Administrative tradition and management reforms: a comparison of agency chief executive accountability in four Continental Rechtsstaat countries

This article investigates perceived accountability patterns of national agencies’ chief executives in four countries with a Rechtsstaat tradition and tests theoretical expectations about potential tensions between managerial reforms and administrative values using survey data (N = 453). All countries combine old and new forms of accountability requirements, while legal and financial accountability have not been replaced with results accountability. Switzerland and the Netherlands score highest on results accountability, though in combination with legal and financial accountability, which are dominant in Germany and Austria. Nation-specific characteristics seem more important for core values of public administration than generic characteristics of the Rechtsstaat model.     

Calibrating Public Sector Accountability: Translating experimental findings to public sector accountability

Accountability mechanisms are among the most important means with which governments guard and improve the performance of public sector organizations. However, research documents a plethora of accountability-failures. A key issue is: how can public sector accountability become more effective? This paper seeks to answer this question by connecting two largely separated strands of research: public administration research on real-world organizations and experimental research on the effects of different forms of accountability on decision-making. The paper develops the Calibrated Public Accountability-model (CPA-model) from experimental research findings which can be used to investigate how accountability can be calibrated to task requirements of organizations.     

Civic Engagement in the Performance Evaluation of the Public Sector in China: Building horizontal accountability to enhance vertical accountability

Abstract

This article accounts for the logic of building of an accountability mechanism with elements of civic engagement in an authoritarian regime. It is elaborated by a performance evaluation programme ‘Democratic Review of Administrative and Business Style’ (DRABS) in Wuhan in central China. The author argues that the DRABS does help form government agencies’ responsiveness to the public with various public scrutiny instruments including mass media and the internet, and that it is more accurate to frame the mechanism as having the function of building horizontal accountability to enhance vertical accountability.     

日本公营住宅的运作体系

在日本国民的实际生活中,公营住宅为解决低收入家庭的居住问题起了不容低估的作用。在政府的主导下,日本形成了以公营住宅、公团住宅、公库住宅为三大支柱的公共住宅供应体系。政府在财政、金融和税收制度上,对公营住宅采取了相应的措施,对解决日本住宅短缺问题起到了举足轻重的作用。     

政府公共受托责任与国家审计

政府公共受托责任建立在公民与政府之间的委托代理关系基础之上.它具体包括行为和报告两个层面.一方面,政府应当从人民的公共利益出发,管理好人民托付的公共财产,履行好国家和社会公共事务管理职责;另一方面,政府应当向公众及其代表(立法机构)报告其受托责任的履行情况.然而在现实中,政府在履行公共受托责任方面存在诸多缺失.强化政府对公众的受托责任应当加强政府信息公开,提高财政透明度;建立有效的政府绩效评价机制;建立和完善对政府公共受托责任履行情况及其报告的监督机制;在政府绩效评价和审计的基础上,建立和完善政府问责机制,追究相关部门和人员未履行公共受托义务的责任.在这其中,国家审计具有不可替代的重要作用,因为无论是政府信息公开、政府绩效评价还是行政问责,都建立在有效审计的基础之上,因此要进一步完善我国的国家审计制度.     

浅谈我国公租房社区的管理

大力发展公共租赁住房是我国"十二五"期间保障性住房建设的主要任务,而公租房社区的管理是公租房是否能持续发展的保障。本文从公租房的特点出发,总结了公租房社区存在的问题,并探讨了公租房社区的管理模式和方法。     

How Not to Kill the Golden Goose: Reconceptualizing accountability environments of third-sector organizations

For third-sector organizations (TSOs) that deliver publicly funded health and community services, accountability practices are predominantly shaped by the imperatives of government funders. However, the ensuing public management accountability regimes can undermine TSO responsiveness to communities, align poorly with imperatives of professional staff, create high transaction costs and threaten TSO sustainability. Public management literature lacks an adequate framework for conceptualizing TSO accountability. We outline a conceptual framework – the ‘triskele’ – for analysing accountability tensions experienced by TSOs that could assist funders and other stakeholders with the difficult task of designing more workable and meaningful accountability regimes for all stakeholders.     

住房保障政策:英国经验及启示

住房问题是当今中国面临的重大难题之一.要解决好低收入家庭的住房问题,在借鉴英国经验的基础上,需要加强住房保障制度的立法工作,研究、制定和实施分享式产权购房计划,资助低收入家庭购买经济适用住房以及普通商品住宅,帮助低收入家庭获得居住权,并为其提供一个财富积累的机会.     

Reasserting the ‘social’ in social rented housing: politics,housing policy and housing reforms in New Zealand

After a decade of wide‐ranging social welfare reforms in New Zealand, that have resulted in a considerable restructuring of the role of the state in housing provision, the introduction of new housing legislation in 2000 marked a significant attempt to reassert the notion of social provision. This article examines the manner in which housing policy has recast the role of social rented housing in New Zealand and sets out the political context and implications of the new legislation in which housing policy is being pursued. It is argued that while the notion of social provision has been revived, social rented housing is still constructed in terms of a residual model of provision in the political discourses of reform. En Nouvelle‐Zélande, après une décennie de réformes sociales de toutes sortes, lesquelles ont largement restructuré le rô le de l'É tat dans la fourniture de logements, la récente présentation d'une législation sur l'habitat en 2000 s'est distinguée par une nette tendance à réaffirmer la notion de service social. En examinant comment la politique du logement néo‐zélandaise a remanié le rô le de l'habitat social en location, l'article expose le contexte et les implications politiques des nouvelles lois dans lesquelles s'inscrit la politique publique du logement. Si la notion de service social a été ravivée, le logement social en location reste un pis‐aller parmi les schémas d'aide évoqués dans les discours politiques réformistes.     

