Participatory Budgeting in Germany – A Review of Empirical Findings

Participatory budgeting (PB) is one of the most popular democratic innovations worldwide. PB is connected with high stakes regarding mobilizing political inactive citizens, efficient and effective budgetary policy as well as positive effects on citizens (e.g., civic education, democratic attitudes). However, in many Western countries empirical evidence for such benefits is scarce. This also holds for Germany. Since the conduction of PB demands financial and personnel resources, a thorough evaluation is necessary. This article systematically summarizes the current state of research to make the literature on PB in Germany accessible to international scholars as well as political and administrative practitioners. It focusses on the context (which municipalities conduct PB and why), process (role of local administration and council, participation, deliberation), and outcome/impact dimension (outcomes and impact on policies and citizens). To conclude, further research venues are briefly outlined, followed by an outlook on PBs future and practical implications.     

职工文化管理推动工会工作创新探析

工会工作创新不仅是党和国家对工会提出的重大政治任务,也是全面提升我国职工队伍整体素质从而建设社会主义现代化强国的战略需要,更是工会自身发展的内在要求。作为习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想的重要组成部分,职工文化对于创新工会工作尤其调动广大职工群众的积极性有着特殊的政治意义和战略价值。因此,建议要在企业中大力推动职工文化管理。     

“工友驿站”创新模式与珠海工会改革经验探析

工会作为代表和维护职工合法权益的群团组织,存在最大的问题是脱离群众,其群团作用难以发挥。随着中国经济体制改革的深入,劳资冲突事件的增多,工会改革势在必行。珠海创建的首家"工友驿站"—新加坡花园站,是珠海工会去行政化所采取的重要改革举措,即以社会组织作为工会改革和社会治理创新工作的思路,通过向社会组织购买服务,建立"工会+社工+义工"的"三工"联动模式,为职工提供维权、帮扶救助、就业介绍、幼托等一系列服务,打通服务职工的"最后一公里"。     

Unleashing Innovation beyond Organizational Boundaries: Exploring Citizensourcing Projects

By using information and communications technologies, public administration encourages external actors to get involved in governmental activities once performed by civil servants. This article seeks to investigate the open innovation phenomenon beyond the entrepreneurial domain in the context of open government. For this purpose, a multiple case study was conducted to explore the current state of open government in Austria. The study first reveals the role of citizens as an active part of the system, then discusses the impact of citizensourcing projects, and finally concludes with giving implications for research and practice.     

Ideological congruence over government mandates under majoritarian and proportional representation electoral systems

The existing literature on ideological congruence has typically looked at congruence immediately after elections when governments are formed. This article goes beyond that comparative static approach by examining changes in citizen-government ideological congruence between two fixed points in time, namely at the beginning and end of government mandates. Building on a veto player approach and dynamics of party competition under majoritarian and proportional representation (PR) electoral systems, the results indicate, first, that government positions are more stable in between elections, as the number of parties and their ideological distance increase in cabinet. Second, it appears that single-party and homogeneous coalition governments decrease ideological congruence between elections under low levels of polarisation, while they increase congruence under very high levels of polarisation. Third, it was found that governments under majoritarian systems slightly decrease congruence between elections while congruence stays stable on average under PR systems. The different levels of party system polarisation across majoritarian and PR electoral systems mostly explain this difference.     

Homogeneous National Management Policies or Autonomous Choices by Administrative Units? Inter- and Intra-Country Management Tools Use Variations in European Central Government Administrations

ABSTRACT

This article presents an original research on the use of management tools in central government departments and agencies in 16 European countries. It is based on a survey conducted among senior managers (n?=?5,998). The analysis shows that the use of management tools results from a combination of top-down implementation of a list of management tools at the national level, combined with a bottom-up independent selection of tools by administrative units. The variation in management tool use depends on the type of tool. While the uses of a HRM tool, such as performance-related pay, or a financial tool, such as risk management, are heavily influenced by national public management policies, service quality-type tools, such as user surveys or quality management systems, tend to be chosen in a more autonomous manner by different administrative units, especially agencies.     

Developing Knowledge States: Technology and the Enhancement of National Statistical Capacity

National statistical systems are enterprises tasked with collecting, validating, and reporting societal attributes. These data serve many purposes—they allow governments to improve services, economic actors to traverse markets, and academics to assess social theories. National statistical systems vary in quality, especially in developing countries. This study examines determinants of national statistical capacity in developing countries, focusing on the impact of technological attainment. Just as technological progress helps to explain differences in economic growth, we argue that states with greater technological attainment have greater capacity for gathering and processing quality data. Analysis using panel methods shows a strong, statistically significant positive linear relationship between technological attainment and national statistical capacity.     

Inter-regional diffusion of policy innovation in China: A comparative case study

Classic theoretical research on the diffusion of policy innovation is usually based on decentralized democratic regimes. However, in authoritarian centralized countries such as China, questions such as, ‘What are the driving forces and the structural dynamics behind local government policy innovation and inter-regional diffusion?’ and ‘How do the governmental structural factors lead to the different patterns of diffusion of policy innovation across local governments?’ are interesting research topics. The theoretical framework proposed in this study highlights the roles of the contingent vertical and horizontal governmental relations in innovation diffusion. I extract two key properties: vertical mandatory intervention from the central government and horizontal political competition among peer governments. This research uses four models to develop a new typology of the inter-regional diffusion of policy innovation in China: (1) the enlightenment model, (2) the championship model, (3) the designation model, and (4) the recognition model. A comparative case study is conducted in this research, with four policy cases showing that China has developed diversified mechanisms to encourage local governments to perform policy innovation and inter-regional diffusion.     

“互联网 +”时代工会工作模式创新研究 —— 以重庆市产业工会和区县工会为例

"互联网+"时代为工会工作带来了前所未有的机遇和挑战。互联网的本质就是链接一切,它的广泛性、交融性、平等性等特点,使其能够更加广泛覆盖和联系社会各方,这与工会工作的群众性极为相似,所以把二者"+"起来,通过不断拓展联系层面、延伸工作触角,使工作更加贴近基层、贴近实际、贴近群众,更好为会员解难事、办实事、做好事。互联网的开放性和全民参与性,也为提高工会组织的覆盖率,提高工会工作效率和增加工会活动的知晓度、参与度和满意度提供了可能性。