Agenda-Setters and Policy Influentials: Results from the Victorian Agendas Project

The Victorian Agendas Project (1991-93) used a snowball sampling method to produce annual peer-nominated lists of agenda-setters and policy influentials in six policy fields: economic policy, health, welfare, transport, education and the environment. Three hundred and fifty-six interviews were conducted with 214 influentials over the three-year period. Respondents identified high-priority issues and policy options on their current and future agendas. This paper deals with the question of who the agenda setters/policy influentials were. Was there evidence of a dominant elite or elites (e.g. business and banking elites) whose influence ranged across policy fields, or was there a more pluralist pattern in which influentials tended to 'specialise' in particular fields? How substantial was the turnover among influentials when the Liberal-National coalition government replaced Labor in 1992?     

英国考古的政策、管理和操作

(编者按 :中山大学人类学系为庆祝该系于 2 0 0 1年复办 2 0周年 ,举行了系列学术讲座。 2 0 0 1年 6月 6日 ,香港古物古迹办事处考古学家李浪林先生应邀作了题为“英国考古的政策、管理和操作”的演讲 ,演讲之后回答了该系师生的提问。李浪林先生早年就读于伦敦大学考古学院 ,获硕士学位 ,最近又受香港政府的派遣 ,到英国伦敦博物馆、肯特郡政府和英格兰文物局等机构进修和考察 ,系统地了解了英国最新的考古政策、管理 ,田野考古发掘的方法和技术。今将李浪林先生演讲和回答问题的内容整理出来 ,以飨读者 ,相信该文对国内的考古政策、发掘管理和研究 ,都会有一定的借鉴意义。因该文未经本人审阅 ,疏漏由整理者负责。)     

Policy Agendas of the Poor,the Public and Elites: A Test of Bachrach and Baratz

This paper proposes an a fortiori case study method of testing Bachrach and Baratz's 1962, 1963, 1970 well-known hypotheses about the second face of power. This face of power is allegedly characterised by exclusionary agendasetting; elites exclude the interests and demands of the poor from the policy agenda. A working assumption of the paper is that exclusionary agenda-setting may be quite infrequent. If we can specify the conditions under which it is relatively likely to occur, and then investigate cases which meet most or all of these conditions, we may be able to discover the minimum set or sets of conditions which have to be met. We could then make a fortiori inferences about other less stringent sets of conditions under which it would rarely if ever occur.     

Planning and the National Assembly for Wales: Generating Distinctiveness and Inclusiveness in a New Political Context

The creation of the National Assembly for Wales in May 1999 was part of a series of constitutional reforms in the UK initiated by the Labour Government after 1997. The Assembly, that has been awarded policy-making powers only, is still in its infancy, and any assessment of the perceived success of the new forum would be premature. Nevertheless, there are signs emerging that could give rise to the view that the Assembly will carve out a degree of distinctiveness in its approach to governance and substantive policy areas compared to that operating in England generally, and to the land use planning system in particular. This review paper charts the birth of the National Assembly for Wales, outlines its responsibilities and functions in relation to planning, and assesses what has happened 'on the ground' in its first 18 months. Overall, the paper portrays politicians and officials in the new governance framework searching for distinctiveness, inclusiveness and policy ownership; the task is to offer something different compared both to the system existing previously and to the on-going processes of institutional restructuring underway in other parts of the UK. It situates planning within the crucible of decentralization and devolution, since planning has been awarded a central facilitating role within the governance and restructuring process as part of the Welsh Cabinet's determination to deliver sustainable development in the twenty-first century.     

中古时期英国的水陆交通

一个国家的水陆交通与商业发展紧密联系在一起,交通越便利,商业越发达。中古时期英国的交通状况如何?目前在国内史学界还是一个冷僻的课题。要研究中古时期英国的商业经济,必然涉及到交通问题。根据近年来英国出版的相关文史资料,具体考察了12～14世纪期间英国的水陆通行及商业运输情况,提出了以下两点看法:一、由主干道即“王家大道”、地方道路和乡村小道所组成的陆路系统已经比较完整,可以保证商业运输的需要;大规模的陆路运输不仅可以有效组织,而且出现了比较高级的“公共运输人”。二、通航水路相当发达,尤其在东部地区水运河道密布,城市和大的集市都非常繁荣;水运价格也比陆运低得多。不可否认,以现代人的标准看,当时的水陆交通还障碍重重,运输效率不高。但是,这个时期英国的水陆交通条件已经为商业运输提供了必要保障。     

