新开放后,越南私营企业从少到多、从小到大、从弱到强,在国民经济中占据越来越重要的位置。这一发展历程与越南政府的制度改革密不可分。越南政府通过修订《企业法》、《土地法》,加速推进行政改革等举措,为私营企业的发展提供了法律保障和机制保障。但私营企业的发展在融资渠道、信息来源、债务纠纷解决等方面仍面临诸多困难。     

Public Digital Libraries: Observations and Prospects from the Chinese Experience

In recent years, the digital revolution has created both challenges and opportunities for cultural industries. The ever-increasing production and diffusion of culture through new media via the Internet have profoundly challenged the basic infrastructure and modes of operation in many sectors of the cultural industries. This has been most evident in the case of heritage organizations—including public libraries—where the digital revolution has brought with it a number of significant challenges with respect to courting visitors/users and remaining relevant in the context of evolving digital technologies. This article discusses the rise and evolution of public digital libraries in the 1990s as a response to these new challenges. After formulating some observations about this global trend, which is now more than two decades old, this article discusses the case of public digital libraries in China. In particular, this article points to the importance of cultural policy for the development of this new form of cultural institution. Finally, after reviewing some of the challenges faced by most of these new digital libraries, this article discusses the importance of professional culture in addressing the changing needs of users.