Impacts of Institutional Rules and Spatial Context on Public Management

Abstract

Public management occurs within institutional and spatial contexts that define constraints and shape opportunities for public action. Importantly, the creation, adaptation, and nurture of institutions are socially valuable results of governmental action. Similarly, all human action occurs in and has effects in spatial contexts. The quality of life available to humans is dramatically affected by location and making places more valuable is an important goal of much public policy. Analyses at the nation state level find government creation and maintenance of institutional rules supporting democratic polities and market‐based economies are the most important factors in the long‐term economic performance of nations. When considering institutional context at the regional and local levels, or in specific policy arenas, at least three measures—(1) existing capacity for collective action; (2) complexity; and (3) volatility—need to be considered. Spatial contexts can be usefully analyzed along several dimensions, including structure of the economy, distribution of assets/liabilities and public, business, nonprofit and household activities, geography and population dynamics, among others. Estimating transaction costs of collective action can be a common entry point into analyses of institutional and spatial contexts. Both analysis and practice of public management will be advantaged by systematic attention to institutional and spatial context.     

Predicting Short-Term Institutional Aggression in Forensic Patients: A Multi-Trait Method for Understanding Subtypes of Aggression

Accurately predicting inpatient aggression is an important endeavor. The current study investigated inpatient aggression over a six-month time period in a sample of 152 male forensic patients. We assessed constructs of psychopathy, anger, and active symptoms of mental illness and tested their ability to predict reactive and instrumental aggression. Across all levels of analyses, anger and active symptoms of mental illness predicted reactive aggression. Traits of psychopathy, which demonstrated no relationship to reactive aggression, were a robust predictor of instrumental aggression. This study (a) reestablishes psychopathy as a clinically useful construct in predicting inpatient instrumental aggression, (b) provides some validation for the reactive/instrumental aggression paradigm in forensic inpatients, and (c) makes recommendations for integrating risk assessment results into treatment interventions.

农户兼业化与农村土地制度变迁——基于家庭内部分工的分析框架及政策含义

基于家庭内部分工的框架,将农户看作两个人的生产系统,讨论了家庭内部分工与专业化对农村土地流转、土地调整两个重要制度变量的影响,研究了农户兼业化对土地制度选择的意愿及其对中国农村土地制度变迁的政策意义.Probit模型的计量结果表明,农民家庭内部分工降低了土地流转意愿;在家庭人地比的一定范围内农户响应人地比例的变动而选择土地流转的意愿比土地调整要更为强烈.研究的结论是,男性和女性人力资本在非农就业的差异,以及兼业农户没有降低农业产出的效率特征,决定了具有比较优势的分工使兼业农户不会轻易放弃土地承包权;分工经济使农民对现有土地家庭承包制的利用程度的重要性超过土地流转制度创新的潜在利润,农户的反应倾向于选择土地流转应对稀缺的土地要素禀赋对土地调整的压力;农户的制度选择意愿在一定程度上受家庭内部分工预期收益所左右,形成了制度变迁的路径依赖和锁入效应.     

Lessons of Russian in Afghanistan

The experience of Soviet involvement in Afghanistan (1979–1989) is considered through the prism of institutional transfers. Afghanistan has a long history of attempts to implement Muslim, Soviet and Anglo-Saxon institutional designs. Most of them have failed. This failure can be attributed to the lack of ‘elective affinity’ between traditional and new institutions imported from more developed countries. It is argued that a careful examination of the degree of elective affinity must precede any attempt of institutional transfers. An analysis of Ph.D. dissertations defended by Afghan students at Soviet and Russian universities complements logical arguments and references to historical facts.

