论责任政府及其重建机制

传统责任政府的理念是基于政府法权基础上的责任履行 ,它往往导致形式主义和对程序合法性以及效率理性的极端追求。本文把责任政府理解为制度责任与伦理责任的统一 ,视之为制度规范和道德内化的综合体现。基于上述认识 ,本文以政府应该做什么、朝那个方向去做、怎么做及其相应的规范与纠偏机制为切入点 ,提出了当代重建责任政府的若干行动机制。尤其是厉行官员问责制 ,不仅是对应然状态责任政府的补足 ,更是其现实化的重要步骤。     

Practitioners’ perspectives on in-house versus arm’s-length structures of local economic development delivery in Ontario,Canada

ABSTRACT

The structure for local economic development is an important part of the development process. In recent years, local governments have been switching structures, leading to debates about the most appropriate structure for an effective economic development delivery. Based on in-depth interviews with practitioners of local economic development, the paper examines the strengths and drawbacks of the two primary structures in the Province of Ontario: In-house and Arms-length. In doing so, the paper accomplishes two things: first, it adds to the empirical discussion on organisational approaches to economic development; second, it provides an informed perspective to assist communities that might be considering switching their structures.     

Sino-Ghana bilateral relations and Chinese migrants’ illegal gold mining in Ghana

ABSTRACT

This article examines the participation of some Chinese migrants in illegal gold mining (known as galamsey) in Ghana, and how the Government’s policy to address the issue created diplomatic tension between China and Ghana. Drawing on primary data from in-depth, face-to-face interviews with 250 respondents and supplementary information from archival sources and personal observation, the study found that small-scale gold mining is an area legally reserved for Ghanaian indigenes, who faced stern competition from some Chinese migrants’ miners. Their ability to mobilize resources and machinery to execute galamsey virtually displaced the indigenes from their source of livelihood and caused environmental catastrophes. The Ghana Government’s policy response to the Chinese migrants’ galamsey, which led to arrests, sentencing and deportations of some Chinese miners, angered Beijing and fractured Ghana–China diplomatic ties. But the dispute could not collapse the entrenched bilateral relations between the two nations because the calculated mutual benefit derived from the relations was thought to be higher than the Chinese galamsey issue. Policy reforms which legally integrate Chinese migrants’ miners into the small-scale mining sector would stop galamsey and strengthen Sino-Ghana relations.     

Revitalizing Local Government Performance Management: Further Dissecting the Role of Socioeconomic Status and Social Mobilization Policy

ABSTRACT

This article examines how socio-economic status and social mobilisation are linked to local government performance management in Nepal. As part of local government reform, Nepal adopted a social mobilisation policy in selected local governments to empower communities for their effective participation. Our results show that socio-economic status and social mobilisation have a significant relationship with performance management. Female literacy, for example, is strongly and significantly associated with performance management, while area has a significant positive relationship but population has only a weak positive relationship. In contrast, poverty has a significant negative correlation. More importantly, mobilisation has a significant, though modest, positive association with performance management particularly in participatory planning and budgeting, fiscal discipline, and administrative management. This indicates that improving the socio-economic status of citizens and their mobilisation for empowered collective action can be one important strategy to improve the performance capacity of local government.     

Organisational choices in public procurement: what can public management learn from the private sector?

ABSTRACT

In the public context, the efficient and effective management of procurement activities has a crucial impact on the achievement of operational and broader government objectives. In particular, the potential contribution of procurement within local governments has been broadly recognized, and organisational procurement choices represent a strategic aspect that must be managed to contribute to these objectives. Through the analysis of data on 371 Italian municipalities, this paper discusses how to design procurement organisation variables for local governments. Three possible organisational models are identified (i.e., authoritative procurement, silo procurement, and local procurement) and discussed from the perspective of internal and external contingencies that may affect organisational decisions.     

Political engagement and participation of Thai citizens: the rural–urban disparity

The nature of citizen participation and engagement in public life in Thailand has changed dramatically over the last decade. This article focuses on explaining the changing pictures of political engagement – political interest, knowledge, and efficacy – among rural and urban Thai citizens since the House of Representatives election in 2001. The major attempt made in this article also to explain how these changes affect patterns of political activism (i.e. in voting, political contacting, and protesting activities), particularly between the rural and urban Thai voters. Relying on three latest survey data taken from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems, the article suggests that the factors facilitating greater political participation are relatively different between rural and urban residents, and such differences cannot simply be explained as a result of a deeper engagement in the patron–client relationship of the rural than of the urban. Indeed, those differentiations depend on several factors and vary according to different kinds of political activity.     

Committee strength in parliamentary democracies: A new index

Much recent research on coalitions and policy-making in parliamentary democracies requires high-quality data on the strength of legislative institutions. In this article, I introduce a new index of committee policing strength which improves on existing measures in important ways. I specify key index parameters using a binary rooted tree model and engage human coders to score formal rules. I obtain a novel time series of committee policing strength in 17 western and eastern European democracies since 1945. I validate the new estimates through convergent validation and discuss ways in which the new index contributes to future work.     

政府系统副职职能转型、规模控制与组织法治

改革政府系统副职现状,是政府机构改革的有机部分,是政府组织、法治化、科学化的基本要求。加快政府组织法治化进程,完善政府组织法的框架和内容,在政府职能转变的基础上继续推进"大部制"改革,提升部门地位和权能,实现政府系统副职职能转型和规模控制,对于推进法治政府建设和实现政府组织体系科学化,具有重大的现实意义。     

国家干预经济中政府失灵的人性解读及控制

对政府失灵及其缘由的追寻和考究,是经济法学人长期以来的不懈追求,也获得了诸多真知灼见。然而,鲜有人注意到,人性中的"强"、"群"、"乐"等因素,才是政府失灵更为深刻的原因,从干预者人性的角度对政府失灵进行解读,可以为我们提供一个可靠的认识论基础,也可为经济法克服政府失灵提供有效方向和路径。     

知情权法律救济在我国遭遇的尴尬

<政府信息公开条例>的实施,在一定程度上保障了公民的知情权.然而<条例>在规定知情权法律救济途径时,由于并未充分考虑其独特的性质,故知情权如遭受侵害,在行政复议、行政诉讼、国家赔偿等传统的救济手段中面临诸多困惑与尴尬.因此,在宪法中明确赋予公民知情权以基本权利的地位;待时机成熟提升条例的法律位阶,变条例为法律;调整行政复议、行政诉讼的审查方式,增加屏蔽审理程序;提高公民权利观念,加强政府法治理念,畅通救济途径,才能更加有效地保障公民的知情权.