Budgeting and governing for deficit reduction in the UK public sector: act three ‘accountability and audit arrangements’

This paper explains how the UK central government has changed accountability and audit arrangements for local government in England, while retaining its approach to setting annual budgets within the context of multi-year spending reviews. It highlights how dismantling the institutions and processes that monitored outputs and outcomes for spending, such as public service agreements and comprehensive area assessment, meant that top-down accountability became focused overwhelmingly on financial conformance rather than organizational performance for local government. Supplementary reforms to increase the transparency or ‘visibility’ of public administration, and thereby enable greater bottom-up accountability, have resulted in a performance assessment system that is neither rigorous nor standardized. The overall result is a weakening of local accountability arrangements.     

Biosecurity risk and peri‐urban landholders – using a stakeholder consultative approach to build a risk communication strategy

This article presents a straightforward and highly participatory methodology for addressing government agencies’ concerns with effective communication strategies for biosecurity when stakeholders are diverse and there is uncertainty about their levels of knowledge. The case study was among peri‐urban landholders in an area where serious animal disease infestation has occurred within the last 10 years. Initially we engaged stakeholders in a consultative process that included establishing a stakeholder influence and interest map for both weeds and animal diseases. This was followed with a mental model approach involving surveys and in‐depth interviews. We elicited information about landholders’ knowledge, practices, values and beliefs regarding biosecurity risk. Our consultative process generated examples that indicate that effective risk communication relies on establishing and affirming mutual levels of trust and credibility between landholders and agencies. While this finding is not surprising, we argue that attention to stakeholder consultative processes is central to overcoming barriers to changing practices and building awareness. Secondly, our data confirmed that while smaller landholders were the initial target for the communication, all landholders represented a similar level of biosecurity risk. Therefore, our approach was critical in overcoming external assumptions about particular actors. Finally, our data pointed to the need to develop a whole of landscape approach to biosecurity risk communication strategy in consultation with local stakeholders.     

Setting consolidated reporting standards for local government

Under a corporatization trend, traditional financial reporting is generally considered unable to offer a complete view of the economic and financial activities of a group of public entities. Consequently, several reforms and standards have been introduced related to consolidated financial reports. Through interviews with key actors, the authors analysed the normativity process for issuing consolidated reporting standards for local governments in three European countries: Italy, Spain, and Sweden.     

改革和完善我国地方税收体系的思考

地方税收是我国地方财政收入的主要来源。建立一个适合我国国情的地方税体系,不仅有利于地方财政收入的稳定增长,也有利于调动各级地方政府的积极性,有利于促进地方经济的良性发展。在通过对我国地方税体系现状和问题分析的基础上,结合我国的具体国情,提出了建立和完善我国地方税收体系的一些构想。     

欧盟关于人员自由流动的立法特点及其启示

欧洲联盟内部人员自由流动,同商品、服务和资本的自由流动一起,构成了欧洲经济一体化的基本内容.人员在成员国之间自由流动,直接冲击成员国现行的经济、社会等制度,因此往往遭遇障碍和歧视.欧盟从建立时起,就注重对人员自由流动的法律调整,并形成了自己鲜明的立法特点.我国正处于城市化的高潮时期,人员流动正迅速发展.我们应该借鉴欧盟的经验,加强人员流动方面的立法,以确保人员流动有序进行,促进改革开放的健康、和谐发展.     

地方政府公共政策选择和创新与区域经济的发展

本文认为,地方政府是推动区域经济发展的重要力量,是区域公共政策选择和制度创新的第一行动集团,但由于种种原因,地方政府在区域公共政策选择和制度创新过程中往往存在偏差,导致变异行为,如地方主义、短期行为等。地方政府要科学实施区域公共政策选择和制度创新,着力为区域创新活动提供创新的环境,营造创新的氛围,通过激励性政策、引导性政策、保护性政策、协调性政策等,提供政策支持系统,从宏观上为区域创新创造制度上的条件,从而促进区域经济的发展。     

On the Legislative Investigation and Analysis of Criminal defendant’s Access to the Right to counsel

我国法律规定了被告人享有辩护权,并且这种权利的行使可以得到律师的帮助,律师在刑事诉讼中的职责就是依据事实和法律为委托人进行辩护,维护其合法权益。但是从现行制度下被告人和辩护律师所享有的权利来考察,很难说被告人真正地、充分地享有辩护权,因为在刑事诉讼中被告人和辩护律师所享有的权利十分有限,辩护律师在刑事诉讼中也不享有完整的辩护权,同时司法现况与被告人获得律师帮助权的基本要求差距甚大。本文对我国被告人获得律师帮助权制度及其运行进行了考察,并对相关问题进行了分析。     

地方财政支出对中国省际人口迁移影响的实证研究

以第四次人口普查和2005年1%人口抽样调查中我国省际人口迁移的数据为样本,采用个体固定效应模型,对地方财政支出对人口迁移的影响进行检验。结果表明,地方财政支出差异对我国省际人口迁移的作用是显著的,当迁入地的财政支出增加时迁入人数也会增加,中部省份的财政支出对人口迁入的作用要大于东、西部地区;另外,相对于地方政府基本建设支出,文教、卫生和社会保障支出差异对人口迁移的影响更大。     

基于KMV模型的地方政府债券信用风险问题研究

借助于KMV模型的思想建立了地方政府债券信用风险模型,进一步探讨了模型的概率分布形态以提高模型的预测精度;并在确定预测标准后,针对2009年已发行地方政府债券的部分省市计算了各地安全发债规模。研究表明,基于KMV模型的地方政府债券信用风险模型具有很强的应用性和很好的推广前景;实践中,在对发债主体进行科学选择的基础上,通过该模型能实现对发债规模的控制,达到防止其发生信用风险的可能;同时,所选样本省市(除新疆外)的预测安全发债规模和实际发债额是合理的和安全的。因此,应建立一套科学规范的地方政府债券风险防控机制,以保证地方政府债券的健康发展。     

Loving my local business as my neighbor: Religiosity's influence on local business support during a crisis

Many local businesses have and are continuing to struggle as a result of the pandemic crisis due in part to reduced consumer spending. However, the motives behind why some consumers are more supportive than others toward local businesses in such a crisis are not adequately understood. We address this gap in the literature through three experimental studies where we examine how the core consumer value of religiosity explains consumer response to the crisis as consumers seek to act in ways that align with their value system. Study 1 (257 adults from MTurk) shows a positive relationship between religiosity and support for local businesses but only during a pandemic. Study 2 (307 adults from MTurk) shows that this relationship is greatest for local (vs. non-local) businesses, and caring for one's neighbors mediates this effect. Finally, Study 3 (200 adults from MTurk) uses advertising to prime focus on one's neighbors, revealing that a neighbors-focused ad increases local business support to similar levels for consumers of all religiosity levels. Findings build on belief congruence theory with implications for marketing practitioners in the current pandemic crisis and other crises of medical, environmental, and other origins.