Regional Identity in Regional Development and Planning1

This paper analyses the regional identity and social capital formation process and components. Regional identity is the special kind of phenomenon, which forms throughout historical and territorial socialization. The great ambition of this paper is to interrelate Anssi Paasi (1986) and other cultural geographers' and sociologists' ideas with recent regional economic development and planning discussion and to enhance regional identity as a planning tool. The theoretical part describes components and the process of regional identity formation. We assume that regional identity correlates with people's volition in achieving common goals, raises their personal activity and influences due to that regional development and planning. The regional identity is crucial in securing public participation in planning. The empirical part of the paper is based on mass survey analysis.     

Regional Disparities,Industry and Government Policy in Japan

This paper examines the time path of regional per capita income disparities in Japan during the last three decades, and analyses the determinants of this path, including government policies. Regional disparities have been quite common in most countries, and the problem has proven to be relatively intractable, though varying in intensity across time and across countries. The Japanese case is instructive in that the country has experienced several stages of the problem in a relatively brief period, and has managed to limit spatial polarization to a certain degree. This paper identifies links between broad growth policy orientations with resultant changes in regional income disparities, and suggests their policy implications for both mature and developing economies.     

An Anatomy of Spatial Planning: Coming to Terms with the Spatial Element in UK Planning

“Spatial planning” is a phrase that now resonates throughout many planning systems across the globe. It is being used as a label to describe pan-national, regional, strategic and even aspects of local planning processes. Within the UK, spatial planning is being utilized alongside, or even in place of, more traditional phraseology associated with planning, such as “town and country planning”. It is being used by a range of institutions of the State, professional groups and academic commentators to describe the processes of planning reform, modernization, policy integration, and strategic governance that politically are now required to make planning fit for purpose in the 21st century. The precise meaning and definition of spatial planning remains difficult to pin down, as does its origins within the UK. This paper attempts to dissect the various components of the spatial planning phrase and set out the meaning and origins of the term in the UK context. It covers re-territorialization, Europeanization and integration origins of spatial planning thinking and provides a conceptual, rather than practical, debate on the anatomy of spatial planning, situated within ongoing processes of institutional transformation, through the lens of governance and distinctiveness in state policy development.     

Sport,National Identity and Public Policy

Abstract. The paper examines the use made of sport by governments to help manage identity. It begins with an exploration of the relationship between sport and ethnic culture and continues with an analysis of the ways in which sports can be used to aid the state and achieve its objectives of legitimacy, territorial integrity, and citizen commitment. This introduction is followed by an examination of the particular problems of identity faced by Canada, Ireland and Britain and the sports policies adopted by the governments of the countries is evaluated. It is concluded that while sport possesses a powerful symbolism that can be exploited on occasion to great effect, the malleability of sports symbolism often undermines its capacity to exert a lasting effect on national identity.     

Integrating Technical Analysis With Deliberation in Regional Watershed Management Planning: Applying the National Research Council Approach

This paper suggests that applications of watershed management planning would benefit from a theoretical consideration of the policymaking process. A conceptual schema from the field of risk analysis proposes that policymaking be conceived of as a combination of two types of activities: analysis and deliberation. We argue that these concepts are relevant to watershed management planning and we illustrate how a process successfully might integrate both kinds of activities into an iterative, participatory process that is informed competently with relevant knowledge and that promotes learning.     

Planning for Rural Housing in the Republic of Ireland: From National Spatial Strategies to Development Plans

This paper examines the role of spatial planning as a policy framework for managing rural housing within an integrated territorial development strategy. The paper focuses on the Republic of Ireland, which provides a useful case for analysing spatial planning and rural housing relationships, due to the State's recent shift towards spatial planning (formalized with the publication of the Irish National Spatial Strategy), as well as the level of housing construction that has been observed in an increasingly post-productivist countryside (triggered by counter-urbanization flows, increased affluence and demands for second holiday homes, etc.). The paper reviews all policy instruments that have been used to manage rural housing at various scales (from national strategies to local level development plans). It is argued that while spatial planning adopts an integrative vocabulary, as policy moves down the spatial scale hierarchy, multi-dimensional spatial goals are implemented through traditional, narrow land-use regulation. This often leads to rural housing being addressed in isolation from its wider social and economic context, disconnecting housing from wider rural community issues and ultimately failing to deliver a coordinated and coherent spatial policy for managing rural settlements.