Polycentric Transformation in Kenyan Water Governance: A Dynamic Analysis of Institutional and Social‐Ecological Change

Beginning in 2002, Kenyan water governance transitioned from a monocentric, top‐down system to one exhibiting traits of polycentricity. In this paper, we investigate the changes made to water policy following the 2002 reform, outcomes produced in a collection of community‐ and catchment‐level user groups in the Mount Kenya region, and the conformance of these changes and outcomes with principles of polycentricity. A new framework is used to capture the complex institutional arrangements and interactions existing before and after the polycentric transformation. Unlike many previous polycentricity studies, the present research focuses primarily on the outcomes of the polycentric shift and determines if these correspond to predictions from polycentricity theory. We utilize survey data collected in 2013 from water managers, as well as archival research to interrogate congruence with principles of polycentricity. This study contributes to the broader discussion on polycentricity in two fundamental ways: (i) It documents the functioning of a water management system following a top‐down imposed polycentric reform, and (ii) It empirically inspects whether these polycentric reforms have produced benefits predicted by polycentricity theorists, such as experimentation by local water users, increased collective action, and improved coordination between levels of management.     

Theories of Governance: Comparative Perspectives on Seattle's Light Rail Project

Governance entails the formulation and implementation of public policies across organizational and sectoral boundaries through coalitions, contracts, and networks. Studies of governance tend to cluster loosely into two theoretic traditions: rational choice and sociological institutionalism. Where the former analyzes actors’ individual interests and information, the latter examines their joint relationships and norms. These different analytic foci can be difficult to reconcile, leaving scholars at a loss as to how to cumulate insights and knowledge across the theoretic traditions. To understand better how the two traditions conflict and support one another in the analysis of governance, this article distinguishes domains of governance and identifies the different theories that the traditions use to study each domain. A case study of a rail transit project compares the insights from these theories, and assesses the quality and the complementarities of the explanations they offer. An analysis of the case generates propositions about the comparative utility of different concepts and theoretic traditions for understanding key governance phenomena.     

The Ecology of Games as a Theory of Polycentricity: Recent Advances and Future Challenges

The Ecology of Games approach to examining complex governance systems in democratic societies has been recently refurbished to infuse renewed vitality in the analysis of institutions and collective action in polycentric governance systems. This opening article to the special issue on the Ecology of Games Theory (EGT) will discuss the main component elements of the theory, as well as recently produced empirical advances that test and extend it. The article is structured in three sections. The first section describes the EGT as a theory of polycentricity and explains why it is critical to study both the structure and function of polycentric governance systems, including collaboration among policy stakeholders, learning about problems, and equitably distributing the resources generated by policy interactions. The second section reviews empirical evidence that examine structure and function in polycentric systems, including their coevolution. Finally, the third section will provide insights on future research needs to strengthen this newly developed theory of polycentricity.     

Polycentric Systems of Governance: A Theoretical Model for the Commons

Polycentricity is a fundamental concept in commons scholarship that connotes a complex form of governance with multiple centers of semiautonomous decision making. If the decision‐making centers take each other into account in competitive and cooperative relationships and have recourse to conflict resolution mechanisms, they may be regarded as a polycentric governance system. In the context of natural resource governance, commons scholars have ascribed a number of advantages to polycentric governance systems, most notably enhanced adaptive capacity, provision of good institutional fit for natural resource systems, and mitigation of risk on account of redundant governance actors and institutions. Despite the popularity of the concept, systematic development of polycentricity, including its posited advantages, is lacking in the commons literature. To build greater clarity and specificity around the concept, we develop a theoretical model of a polycentric governance system with a focus on the features necessary or conducive for achieving the functioning predicted by commons scholars. The model is comprised of attributes, which constitute the definitional elements, and enabling conditions, which specify additional institutional features for achieving functionality in the commons. The model we propose takes the concept a step further toward specificity without sacrificing the generality necessary for contextual application and further development.     

