Exploiting the common pool or looking to the future? A study of free-riding leading up to the 2007 municipal amalgamations in Denmark

ABSTRACT

Municipal amalgamations can create incentives for opportunistic behaviour. Several fairly recent studies have examined this on amalgamations in Denmark and Sweden using the so-called law of 1 over n. However, they have yielded inconclusive results and I argue that one plausible explanation is a theoretical deficiency in the law, as it does not account for how future political representation can mitigate the incentive to free-ride. I examine this using large-scale amalgamations in Denmark in 2007. This case is quite unique as the amalgamations were implemented in such a manner that they constitute a quasi-experiment, and because an extra fiscal year was added to the election period where the composition of the new councils was known with certainty, while the municipalities retained some decision-making power. The study’s findings are consistent with the argument that the incentive to free-ride depends on the decision makers’ future political stake in the new, amalgamated municipality.     

Population size or population density? An empirical examination of scale economies in South Australian local government, 2015/16

ABSTRACT

Advocates of amalgamation typically claim that substantial scale economies flow from municipal mergers, which generate larger local government entities by population size. We examined whether economies of scale exist in council outlays by analysing the expenditure of 68 South Australian local government areas using data from the 2015/16 financial year. However, given the correlation between population size and population density it is important to determine whether the influence of population size on expenditure is due to variations in population density. We find that when local government areas are stratified into subgroups on the basis of population density, the evidence of economies of scale largely evaporates. From a policy perspective, this suggests that in place of municipal mergers, policymakers should instead explore avenues for shared service arrangements in those functions which exhibit scale economies.     

The Welfare Conventions Approach: A Comparative Perspective on Social Impact Bonds

Abstract

The Social Impact Bond (SIB) is a new funding mechanism for welfare programs. It is supposed to create savings for the public sector from which private returns can be deducted. Presented as a purely technical solution, SIBs discard their political morality. The Welfare Convention Approach (WCA) is designed for studying SIBs as disputed and versatile welfare apparatuses. It is claimed that elements from diverse historical welfare conventions (the philanthropic, communitarian, civic, market, full employment, entrepreneurial, financial, and behavioral) reveal the diverse institutional conflicts and compromises of SIBs at the time they are implemented. In so doing, the WCA informs comparative research on SIBs.     

Police Performance As Symbolic Politics? Public Recognition and the Value of Awards

Abstract

What constitutes “good” performance in a law enforcement agency, who decides, and how does public recognition of that performance change how an agency performs? This study uses a quasi-experimental design and propensity-score matching model to assess the impact of a law enforcement agency’s status as a finalist for the annual Cisco/International Chiefs of Police Association (IACP) Community Policing Award on performance in future years, as measured by crime clearance rates. It is found that after comparing the treated group (finalist agencies) with the untreated group (non-finalist nearest-neighbor agencies), there is no meaningful difference in crime clearance rates. This unexpected finding establishes that the public recognition of finalist status by the Department of Justice, which promotes finalist agencies as exemplars of best practices in community policing, does not impact the subsequent performance of those agencies. Additionally, the results of the model suggest that the impact of symbolic politics and social construction on the award finalist selection process and the choice by DOJ to promote the practices of those agencies should be explored. Questions are also raised as to the utility of crime clearance rates as a performance measure, and future avenues for research in each area are proposed.     

论收受财物后退还或者上交的认定

情节显著轻微危害不大是认定收受请托人财物后及时退还或者上交不构成受贿罪的根据。因此，收受请托人财物，是指被动收取财物而非主动索取财物；退还请托人财物必须是主动退还；上交请托人财物必须上交给纪检监察部门指定的账户；如果国家工作人员为请托人谋取不正当利益，即使及时退还或者上交，仍然应当构成受贿罪。同时，廉政账户制度必须纳入司法化的轨道才能获得新生。     

加强新形势下军营廉政文化建设的总体思考

廉政文化作为社会主义先进文化的重要组成部分,是加强党风廉政建设的思想保障和文化支撑。大力发展军营廉政文化,必须牢牢把握军营廉政文化建设的正确方向,紧紧围绕部队中心任务加强军营廉政文化建设,努力创作生产更好更多的廉政文化产品,同时加强对廉政文化建设的组织领导。     

行政法视角下我国县级政府决策模式改革研究

我国县级政府决策模式具有管制色彩重、封闭性强、民主参与程度弱、决策权力缺乏有效监督等特点,围绕县级政府决策模式改革涉及的决策主体、权限、程序、法律责任等行政法问题,未来改革方向包括强化决策与执行的适度分离、增强参与性决策与技术理性决策的比重等。法治视野下的政府权力结构和运行机制研究课题组设计了县级政府决策模式改革的几种方案,并对中央与地方公务员进行认同度调查。调查结果反映出不同府级与地区公务员对改革方案存在较大意见分歧。在进行政府决策模式改革过程中,应当以法治方式推动改革,重点围绕决策权力配置、决策程序、决策的法律责任进行,并充分考虑县级政府的特殊性、不同地区之间的差异性、地方真实信息与地方合理利益等因素。     

合作共治:政社关系范式变迁的新方向

不合时宜的单一治理、日益壮大的社会组织、蓬勃发展的治理理论等,都在宣告——"合作共治"的政社关系将是其改革的最终归宿。合作共治的基础来源于理念的一致性、优势的互补性、合作的长期性。合作共治的类型包括项目型、替代型、互惠型的合作共治。"合作共治"作为政社关系范式变迁的新方向,是实现国家治理能力和治理体系"第五个现代化"所必须的一种社会治理关系架构。     

Holding parties responsible at election time: Multi-level,multi-party government and electoral accountability

This paper highlights the crucial role played by party-specific responsibility attributions in performance-based voting. Three models of electoral accountability, which make distinct assumptions regarding citizens' ability to attribute responsibility to distinct governing parties, are tested in the challenging Northern Ireland context – an exemplar case of multi-level multi-party government in which expectations of performance based voting are low. The paper demonstrates the operation of party-attribution based electoral accountability, using data from the 2011 Northern Ireland Assembly Election Study. However, the findings are asymmetric: accountability operates in the Protestant/unionist bloc but not in the Catholic/nationalist bloc. This asymmetry may be explained by the absence of clear ethno-national ideological distinctions between the unionist parties (hence providing political space for performance based accountability to operate) but the continued relevance in the nationalist bloc of ethno-national difference (which limits the scope for performance politics). The implications of the findings for our understanding of the role of party-specific responsibility attribution in performance based models of voting, and for our evaluation of the quality of democracy in post-conflict consociational polities, are discussed.     

Termination Theory and National Climate Change Mitigation Programs: The Case of New Zealand

In 2008 New Zealand (NZ) changed from a Labour‐led to a National‐led government, and this resulted in a shift to government's carbon emission mitigation strategy, including the abandonment of the Communities for Climate Protection (CCP) and the Carbon Neutral Public Service (CNPS) programs. Using deLeon's seminal model for program termination, the objective of this research is to determine why NZ's newly elected government discontinued these initiatives. This empirical research is investigative and probing, and comprises a series of semi‐structured interviews with senior managers responsible for the delivery of the respective program within their organization. The architects of each program are also investigated. In the end, this study finds that while economic constraints and programmatic inefficiencies may have played a contributing role, political ideology is the primary rationale for the termination of the CNPS and the CCP‐NZ programs.