Best Practice Environmental Impact Assessment: A Model Framework for Australia

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is a process that involves the identification, prediction, evaluation and mitigation of the environmental and other impacts associated with development proposals and policies, plans and programs. Australian governments were amongst the first in the world to introduce EIA in the 1970s. Since then, the federal, state and territory EIA regimes have undergone multiple changes. In recent times, the push for EIA reform has intensified as governments have sought ways to improve the cost‐effectiveness of regulatory processes. In light of the impetus for change, this article outlines principles and a framework for best practice EIA in Australia. The intention is to inform the policy development processes at the federal, state and local levels.     

宪政下的公共财政与预算

公共财政已成为我国构建和谐社会进程中的财政转型的目标定位。宪政下公共财政问题的实质,是公民财产权与政府财政权的互动。公共财政应当体现以保障人权为宗旨,以充分实现财政民主为核心,以财政法治为保障。公共财政是建立在现代政府预算基础之上的财政制度,预算制度是关于民众赞同和监督国家财政活动的法律规范。在推进公共财政体制建设中,我国应坚持财政法定原则,尊重和保护纳税人权利,完善预算法,加强预算监督。     

Taking ‘Big Government Conservatism’ Seriously? The Bush Presidency Reconsidered

This article reflects on the ongoing debate about the ideological direction of the Bush presidency and what it means for the future of US conservatism in domestic policy. The paper considers the dual nature of US conservatism and then goes on to explore the 'conservative promise' of the 2000 presidential election and the debate over what critiques of the Bush administration have come to call 'big government conservatism'. Finally, the article studies two examples of how this alleged 'big government conservatism' has been manifested. First, the article contemplates the administration's fiscal policy. Second it looks at the 2003 reform of the Medicare system. We argue that, although these two cases provide some ground to the idea of 'big government conservatism', in the end this phenomenon does not add up to a coherent policy vision. Overall, beyond tax cuts, the Bush administration has failed to implement a bold conservative agenda.     

Political Decentralization and Technological Innovation: Testing the Innovative Advantages of Decentralized States

Are politically decentralized states better at fostering long‐run technological innovation than centralized states? Societies with decentralized governments are widely seen as agile, competitive, and well structured to adapt to innovation's gale of creative destruction. Meanwhile, centralized states, even when democratic, have come to be viewed as rigid and thus hostile to the risks, costs, and change associated with new technology, or prone to cling too long to foolhardy or outdated technological projects. Therefore government decentralization is often perceived as a necessary institutional foundation for encouraging long‐run technological innovation. However, in this article, I analyze data on international patent activity, scientific publications, and high‐technology exports, and show that there exists little evidence for an aggregate relationship between government structure and technological innovation.     

Benevolent Governance and Fiscal Federalism in Veit Ludwig von Seckendorff’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">Teutscher Fürsten Stat</Emphasis> (1656): Comment on Erik S. Reinert

The author comments on Erik S. Reinert’s presentation held at the 17{th} Heilbronn Symposion in Economics and the Social Sciences in June 2004.     

美国与德国法院体制之比较

美国与德国都是联邦制国家也是奉行宪法至上的国家 ,两国的法院体制都必须适应这一特点。比较两国的法院体制的基本特征 ,分析这些特征产生的原因并进而探讨法院在维护联邦制中的作用。     

Economic resilience after the Great Recession: an examination of unreserved fund balance in Michigan counties

ABSTRACT

This paper examines fiscal slack, in the form of unreserved fund balance, as a tool used by local governments to enhance economic resilience. It adapts ecological, engineering, and organisational definitions of economic resilience and investigate their relevance to local financial management in the United States after the Great Recession in 2008. Using group-based trajectory modelling, we identify different strategies of fund balances used by Michigan counties. The change of fund balance does not delineate any pattern theorised by the resilience concepts. We also find different factors that motivate local officials to manage their fund balances differently. The study suggests a nuanced understanding of fiscal slack used by local governments for economic resilience that goes beyond unreserved fund balance.     

Poor versus rich countries: a gap in public attitudes towards fiscal solidarity in the EU

Abstract

Existing research has primarily focused on the role of utility and identity in shaping individuals’ European Union (EU) preferences. This article argues that macroeconomic context is a crucial predictor of attitudes towards transnational financial assistance, which has been omitted from previous analyses. Using data from the 2014 European Election Studies (EES) Voter Study for 28 EU member states, this article demonstrates that citizens living in poorer EU countries are less willing to support fiscal solidarity than their counterparts in more affluent countries. Country affluence serves as a heuristic, moderating the relationship between individual-level utility and identity considerations and willingness to show solidarity to member states with economic difficulties. When a country does not fare well economically, citizens’ views on providing help to others remain negative, irrespective of individual-level utilitarian and identity considerations. Our findings have implications for understanding the decision-making calculus underlying preference formation.     

财政政策与财政法

近年来,在我国财政领域,财政政策增长很快,但财政法律却没有相应地增长。财政政策的增长可以从权利增长、风险社会等角度得到解释,但财政立法的停滞只能从法律工具主义、法律虚无主义、经典计划经济体制的家长制等方面进行解释。财政领域＂政策繁多而法律稀缺＂的弊端是很多的,它不但导致了政策的效力递减甚至失效,解决不了复杂的社会经济问题,而且还导致了人们法律意识和价值观的扭曲。因此,加强、加快财政立法,哪怕是先出台不完善、不成熟的财政立法,也胜于财政立法的缺位。在立法机关与行政机关之间进行财政权的分权和制衡,是我国财政法治建设的根本出路。     

Defying the traditional theses: Intergovernmental relations on immigrant integration in Belgium

ABSTRACT

This article considers the features of intergovernmental relations (IGR) on immigrant integration in Belgium and critically examines the dynamics that shape them. The characteristics of IGR on immigrant integration in Belgium are shown to vary over time and differ across regions and sub-policy areas (immigrant reception policies and anti-discrimination). The comparative case study indicates that the primary traditional theses of the international comparative IGR literature, namely classical institutionalism and party politics, do not provide insights into the nature and mechanisms of IGR on immigrant integration in Belgium. Less established variables like European integration and sub-state claims for distinctiveness constitute key explanatory variables. While European integration explains the increase of IGR over time, notwithstanding the appearance of party incongruence, sub-state claims for distinctiveness enlighten the more conflictual nature of IGR with Flanders, even in cases of more party congruence than for Francophone authorities.