Screening The Social Face of Denmark to the Nazis

Looking into the state-sponsored creation and presentation of a German-language film on the Danish social state, this article discusses the complexities of Danish–German relations during the German occupation of Denmark, 1940–1945. The film, Das soziale Gesicht Dänemarks, was screened in Berlin to a full house, including a number of Nazi notables, and followed by a presentation by the Danish Minister of Labor and Social Affairs. Based on archival research and film analysis, the article argues that the screening in Berlin informs an understanding of an asymmetrical power relationship between occupiers and occupied, in which the promotion of the Danish social model countered the hegemony of the dominant Nazi state. It did so by seeking to assert Danish sovereignty on social policy in accordance with German intentions to respect Danish sovereignty as stated at the very beginning of the occupation; in other words, for the Danish state, social policy became a means for an intentional but subdued resistance – even a form of counter-power – to the power of the German occupier.     

Applying Policy Termination Theory to the Abandonment of Climate Protection Initiatives by U.S. Local Governments

A considerable amount is known about the factors that influence policy adoption and implementation across different issue areas. Less is known, however, about the factors that influence governments to abandon programs or policies prior to reaching their stated objectives or originally specified end‐points. This article applies termination theory to local climate protection initiatives and examines cities’ withdrawal from the dominant sustainability organization facilitating these efforts. In the face of national government inaction, large numbers of U.S. municipalities voluntarily committed to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and joined the ICLEI's Climate Protection program. After steady membership increases for nearly a decade, ICLEI attained its largest size in 2010 with 565 city members. Over the next 2 years, this number plummeted by 20 percent. Positioned in the literature on policy change, we empirically test three hypotheses for why a substantial portion of cities ended their affiliation with this organization and terminated the explicit climate protection objectives associated with it: (1) political ideology and interest group pressure, (2) fiscal constraints, and (3) perceived program ineffectiveness. Analytical results support the first and third hypotheses. We identify factors that influence the termination of local GHG reduction initiatives and discuss theoretical implications of these findings.     

Institutions,Incentives, and Policy Entrepreneurship

Policy entrepreneurship is often used to explain agenda setting through reference to the behavior of individual “change agents.” But there are still gaps in our understanding of what motivates entrepreneurs. Rational choice theory emphasizes the importance of material and nonmaterial incentives; however, it remains unclear what role institutions play. This article aims to empirically examine the relationship between incentives and institutional encouragement of innovation. Using a case study of the federal government of Canada, I find evidence that incentives matter. Government agencies with many incentives are more likely to encourage innovation than agencies with few incentives. These results underscore the importance of institutions in determining the motivations of policy entrepreneurs, and suggest future research should focus on the interplay among individual, political, and institutional factors.     

The Impact of Temporary Immigrant Workforce Growth on Employee Verification Policies in the United States

The U.S. Department of Labor admits temporary immigrant workers to address labor shortages in local markets. Yet, do elected officials make it less difficult for some immigrants than others to secure employment in a state? Using U.S. temporary immigrant labor admissions data between 2006 and 2014, I examine the extent to which growth rates of main foreign‐born subgroups influence E‐Verify policies that require employers to authenticate the legal immigration status of employees. I find that state policymakers are less likely to enact E‐Verify policies in response to the growth of immigrants who work in specialty occupations (H‐1b visas). In contrast, the growth of immigrants working in nonspecialty occupations (H‐2a and H‐2b visas) increases the likelihood of enacting E‐Verify policies over time. The results suggest that policymakers release strict rules for employment only for highly educated immigrants who work in specialty occupations that offer higher paying salaries and career advancement opportunities. Disaggregating a monolithic foreign‐born population indicator into more specific class components provides an important contribution to public policy studies. Scholars will likely overlook the contrasting effects of specialty and nonspecialty immigrant workforce growth on policy decisions relating to immigrant employment.     

中心城区金融服务业空间集聚过程与格局研究——以潍坊市奎文区为例

近年来金融服务业发展成为我国经济与地理领域学者关注的新热点。本文通过GIS空间分析和电信黄页统计模拟,对潍坊市中心城区奎文区金融服务业的集聚现状、空间演变趋势进行了实证研究,重点探讨了金融服务业集聚格局的形成过程及演变机制。结论指出:金融服务业空间高度集聚于中心城区CBD内(单核心),集聚主要受城市等级规模和政策推动的影响;较之非银行业(保险业、证券业和其他金融活动),银行业时空演变规律性更强,但总体都呈现\"轴向扩散\"、\"楼宇主导\"态势;演变过程和城市主导发展方向、城市功能转型相契合,空间表现为由非均衡向相对均衡发展的格局过渡。     

日本五次国土规划中有关旅游政策变迁及其对我国的启示

第二次世界大战后至今,日本先后进行了五次国土规划,每次规划都有旅游规划和旅游政策的相关内容。考察和分析日本国土规划中这种旅游规划政策的变迁过程及其特征,其中有以下几点值得我们借鉴:旅游开发和规划应是国土规划和区域规划的重要内容之一;国土规划中的旅游规划和旅游政策应随社会经济的发展阶段的侧重点不同不断进行修正;在《国土法》中明确提到了有关旅游的内容,加强了国土规划中有关旅游的规划和政策的法律效力;居民居住周边休憩娱乐地的建设和娱乐设施的配套应是旅游规划的重要内容。     

Between cooperation and competitive bargaining: the Council of Europe,local and regional networking,and the shaping of the European Community’s regional policies, 1970s–90s

Abstract:

In many ways, the Council of Europe paved the way for European Community (EC) action in local and regional affairs. It was the first European organisation to establish a conference of local and regional authorities in 1957, in which local actors and associations were represented and tried to influence the shaping of European regional policies. This article analyses the links between the Council of Europe and the EC in the development of regional policies from the 1970s to the 1990s by focusing on three transmission vectors: through institutional cooperation between the two European organisations; through competitive bargaining among local and regional groups; and through intensive lobbying at EC level. It argues that the transfer of ideas was not so much achieved through cooperation between the organisations’ experts or political committees but rather by means of transregional networking promoting the idea that local and regional authorities had to be associated with the elaboration and implementation of European regional policy. From 1988, these networks shifted their attention away from the Council of Europe towards the EC because of the possibility to receive direct funding from the European Commission.