Lesson-Drawing from New Zealand and Covid-19: The Need for Anticipatory Policy Making

The Covid-19 pandemic has seen most governments worldwide having to think on their feet rather than implementing detailed and well-rehearsed plans. This is notwithstanding the fact that a pandemic was bound to happen, sooner or later (and will happen again). The effectiveness of national responses has varied enormously. Globally, New Zealand has been perceived as setting the gold standard in ‘curve crushing’, and for a short period achieved Covid-free status. For this achievement, much credit is due to the New Zealand government, especially to Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern. However, post-lockdown the New Zealand government has encountered a number of Covid policy implementation problems (many of which could have been anticipated). Nevertheless, Covid-19 might still turn out to have been a seismic shock to existing policy processes and policy frames (such as austerity). If so, there are grounds for hope that in the future, governments and voters might be less short-term in their outlook. Perhaps anticipatory, rather than reactive policy making, might become more fashionable?     

Designing deploying competency building-up of in-house lifelong learning： Communication-culture convergence requirements

This paper discusses ways to build up in-house lifelong learning （ILL） competency with reference to the principles of communication-culture convergence （CCC）. Successful CCC, in general, requires meeting three conditions： Securing diverse but appropriate learning technologies, enhancing the value of effectiveness and coordinating interests among stake holders. It, to be specific, necessitates theory-workplace-balanced implementation of five elements： Diagnosing lifelong learning needs, formulating learning goals, identifying appropriate human material resources, choosing goal strategies, and evaluating learning outputs. Lastly, CCC-driven ILL-focused figure and tables are shown to exemplify a successful interconnection between ILL convergence principles and competency requirements. Then, five South Korean cases are briefly summarized to show a discrepancy between the ILL competency guide and a real world of ILL practice. Significance and suggestions are drawn.     

论我国宪法权利限制的实质、困境与对策

尽管享有权利是人类社会生活的一部分,但为了维护公共利益,个人宪法权利还必须受到限制。然而,权利限制的最终目的还是为了保障人的生存与发展,进而实现人的价值。由于诸多原因的影响,我国宪法对公民宪法权利的限制存在着一定的缺陷,不利于公民宪法权利的实际享有。因此,亟需从宪法权利限制的原则、方式和具体条文等方面完善我国宪法权利的限制。     

Best Practices in School-Based Mentoring Programs for Adolescents

Mentoring is a promising approach to promote healthy development and prevent poor youth outcomes; however, bad mentoring experiences have yielded negative results. Thus, it is critical that youth service providers take heed of the current research and resources for establishing an effective youth mentoring program. Given the increased interest in school-based mentoring programs, presented herein are best practices in developing, implementing, and evaluating a school-based mentoring program for adolescents. Program development strategies are provided around laying the groundwork, establishing partnerships, and coordinating the program. The elements of effective practice for mentoring (MENTOR, 2009) are summarized and additional implementation considerations are presented. Lastly, the realities of program evaluation are discussed in juxtaposition to program evaluation standards.     

A Knowledge‐Based Approach to Public Value Management: A Case Study of Change Implementation in Disability Services in Western Australia

This paper provides a knowledge‐based perspective to understanding public value management (PVM). As distinct from other approaches to public administration, PVM focuses on collaborative capacity building for the creation of public value. To develop the notion of PVM further, we explore the role of a knowledge‐based strategy in a case study of change implementation in 18 disability service organisations in Western Australia. Our findings show important inter‐relationships between knowledge management strategy, adopting a person‐centred approach to service provision, and sustainability of change implementation. We discuss the implications of the study for disability sector change management and for the further exploration of the strategic role of knowledge management capabilities in the study and practice of PVM in public sector administration. The paper explores the relationship between an organisation's knowledge capture and sharing systems and processes and its ability to implement change in a way that generates long‐term benefits for both public sector employees (e.g., engaging with key stakeholders to generate innovative solutions for serving client needs) and clients (i.e., increased well‐being through better service design and support).     

