Public Sector ‘Modernisation’: Examining the Impact of a Change Agenda on Local Government Employees in England

Can public sector reform change service performance for the better? This is a hotly contested debate that carries significant theoretical and practical importance. In England, as in many countries, modernisation was at the heart of local government reform and represented an interpretation of New Public Management into a policy framework. This paper examines the role of the modernisation change agenda in England and what this has subsequently meant for ‘service improvement’. Drawing on both document analyses and qualitative interviews with local government employees, we find that while modernisation sought to establish continuous improvement, unintended consequences of modernisation have led to Staff Reductions, Skill Deficiencies, and Loss of a Competent Middle Core in local government, as well as performance outcomes creating an environment for Commissioning, Service Reduction, and Self‐Policing. Implications for the lasting roles and behaviours of public managers affected by this national change agenda are discussed, and conclusions for theory and practice are drawn.     

东北亚战略安全新变化与中国和平发展的理性思考

东北亚战略安全新变化根源于东北亚战略结构的演变。东北亚战略安全新变化导致中国维护国家安全压力增大,面临不同意识形态挑战的压力持续上升,与周边国家合作成本增加,国家合作将更加困难。中国维护东北亚战略安全必须以包容性增长为东北亚战略安全合作发展的前提条件;确保中国经济社会的稳定与发展是维护东北亚战略安全的基础;和平解决朝核危机,维护朝鲜半岛安全是维护东北亚战略安全的关键;发展睦邻友好关系,稳定周边环境是维护东北亚战略安全的必然选择;积极倡导探索建立新的安全合作机制是维护东北亚战略安全的最终归宿。     

CAN SELF‐CONTROL CHANGE SUBSTANTIALLY OVER TIME? RETHINKING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SELF‐ AND SOCIAL CONTROL*

The primary goals of this study were to test the long‐term stability thesis of Gottfredson and Hirschi's (1990) general theory of crime and to examine the relationship between self‐control and social control over time. The data come from a field experiment where the “treatment” consisted of an intentional effort to improve the childrearing behaviors of a sample of caregivers whose children were at high risk of criminal behavior. Caregivers in the control condition were given no such training. The intervention occurred when all subjects were in the first grade (mean age: 6.2 years old), and we have measurements on self‐control and the social control/bond for each subject from grades 6 to 11 (mean ages: 12 to 17 years old). Both a hierarchical linear model and a second‐order latent growth model identified meaningful differences in the growth pattern of self‐control among individuals in the pooled sample and a difference in the growth parameters for self‐control and the social control/bond over time between the treatment and control groups. Both findings are inconsistent with Gottfredson and Hirschi's stability of self‐control hypothesis. The same patterns persisted when different analytic techniques and model specifications were applied, which suggests that the results are not an artifact of measurement error, model specification, or statistical methods. Structural equation modeling using the panel design of the data was better able to disentangle the long‐term relationship between self‐ and social control—a relationship that was found to be more dynamic than previously hypothesized.     

清代四川井盐引岸法制的运行

清代盐法施行的是纲盐法,纲盐法的基本建制是引岸制度,为了施行引岸制度,建立了一套较为完备的法制,但这一法制在不同盐区的具体运行又存在着较大的差别。本文将研究引岸法制在四川井盐中食盐销区的划分、运销中的官督商销法和官运商销法的具体运行,从而剖析引岸法制在四川的施行对国家和地方税收的保障、民众的就业与食盐秩序的稳定、榷盐对商品经济的发展和官吏的腐败所产生的影响,并提出清代盐法对食盐进行法律规制,对民众生活必需品的保障和维护社会基本秩序的稳定是有借鉴意义的。     

Organized elite power and clean energy: A study of negative policy experimentations with renewable portfolio standards

Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) is one of the most widely adopted clean energy policies in the U.S. However, organized elite power groups, backed by ample political and economic resources, have been known to lead RPS termination efforts. In the context of state renewable energy politics, organized elite power includes legislators affiliated with American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and anti-renewable energy business groups. Focusing on the roles of organized elite power, this study investigates the drivers of the formulation of RPS rollback (goal freeze) and termination bills, which we refer to collectively as negative policy experimentations. We find that RPS termination attempts are explained by the presence of ALEC legislators and anti-renewable energy business groups, whereas RPS goal freeze bills are better explained by conditions of policy operations. This study contributes to the policy process theory by providing critical insights into the post adoption decisions, including policy termination and rollback legislations, with a focus on the role of organized elite power.     

The Internet Propelling China to Greater Vitality and Openness

正China did not connect to the Internet until 1994,25 years after it fi rst appeared.It has since fl ourished rapidly and robustly.Today,618 million Chinese use the Internet,500 million of them via mobile phones,representing 73 percent of the urban population and 25percent of rural residents.More than 80 percent are young people.An open,free,shared,and innovative space,the Internet appeals to people of a country that has achieved rapid economic growth.It has changed their lifestyle,most profoundly as regards communi-     

As Good as Policy Gets

In June 2014, the think tank IPPR published a report, The Condition of Britain, widely seen as important source material for Labour as the party geared up for the 2015 General Election. This is an echo of another report—that of the Commission on Social Justice, published in 1994—which also made an important contribution to the thinking of Labour in opposition. A comparison between the two documents provides insights into the evolution of mainstream progressive thought over the past twenty years.     

Proving,Pleasing and Persuading? Rhetoric in Contemporary British Politics

Expressions of disaffection with politics are often connected with criticism of the ways in which contemporary politicians speak and communicate. In this article I show how political speech is in part a product of the way in which a society organises and arranges communication institutionally, technologically and aesthetically. The art of rhetoric is most fundamentally concerned with how, in the midst of political dispute and contestation, political arguments may be made persuasive through their connection with the ‘common sense’ of audiences. This process enables a people to reflect on its beliefs and values and to assess their adequacy in particular circumstances. Decline in this art may be attributed to social and technological change but also, and above all, to the dominance of ideologies hostile to the concepts of ‘common sense’ and ‘common good’, and which privilege the arts of behaviour change and choice management over those of argument, debate and persuasion.