社科类学术期刊科学发展的路经选择

本文从社科类学术期刊的勃兴与发展危机、社科类学术期刊遭遇发展危机之实质、社科类学术期刊科学发展的路径三个方面,对社科类学术期刊科学发展问题进行探讨。文章指出,社科类学术期刊在市场化背景下遭遇危机的实质绝非只是发行量的问题,而是在市场中如何与学术最佳结合的问题。因此,社科类学术期刊要顺势而为,以人为本,锁定目标读者和作者群;统筹兼顾,处理好学术性市场和经营性市场的关系;与时俱进,提升社科期刊“核心竞争力”。从而充分发挥社科期刊作为学术传承和学术积累的载体作用,让自身的社会价值在市场中得以最大化,创造更多的精神财富,促进社会和谐,实现自身科学发展。     

社会转型中的制度供给与需求--民初国会失败原因再探讨

民初建立的包括国会在内的一整套民主共和制度是一种供给主导型的制度变迁,这种变迁模式的成败取决于提供制度变迁的权力主体是否具有权威和理想。这一制度第一供给主体是南京临时政府,他们有理想但缺少权威,第二供给主体是北京政府,他们有权威但无理想。国会作为民主政治生活中限制个人独裁、维护公民权利的根本措施,就无法成功地在中国运行。制度需求的缺失也是造成国会失败的原因之一,但不是主要原因。     

中国历史上的两次社会转型式改革

我国封建时代一些持续不断的改革基本上是修补式的、局部的、单项的改革,而社会制度转型方面的改革只有商鞅变法和戊戌变法,商鞅变法是我国封建时代唯一成功的社会转型式改革。戊戌变法拉开了中国第二次社会转型的序幕,当代改革是戊戌变法以来面向现代化的未竟之社会转型的延续。     

旅游研究中的三种社会心理学视角之比较

旅游是一个新兴的研究领域,需要从其他学科引入相关的理论和方法来推动自身的成熟与发展。旅游感知、态度和行为是旅游研究的重要领域之一,直接关系到旅游业的健康持续发展。在过去数十年间,社会心理学的社会交换理论和社会表征理论为这一领域的研究提供了有力的理论支撑。相对剥夺理论是一种二战以后逐渐发展起来的社会心理学理论,在社会弱势群体的心理失衡和疏导机制研究方面有较强的解释能力。本文通过对旅游研究中的既有社会心理学视角剖析的基础上,分析了相对剥夺的内涵和旅游发展中的相对剥夺现象,进而比较了相对剥夺理论与既有社会心理学理论视角的独特性和互补性。作为一种新的社会心理学视角,相对剥夺理论在旅游地相对剥夺感的表现形式、成因、疏导机制和定量测量等方面有较大的应用价值和潜力。     

An Introduction to IAD and the Language of the Ostrom Workshop: A Simple Guide to a Complex Framework

This guide provides definitions or brief explanations of all the major terms and concepts used in the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework. Also included are terms from the closely related frameworks on local public economies, public service industries, grammar of institutions, and social‐ecological systems (SES).     

The Study of Local Public Economies: Multi‐organizational,Multi‐level Institutional Analysis and Development

One important extension of the IAD framework has been to the study of local public economies. These are multi‐organizational, multi‐level arrangements defined as the set of governmental jurisdictions, public and nonprofit agencies, and private firms that interact in various patterns to provide and produce public goods and services within a specific locality or region. Commonly, the localities or regions studied from this perspective have been U.S. metropolitan areas, often defined as a central city and its surrounding or adjoining county. Localities can be delineated, however, on various terms, and in the IAD framework, it is the geo‐physical nature of a locality that, in substantial part, drives the analysis. One of the strengths of the approach is its capacity to explain local variations in public organization as a function of the geo‐physical diversity of localities, while at the same time developing empirical generalizations and normative principles that apply across diverse regions. What, for example, might the organization and governance of a complex metropolitan area have in common with the organization and governance of a complex protected area, such as the greater Yellowstone eco‐region or the Adirondack Park? Construing both sorts of regions as local public economies can enhance our overall understanding of public organization at the same time that it permits a more nuanced understanding of diverse localities. Such work contributes to the ongoing IAD project of “understanding institutional diversity.”     