公租房小区的特征及治理

公租房小区有三个特征:一是租房者和买房者的混居;二是政府在公租房小区有着相当比重的经济利益;三是居民都是社会的收入中下阶层。公租房小区要避免变成贫民窟,其关键之一是中下阶层的居民能够也愿意参与到小区的治理中来。在此基础上,公租房小区的治理应该强调以小区居民代表为主体组成小区管理委员会,居民代表由居民大会选举产生,买房者的投票权高于租房者,政府代表拥有一定比例的投票权。     

公共租赁房退出机制及其政策选择

我国正在大力发展公共租赁房,但对公共租赁房退出机制的理论研究目前仍比较缺乏。在梳理相关文献的基础上,运用博弈论和比较研究的方法,指出政府管理部门应采取的策略,并对公共租赁房不同退出机制的效果进行了分析。结合我国的实际情况,认为应采取自愿退出、强制退出和激励退出相结合的方式创新我国公共租赁房的退出机制。     

(Co)-Contamination as the Dark Side of Co-Production: Public value failures in co-production processes

Co-production is associated with the expanding role that citizens and other third-party actors assume in the development and delivery of public services. While there are benefits to co-production, there are also challenges. This study draws from the marketing literature on value co-destruction to describe the processes in co-production of public services that can negatively affect public values from regular producers and users. We refer to this public value failure as co-contamination. Two case studies are used to explore some of the ‘dark sides’ of co-production. Our analyses reveal the co-contaminating aspects of this process and offer implications for public managers.     

Safeguarding public accountability in horizontal government

Abstract

The trend towards horizontalization in government prompts a debate on safeguarding public accountability. This article contributes to the debate by presenting categories of horizontalization in government, types of horizontal accountability and criteria for judging the appropriateness of arrangements for public accountability. Accountability arrangements must meet the requirements of the democratic constitutional state to provide adequate checks and balances. This implies, among other things, that responsibilities must be clear and the information supply, debate and sanctioning options must all be established. A discussion of existing mechanisms for horizontal accountability indicates that the requirements of a democratic constitutional state are generally not sufficiently met. This makes it imperative to establish more balanced arrangements for public accountability that fit more horizontal forms of government.     

中外公共租赁住房租金定价机制比较研究

在简要介绍公共租赁住房概念与内涵的基础上,总结并比较了国内外公共租赁住房租金定价模式的特点与异同,分析了当前我国公共租赁住房的租金定价面临的难点与困惑,对我国公共租赁住房租金定价的作用机制与定价方法的优劣进行了探讨。从定价基准、补贴力度、保障形式和配套政策等方面总结了国内外公共租赁住房租金定价的经验,并就制度设计、操作流程、管理体制、价格机制、法律法规以及金融制度等方面提出了相关配套措施。     

Conflict of Interest in Policing and the Public Sector

Abstract

Conflicts of interest are a key factor in the contemporary decline of trust in government and public institutions, eroding public trust in government and democratic systems. Drawing on two unique empirical studies involving policing and the broader public sector, this paper explores the meaning and dimensions of conflict of interest by examining public complaints about conflict of interest and providing distinctive insights into the nature of conflict of interest as a problem for public sector ethics. The paper analyses and explores appropriate regulatory and management approaches for conflict of interest, focusing on three elements: (1) dealing with private interests that are identifiably problematic in the way they clash with the duties of public officials; (2) managing conflicts as they arise in the course of public sector work (manifested in preferential and adverse treatment, and other problematic areas); and (3) developing ethical and accountable organisational cultures. It is concluded that effective and meaningful public sector ethics in the pursuit of the public interest must be based on an ethos of social accountability and a commitment to prioritise the public interest in both fact and appearance.     

住房价格指数以及区位对住房价格的影响——北京市住房价格实证分析

根据北京市的1308个新建住宅项目数据,建立了Hedonic模型,着重分析了时间、距离、环线以及行政区等变量对住房价格的影响,构建了北京市住房Hedonic价格指数和住房价格的梯度曲线.     

中国公共住宅供应体系及其完善的框架思路

从总量、结构、保障范围等方面分析了当前我国公共住宅供应体系存在的问题与不足,并提出了完善公共住宅供应体系的框架思路.     

澳大利亚住房负担能力评析

由于住房政策的转变以及经济社会因素的变化,澳大利亚同我国一样正经历着严峻的住房负担能力问题。通过文献研究的方法,从澳大利亚住房负担问题的概念、产生的背景、问题的原因与影响等几个方面对澳大利亚住房负担能力问题的相关研究成果进行了阐述,并通过这些研究成果提出了我国住房负担能力问题研究的新思路和新视角:一是研究方法的借鉴,二是研究领域的扩展,三是应给予住房供给更多关注。