违宪法律的效力

违宪法律是否具有效力,并非完全取决于“违宪”的判断结论,而视乎无效决定之效力状态。各国对于违宪法律应否具有效力的处理方式有所不同,但仍存在一定的规则：违宪法律的对象效力范围,与维护宪法秩序和保障个人权利这两种法律价值观密切相关,并有一般无效与个别无效两种不同的法律处理;违宪法律的时间效力范围取决于“构成说”与“宣示说”这两种无效学说下的不同规定性,而违宪法律的自始无效与将来无效则成为各国设计违宪法律的时间效力范围时必须面对的关键问题。     

The House of Lords: The Working of the Electoral Process in the 1999 Act of Parliament

This article investigates the working of the 1999 Act of Parliament in relation to the electoral process. One of the more controversial measures in the 1999 Act was the preservation of the representation of the hereditary element in the House of Lords. In the 2007-2008 session of Parliament, Lord Avebury introduced the House of Lords (Amendment) Bill, to repeal this electoral process, and Lord (David) Steel of Aikwood introduced the House of Lords Bill, which had provisions to the same effect as Lord Avebury's Bill. The working of this electoral process is therefore likely to be a topic of debate in the 2008-2009 session of the House of Lords. We suggest that there are three possible options to deal with the likely future issues for this electoral process. These we present as a contribution to a wider debate on the way forward for this constitutional issue.     

地方党政关系的宪政思考

地方党政关系是中国地方政治结构的重要组成元素之一,地方党政关系的发展对于地方政治发展具有重要影响。从宪政视角看,地方“党”与“政”之间要形成和谐稳定的党政关系,需做好两方面的工作：在法治方面,通过法治形成对地方党政关系的刚性规范;在制度安排方面,重新分配地方党委和地方政府的权力和职能,地方党委享有决策权,地方政府拥有执行权。     

The fragility of an independent judiciary: Lessons from Hungary and Poland–and the European Union

When the European Union was founded, it was assumed that all Member States admitted as consolidated democracies would maintain their constitutional commitments. In recent years, Hungary and Poland have challenged this premise as elected autocratic governments in those countries have captured independent institutions and threatened long-term democracy. The judiciaries of these countries have been hard hit. In this paper, we trace what has happened to the judiciaries in Hungary and Poland, showing how first the constitutional courts and then the ordinary judiciary have been brought under the control of political forces so that there is no longer a separation of law and politics. We also explore why the European Union has so far not been able to stop this process. In the end, the European judiciary, particularly the Court of Justice, is attempting a rescue of national judiciaries, but the results are so far unclear.     

Constitutional courts as veto players: Lessons from the United States,France and Germany

The number of constitutional courts and supreme courts with constitutional review rights has strongly increased with the third wave of democratisation across the world as an important element of the new constitutionalism. These courts play an important role in day‐to‐day politics as they can nullify acts of parliament and thus prevent or reverse a change in the status quo. In macro‐concepts of comparative politics, their role is unclear. Either they are integrated as counter‐majoritarian institutional features of a political system or they are entirely ignored: some authors do not discuss their potential impact at all, while others dismiss them because they believe their preferences as veto players are entirely absorbed by other actors in the political system. However, we know little about the conditions and variables that determine them as being counter‐majoritarian or veto players. This article employs the concept of Tsebelis’ veto player theory to analyse the question. It focuses on the spatial configuration of veto players in the legislative process and then adds the court as an additional player to find out if it is absorbed in the pareto‐efficient set of the existing players or not. A court which is absorbed by other veto players should not in theory veto new legislation. It is argued in this article that courts are conditional veto players. Their veto is dependent on three variables: the ideological composition of the court; the pattern of government control; and the legislative procedures. To empirically support the analysis, data from the United States, France and Germany from 1974 to 2009 is used. This case selection increases variance with regard to system types and court types. The main finding is that courts are not always absorbed as veto players: during the period of analysis, absorption varies between 11 and 71 per cent in the three systems. Furthermore, the pattern of absorption is specific in each country due to government control, court majority and legislative procedure. Therefore, it can be concluded that they are conditional veto players. The findings have at least two implications. First, constitutional courts and supreme courts with judicial review rights should be systematically included in veto player analysis of political systems and not left aside. Any concept ignoring such courts may lead to invalid results, and any concept that counts such courts merely as an institutional feature may lead to distorted results that over‐ or under‐estimate their impact. Second, the findings also have implications for the study of judicial politics. The main bulk of literature in this area is concerned with auto‐limitation, the so‐called ‘self‐restraint’ of the government to avoid defeat at the court. This auto‐limitation, however, should only occur if a court is not absorbed. However, vetoes observed when the court is absorbed might be explained by strategic behaviour among judges engaging in selective defection.