新公共管理对官僚制是摒弃还是扬弃——基于制度层面的思考

新公共管理是20世纪70年代以后西方各国先后开展的以“企业家政府”为理论模型、以市场化运作模式和私营部门的管理为研究方法、以提高政府工作效率为目的的一项改革运动。新公共管理对政府流程再造的初期的确发挥了一定的作用,提高了行政效率,但是仍然无法改变官僚制的人事制度。新公共管理所提出的私营部门的管理方法,只是对官僚制的修正与补充,是对官僚制的扬弃,而不是摒弃。     

The Materiality of Social Power: The Artifact-Acquisition Perspective

This paper explores the materiality of social power relationally through study of social interactions with artifacts. Specifically, it is argued that acquisition of an artifact instantiates social power by imposing interactions on groups taking part in that artifact's life-history activities. We introduce the “performance-preference matrix,” an analytic tool for systematically studying the effects of such acquisition events on activity groups. The use of the performance-preference matrix is illustrated through an example: the acquisition of electric-arc lights for lighthouses in the 19th century. Suggestions are offered for analyzing culture-contact situations and for handling singularized artifacts such as heirlooms and monuments.

Establishing the Public Sphere and Abolishing the Private Domain: The Rise of a Doctrine and Its Social Significance in the Spring and Autumn Period

The dominant views regarding the concepts of “the public” (gong) and “the private” (si) took shape in the Spring and Autumn period and matured in the succeeding years of the Warring States period. This paper is an attempt to trace both the growth of the vocabulary containing “gong” and “si” and the development of philosophical views regarding issues that center on the relation between the individual and the larger social/communal/political body, of which that individual is a member; it also touches on issues related to the proper handling of public affairs and the relation between state, sovereign, and the individual. The era is often characterized as “The Contention of the Hundred Schools of Thought,” notwithstanding it ended with but one view that is universally accepted by thinkers of diverse persuasion, namely, si is the source of all social evil and, therefore, should be condemned. This is the doctrine known as ligong miesi (abolishing si so gong may be established), which contributed to the orthodox for that era and the millennium to come. By extolling gong and condemning si, it painted a portrait of the pair as two irreconcilable norms or forces in social and political life; it provided a justification for the then emerging new social arrangement and ways of distribution of power and resources, and it also led to acute conflicts between the sovereign and the state, the ruled and the ruler, the state and the subject, as well as the public sphere and the private domain. Translated from Nankai Journal, Vols. 4, 5, 2004     

国外城市非正规性研究进展及启示

21世纪以来,西方城市研究界认为大部分城市发展将发生在发展中国家,新的城市理论也将产生在这些新的地理空间,而城市非正规性是其主要特征。本文首先对城市非正规性的演变进行了梳理,认为城市非正规性的研究具有对\"二元主义\"的超越,\"传统\"非正规研究的超越和认识论上的转变3个特征,并明晰了城市非正规性的理论内涵是一种管治模式;其次,认为制度变迁和城市非正规性研究之间的焦距在于国家、地方政府、企业和个体等行动者之间的相互作用,在此基础上总结出了城市非正规性互补式、补充式和让步式3种主要类型;最后,从政治、社会和文化三个维度总结了非正规性在中国形成的根源,并提出非正规性可以理解成为中国城市发展的一种模式,非正规实践及非正规制度蕴含制度创新的启示。     

Agency Evolution, New Institutionalism, and 'Hybrid' Policy Domains: Lessons from the 'Greening' of the U.S. Military

Neoinstitutionalists applying the logic of rational choice institutionalism have leavened our understanding of public agency design and evolution in the domestic and national security policy domains. This paper seeks to advance theory building in empirically grounded ways by assessing the explanatory power of an important theoretical perspective (rational choice institutionalism), in an understudied "hybrid" policy domain where domestic and national security aims interact (domestic environmental policy and national security policy), and in an organizational type (the U.S. military) that has drawn scant attention from students of bureaucracy in political science, public administration, or public management. Analysis of three major efforts to green the U.S. military suggests that the patterns of politics accompanying agency evolution involving hybrid policy domains differ from domestic and national security domains in ways that limit the generalizability of rational choice institutionalism.     

