Global Public Policy,Transnational Policy Communities,and Their Networks

Public policy has been a prisoner of the word “state.” Yet, the state is reconfigured by globalization. Through “global public–private partnerships” and “transnational executive networks,” new forms of authority are emerging through global and regional policy processes that coexist alongside nation‐state policy processes. Accordingly, this article asks what is “global public policy”? The first part of the article identifies new public spaces where global policies occur. These spaces are multiple in character and variety and will be collectively referred to as the “global agora.” The second section adapts the conventional policy cycle heuristic by conceptually stretching it to the global and regional levels to reveal the higher degree of pluralization of actors and multiple‐authority structures than is the case at national levels. The third section asks: who is involved in the delivery of global public policy? The focus is on transnational policy communities. The global agora is a public space of policymaking and administration, although it is one where authority is more diffuse, decision making is dispersed and sovereignty muddled. Trapped by methodological nationalism and an intellectual agoraphobia of globalization, public policy scholars have yet to examine fully global policy processes and new managerial modes of transnational public administration.     

Expert Policy in Juvenile Justice

Policy design and analysis is conducted primarily by professional experts who often use objectively-defined criteria in the selection of those eligible for a policy and objective measurements to evaluate the effectiveness of a program. Juvenile justice policies, such as Juvenile Intensive Probation Supervision (JIPS), often are developed by experts who aim at correcting individual problems of youths rather than identifying problems with the structures of our society. Policies such as JIPS do not encourage participation of the recipients or of the wider community. In essence, the experts are removing power from already powerless youths and citizens, and thus are placing it in the hands of a few who are viewed as knowing what is best for everyone. As such, policies developed by experts often do not encourage democracy and citizenship. This articles suggests how youths, their families, parents, and communities can and need to become empowered in order for justice and democracy to prevail.     

Asian Transnational Enterprises and Technology Transfer in Thailand

Like many of its neighbours, Thailand is increasingly interested in upgrading the technological capability of its indigenous firms through the inward investment (foreign direct investment, FDI) of transnational enterprises (TNEs). Its science and technology policies, however, remain fragmented, and they compete with regional distribution priorities. This paper examines the nature of technology transfer between Asian TNEs (Japan and the newly industrializing economies (NIEs), that is, the NIEs of Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan) and Thai firms based on the responses of some 145 firms from a 2005 survey. It finds only modest levels of technological transfer in production and process technologies. Asian TNEs evaluate factor cost advantages and government incentives favourably. Logistic regressions, however, indicate that government incentives are negatively related to technology process modification between NIE subsidiaries and Thai customers. But, the technical training of Thai workers significantly increases the likelihood of Asian subsidiaries undertaking process technology transfers. Among NIE firms, the ability to import foreign skilled labour further increases the likelihood of such technological activities. Finally, forward linkages among the NIEs are positively associated with firm location in the urban agglomerations of Bangkok and Chon Buri, and, among smaller firms. Our study suggests that prevailing FDI policies have little influence on technology transfer, while technology policies that favour large TNEs work against smaller NIEs that are engaged in modest technology transfer.     

Transnational Advocacy Networks and Affirmative Action for Dalits in India

In India, movements and parties representing the lowest ranking dalit caste groups have followed different strategies in their struggle against social, economic and cultural discrimination. In this article, a new dalit movement making use of a ‘transnational advocacy network strategy’ will be compared to a more ‘classical’dalit political party. The main policy target for the new movement is an extension of existing affirmative action policies, while the dalit BSP party focuses more on emancipatory issues. Based on an analysis of the impacts of the BSP and of the new movement at the grassroots level, it is argued that the achievements of the new movement are tempered by the fact that in order to make use of international discourses and political pressure, the movement has had to develop a strategy and policy proposals compatible with existing mainstream neoliberal discourses. This depoliticizes the policies, and hence makes them of less importance strategically. It is argued that this is likely to be a difficulty for transnational advocacy networks in general.     

中国旧石器时代考古反思

近年来,在中国旧石器时代考古学界屡屡爆出重大新闻,亦真亦幻,令人扑朔迷离。谢飞指出：“目前,解决上述重大学术问题显得非常乏力的原因,不是旧石器考古队伍的问题,而是文物管理部门和学术权威单位关注不够、组织不力的问题”。…此话切中要害．非常值得深思。     

涿州云居寺初考

本文据辽、金时期的金石文献对涿州云居寺做了初步考证,认为该寺始建于隋唐,辽代最为兴盛,金元至明代屡有修缮,香火未绝,清初开始废弃、荒圮。现存的云居寺塔建于辽道宗大安八年,供奉释迦牟尼佛顶骨舍利,塔名为释迦佛舍利塔,辽末在塔侧地下秘藏有石经。     

