The communicative policy maker revisited: public administration in a twenty-first century cultural-choice framework

In recent years, public administration thinking shifts the focus from the internal public organisation behaviour towards cross-boundary operation that is, operation across governments and sectors. Public bureaucrats become agents in a multiple-interest political environment within which not only technical management issues are discussed, but also dynamic public values are shaped through a dialogical process. In a cultural choice framework, governments operate different service portfolios and the source of allocation problems occurs due to interdependencies between these functions and variation in public preferences. Beyond service production costs, there exist variable characteristics, such as citizen interest, market competition, and managerial structure and operating behaviour in the aggregate responsibilities governments take. Progressive public administrators need to respond to a threefold challenge: The global versus local challenge to define cultural variability; the leadership challenge to interact with citizens; and the cross-boundary challenge to develop a collaborative rather than a competitive future.     

A Comparison of Tobacco Policy in the UK and Japan: If the Scientific Evidence is Identical,Why is There a Major Difference in Policy?

Tobacco policy in the UK and Japan has diverged markedly. In the 1980s, both countries oversaw regimes with minimal economic and regulatory policies. Now the UK has become one of the most, and Japan one of the least, controlled (advanced industrial) states. These developments are puzzling to public health scholars who give primary explanatory weight to scientific evidence and a vague notion of “political will”, because policy makers possessed the same evidence on the harms of tobacco, and made the same international commitment to comprehensive tobacco control. Instead, we identify the role of a mutually reinforcing dynamic in policy environments, facilitating policy change in the UK but not Japan: policy makers accepted the scientific evidence, framed tobacco as a public health epidemic, placed health departments at the heart of policy, formed networks with public health groups and excluded tobacco companies, and accentuated socio-economic conditions supportive of tobacco control. This dynamic helps explain why the UK became more likely to select each tobacco policy control instrument during a series of “windows of opportunity”. Such analysis, generated by policy theory, is crucial to contemporary science/practitioner debates on the politics of “evidence-based policy making”: the evidence does not speak for itself, and practitioners need to know how to use it effectively in policy environments.     

构建中国本土化ADR制度的思考

在当代,随着社会主体在价值观和文化传统及利益冲突上的多元性,多元化纠纷解决机制的建立已经成为一个世界性的课题.各国通常把法院以外的各种非诉讼纠纷解决方式统称为替代性纠纷解决方式(ADR).ADR的研究和利用已经成为一种方兴未艾的时代潮流,并发展成为多元化纠纷解决机制的重要组成部分.当代中国的ADR与世界各国一样,处在日新月异的发展之中,同时,中国的ADR及整个纠纷解决机制还面临和经历着特殊的重构过程.西方国家成熟的ADR制度或许可以为我们提供某些技术设计层面的参考,然而,中国目前首先需要解决的问题是:我国在现阶段应用和倡导ADR制度是否合乎时宜?我们应该如何构建一个既兼顾法律文化传统又符合当今司法理念的中国化的ADR制度?将结合上述问题进行研究和探讨.     

走向环境治理的多元共治模式:现实挑战与路径选择

党的十九大报告针对生态文明建设提出了“构建政府、企业、社会和公众共同参与的环境治理体系”的指导思想,倡导在环境保护与环境治理领域引入共建共治共享的理念,打造基于多元主体共同参与的新型环境治理模式,为解决日益复杂化和动态化的环境治理问题提供了新思路,也为全球生态环境治理贡献了中国智慧。实践中,多元共治模式面临着环境治理权力结构安排不尽科学合理、跨部门治理主体间信息共享和协调性差、政府监管的权威性和有效性不足、企业主体性作用发挥不够以及社会力量参与的有效性和有序化偏低等诸多挑战。为此,需要从厘清多元主体职责分工、创新生态服务投入机制、优化环境治理协同机制、提升政府环境监管效能、引导社会力量有序有效参与等方面完善相应的制度安排,以推动新型环境治理体系高效运转起来。     

权力人腐败的机会主义动因及其矫治

人类经验表明,权力腐败实质上是权力人的违法腐败。机会主义人性行为分析证明,权力人的腐败本源于权力人的机会主义人性,是人性利己与利他矛盾内耗的外在表现。通过对"左"右倾机会主义、代理人机会主义和权术机会主义的观察也发现,如果没有有效的制度规则约束,权力人从本性上必然会利用机会甚至创造机会滥用权力,作出谋求私利最大化的机会主义"败德"行为。因此,为了防止权力人的腐败,就需要以多重制度设计抑制权力人的机会主义心理,约束权力人的败德行为,矫治权力人的权力滥用。不过,值得注意的是,人类对权力人机会主义腐败的治理将是一场需要战胜自我本性的持久战,要打赢这场反腐持久战,必须坚持不懈地推进国家反腐治理体系和治理能力的系统化、协同化与现代化。     

Examining the role of pornography and rape supportive cognitions in lone and multiple perpetrator rape proclivity

ABSTRACT

Since a substantial proportion of sexual offenders are not apprehended, researchers have introduced methods to test the propensity to sexually offend among the general public. Proclivity measures assess self-reported sexual interest in lone and multiple perpetrator sexual offending or rape (MPR), and can examine students and community members who indicate a proclivity to sexually offend. This study examines the role of pornography use and rape supportive cognitions to influence proclivity. Anonymous online data was collected from 295 male university students to assess the role of rape supportive cognitions and pornography use in predicting lone and MPR proclivity. Only rape supportive cognitions predicted scores on lone and MPR proclivity measures.     

Moving Policy Theory Forward: Connecting Multiple Stream and Advocacy Coalition Frameworks to Policy Cycle Models of Analysis

The stages/policy cycle, multiple streams, and Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) approaches to understanding policy processes, all have analytical value although also attracting substantive criticism. An obvious direction for research is to determine whether the multiple streams framework and the ACF can be refined and applied to other dimensions of policy‐making set out in the policy cycle model. This article argues that extending and modifying Kingdon's framework beyond the agenda‐setting stage is best suited to this endeavour. Doing so makes it possible to bring these three approaches into alignment and enhances our understanding, although retaining the core insights of each.     

Neopatrimonialism and beyond: reassessing the formal and informal in the study of Central Asian politics

Neopatrimonialism has emerged as the central conceptual label applied by scholars to understand the politics of the Central Asian republics. Like the use of neopatrimonialism in other regional settings, this article argues that the concept has become susceptible to concept misinformation and stretching. Adopting a critical perspective, this article highlights three significant problems with the application of neopatrimonialism in the study of Central Asian politics: its appropriateness and operationalisation; the difficulty in ontologically and empirically untangling the formal and informal; and an inherent normativty in its application. While not advocating an abandonment of the concept, the article considers instead how it can be used better in conjunction with additional analytical approaches and/or concepts. The article proffers that a focus on either formal-institutional structures; discourses of power; and the concept of ‘multiple modernities’ would aid comprehension of the region and resolve the three issues highlighted in this work.     

论反就业歧视法的多元综合实施理论

我国现行反就业歧视法律制度采用单一的司法实施机制,无法得到有效实施.就业歧视本质上是群体与群体之间的利益冲突,而非个体利益冲突.反就业歧视法客观存在着群体化个体利益和群体化社会利益两种法益.反就业歧视法有群体化个体利益实施模式和群体化社会利益实施模式两种,两种模式都突破了传统私法个体利益实现机制和传统公法公共利益实现机...