The Nature of a Public Service

Public services have been misunderstood. They are not simply services in the public sector, they are not necessarily there because of “market failure”, and they cannot be analysed by the same criteria as market-based provision. They have four defining characteristics. They exist for reasons of policy; they provide services to the public; they are redistributive; and they act as a trust. They consequently operate differently from production for profit, in their priorities, costs, capacity and outputs.     

Australian Government Failure and the Green Loans Program

Since the 2007 federal election, the Australian government has implemented numerous new programs, many with dual economic and environmental objectives. A significant number of these initiatives have not only proved unsuccessful, but have also been criticized for their implementation and subsequent management. Using the conceptual prisms offered by the literature on decentralization, augmented by the government failure paradigm, this article considers the aborted Green Loans Program, which commenced in July 2009 with the aim of encouraging water and energy efficiency in existing homes through financial assistance for investment in water and energy-efficient technologies.     

Building the Education Revolution: Another Case of Australian Government Failure?

Since the 2007 federal election, the Australian government has implemented a plethora of new programs, many with dual economic and social objectives. A significant number of these initiatives have not only proved unsuccessful, but have also been criticized for their implementation and subsequent administration. This paper examines the Building Education Revolution Program, which commenced in 2009 with the objective of stimulating employment growth and improving school infrastructure, through the analytical prism of the government failure paradigm as well as the literature on “hollowing out” and decentralization. It is argued that the BER Program represents a “case study” of how governments should not pursue large-scale public expenditure programs.     

Re-Stating the problem of regulation and re-regulating the local state

In recent years a substantial body of literature has grown up around the application of the theorectical insights of regulation theory to the evolution of patterns of local governance and the structures of the local state (Geddes 1988: Goodwin, Duncan and Halford 1993; Painter 1991: Peck and Tickell 1992: Stocker 1989 inter alia). These new patterns of local governance are characteristically seen to be associated with the replacement of the formallly accountable, democracitcally elected structures of local government with a plethora of unaccountable and non-elected agencies involving public-private sector ‘part-nership’, Within this literature the emergence of new patterns of local governance is accounted for in terms of a response to the crisis of Fordism. In this article it is argued that regulation theory's principal analytical strength lies in its analysis of the internal contradictions and dynamics of modes of regulation, but that it has thus far failed to develop an adequate explanation of the transition between modes. As a consequence, existing accounts of the emergence of new modes of local governance couched in terms of the transition from Fordism to post-Fordism (or after-Fjordism) have tended to fail to reveal the complex mechanisms and processes linking global economic dynamics and the transformation of the structures of the national and local state. By interrogating the concept of ‘crisis’ in regulation theory and by considering the processing of the failures of Foprdism through the state at national and local level as a condition of any response to crisis, it is hoped to begin to develop a theory of the transition between modes of regulation. Such a theory, as it is hoped to demonstrate, might provide the basis for a more nuanced understanding of the complex process and mechanism resulting in the transformation of political and economic structures at the local level.     

论邻地通行权

邻地通行权是指土地权利人(被围绕地人)在与公路(或通路)无正常(适宜)的联络、导致不能为通常的使用时,得请求相邻土地的权利人(周围地人、围绕地人)容忍自己于必要范围内通行的权利。法特性上其属于不动产相邻关系法系统中的法定权利,相应地乃是对通行地(周围地、围绕地)人不动产土地权利的限制。大陆法与英美法各国家和地区民法大多有此制度或规则的明文。我国《民法典》第291条确立了相邻关系通行权,然其完整的法理、学理、构成要件以及法律效果等的解释论系统尚付阙如,应予以构建或释明,期冀《民法典》的该规则可切实地作用于我国的社会生活与法律实践。     

Designing property rights for water: mediating market,government, and corporation failures

Recent decades have seen an acceleration in public concern about the allocation of increasingly scarce water supplies. There are many reasons for this concern, such as growth in urban populations. In this article, we focus on how surface water’s special qualities (the combination of spillovers, rent-seeking behavior, and common pool resources) complicate the assignment of property rights in any legal framework. These characteristics make specific market structures necessary in order to efficiently allocate rights. The state usually designs those structures. Yet, just like markets can fail, so can governments fail to effectively allocate those rights. So designers often turn to quasi-judicial conservancy boards as a second-best solution. We argue that those boards may themselves fail through a form of “corporation failure.” We address these three types of failures, and offer an analysis of two cases that suggests that the likelihood conservancy boards will suffer from corporate failure depends on the actions of the boards and outside stakeholders (like governments).

西班牙征服中国计划书的出笼及其破产

西班牙殖民者侵入菲律宾之后,将菲律宾作为侵略中国的基地,企图进一步征服中国。1586年,菲律宾的西班牙当局提出了一个详细的侵华计划书,但是该计划最后却流于破产。本文探讨西班牙人提出这一计划书的背景和原因,并对它的破产提出自己的看法。     

历史上的托古改制

本文以王莽改制、王安石变法和戊戌维新这三次历史上最具代表性的改革为例，分析其历史背景、理想目标、改革措施及其成败得失，具有一定的史鉴意义。     

政府宏观调控质量的提高及其边界确定

提高政府宏观调控质量已成我国当务之急。要提高宏观调控质量 ,首要问题是确定宏观调控边界 ,而具体措施则有 :转变政府职能 ,建立多元化调控体系 ;实行制度化分权 ,巩固分级调控体系 ;健全金融宏观调控体系 ,实行以货币政策为主的宏观调控政策 ;完善宏观调控法律体系 ,将宏观调控纳入法制化轨道     

赢多输少还是输多赢少?——WTO争端解决机制申诉方败诉案件解析

利用WTO争端解决机制处理的国际贸易纠纷中申诉方完全败诉的案件占专家组处理案件的10%强,主要原因是申诉方未能完成举证义务,申诉方没有正确提出诉请,被申诉方政府的声明使得专家组不支持诉请。