Interorganizational Collaboration Networks in Economic Development Policy: An Exponential Random Graph Model Analysis*

Regional economic development competition can be inefficient and destructive because decisions by one governmental unit can impose both externalities on its neighbors. Collaborative networks of multiple stakeholders within and across jurisdictions are an increasingly crucial component of regional economic development. In this article, we focus on the emergence of voluntary and self‐organizing network relationships among local governments to address economic development concerns. The motivations and decisions of local actors play a critical role in shaping and implementing regional collaboration. On a micro level, the collaboration choices are shaped by three primary factors: the transaction costs reflected in the configuration of relationships in which an actor is embedded; the organizational similarities (homophily); and the resource dependencies that shape the local actors' preferences for forming relationships with other specific actors. We utilize an exponential random graph model (ERGM) to test hypotheses regarding the most prominent observed patterns of network relationships within and across different organizational sectors. The results demonstrate that both reciprocity and social clustering structures are preferred by both government and nongovernment organizations. These results suggest that interorganizational collaboration for economic development requires more than simple exchange relationships. Rather, network actors may be better served by participating in a densely clustered network that is capable of maintaining credible commitments to collective solutions.     

Comparing Policy Networks: Marine Protected Areas in California

While most of the network literature focuses on information and advice networks, there is increasing interest—particularly among Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) scholars—on ally networks and coordination networks. This article asks two basic questions: First, do information, ally, and coordination networks overlap with each other? Second, and drawing from the ACF, do policy core beliefs structure the interactions in ally, coordination, and advice/information networks? We pursue these research questions in the context of the California Marine Life Protection Act process. We find that ally and coordination networks overlap slightly more than information/advice networks and that policy core beliefs do a better job of predicting ally and coordination networks than advice/information networks. Thus, we show that ally networks can provide a useful proxy for coordination networks to identify advocacy coalitions.     

'New Programming' and the Influence of Transnational Discourses in the Reform of Regional Policy in Italy

Recent developments in regional policy in Italy may be interpreted as outcomes of a mutual fertilization between two distinct policy discourses, concerning the reframing of regional programming in the framework of a reform of the State, and the promotion of local initiatives in a perspective of endogenous development. This paper presents a critical itinerary of the mutual evolution of these lines of discourse during the 1990s. Their provisional merging in the framework of the strategy of 'new programming' adopted in connection with the reform of the Structural Funds and with the new community support framework (CSF) for the period 2000-2006 is interpreted in light of the 'Europeanization' of Italian public policy and of the influence of its progressive embedding into transnational policy discourses.     

An Empirical Enquiry into the Impact of Urban Planning Policy on Urban Growth

Recent research has stressed the need to evaluate the economic implications of urban planning policy. In this article, we present empirical evidence on the impact of this policy on the population growth of towns and cities. A simple theoretical model serves to highlight the mechanisms whereby this policy may affect urban growth. The model yields a reduced-form equation which we estimate for the towns and cities of Andalusia (Spain). The empirical model strongly supports the claim that urban planning policy considerably affects urban growth and thus, the distribution of population across space. Our results suggest that urban planning policy is contributing to the reduction of diseconomies of agglomeration in larger cities. On the negative side, we find that urban plans are subject to obsolescence, which slows down growth.     

PROFESSOR ZHANG YISUN: An Expert in Tibetan Studies

ＰＲＯＦＥＳＳＯＲＺＨＡＮＧＹＩＳＵＮ：ＡｎＥｘｐｅｒｔｉｎＴｉｂｅｔａｎＳｔｕｄｉｅｓ￥ＨＵＡＮＧＸＩＡＮＭＩＮＧＰｒｏｆｅｓｓｏｒＺｈａｎｇＹｉｓｕｎｗａｓｔｈｅｃｈｉｅｆｅｄｉｔｏｒｏｆｔｈｅＴｉｂｅｔａｎＣｈｉｎｅｓｅＤｉｃｔｉｏｎａｒｙｗｈ...     

