Actively Cultivating Policy Similarity. A Regional Strategy in Education Policy in France and Germany

Regionalization processes across Western Europe have triggered analyses of regional policy divergence. Yet, in a number of cases, regional governments appear to have deliberately strived to achieve policy conformity. Previous research tends to emphasize exogenous explanations of regional policy convergence. In contrast, this paper addresses the issue of regional policy convergence by focusing on endogenous explanatory factors. Its objective is to carry out an investigation of when, how, and with what effect a ‘desire for conformity’ arises, and contends that regional governments may actively cultivate policy similarity as a strategy to develop or secure their policy capacity. Specifically, the paper argues that the adoption of this strategy is contingent upon two requirements that may or may not be met, and that its outcome is the convergence on targeted dimensions of regional policies. The two requirements are: (i) a countrywide public preference for policy uniformity in the policy area of concern, and (ii) the presence of a threat posed to regional policy capacity by various political entrepreneurs, including the central state, who blame regions for providing divergent policies on particular dimensions. This paper is based on the comparison of two case studies where regional governments deliberately pursued policy conformity on targeted dimensions of their education policy: school-building policy in France and curricula policy in Germany. The two case studies also present dissimilar features that make it possible to investigate the effects of institutional setting and policy distribution on the adoption and operation of the active-cultivation-of-policy-similarity strategy.     

The OECD and “The Rest”: Analyzing the Limits of Policy Transfer

Abstract

Prompted by the rise of the emerging economies and the growing importance of the G20, the OECD has formally announced its intention of establishing itself as a key actor in global policy coordination. As part of this ambition, it has embarked on cultivating closer relations with five G20 countries it designated as key partners through the so-called “Enhanced Engagement” programme: Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and South Africa. This article mobilizes concepts from the policy transfer literature to explain why the OECD’s attempts to increasingly involve all five countries in its policy have fallen short of its original ambitions, and also why the transfer of its policy work has been uneven across policy and country issue.     

“裁判文书网上公开”的三个隐忧

一般认为,裁判文书的公开是司法民主理念的要求,它不仅有利于建立＂阳光司法＂,也能保障公民的知情权与监督权。并且,在互联网时代,裁判文书网上公开成为必然趋势。但是,在当前的社会环境与制度背景下,将裁判文书在网上予以全面公开尚且存在隐忧,主要涉及理念碰撞、司法性质追问、社会实效等具体问题。     

论民事、行政有效性与违法性判断的分离——兼谈法秩序的统一性与刑法判断的独立性

具有违法性的行为,在民事与行政上的效力一般被予以否定,即违法则不可能有效。但是在一些情况下,肯定这些行为的效力,更有利于法益保护和立法目的的实现．故在民法上出现了效力性强制性规定与管理性规定的区分。这体现了有效性与违法性判断一定程度上的分离．而这在行政法上也有体现。这种分离既体现了法秩序的统一性．又体现了各部门法不同的利益导向及法的利益权衡本质,也决定了各部门法判断的相对独立性,即使具有保障法地位的刑法也是如此。“一般违法性”的存在,与刑法判断的独立性不相冲突,而民事、行政法有效性与犯罪的成立也并不完全排斥。     

制定我国《药品再评价管理办法》的法律依据及有关问题分析

本文通过介绍我国开展药品再评价的法律依据,探讨制定我国《药品再评价管理办法》的必要性和急迫性,并 就有关实际工作中存在的问题提出了解决建议。     

Policy or person? What voters want from their representatives on Twitter

Social media have the potential to transform democracies as they allow for direct contact between representatives and represented. Politicians can use social media to show their policy positions but they can also give insight into their private lives. Based on survey experiments in Germany and Switzerland we show that social media messages about politicians’ private lives rather deter voters. Instead, we find that voters prefer candidates that communicate policy positions. The effect of a policy-oriented communication style on Twitter can even lead to appreciating a politician from a different party in Switzerland, which has an electoral system that gives a strong incentive to cultivate a personal vote.     

刑事和解的适用分析与对策研究

近年来,刑事和解在我国越来越受到重视和运用。分析目前刑事和解的适用状况,我们可以针对刑事和解在司法实践中存在的问题,采取相应的对策,及时立法来对其进行规制,使刑事和解在我国的社会主义法制建设中更好地发挥其应有的作用,这也符合构建和谐社会的需要。     

西方政策网络理论研究的最新进展及其评价

近年来西方政策网络理论研究出现了三个明显趋势:1、理论研究上从新制度主义的视角探讨政策网络为什么产生、为什么改变和为什么能够持续的深层理论问题;2、实践问题上重点探讨了政策网络的管理问题,包括政府间网络的管理问题;3、重视政策网络与政策执行效果关系研究.     

论行政规划的法律性质

行政规划的法律性质对于确定行政规划的救济方式具有重要意义。行政规划的性质取决于"确定规划"的性质,作为行政规划的完成阶段,"确定规划"通常以规划确定裁决的形式出现。确定规划裁决所具有的权利形成效果决定了行政规划应当是具体行政行为。但在我国,由于确定规划裁决的"权利形成效果"缺乏法律规定,因而行政规划尚不能被认定为具体行政行为。     

Land use and forestry based CDM in scientific peer-reviewed literature pre-and post-COP 9 in Milan

This article explores the science-policy interactions between peer-reviewed literature and decisions and declarations on Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) projects in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) taken at Conference of the Parties (COP) meetings. The results are based on a literature analysis capturing 88 articles published from 1997 to 2005. By using a matrix search method and a structured reading form, the method and analysis focussed on whether issues of CDM and LULUCF were presented as ‘supportive of the inclusion of LULUCF’ and ‘critical of the inclusion of LULUCF’. A matrix search method and a structured reading form were applied. Of the 88 articles, 66% included discussions supportive to the inclusion of LULUCF. Forty-nine percent had a first author affiliated in natural sciences. Only 19% had first authors affiliated in developing countries while the same number for contributing authors was 38%. The results show no clear connection between scientific literature and decisions and declarations, but indicate that policymakers set the research agenda by declarations, while researchers feed the process up until decisions are made.