Has planning been de‐democratised in Sydney?

This paper investigates the complex and continuously evolving processes of de‐democratisation evident in urban planning practice in Sydney between 2011 and 2017. New South Wales' successive rounds of planning reform, establishment of a metropolitan commission, and amalgamation of local governments over that period have aimed to reduce local democratic participation in planning decisions, but they have had uneven success. I argue that while New South Wales' efforts to streamline development and de‐democratise planning have evolved considerably in response to multiple forms of opposition, the success of the neoliberal project is still uncertain. The insights this story offers add complexity to theorists' claims about the inevitability of depoliticisation and the end of meaningful democratic engagement. The story also offers insights about how power is created, lost, and regained in particular local circumstances.     

清末直隶煤炭业变迁中的政策问题

近代直隶地方政府在执行中央政府矿业政策的过程中,既执行中央政策,又加强自己的控制权,因而导致直隶现代煤炭企业发展不快,土法煤矿大量存在。清中央政府鼓励兴办现代矿业的政策成效大减。     

Neoliberalism in a Small Canadian City? Windsor City Council and the Reform of the Detroit River Border Crossing

This article examines the idea of the neoliberal city. Using the reform of the Detroit River international border crossing between Canada and the United States as a case study, the article explores the extent to which a small- to medium-sized Canadian municipality is capable of developing policy positions that challenge neoliberalism. The conclusion is mixed. Windsor City Council is not advancing policies that present a fundamental challenge to the economic status quo. It does not, for example, challenge the rationale that a new border crossing will facilitate freer trade. Nevertheless, neither are the municipal council's positions completely in line with arguments that municipal governments have no room to advance positions in opposition to major economic interests. The council is advancing policy positions opposed by major local, regional and international business interests. There is, therefore, some evidence of the possibility of local agency within the geography of neoliberalism.     

Outsourcing local democracy? Evidence for and implications of the commercialisation of community engagement in Australian local government

ABSTRACT

Participatory governance practices are enjoying popularity, not least in local government. This is driven by legislation that requires councils to undertake some of these processes; also by communities and practitioners – parties that derive income from participatory governance. An industry is emerging: one characterised by demand and supply, with frameworks, strategies and processes, training and conferences. This industry warrants investigation so that its impacts upon local democracy can be understood. Following a theorisation of local democracy and community engagement, the paper describes the community engagement industry, presenting evidence about council activities, providers and professional associations to establish that the commercialisation of engagement is a significant phenomenon in Australian local government. Possible risks to local governance and local democracy are explored.     

吴文化与古代民族融合

秦汉之际夷越各族基本完成了夏化过程,这与吴文化的发展轨迹紧密相联。     

湖滩争夺与省界成型——以皖北青冢湖为例

在传统地方史志的记载中,对于一个行政区疆域的记载往往是以"四至八到"的形式来表示的,依照这种粗略的记载,在很多地区根本无法准确的划出政区之间的边界。在各级政区的边界类型中,又属省界的地位比较特殊。对于省界争端的处理往往会面临"属人主义"和"属地主义"两种原则的抉择,而争端的处理过程其实体现了中央政府、省政府、基层政府与普通民众之间的多重复杂、互动的关系。民国时期青冢湖苏皖省界纠纷的处理过程正是体现了上述关系,并且展现了原本模糊的省级政区界限逐渐演变为精确的几何界线的动态过程。     

清末民初地方社会整合格局的变化

晚清以降,在内忧外患交侵之下,乡族自治传统下的地方社会秩序陷入困境。随着国家扩张权力需要的增强和地方资产阶级化新兴士绅的倔起,一种以国家与新型地方精英的合作为基础的新的地方权力格局呼之欲出。当然,由于传统势力的牵制以及国家权力与地方精英权力之间的张力,清末民初的地方权力重建过程充满了复杂的纠葛与冲突。     

不同类型产业集群发展中地方政府行为的比较研究

产业集群是当今地方政府发展本地经济的主要政策方向之一。本研究首先从理论上探讨地方政府在经济发展和产业集群中行为动机和特征,其次案例分析内生型的花都区狮岭镇皮革皮具产业集群和外生型的东莞市石龙镇电子信息产业集群发展不同阶段中地方政府的行为方式,然后对比发现两种类型产业集群中的地方政府行为方式与产业集群的形成过程和发展特征相协调,最后总结出不同类型产业集群在不同阶段地方政府行为方式的重点领域,以期为地方政府产业集群政策的制定提供参考。     

地方政府管治下城市空间拓展——以广州市为例

改革开放以来的一系列制度变化对地方政府的政府职能和管治手段提出了新的要求,并由此对城市空间拓展产生了深远影响。以广州市为研究对象,探讨了其近十年城市空间拓展与地方政府管治的关系,发现市级政府以行政区划调整为手段、以战略规划为纲领的管治方式主导了城市生产及流通空间的建设;同时,由于各级政府之间利益协调的原因,地方政府管治过程出现了尺度分异,表现为区级政府与房地产市场共同作用下外围地区空间拓展向北低效蔓延的管治失灵现象。通过对政府管治在城市空间构建过程中的作用和成效的探讨,以期对引起人们对中国城市化进程中地方政府管治和城市空间关系的思考。     

Local autonomies and economic development in Italy's incomplete transition

Since the 1990s Italy's autonomous local governing bodies have experienced important changes in their powers and functions in ways that have been shaped by national and international developments. The two decades of Italy's ‘transition’ have seen structural changes in the system that enabled the country in the second half of the twentieth century to take a place at the centre of the world economic system. But the evidence of the last two decades indicates that the changes that have taken place do not constitute a transition, but reveal instead a country that in terms of its politics and the economy is living an extremely diversified and complex phase of its history. This essay explores these processes at the level of the provinces and local government, showing how their capacity to contribute, locally and nationally, to growth through increasing territorial competiveness has been hampered by uncertainties resulting from the reforms that have been introduced and by growing financial restrictions.     

