Leadership in Local Government: ‘No Girls Allowed’

This article explores the under‐representation of women at the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) levels of Western Australian (WA) local government. It draws on data collected from 21 second tier senior women managers about their perceptions and experiences of leadership within the sector, as well as their aspirations for CEO appointment. By applying critical gender analysis to the data, gender and specifically masculinity emerges as a significant and valued leadership attribute. While this analysis is not unique to local government, what sets the sector apart is its apparent disinterest in examining the reasons for, or the impacts of this continued leadership stereotype when at the same time Australian public and private institutions are challenging these traditional leadership models. This article points to fundamental weaknesses in the formal power structures and processes of local government that support deeply embedded biases about leadership. Perhaps the most significant contributor to these outcomes that emerged from the study is the apparent unencumbered power of Mayors and elected members over all aspects of CEO employment, especially recruitment.     

高校馆藏资源服务地方文化建设管窥——以安徽科技学院图书馆为例

高校馆藏资源提供利用是建设地方文化的重要保障条件之一。高校图书馆在弘扬和促进地方文化建设方面要充分发挥丰富的馆藏资源优势并定位好服务角色。2006年起安徽科技学院图书馆主动对接地方文化建设,面向社会读者陆续开放其馆藏资源。总结安徽科技学院馆藏资源服务地方文化建设的经验如下:转变思想,树立服务社会的理念;利用馆藏资源主动对接地方文化发展的需要;面向社会开放馆藏资源;实现了高校馆藏资源与地方文化建设的良性循环与互动。     

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.     

财政分权、地方财政赤字与土地财政

基于地方财政赤字的视角,研究财政分权与地方政府土地财政策略的内在作用逻辑,通过理论分析发现:地方财政赤字激励了地方政府在利益觉醒后利用预算制度缺口,用"扭曲之手"来攫取预算外财政收益,进而驱动地方政府实施积极的土地财政策略来实现财政增收的政策目标。省际面板数据的实证结果进一步验证了财政分权、地方财政赤字对土地财政的正向驱动作用。土地财政的治理从深化分税制改革、改善地方财政收入结构、变革土地财政形成机制、完善行政绩效考核体制、加强预算监管等方面入手。     

地方立法的类型及其创新

地方立法是我国社会主义法律体系的重要组成部分,社会主义法律体系形成之后,对地方立法工作提出了进一步的要求,如何进一步发挥地方立法的功能成为我们需要解决的重要课题。地方立法包括两种类型:地方实施性立法和地方创制性立法。两种类型都各自发挥着不同的社会功能,但在实际运作过程中出现了功能弱化的现象。地方金融立法是地方实施性立法的一种类型,以地方金融立法为切入口,分析如何提高地方立法质量,发挥地方立法的功能。     

中欧债务危机法律治理之比较

表面上看,欧盟主权债务危机和中国地方债危机是货币政策失控和财政政策失效的产物,两者都存在整体平衡掩盖了局部危机的特征,在法律治理上均存在刚性约束不足的问题。但中央(欧盟)与地方(成员国)的关系的非制度化,才是中欧爆发债务危机的共同根源。只有通过高级法确立中央(欧盟)与地方(成员国)的财政关系,才能根本上实现对债务危机的有效法律治理。     

The Relationship Between High Education and Labor Market in Western Balkan Countries

This paper deals with the relationship between high education and labor market in Western Balkan countries. Having in mind that all these countries are in transitional process, suffering from poor economics, poor level of investments, and high unemployment rates, it would be wise that the governments and political elites put the quality of knowledge high on agenda, regarding it as the vital incentive instrument for economic and social development. All social and political subjects should be devoted to procuring good quality of knowledge, which is sensitive to the labor market＇s needs in all fields. This study attempts to find answer on the question why it is not so, making qualitative, quantitative, and empirical research. It analyzes the relationship between high education and labor market＇s needs, identifies main factors which influence this relationship, focusing on main influence of political interests and values. The paper presents rare good cases, as lessons from experience for the future.     

Citizen Participation Models in the Local Government

This research pretends to propose and test a new explanatory model relating to citizen participation, which will help us to implement participatory public policies in the local government scheme, comparing with the models of citizen participation derivatives of structural theories and choice theories. The author refers to the case of Spain and he tests five hypotheses derived from these theories, using structural equations. This study used an open and cross-sectional design. He uses ＂Citizenship, Participation and Democracy Survey＂ from Sociological Research Center of Spain. The model proposed in this study has taken into account both structural variables from the macro context of participation （political opportunity structure） and individual variables （individual resources）, thus considering that the most recent literature on citizen participation tells us that it is necessary to overcome the reductionist perspectives limited to individual factors. Based on the above, we saw the importance of structural variables and individual variables for the participation of people. In line with that, we find that a citizen is involved in participatory policy when they have individual resources such as education, interest in politics, non-political disaffection, civic social norms, personal effectiveness, and community pride. Another find from this research, according to the empirical results, is that structural variables are predictive of citizen participation： resources, mobilization, membership of deprived group, economic deprivation, interpersonal trust, membership of associations, ties to the local community, and membership of an informal network.     

市管县实践的反思:"复合行政"的视角

从制度演变的轨迹看,我国曾经三次大规模地推行市管县体制.由于制度背景的差异,市管县体制所取得的绩效也发生了很大的变化,从推动地方经济发展到各种弊端日益突出.分析市管县体制的各种影响因素,可以看出行政区划变革在促进经济发展中的局限性.要解决区域经济一体化的问题,就应该从治理的角度,寻求有效的地方治理之道,复合行政的理念就提供了这样一种新思路.     

Practitioners’ perspectives on in-house versus arm’s-length structures of local economic development delivery in Ontario,Canada

ABSTRACT

The structure for local economic development is an important part of the development process. In recent years, local governments have been switching structures, leading to debates about the most appropriate structure for an effective economic development delivery. Based on in-depth interviews with practitioners of local economic development, the paper examines the strengths and drawbacks of the two primary structures in the Province of Ontario: In-house and Arms-length. In doing so, the paper accomplishes two things: first, it adds to the empirical discussion on organisational approaches to economic development; second, it provides an informed perspective to assist communities that might be considering switching their structures.