南京政府初期文科与实科比例失衡的社会政治效应

南京政府所谓的“青年问题”实质上反映了它们对1920年代和1930年代中国政治继续动荡的恐惧与抵制。民初以来的高等教育,其文科与实科的比例结构与社会需求之间严重失衡倾向的日益积累,导致了越来越多游离于社会生产结构之外的文科学生成为批判现实的社会科学最为热情的接受群体。当他们的切身遭遇在学理上被引向对社会制度的道德质问时,社会科学表现为20世纪30年代具有颠覆性的一种时尚。这些学生也由此为抗议南京政府的政治组织所吸纳,从而掀起了此起彼伏的让南京当局头痛的政治风浪。     

中国社会文化史研究:25年反省与进路

我国史学界社会文化史学科兴起25年来,经过了前十年"兴起奠基期"、继十年"发展兴盛期"、近五年"深化扩散期"三个阶段。学术贡献有:理论方法创新,开辟史学新生长点;推动中国近代史研究超越"革命史范式"及"现代化范式",走向"本土现代性";关注民间社会,挖掘内在社会文化资源。存在问题与瓶颈:学科意识模糊,研究"碎片化",平面描述性、意义稀薄及理论缺失。当今社会转型呼唤社会文化史的理论创新成果,未来将会引起关注的"关键论题"有:民间社会、社会治理、生活方式、价值系统。这几个"关键论题",可能会成为社会文化史学者为中国社会发展理论创新作出贡献的生长点。     

Positive Returns and Equilibrium: Simultaneous Feedback Between Public Opinion and Social Policy

This paper pushes forward political research from across disciplines seeking to understand the linkages between public opinion and social policy in democracies. It considers the thermostatic and the increasing returns perspectives as pointing toward a potentially stable set of effects running between opinion and policy. Both theoretical perspectives argue that opinion and policy are reciprocally causal, feeding back on one another. This is a general argument found in opinion‐policy literatures. However, much empirical research claims to model “feedback” effects when actually using separate unidirectional models of opinion and policy. Only a small body of research addresses opinion‐policy endogeneity directly. In this paper I consider an opinion‐policy system with simultaneous feedback and without lags. I argue that there is a theoretical equilibrium in the relationship of opinion and policy underlying the otherwise cyclical processes that link them. Given that available cross‐national data are cross‐sectional and provide limited degrees of freedom, an ideal theoretical model must be somewhat constrained in order to arrive at empirically meaningful results. In this challenging and exploratory undertaking I hope to open up the possibility of a general system of effects between public opinion and social policy and how to model them in future research. I focus on social welfare policy as it is highly salient to public interests and a costly area of government budgets, making it an area of contentious policymaking. Social policy is also a major part of the thermostatic model of opinion and policy, which was recently extended to the cross‐national comparative context (Wlezien & Soroka, 2012) providing a critical predecessor to this paper because identification of equilibrium between public opinion and social policy in any given society is greatly enhanced through comparison with other societies. This counterfactual approach helps to identify opinion‐policy patterns that may not change much within societies, but can be seen as taking on discrete trajectories between societies.     

Examining Implementation of the National Voter Registration Act by Nonprofit Organizations: An Institutional Explanation

The 1993 National Voter Registration Act authorizes nonprofit social service organizations to conduct nonpartisan voter registration drives, with the aim of making the process more accessible for low‐income citizens and segments of the population historically underrepresented in the political process. Although more than 15 years have elapsed since this important reform was enacted, very little is known about the extent to which nonprofits have embraced this practice, and what factors explain their decision to do so. Drawing upon institutional theory, this article examines the propensity of nonprofit social service organizations to carry out nonpartisan voter registration and voter mobilization campaigns in a national election year. A series of hypotheses are tested using data from a random sample of several hundred nonprofit service organizations in the United States that were surveyed prior to the 2008 election. Findings suggest that institutional factors, especially state laws, are highly influential in shaping the decision of local level nonprofits to register voters. The article concludes with a discussion of policy implications of this study.