No ‘return to the state’: dependency and developmentalism against neo-liberalism

In the emerging ‘post-Washington Consensus’ era, neo-liberalism is searching for alternatives that once again emphasise the state. Yet neither Latin American dependencia nor East Asian developmentalism – two development models actually practised ‘on the ground’ – shares the basic assumptions of the liberal, rationalist state. First, there persists a significant ontological divide over the purpose of the state. Developmentalists and dependentists advocate deep, dynamic state agency rather than the hands-off, liberal, ‘night-watchman’ state. Second, development theory has unfolded within a modern liberal framework of science, democracy, the interests of US foreign policy, and increasingly a commitment to poverty alleviation. Dependency and developmentalism reject these neo-liberal benchmarks in the interests of state consolidation and autonomy. The persistence of dependentist and developmentalist understandings of the state precludes a uniform, post-neoliberal reversal in development theory back to the state.     

‘Listening to the rice grow’: the local–expat interface in Lao-based international NGOs

Generally speaking, NGO studies have focused their attention on the organisational unit and its role in shaping development outcomes. With few exceptions, the analysis of development partnerships, in which NGOs play a crucial role, has largely been confined to examination of ‘donors’ and ‘receivers’ and not the dynamics within organisational settings. This article is concerned with the interface between local and international staff operating within Lao-based international NGOs. The research relied on interviews with local and international staff and sought to examine how staff themselves interpreted the process of ‘localisation’ in the context of their own professional experience.     

多中心治理视角下的社区戒毒

由于社区戒毒康复的长期性和复杂性。文章在对昆明市四个街区200名戒毒康复人员及其家庭调查的基础上，将“多中心治理”作为解决“社区戒毒”困境理论，加强政府、社区与家庭的通力协作，做好社区戒毒。     

Westminster constitutions in the South Pacific: A “policy transfer” approach

Constitutional crises in Fiji and Solomon Islands and donor concerns about “good governance” raise older questions about the appropriateness of introduced constitutions to local conditions. This article analyses the process of transfer of “Westminster” constitutions in island states of the Pacific. It considers the factors that facilitated or constrained transfer into and within the region. It also considers cases where alternatives to Westminster were considered but rejected by the local leaders. The article concludes that Westminster has been spread by replication, almost irrespective of underlying social and political conditions.     

„Nord“ und „Süd“ im globalen Regieren

The debate on global governance has been focused primarily on the highly industrialized countries of the OECD world. However, domestic preconditions for cooperative and effective global governance tend to be precarious in many non-OECD countries. The consideration of such factors allows to identify different types of global governance strategies employed by developing countries, which have severe implications for the concept of global governance. Such a perspective from liberal foreign policy analysis also enables a differentiated analysis of normative challenges of global governance.     

我国农地管理的主体行为与博弈分析

我国现行的农地管理未能达到预期的效果,其核心原因在于宏观政策缺乏微观执行基础.基于此,分析了农地管理主体(包括中央政府、地方政府和村集体)的行为,并探讨了农地管理中不同主体之间的利益博弈、不同管理主体的行为变化对各主体利益的影响以及由此引发的农民的利益变化.利用博弈论分析方法建立了三个主体的博弈分析模型.首先从子博弈分析出发,分析中央政府与地方政府在农地管理中的博弈过程,其次分析地方政府与农民集体利益的代表——村集体的博弈分析,最后建立三个主体的主博弈模型.研究发现:在农地管理过程中,地方政府间联合与中央政府博弈的可能性不大,因而通过自上而下的政府规制,白下而上做实农地管理的微观主体——包括明确农民的使用权益、提高农民的市场地位,有利于消除农地管理中的寻租行为,提高农地管理的效率.     

Some Talk,No Action (Yet): Interdependence,Domestic Interests and Hierarchical EU Governance in Climate Policy

This article analyses why Switzerland has so far remained outside the European Union's emissions trading system (EU ETS), the centerpiece of the EU's efforts to combat climate change. In doing so, it contributes three insights to the literature on the EU's external governance. First, it shows that interdependence is of limited explanatory power in predicting EU–Swiss interactions. Secondly, it identifies domestic interests in the non‐member state, Switzerland, as the key factor in explaining the EU's external governance structures concerning emissions trading. Thirdly, it highlights the EU's limited flexibility in dealing with third countries in areas where its internal governance mode is hierarchical. The article presents a hypothesis about the future development of emissions trading in Switzerland and discusses implications for both the external governance literature and the development of global carbon markets.     

公共精神--公共行政发展的内在价值诉求

公共精神就是存在于公民社会之中的一种关心公共事务,并愿意致力于公共生活的改善和公共秩序的建构,以营造适于人类生存与发展的伦理规范、政治价值和社会制度。公共行政的内在本质、功能以及其合法性基础都充分彰显了对公共精神的内在需要。然而,目前处于转轨时期的我国公共行政面临着“公共精神”的乏弱。因此,须重塑公共行政的民主、法治、公正、服务、责任、参与精神,提升公共行政精神的现实路径是对传统公共精神资源的批判性反思与传承、公民美德的教育和行政人员公共精神的重点培育;公民社会的构建和非政府组织的规范发展;民主政治的不断完善推动“善政”走向“善治”。     

New Public Governance in the Baltic States: Flexible Administration and Rule Bending

Abstract

The New Public Governance approach advocates a more flexible and participatory public administration as means to higher efficiency and increased legitimacy. Increasing flexibility and thereby public employees’ discretion, however, may pose a risk to equality and impartiality, core values in democratic and rule-of-law societies. Using a survey among Baltic public employees, this article explores this risk. We ask whether public employees’ preferences for flexible rule application go hand in hand with acceptance of bending the rules, even if it means a breach of impartiality. We find that this is the case. We also find that contrary to what the New Public Governance approach expects, neither citizen participation nor generalized trust works as a control on rule bending. On a positive note, however, we find that control mechanisms associated with Weberian Public Administration lessen acceptance for bending the rules.     

Public Administration in the Middle East and North Africa

ABSTRACT

This article highlights the objective of the special issue which is to understand the status of public administration in six profiled countries – Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Turkey – in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The special issue explores public administration as a concept—the diversity of guiding general principles that determines how governments administer the affairs of state in the context of their governance frameworks—and as praxis—the diversity of public administration structures, procedures and practice, and reform initiatives. It is evident that the countries profiled have adopted a mode of public administration and governance that mirrors its history, and its cultural, geo-political, socio-economic, and conflictive environments. In this context, the editors hope that the articles presented in this special issue will contribute to advancing the public administration literature in MENA.