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.     

浅谈加入WTO对公安院校课程编制的影响及对策

加入WTO的中国正面临着巨大的机遇和挑战。在这种背景下 ,即将到来的更加严峻复杂的社会治安形势对公安教育提出了更高的要求 ,要求按照对社会治安发展趋势的预测和与之相应的公安实战需要来进行课程编制。 ( 1 )减少职前招生 ,扩大职后培训 ;( 2 )加大经济案件侦察课程的设置 ;( 3)加大警务技能课程的设置 ;( 4 )加强语言及计算机等技能课程的设置。     

我国房地产税改革探析——基于公平、效率视角下的考量

房地产税作为一种财产税,在我国的社会经济发展中发挥着重要的调节功能,其完善与否直接关系着我国社会经济的转型发展和地方政府职能转变。本文从公平、效率的视角出发,对我国房地产税改革中存在的主要问题进行客观、理性和系统的分析,就其完善提出了相应的政策建议。     

税收调控的合法化与私权的保护

税收调控在中国社会经济生活中发挥重大作用的同时,也带来了一些问题。税收调控不仅要考虑宏观调控的目的,也要注重对私权的保护。这是宪政的要求,也是法治国的体现。中国目前税收调控的失范状态,不仅导致了税收调控脱离了合法性,而且屡屡造成对私权的侵犯乃至践踏。因此,税收调控必须依法进行,走合法化道路,包括税收调控权力来源的合法化,依据的合法化以及程序的合法化等。     

启示与借鉴——以发达国家和地区房地产保有阶段税收法律制度为视角

2010年4月17日国务院下发了《关于坚决遏制部分城市房价过快上涨的通知》（国发〔2010〕10号）,要求：＂发挥税收政策对住房消费和房地产收益的调节作用。财政部、税务总局要加快研究制定引导个人合理住房消费和调节个人房产收益的税收政策。＂近一时期,有关开征物业税的信息沸沸扬扬,如上海要开征＂房产保有税＂,重庆开征＂特别房产消费税＂等。通过对一些发达国家和地区房地产保有阶段税收立法模式和具体制度设计的分析与比较,借鉴其先进的理念和成熟的实践经验,从而对我国房地产保有阶段税收法律制度的改革和完善提出要在原基础上整合与规范,要制定系列配套措施等建议。     

降低税收遵从成本 创新纳税服务模式

纳税人需要尽可能低的税收遵从成本,而税务机关希望纳税人最大限度地遵从税法,征纳双方在税收征管的博弈有个理性选择的契合点——降低税收遵从成本。因此,研究纳税人税收遵从成本与纳税服务的相关性,探索降低企业税收遵从成本来推进纳税服务工作,通过改进纳税服务措施来降低纳税人的税收遵从成本,形成二者间的良性循环,对我国企业、税务机关和国家经济健康的发展都具有重要的意义。     

税收征管质效与税务稽查体系建设

分税制财政体制改革后的20多年来，随着税制改革的不断深入及征管模式的优化调整．我国的税收工作取得了一定的成绩。税务稽查作为税收征管的最后一道防线，对维护税法的严肃性，保证税款的及时入库，发挥了重要作用。因此，对税务稽查模式的深入探讨，有助于提高税收征管效能。