地域社会的跨国叙事:近代以来广东潮阳陈四合批局与陈氏跨国家族的建构

论文通过个案研究,探讨了近代以来广东潮阳陈四合批局与陈云腾跨国家族的建构。在中国近代政治史上,闽粤交界的潮汕地区少为国史学者所关注,但在社会经济与文化变迁领域,这是一个需要深入研究的地方。无论是跨国主义、海洋史,还是从方兴未艾的跨国史视角看,近代以来的潮州人一直都是一个活跃的、深具跨国性特征的群体。陈云腾家族的故事首先说明,要深刻理解跨国空间的人群,任何时候都不能忽略近代以来国家的制度变迁与地方社会脉络的因素。在海外的"跨国"要素影响本土社会的同时,本土社会业已存在的历史文化传统也深刻影响着处于跨国空间的人群。     

Policy Networks in Complex Governance Subsystems: Observing and Comparing Hyperlink,Media, and Partnership Networks

Methods for observing policy networks have not kept up with the development of new network analytic techniques required to understand governance in complex settings. We compare three unobtrusive methods for observing policy networks based on hyperlinks between policy actor web sites, on media reports, and on public policy partnerships. Observations of one complex local water policy arena with all three methods provide a comparison of the general as well as actor‐specific network characteristics in the three observed networks. The core network of actors observed by all methods has similar network level statistics, highly correlated relationships measured by Quadratic Assignment Procedures models, and the same significant network microstructures as measured by Exponential Random Graph Models. The full networks including actors observed by any method also exhibit similar actor‐level characteristics, although the correlations across networks are stronger for bridging capital measures than for bonding capital measures, and each method has different apparent biases. Once biases are accounted for, similarities suggest that these methods may provide useful proxies for each other and for other relationships that are more difficult or impossible to measure, particularly when combined to offset each method's biases. If so, they can extend the range of policy networks observable with limited resources across space and time.     

清末地方自治新论

地方自治最早产生于西欧，是英国资产阶级革命初期资产阶级为反对封建专制而提出的一种与中央集权政治相对立的地方分权思想与制度。这一政治主张在中国最早由黄遵宪在戊戌变法时期提出，但由于变法的迅速破产，未能引起人们的共鸣。清廷推行“新政”和“预备立宪”以后，在资产阶级立宪派的极力主张下，加之清政府出于维护自身利益的考虑，地方自治成了清廷仿行宪政的重要措施，并在开展的过程中出现了地方官府直接督导、资产阶级立宪派参与和资产阶级立宪派自发倡办、地方官府认可两种类型。清末地方自治的明显特征是内容上的完整性和实施上的冒进性。     

Vertical Politics in Horizontal Policy Networks: Framework Setting as Coupling Arrangement

Horizontal governance arrangements potentially conflict with the very principles of the representative democracy and its political institutions. This conflict manifests itself in the interaction between representatives and the executive power: Although the former has the formal power to decide upon policies and to check their implementation, the latter participates in horizontal networks and therefore has more resources to influence the content, evolvement, and outcomes of the policy process. This erodes the power position of representatives. Framework setting is commonly suggested as an arrangement for representatives to enhance their grip on policy processes. The authors of this contribution examine the effects of framework setting as coupling mechanism between horizontal networks and vertical politics in six policy processes in a Dutch province. Based on network theory and research findings, they suggest redefining the concept of framework setting in order to make it more attuned to the complex, interdependent, and dynamic nature of policymaking in networks.     

An Efficient Search Strategy for Site-Selection Decisions in an Expert System

This paper describes an algorithm for spatial search, which is used in an expert system for site selection. The algorithm, named ProfMat, is able to find the best site in the area of interest even when the number of possible sites is large and many decision criteria are involved. Compared to commonly used search procedures, ProfMat improves the efficiency of spatial search in two ways. First, the best site is identified through an iterative rather than a linear process of selection and evaluation of optional sites. Second, an area is searched by narrowing down the focus to increasingly smaller areas and, thus, sites are evaluated as much as possible groupwise. The ProfMat procedure is illustrated by analyzing the problem of retail site selection. A comparison with alternative search procedures shows that ProfMat considerably reduces the evaluation costs needed to find the best site. The implementation of the algorithm in an expert system shows how ProfMat can be used in combination with specialist's knowledge to solve site-selection problems. The efficiency of the procedure allows considering large sets of optional sites, so that it may improve the quality of the outcome.     

北岳庙建立飞石殿的年代及原因初考

本文对曲阳北岳庙内的飞石殿遗址做了实地调查,并结合史籍和历代碑文的记载,对飞石殿的建筑时间、建立的因由进行了考证,认为它是明嘉靖初期的建筑,是受“灵石东飞”传说的影响而建的,并成为把飞石与北岳联系在一起的物证,为清代的改祀北岳于浑源奠定了思想基础。     

An Assessment of Health Policy Reform in Russia

Current fast-track reforms in Russia's health sector involving decentralization and privatization are largely ineffective because they are mistargeted. They do not address the etiology of the major sources of health care problems (i.e., lifestyle, and living, working, and environmental conditions), and they even weaken coordinated efforts to address collective health needs. State government policy measures, democratization, self-organization of society, and economic liberalization, as they are evolving currently, do not ensure sufficient citizen protection and interest articulation in the health sector.