当代中国政策议程创建模式嬗变分析

政策议程的研究在当前学术界引起了越来越多的关注,但是已有的研究成果表明,这些理论范式较多地从即时的视阈对政策议程的创建过程进行解释,而缺少历时向度的考察与对比研究,因而只能对某一具体的社会问题如何进入政策议程进行个案式的说明,而不能归纳和概括一个特定时期政策议程创建活动的总体特征和一般规律,当然也就难以从宏观层面对不同时期的议程建构模式进行纵向比较分析。因此,推进研究的深入发展亟需将个案式的解释模型上升为一般化的分析框架,通过对不同历史时期的创建活动进行动态化的梳理和比较,实现由单一向度的分析视角向"立体化"、多维度的研究方向转变。基于这一思考,以探究政策议程创建活动的"情境转换"与"过程变迁"及其内在联系为主旨,以政策议程创建模式为分析单元,提出了体制-过程模型,并以此为工具,以改革开放以来不同历史阶段的政策议程创建活动为考察对象,通过对三种政策议程创建模式的特征、过程及其背景的比较分析,力图在探究我国三十年间政策议程创建模式演进的一般规律的基础上对体制-过程模型的应用进行说明和验证。     

民法典视野下担保合同效力的制度变迁

从担保行为历史、担保合同效力立法、司法实践的角度考查,担保制度经历了从人格向契约、再由契约向政策的变迁,各阶段的效力规定均体现了特定的社会背景并具有时代适应性.民法典对保证及物权担保合同中主从合同的效力关系进行了统一规定,其法定主义立场重申了对担保秩序稳定性的价值追求,反映了立法者在面对日新月异的担保现实时追求公平的整...     

提升社会治理效能:社会企业生产要素社会性变革及其制度优势

社会企业通过市场机制参与社会治理的行动根植于经济嵌入社会的关系之中。生产要素本身具备多种属性和功能,长期以来商品经济理论对生产要素的单向商品化使用,造成了经济与社会、文化等非商品化属性的隔离。正如波兰尼所言,土地作为自然存在,劳动力和企业管理者作为社会人,本身并不是生产出来供销售的商品,资金使用的信用、信任和合法认可也不能作为商品去生产。因此,重新审视经济行为的目的,可以发现社会企业的发展动因。社会企业以社会企业家精神为内生动力,以企业家管理才能为社会目标通向经济行动的镶嵌通道,通过制度创新改变社会问题,并运用社会管理技术系统提升社会治理效能,将组织的制度优势转化为社会治理效能,对推动良性社会运行具有积极的作用。     

再论振兴东北老工业基地的新思路

东北老工业基地特殊性在于:计划经济体制浓厚、国有经济比重大、重化产业比例大形成的“铁三角”架构,从而在向市场经济体制过渡的同时,会产生显著的沉淀成本。补偿或降低这些沉淀成本,构建完全的市场竞争环境是新形势下振兴东北老工业基地的关键。     

跨域生态环境协同治理:何以可能与何以可为

跨域生态环境问题通常发生在不同行政区域之间,兼具了一般环境问题的共性特征,同时表现出自身的独特性,致使传统的属地管理模式效率较低,亟须寻求新的治理方式。协同治理作为新兴的治理模式,契合了跨域生态环境治理的要求,能够发挥协调各方、平衡价值的功能,有助于促进利益相关者的共同理解和内部合法性。因此,将协同治理嵌入跨域生态环境问题的解决过程,具有必要性和可能性。为促成跨域生态环境协同治理,需要就理念、法律、组织和制度等路径进行探索。     

从企业家犯罪的罪名结构透视企业家犯罪的制度性成因———以 245 起案例统计为基础简

在犯罪成因上，企业家犯罪不同于传统的街头犯罪，外在环境与制度条件对企业家队伍的成长方式及其追逐财富的路径选择具有很强的建构性。透过245起具有统计价值的企业家犯罪案例中的罪名结构特征，可以具体地说明企业家犯罪的制度性成因：融资类犯罪比重大凸显民企融资的制度性瓶颈；受贿罪突出反映出国有企业家制度性的角色错位；国有、民营企业家罪名差异显现市场公平竞争的不足；民营企业家的主要罪名分布反映出刑事手段介入市场活动的泛化倾向；背信犯罪的高发折射企业家精神的缺失。