被问责官员复出机制探析

从法理和情理上讲,被问责官员复出本身并没有问题,但若被问责官员在被问责后不久即复出就是问题.本文认为,针对被问责官员草率复出的问题,应完善我国的被问责官员复出机制,加强被问责官员复出机制的法治化、规范化建设.这不仅有利于消解公众对行政问责的信用危机,对被问责官员的合法权益进行保护,同时也有利于克服被问责官员复出的草率性和随意性,提高政府行为的公信力和执行力.     

The Government's Plans for Decentralisation and Localism: A Progress Report

This article assesses progress on the coalition government's ambitious agenda for decentralisation and localism against six actions set out in the government's own guide to decentralisation. It critically examines the government's case that the previous government's centralised approach failed. The six actions cover reducing bureaucracy, community empowerment, more local control of public funding, provider diversification, more public scrutiny and stronger local accountability. The paper concludes that accountability is the most challenging and that progress is hampered by tensions between the actions and between government departments. It argues that the government needs a clearer, shared vision for localism going forward.     

关于完善我国行政问责制的思考

全面推进行政问责制是我国政治体制改革的一项重要内容。本文分析了在推进行政问责制的进程中所面临的权责不清、行政监督虚置、问责文化滞后等主要问题,并针对这些问题提出了相应的对策。     

Do voters reward rebellion? The electoral accountability of MPs in Britain

To hold their Members of Parliament individually accountable for their legislative behaviour, British voters would need to base their decision to vote for an MP at least partially on the extent to which the MP's legislative voting behaviour deviated from that of the MP's party leadership. Voters should evaluate this deviation contingent on their views of the party leadership. MP rebellion can signal that voter–MP congruence is greater than that of the voter and the MP's party leadership. In this article it is found that only constituents with negative attitudes toward the Labour government reward rebellious Labour MPs, albeit to a limited extent. A similar conditional association is not observed on a single issue: Iraq. The policy accountability of MPs is relatively weak and general rather than issue‐specific.     

我国问责官员复出机制的构建问题研究

构建科学有效的问责官员复出机制,对于建设责任政府和维护公众利益具有重大意义。问责官员复出机制具有静态结构、动态过程、生态环境、心态系统四个维度。目前,我国问责官员复出的规则体系不完善,官员问责与官员复出的程序断裂,问责官员复出的体制性弊端凸显,复出的内在调控力薄弱。建立统一的复出规则体系,构建责任分类管理机制,加强官员问责与官员复出的动态管理,完善复出中的异体参与机制,以及形成法律制度之外的柔性伦理建构和内在驱动机制,是防止问责官员非正常复出的策略选择。     

论我国环境执法机制的完善——从规制俘获的视角

规制俘获是被规制者对规制机构的一种支配和控制。由于规制机构所享有的宽泛的自由裁量权、被规制对象与规制受益人对规制过程参与的非对等性以及规制主体与被规制对象的利益结盟等原因,我国环境执法过程中出现了＂规制俘获＂,其表现为环境执法不严。为破解这一迷局,必须规范自由裁量权、强化环境保护目标责任制,并在各环境单行法中引入环境公民诉讼。     

A study into the layers of automated decision-making: emergent normative and legal aspects of deep learning

ABSTRACT

The paper dissects the intricacies of automated decision making (ADM) and urges for refining the current legal definition of artificial intelligence (AI) when pinpointing the role of algorithms in the advent of ubiquitous computing, data analytics and deep learning. Whilst coming up with a toolkit to measure algorithmic determination in automated/semi-automated tasks might be proven to be a tedious task for the legislator, our main aim here is to explain how a thorough understanding of the layers of ADM could be a first good step towards this direction: AI operates on a formula based on several degrees of automation employed in the interaction between the programmer, the user, and the algorithm. The paper offers a fresh look at AI, which exposes certain vulnerabilities in its current legal interpretation. To highlight this argument, analysis proceeds in two parts: Part 1 strives to provide a taxonomy of the various levels of automation that reflects distinct degrees of human–machine interaction. Part 2 further discusses the intricate nature of AI algorithms and considers how one can utilize observed patterns in acquired data. Finally, the paper explores the legal challenges that result from user empowerment and the requirement for data transparency.     

When Are Local Incumbents Held Accountable for Government Performance? Evidence from US School Districts

Do voters hold local officials accountable for government performance? Using over a decade of panel data on school district elections and academic achievement in California, I causally identify the effect of test score changes on school board incumbent re‐election rates and show that incumbents are more likely to win re‐election when test scores improve in their districts—but only in presidential election years. This effect disappears in midterm and off‐years, indicating that election timing might facilitate local government accountability.     

A God of Vengeance and of Reward? Voters and Accountability

Theories of democratic politics prize congruence between citizens’ preferences and their elected representatives’ actions in office. Elections are a critical means for achieving such policy congruence, providing voters the opportunity to chasten representatives who are out of step with constituent preferences and to reward the faithful. Do voters act this way? Recent studies based on observational data find they do, but these data are somewhat limited. We employ a survey experiment to estimate the extent to which information about policy congruence affects voters’ evaluations of representatives. We informed some subjects how often their member of Congress’s voting decisions match their own stated preferences on the same policies. We find that information about congruence enhances accountability by affecting constituent evaluations of representatives and may also affect citizens’ propensity to participate in upcoming elections.