Business virtual system in the context of e‐governance: Investigation of secure access to information resources

Contemporary digital age proposes different opportunities in the public, social, private, and business areas based on remote access to distributed resources placed in virtual, cloud, educational, governmental, business, smart, and so forth environments. In this reason, the e‐governance is realized on the basis of digital communications between different parties that requires strong protection of the information resources and personal data. The digital sustainability is an important task for e‐governance in the digital world. Article deals with principles of correct protection of the information resources (including in the cloud) by using strong procedures for access regulation of the external clients. Organization of Information Security Management System for identification, registration, authentication, and authorization of the requests is discussed. An investigation of the proposed functionality is made on the basis of stochastic analytical modelling by using the apparatus of Markov chains and statistical processing and interpretation of the obtained results.     

Local Renewable Energy Initiatives in Germany and Japan in a Changing National Policy Environment

Our article explores the contribution of local initiatives to the creation of path dependencies for energy transition in Germany and Japan in the face of resistance from entrenched incumbents at the national level. We use a process‐tracing methodology based partly on interviews with local participants. In particular, we explore the role of local initiatives in securing “socio‐political space” for the expansion of renewable energy (RE) and in embedding themselves in “ecosystems” of public and private institutions. German energy activists were more successful than their Japanese counterparts in expanding this space and creating positive feedback in part because they were able to build horizontal networks that anchored the energy transition firmly in local communities. Although problems with grid technology have led to retrenchment in both cases, Japanese activists' reliance on vertical networks has limited their ability to weather a backlash from national government and utility actors. Our study demonstrates the interaction of political, economic/technological, and legitimation paths to energy transition and highlights the importance of the latter two.     

中国的基础设施建设援助与国际发展援助的“共生”——援助国产业结构差异的视角

发展与援助在二战后的制度化结合是现代援助体系诞生的标志,对外援助的道德属性被框定为帮助受援国实现发展。但在现实中,西方和中国常质疑彼此的援助道德动机,前者认为后者的基建援助是"新殖民主义"、"债务陷阱",后者认为前者的软性援助人员费过高、口惠而实不至、干涉他国内政。本文尝试在国际政治经济学框架下,将对外援助决策的规范建构与理性选择双重属性理论化,发掘一国产业结构与对外援助政策间的关联性,以解释西方与中国对外援助的特征差异和误解来源。概言之,发展通过中间变量产业结构可以分解出发展理念、发展资源和发展压力等作用机制,影响一国对外援助的部门分配,因而工业国倾向基础设施与生产性援助,第三产业国则偏好投放专业服务类援助。在全球价值链分工视野下,中国对外援助的偏好和结构具备合理性和正当性,不同援助方的发展援助既会产生竞争,也可互补共生,共同推动联合国"2030愿景"和新型全球治理的实现。     

Opposing Energy Transitions: Modeling the Contested Nature of Energy Transitions in the Electricity Sector

Energy transitions are fiercely contested. The incumbents of the fossil‐ and nuclear‐based energy systems have much to lose from a transition to a sustainable and decentralized energy system. They therefore employ their material and political resources to reverse, halt, or slow down this transition. They also attempt to stop and reverse the decentralization of energy production. This article provides a framework that can be used to analyze the contestation that surrounds energy transitions. The analytical framework breaks apart the macro paths of energy transitions, and differentiates between three meso‐paths (political, economic‐technological, and legitimation), emphasizes the feedback processes between these paths, and acknowledges the crucial role that actors play in engendering these feedback processes. It uses Germany as a case study to illustrate the analytical model. It also provides hypotheses that will be tested in the subsequent contributions to this special issue.     

