Local government projectification in practice – a multiple institutional logic perspective

ABSTRACT

During the last couple of decades, we have witnessed a proliferation of the project as an organizational solution in sectors as diverse as IT, housing, social services, education and culture. Despite a growing interest in the phenomenon, we know surprisingly little of how processes of public sector projectification unfold in practice, especially at local government level. This article uses an institutional logic perspective to illustrate and argue that public sector projectification can be understood and conceptualized as the enactment of multiple, co-existing institutional logics, but where one particular logic is of growing importance – the project logic. It is argued that even though the project form is often perceived as more flexible than that of the bureaucracy, the practical outcome seldom represents a radical break with traditional, bureaucratic management models. Rather, it appears to aid a rediscovery and reuse of central bureaucratic practices and procedures such as reporting, documentation and standardization.     

Assessing the Performance of the Price Cap Plan for Local Exchange Carriers in the United States

In 1991 the FCC implemented a price cap plan for local exchange carriers' interstate access service designed to deal with the regulatory boundaries problem arising from the breakup of AT&T in 1984. The experience with the price cap plan demonstrates the difficulty of predicting productivity growth accurately and makes clear that regulators cannot depend upon a pure price cap plan to keep prices within a reasonable range of costs. With periodic reviews to readjust plan parameters, however, a price cap plan can maintain the rate-of-return close to the target rate-of-return without diminishing the price cap plan's incentives for efficient production. A simple method of recalculating the X-factor based on the rate-of-return over the previous three years worked well in simulations. If this procedure had been used over the price cap period 1991 to 2000, prices would have been 20 percent lower and expenditures on LECs' telecommunications service subject to a price cap would have been $3.8 billion lower.     

多权力格局的冲突与协调——以本轮房地产调控为中心所展开

房居事关民生,中央政府已出台一系列政策,仍无法控制房价的飞涨.需求和供给能解释大部分高房价,但仍无法解释为什么中央政策的失效.高房价是一系列主体的行为所导致,政府之间、政府部门间的冲突放纵了房价的上涨.更深刻的原因在于我国政制的不足,权力行使应被制约,但也要使它有效协调运作.     

法官的经验与理性

初民社会是以人神互相感应的方法来解决诉讼问题的,当今一些西方国家司法制度中仍然可以看到它的遗迹。大陆法系的司法最显著的特征是重演绎,重视法律的理论体系;而英美司法则完全是经验性的,强调遵循先例,而不注重体系。法官对法律的思辩是依赖于经验的,但是经验却不总是足以对思辩的疑惑提供裁决,所以真正的法官思辩是经验与理性的结合。法官对经验与理性的追求体现的是法律所固有的规则性及其内在的逻辑力量。理想的法官给人最深刻的印象是他们的理性,那种清晰的、冷静的经验理性。     

简论区域经济宏观调控的几个关系

协调区域经济发展是政府的重要职责 ,在缩小区域发展差距问题上 ,必须充分发挥政府的调控作用 ,通过市场调节与政府宏观调控结合 ,促使区域经济发展差距缩小和协调发展。在区域经济发展宏观调控中 ,中央政府调控与地方政府调控各自发挥着它们的作用 ,它们彼此是不能互相替代的     

Stories as Lived Experience: Narratives in Forced Migration Research

Stories are part of everyday life and constitute means for actorsto express and negotiate experience. For researchers, they providea site to examine the meanings people, individually or collectively,ascribe to lived experience. Narratives are not transparentrenditions of ‘truth’ but reflect a dynamic interplaybetween life, experience and story. Placed in their wider socio-politicaland cultural contexts, stories can provide insights into howforced migrants seek to make sense of displacement and violence,re-establish identity in ruptured life courses and communities,or bear witness to violence and repression. The researcher mustpay particular attention to his/her own role in the productionof narrative data and the representation of lived experienceas text.     

An Analysis of the Joint Board or County Model as the Structural Basis for Effective Australian Local Governance

Australian policy‐makers continue to rely on municipal amalgamation as the main engine of structural reform in local government, despite strong evidence that it diminishes participation and representation without improving service efficiency. Several promising, but neglected alternative models of structural reform have been developed, including ad hoc resource sharing models, Regional Organisations of Councils, virtual local government, and agency models. In an encouraging response to the recent policy of enforced council amalgamations in NSW, the Shires Association of NSW (2004) has recently proposed a ‘Joint Board model’ of local governance and invited comment on this model. This article takes up this challenge and seeks to place the Joint Board model in conceptual context and evaluate its characteristics and simulated cost savings.     

吸收借鉴其它执政党的有益经验不断提高我们党的执政能力

不同性质的政党之间,既有矛盾的对立性,又有矛盾的同一性,它们应该而且必须相互借鉴.中国共产党只有积极借鉴吸收其它政党治国理政的有益经验,同时在吸收借鉴中遵循正确的原则,结合中国新的实践进行新的创造,为我所用,才能巩固和发展自己的执政地位,不断提高我们党的执政能力.     

西方女性主义学术思想的传播及其本土实践--对当前中国妇女研究的思考

10多年来,西方女性主义学术思想在中国的传播,对于我国学界新的学术理念的确立、研究方法和思维方式的转变以及学科建设等方面产生了促进作用.但作为舶来品的西方女性主义,在引进和传播的过程中,如何与中国本土的妇女理论研究和妇女解放实践密切结合,仍将是今后一段时期内妇女研究不可回避的一个重要理论问题.因此,当前应着重处理好学术与政治之间、提高与普及之间、全球化与本土化之间的关系.     

民办高校兴起所引发的社会治安问题及其对策

作为新事物的民办高校,人们在肯定其积极作用的同时,对其在教育环境、管理体制等方面所引发的社会治安问题也是不容忽视的。各级管理部门应针对民办高校发展的独特性,从其教学模式等各方面解决问题,促其更好地为我国教育事业服务。