Opening the Black Box of Officer Decision-Making: An Examination of Race,Criminal History,and Discretionary Searches

Recent evidence suggests that police officers engage in discretionary searches of minority citizens at a disproportionate rate; however, the impact of citizen criminal history on this relationship is largely unknown. Using the theoretical framework of officer suspicion, this study examines the impact of citizen race on the likelihood of a discretionary search and whether this relationship is mediated by citizen criminal history. A series of multilevel models were computed on officer-initiated traffic stops in a manner that conforms to Baron and Kenny's recommendations to test for mediation effects. Results indicated that while citizen race was predictive of a discretionary search, this effect was mediated by consideration of criminal history. These findings have implications for understanding the decision-making process of officers, the influence of citizen race on these decisions, and the role of officer suspicion in police-citizen encounters.     

结果导向型援助及其超越 ——兼论中国国际发展合作与全球发展话语权

援助是一国外交政策的重要工具。冷战期间,美苏对外援助的主要目的是争夺盟友,对援助成效的评估主要是以过程为导向,其标准是援助的投入是否成功使受援国留在本方阵营。冷战后,西方国家内部出现援助预算的合法性危机,对援助成效的讨论也逐渐从过程导向转向结果导向。进入21世纪,联合国千年发展目标和2030年可持续发展目标为发展援助的结果评估提供了重要参照。结果导向型援助提高了中国对外援助的可见性,但其存在的弊端和南北垂直援助特征需要中国制定超越援助的新时代国际发展合作战略。联合国2030年可持续发展议程吸收了结果导向型援助的积极因素,但这也为超越该理念奠定了基础。新时代中国国际发展合作与2030年议程的深入对接为中国突破西方战略围堵和实现中华民族伟大复兴提供了重要机遇。全球发展倡议与"一带一路"倡议、人类命运共同体理念和生态文明思想共同构成中国全球发展话语权的基础,并逐步超越了结果导向型援助,为落实2030年议程指明了方向。     

Public councils in Kazakhstan: a case of emergent participative democracy?

As Kazakhstan aims to become one of the top 30 developed countries by 2050, it is increasingly turning to ways which will improve its governance, one of which is greater participation by its citizens in the decision-making processes of state agencies. A new initiative aimed at doing just that, the establishment of public councils, received legal backing in January 2016. The aim of public councils is to ‘strengthen democracy and the quality and responsiveness of public polices’ through the ‘public expression of matters of concern to Kazakh citizens’. This article offers a formative evaluation of the role performed by public councils and questions the extent to which they have achieved this aim. It draws on primary data from public officials, non-governmental organizations, ministries, and non-participant observation of public councils in Kazakhstan. It finds limited evidence of their effectiveness to date.     

Co‐Production of Public Services in Australia: The Roles of Government Organisations and Co‐Producers

This article adds to the emerging empirical literature on citizen co‐production. Based on a telephone survey of 1000 Australian adults, it replicates a five‐country European study focusing on three policy domains: neighbourhood safety, environment, and health (Loeffler et al. 2008). It shows that individually performed and closely reciprocal activities with high levels of private value are performed the most often, whereas group activities producing mainly public value are the least performed. We found no evidence of a relationship between service satisfaction and co‐production, or between information provision/inclusion/consultation and co‐production, which challenges some of the previous literature on what might motivate citizens to co‐produce. Citizen self‐efficacy has a modest relationship with co‐production levels in each of the three policy domains. These findings have implications for policymakers, and pave the way for future empirical research in this field.     

Mutual efforts for mutual trust: Impacts of citizens' knowledge and governmental communication channels on trust in participatory budgeting

Since participatory budgeting (PB) has been advocated by both theorists and practitioners of public administration, its adoption has become a global phenomenon. As of 2017, all local governments in South Korea are legally mandated to operate a PB system as a policy for inviting citizen participation in local budget decision-making. Using an impact assessment tool completed by PB managers in local governments, this research tested two sets of independent variables—citizens' participatory capacity and the diversification of communication in the PB process—that could be associated with the dependent variables “citizens' trust in government (CTG)” and “government officials' trust in citizens (GTC).” The paper presents the three major findings on the common drivers behind CTG and GTC: (1) citizen participants' knowledge on budget and budgeting process; (2) local government's efforts in gathering citizens' inputs for PB; and (3) the mutual efforts to understand the needs and limitations of both citizens and the local government. The paper concludes by exploring the implications for the design and delivery of effective PB implementation.     

Can Facebook really be a tool for supporting citizen engagement during emergencies?

The present study explores how Italian regions and their presidents employed Facebook during the Covid-19 pandemic to encourage citizen engagement. To do so, it adopts quantitative methodologies. Our results show that most public actors increased their levels of social activity during the pandemic but mainly for promoting public communication and that citizens much prefer interacting with presidents. Moreover, citizen engagement was higher when posts were published during nonbusiness hours or weekends, while it decreased when posts contained photos or videos.     

走出慈善的尴尬——试析我国慈善事业发展的困境及出路

目前我国慈善事业虽然发展迅速,但是仍面临一系列困境,如政府角色认识偏差、公民慈善意识较弱、公众对慈善认识的偏差等意识困境;法律不健全、登记困难、税收政策不完善等法制困境;信息公开和内部治理不健全等机制困境。中国的慈善事业健康发展的出路是树立现代慈善意识、走法制化道路和完善机制。     

民事公益诉讼的功能承担与程序设计

民事公益诉讼的原告资格问题不属于诉讼担当,而属于实体适格问题。为此,立法者应当在实体法律规范中赋予"法定机关和有关组织"具体的实体请求权。而且,为了避免金钱损害赔偿带来的证明与分配上的困难,以及保证有关组织的独立地位,我国民事公益诉讼的请求权内容未来应当限定在"非金钱损害赔偿请求权"之上;仅例外情形才允许通过民事公益诉讼的途径主张"没收不当收益"请求权并上缴基金,这对于纠正市场失灵亦具有重要意义。此外,为了实现高水准的公益保护,我国还有必要增设有关既判力扩张与禁止滥诉的规定。总体而言,民事公益诉讼承担着"预防保护与监督"的功能,其与任意的诉讼担当、代表人诉讼、债权让与等制度共同存在,并分别在实现不确定人群的集合利益、少量确定人群的个体权利、大量不确定人群的大规模损害赔偿请求权以及大量不确定人群的小额损害赔偿请求权等领域发挥作用。     

Determinants of citizen support for community-oriented policing

The extent to which community members are willing to cooperate with the police and become involved with various community crime prevention programs depends on citizen perceptions of the police and of the community in which they reside. The purpose of the present study is to explore factors that affect support for community policing in a small rural city. Findings revealed that the majority of respondents supported community policing. Using community survey data collected from over 400 citizens in a small metropolitan area in the intermountain West, this study also explored the importance of demographic factors, community characteristics, and public perceptions and experiences with police in predicting citizens’ support for community policing. Citizen support for community-oriented policing varied somewhat by demographic factors (i.e., gender, education), and by community characteristics (i.e., disorder, social cohesion).     

公民参与政府决策的逻辑必然与现实对接——以广州番禺垃圾焚烧发电厂建设项目为视角

番禺垃圾焚烧发电厂建设项目引发的争论凸显出公民对政府决策参与的缺失。公共选择理论从经济人的逻辑起点出发,为公民参与政府决策提供了理论基础;现代决策环境的变化使公民参与决策变得非常必要;公民参与意识的兴起对政府决策提出了新要求。即公民参与到政府决策的全过程和每一个环节并有相应的制度保障,是实现政府决策与民意有效对接的重要途径。