A Critique in Search of a Corpus: Re-visiting Governance and Re-interpreting Urban Politics

One of the most profound changes of the last two decades has been in the form and the function of local government. Its role as part of the local state has been challenged through the re-scaling and re-configuration of many of its aims. This paper examines the growth of business sector involvement and the ascendancy of the partnership model in urban development, as part of an analysis of the changes and the continuities that stretch across the local government – local governance conceptualization of political relations. I start the paper with a discussion of the main issues in the local governance literature as a precursor to a commentary onImrie and Raco's (1999) recent paper, 'How New is the New Local Governance? Lessons from the United Kingdom'. The wider literature is drawn upon to discuss some of the theoretical approaches used to analyse this much-vaunted transformation and three key themes are used to structure the remainder of the paper. I argue that Imrie and Raco caricature the work of other academics in order to make their claims over omissions from the literature. In doing so, they ignore or under-play how state restructuring and the logic of capital has often been the object of analysis, rather that the voluntarist incorporation of business élites into the local governing apparatus. Using empirical examples from three English cities I argue that while, on the one hand, their examples are revealing and serve to sensitize current debates around governance, the state and regulation, on the other hand, there is still a need to interpret these 'local' politics within a broader and more scale-sensitive framework and in more abstract terms. This demands a clear distinction between local governance as a concept, and its investigation in an empirical way.     

The Institutional Collective Action Framework

Institutional collective action (ICA) dilemmas arise from the division or partitioning of authority in which decisions by one government in one or more specific functional area impacts other governments and/or other functions. The focus on externalities of choice in fragmented systems integrates multiple research traditions into a conceptual system to understand and investigate collective dilemmas ubiquitous in contemporary governance arrangements. The mechanisms for mitigating ICA dilemmas are classified according to their scope and enforcement. Incentives to participate in a mechanism are hypothesized to favor mechanisms that provide the greatest gain for the least cost under different conditions of collaboration risk as determined by the nature of the underlying ICA problem, the compositions of affected jurisdictions, and institutional contexts. After reviewing empirical applications of the framework, an agenda to advance the theoretical and empirical development of the ICA approach is advanced.     

孙中山与联省自治运动

联省自治运动是20世纪20年代中国改良主义思潮的一次重要尝试,是国家政体由君主制走向共和制的变革中地方政制相应变革的补充。孙中山反对联省自治,他认为联省自治势必会阻碍国家的统一;而极力主张地方自治,但强调地方自治不等于忽视中央政府的领导与国家的统一。     

Cultural retaliation: the cultural policies of the ‘new’ Front National

This study examines the conception of culture and the cultural policies of the French Front National. Tracing the developments of the party’s cultural agenda before and after Marine Le Pen took over the leadership of the party from her father, I show how the Front National has adapted its discourse on cultural policy to its wider programmatic profile. In the context of a strategy of de-radicalisation promoted by Marine Le Pen, recent years have witnessed focussed efforts by the party leadership to professionalise and modernise the party’s cultural policy programme. However, the analysis of the party’s current cultural policy agenda reveals a remarkable continuity in the way the party leadership conceives of national culture and of what cultural policy should promote. This programmatic continuity becomes apparent in the analysis of the local cultural policies of municipalities won by the Front National in 2014. Exploring the cultural agendas of ten local governments with a Front National majority, I argue that the cultural policies of the Front National remain deeply rooted in a nativist understanding of culture and a dirigiste approach that wilfully excludes postcolonial minorities.     

当代中国地方政府制度的沿革和确立

当代中国地方政府制度,在沿革上与中央政府制度不同,是在继承历代地方官制的基础上发展演变而来的。其确立分为两个阶段:1949～1954年是建立和过渡时期;1954年颁布了《中华人民共和国宪法》,正式确立了这一制度。此后,其基本原则一直延续至今。     

Running the big city: the Dutch prewar mayoralty under construction

This article discusses the development of the mayoralty in the Netherlands during the first decades of the twentieth century. It will be argued that during the interwar years the mayors' position was in transition, with mayors developing new ways to exert public influence – a development that until now has been associated with the postwar mayor-managers. A case study of mayors in Amsterdam – in particular interwar mayor Willem de Vlugt (1921–1941) – Rotterdam and The Hague during the interwar years will show how changes and shifts in the local and national political constellations and power relations as well as socioeconomic developments both curbed and opened up possibilities for the mayor to adjust his position. At the same time, it will be shown how the mayoralty itself was transformed through the emergence of mayors whose personal and political background differed from their early twentieth-century predecessors.