Stakeholder involvement in collaborative regulatory processes: Using automated coding to track attendance and actions

Regulation increasingly mandates collaborative approaches to increase stakeholder input and streamline approval processes. However, understanding how to maintain stakeholder involvement over the course of a long collaborative process is vital to optimize effectiveness. This paper observes more than 700 stakeholders involved in developing and implementing a dam operating license over 16 years. We use text mining and Bayesian hierarchical modeling to observe meeting attendance and recorded actions in meeting minutes. We find that involvement decreased after the initial planning phase, but steadily increased through license development and implementation. After the regulatory mandate to consult with external stakeholders dissolved, overall attendance declined while attendance stability increased, meaning that the non‐mandatory stage involved a smaller cadre of dedicated actors. This indicates that high‐performing mandated stakeholder involvement processes rely on a constrained group of conveners to sustain interaction and have less turnover than what might be expected given existing evidence from grassroots involvement; assumptions about group dynamics based on involvement in grassroots processes may lead to improper predictions about who will participate, and how, in processes where stakeholder involvement is mandated.     

行政服务中心:理论溯源、演进历程与未来展望

行政服务中心是实现政府治理现代化的重要载体,厘清行政服务中心的本质属性、理论依据和发展演进历程是推动行政服务中心规范建设的必然要求。本文从行政服务中心的概念界定入手诠释了其本质属性,从新公共管理理论、新公共服务理论和公共治理理论三个视角探讨了行政服务中心的理论依据,从顶层设计、调试运行和增质提效三个阶段梳理了我国行政服务中心发展演进的基本路径,在此基础上对我国行政服务中心未来发展的重点进行了展望。     

环境正义、风险感知与邻避冲突的协商治理路径分析——基于国内垃圾焚烧发电项目的案例思考

公众反对在其居住地附近兴建具有负外部性设施的邻避抗议行为,是各国工业化、城市化进程中面临的普遍问题,垃圾焚烧发电项目是国内易发生邻避冲突的典型。选址合理性是政府与公众争论的焦点,项目施工前的行政审批阶段是发生邻避冲突的敏感节点,公众的冲突行为具有情绪化、暴力化和长期性特点,而地方政府治理能力的强弱影响邻避设施选址建设的结果。“政府—设施企业—公众”协商治理是规避冲突的有效路径,要践行信息公开、全过程协商参与、多元化补偿、全方位监管的治理策略。     

新时代“枫桥经验”——创新性表现及对广州基层社会治理的启示

进入新的历史时期,“枫桥经验”在基层社会治理领域获得了持续的创新与发展,主要体现在:丰富基层社会治理的社会化内涵、积极推进基层社会治理的法治化、以智能化推动基层社会治理“效能革命”,提高基层治理的专业化水平和坚持以党建引领基层治理现代化。基于此分析“枫桥经验”对广州加强和创新基层社会治理的借鉴意义,并提出对“枫桥经验”进行创造性转化,构造广州基层社会治理三个新的“增长点”:扩充基层社会治理目标内涵、激发调动社会要素的活力和注重基层社会治理的“中西贯通”。     

Growth,governance and corruption in Bangladesh: a re-assessment

This paper revisits Bangladesh’s ‘double paradox’ – sustained macroeconomic growth despite the poor state of governance and a high level of corruption – by critically reviewing trends in governance and corruption indicators during 1990–2017 vis-à-vis other South Asian countries. In addition, we draw upon data from a purposefully designed survey of manufacturing firms to assess the state of economic governance in the export-oriented ready-made garments (RMG) sector, the country’s main source of foreign exchange and driver of economic growth. Consistent with the country’s poor ranking in a host of indicators of investment climate and corruption perception, in-depth interviews of RMG factory owners confirm the high cost of doing business in various forms. We also find no evidence of growth-mediated improvements in indicators of governance. On the contrary, our review of print media reports suggests a growing governance deficit in the country’s financial sector. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for the country’s future growth as well as performance of the RMG sector.     

Multilevel Governance: Framing the Integration of Top-Down and Bottom-Up Policymaking

Scholars embrace multilevel governance as an analytical framework for complex problems, such as climate change or water pollution. However, the elements needed to comprehensively operationalize multilevel governance remain undefined in the literature. This article describes the five necessary ingredients to a multilevel framework: sanctioning and coordinating authority, provision of capacity, knowledge co-production, framing of co-benefits, and engagement of civil society. The framework’s analytical utility is illustrated through two contrasting case examples—watershed management in the United States and air quality management in China. The framework balances local and central actors, which can promote a more effective governance regime.