Universities and State Policy Formation: Rationalizing a Nanotechnology Strategy in Pennsylvania

Technology‐based economic development programs have become a salient feature of the state policy landscape since the 1980s. While much research exists on the topic, little attention has been given to the processes of policy formation. State programs have moved towards high technology areas emphasized at the federal level over the past decades, and nanotechnology became one of the latest targets. This paper examines the eight‐year process through which Pennsylvania adopted a “state‐wide strategy,” culminating in the Pennsylvania Initiative for Nanotechnology. In this process, programs that responded to the interests of multiple agents came first, and a state policy was formulated after the fact. This pattern of “rationalized policy formation,” as opposed to rational policy formation, may be more common than suspected. Its strengths and weaknesses in this Pennsylvania case are discussed.     

城市弱势群体贫困的政策分析

城市弱势群体的贫困问题在世界各国都是普遍存在的。如由于农村人口涌入城市形成贫民窟、因为经济不景气导致大量失业等等。但我国城市贫困的形成原因却有所不同,我国城市贫困问题的主要原因是社会转型时期政策失误。具体表现为相关政策的缺位以及已有政策中存在的诸多不合理。     

气候变化背景下外国投资者与政府争端的解决——以我国双边投资协定为例

我国签订的双边投资协定中一般都规定了投资者与东道国政府间投资争端的解决方式,尤其是晚近我国所签订的双边投资协定多数允许投资者将争端提交国际仲裁。但是,在目前全球应对气候变化背景下,作为温室气体排放大国,我国有义务控制和减少温室气体的排放,采取相应的环境规制措施,这些环境规制措施可能会损害或影响到外国投资者在我国的利益。根据双边投资协定,外国投资者可能会将这些争端提交国际仲裁,我国有可能被国际仲裁庭裁定为此对外国投资者承担相应的赔偿责任。面对新形势,我国必须重新审视双边投资协定中投资者与东道国投资争端解决方式的相关规定。     

蒙古国“多支点”外交政策及其对我周边安全环境的影响

前苏联解体后,蒙古国基于自身实际构建的“多支点”全方位外交政策,已经对我北部战略安全环境产生了一定影响,分析蒙古国外交政策的动因、走向及其趋向,制订符合我国国家利益的应对措施,已经成为当前国家战略的一项重要课题。     

东北地区引进外资的区位优势分析

振兴东北老工业基地的重要手段之一是利用外资解决企业资金不足的问题。区位优势是东道国能直接影响跨国公司直接投资的唯一因素。吸引外资首先应明确了解本地区的区位优势与劣势,才能扬长避短,实现目标。东北地区地理位置优越,自然资源丰富,工业基础雄厚,人力资源质量高,市场增长潜力大,优惠政策吸引强。这些区位优势对吸引外资发挥了重要作用。但是东北地区的市场经营环境差,民营经济没有得到充分发展,对引进外资产生了不利影响。政府职能不明确,服务意识差、工作效率低、缺少透明度等问题急待解决。另外,为避免东北地区内部引资竞争,应加强区域合作,深化产业分工,以实现产业一体化。     

Decision Making in Autocratic Regimes: A Poliheuristic Perspective

This paper applies the poliheuristic theory of foreign policy decision making to non-democratic states. Poliheuristic theory asserts that state leaders assign primary importance to their political survival; however, the meaning of "the political" varies dramatically from country to country. Furthermore, the types of actors who hold leaders politically accountable also vary between countries. Consequently, leaders often pursue vastly different means of ensuring their political survival. The author uses the common distinction between single-party, military, and personalist autocracies to show that apparently arbitrary differences in autocratic leaders' political concerns actually vary in systematic and potentially predictable ways. Because this argument is generalized to non-democratic states as a whole, it has important implications for the ways in which democratic states craft their policies toward autocracies.     

Overview of: “Crime Place and Pollution: Expanding Crime Reduction Options Through a Regulatory Approach”

Research Summary Crime reduction policy has focused almost exclusively on offenders. Recent studies and evaluations show that expanding our policy portfolio to include places may be highly productive. We show that there is considerable research showing that crime is concentrated at a relatively few locations, that high-crime places are stable, that changing places can reduce crime, that displacement is not only far from inevitable but also less likely than the diffusion of crime prevention benefits, and that owners of high-crime places can be held accountable for the criminogenic conditions of their locations. We link these findings to environmental policy, where environmental scientists, economists, and regulators have developed a broad set of regulatory options. The core of this article describes a portfolio of environmental policy instruments directly applicable to crime places. We also discuss major decisions local governments will need to make to implement various forms of regulation, and we list challenges that governments must anticipate in planning for such implementation. We argue that a regulatory approach to crime places has the potential to lower the cost to taxpayers of reducing crime by shifting costs from governments to the relatively few place owners whose actions create crime-facilitating conditions. Policy Implications Taking a regulatory approach to crime places substantially expands the crime policy options under consideration. Regulatory options may increase local governments’ effectiveness at reducing crime while reducing governments’ costs. This is because regulatory approaches have the potential to shift some portion of the financial burden for crime fighting to owners of criminogenic locations. Policy makers can select between means-based anticrime regulations that focus on how place owners manage their locations and ends-based regulations that focus on the number of crimes allowed at places. Both of these approaches contain several alternative regulatory instruments, each with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Experimenting with various regulatory instruments could lead to the development of a range of new crime reduction policies. In addition, a regulatory approach has implications for the funding of policy research. Means-based regulatory instruments require governments to develop evidence that the means they regulate have the desired impact on crime. Ends-based regulatory instruments shift this burden to the regulated places.     

略论晚清政府关于来华外国人内地游历的执照制度

晚清时期,国门初开,护照制度开始实行。一般来说,护照是一个政府控制入境外国人的最基本、最有效的行政手段,本文拟对晚清政府关于来华外国人所持游历执照的政策作一概述,包括游历执照的分类、主要内容和实施的成效情况。此种游历执照,亦称"护照",但与现代意义上的"护照"有很大区别,是专门注明前往内地游历的通行证件,也起证明持照人身份的作用。     

宽严相济刑事政策与和谐社会

宽严相济刑事政策是我国刑事政策的新发展,同时也是对实行20多年的"严打"政策的反思和纠正.宽严相济刑事政策与和谐社都"以人为本",因而内在地联系在一起.构建和谐社会需要实行宽严相济刑事政策,因为它能满足和谐社会化解社会矛盾的需要、节约社会资源和刑事司法资源的需要;宽严相济刑事政策能促进和谐社会构建,因为它能有效地维护社会稳定,促进社会和谐,协调社会利益.所以,在构建和谐社会过程中,必须采取有效措施认真贯彻宽严相济刑事政策.