The time dimension has not attracted enough attention in policy process research in China, yet speed is the most distinctive feature of China’s recent development. This article, based on observations ...of China’s policy practices, proposes a new research perspective for understanding how the Chinese government has been able to address policy challenges in an era of rapid transition. The approach adopted by the government allows decision makers to respond quickly to serious problems with a truncated decision‐making process, and then implement the decisions through a more gradual deliberative process. The article examines China’s coal‐mining industry reform as an empirical case to illustrate how this governance approach has been used to achieve major policy reform, namely property rights reform for coal mines, while simultaneously maintaining stability, regulating production safety, and stimulating industrial development. The article concludes with a discussion of the broad implications of this pattern for improving the effectiveness of public policy both in and outside China.
时间维度在中国的政策过程研究中并没有引起足够的重视，但速度正是中国近期发展的最显著特征。本文基于对中国政策实践的观察，提出了一个新的研究视角来了解中国政府如何应对快速转型时期的政策挑战。中国政府采取删简式的决策模式，然后以更加渐进的协商过程来推行该决策，这种“决策删简‐执行协商”的政策过程模式使得决策者能够快速应对层出不穷的严重问题。本文将中国煤矿业改革作为实证案例，来说明这种政策过程的治理方法是如何在保持社会稳定、规制生产安全以及促进产业发展的前提下用于实现快速的重大政策改革，即煤矿产权改革。文章最后讨论了这种模式对提高中国境内外公共政策有效性的更广泛意义。
This study examines, from a collaborative governance perspective, the public policy process of South Korea in responding to the global health pandemic. In many countries, attention has been focused ...primarily on governmental capacity and political leadership in containing the COVID-19 pandemic. In South Korea, however, the role of civil society as a collaborative partner to government is especially important. To analyze the comprehensive and substantive nature of government-civil society collaboration, this study assesses the response to COVID-19 along two dimensions: the level of civil society involvement in governance, and the stage in public policy development. The study reveals that the South Korean government was a coordinator of multiple actors and multiple sectors of society, including civil society, and that all three facets of civil society as described by Edwards (2004), were involved: associational life, civility, and engagement in the public sphere.
Having identified the need to conduct research on the intersection between entrepreneurship education (EE) and public policies, we carried out a systematic literature review on decision-making ...processes regarding the implementation of education for entrepreneurship programs in schools and the introduction of this topic in the policy-making process. This SLR followed every process inherent to its well-established protocol. The research undertaken confirmed that the understanding of decision processes associated with the implementation of EE programs is not only a “missing link” in the discussions about the way in which countries manage situations related to EE, but also a gap in academic knowledge. Indeed, the SLR process included only nine articles in the final review (obtained through a methodology based on an algorithm)—which is a clear sign that further scientific research around this specific topic is needed. The articles included in the final review suggest that: (i) entrepreneurship is fundamental to the progress and evolution of countries and their regions, (ii) there is evidence that EE is central to a more entrepreneurial youth, and (iii) the successful implementation of recommendations from regulatory institutions is based on political commitment and implementation capacities.
For decades, the scientific community has conducted essential background research and developed appropriate modeling tools in support of an ecosystem-based approach to natural resource management. ...Resource managers and the public, however, lack a clear roadmap for working with scientists to move beyond the traditional single-species approach. With current management processes so strongly focused on working in a species-by-species framework, there are entrenched cultural and institutional challenges to shifting those processes toward ecosystem-based management. We propose using the integrated ecosystem assessment process to both develop new management ideas for a particular ecosystem, and to help shift public policy processes and perceptions to embrace ecosystem approaches to management.
Drawing on insights from studies of environmental politics, the policy process, and the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF), this study examines the Trump administration's influence on how the United ...States is characterized by Chinese environmental policy scholars. Using an NPF approach and policy narratives on the topic of global environmental governance, our empirical results suggest that the Trump administration has shifted Chinese environmental policy scholars' constructed role of the US but not China's relationship with the US in these narratives. Specifically, there was a widening polarization of the US being portrayed as hero and villain over the sampled time frame (2010–2020) yet the portrayal of the US as an ally remained stable. These portrayals of the US also do not vary across narrators' knowledge and professional backgrounds. Our findings help confirm previous arguments that the Trump Administration's influence on environmental policy and politics in China is more rhetorical than substantive, and indicate that, despite the escalating rivalry between the two countries, Chinese environmental policy scholars continue viewing the US as an ally in global environmental governance. The findings likewise provide insights for rebuilding international climate cooperation and global climate governance leadership.
Resumen
Basándose en los conocimientos de los estudios de política ambiental, el proceso de políticas y el Marco de política narrativa (NPF), este estudio examina la influencia de la administración Trump en cómo los académicos chinos en política ambiental caracterizan a los Estados Unidos. Usando un enfoque NPF y narrativas de políticas sobre el tema de la gobernanza ambiental global, nuestros resultados empíricos sugieren que la administración Trump ha cambiado el papel construido por los académicos chinos en política ambiental de los EE. UU., pero no la relación de China con los EE. UU. en estas narrativas. Específicamente, hubo una polarización cada vez mayor de los EE. UU. retratados como héroes y villanos durante el período de tiempo muestreado (2010‐2020), pero la representación de los EE. UU. como un aliado se mantuvo estable. Estas representaciones de los EE. UU. tampoco varían según el conocimiento y la experiencia profesional de los narradores. Nuestros hallazgos ayudan a confirmar los argumentos anteriores de que la influencia de la Administración Trump en la política ambiental y la política en China es más retórica que sustantiva e indican que, a pesar de la creciente rivalidad entre los dos países, los académicos chinos en política ambiental continúan viendo a los EE. UU. como un aliado en el mundo. gobernanza ambiental. Los hallazgos también brindan información para reconstruir la cooperación climática internacional y el liderazgo en la gobernanza climática global.
摘要
本研究基于环境政治、政策过程和叙事政策框架(NPF)研究，分析了特朗普政府对中国环境政策学者如何描述美国一事产生的影响。通过使用NPF方法和关于全球环境治理主题的政策叙事，我们的实证结果表明，在这些叙事中，特朗普政府改变了中国环境政策学者对美国角色的建构，而不是中国与美国的关系。具体而言，在所研究的时间范围内(2010‐2020年)，美国被描绘成正面角色(hero)和反面角色(villain)的极化程度扩大，但关于美国作为盟友的描述保持稳定。这些对美国的描绘也不会因叙事者的知识和专业背景不同而存在差异。我们的研究发现有助于证实之前的论点，即特朗普政府对中国环境政策和政治的影响更多的是言辞方面而非实质方面，研究发现还表明，尽管两国之间的竞争不断升级，但中国环境政策学者仍将美国视为全球环境治理盟友。这些发现同样为重建国际气候合作和全球气候治理领导力一事提供见解。
Globalisation, the ever increasing economic and socio-political international interactions, poses challenges to public policy theory and practice. This paper aims to (a) draw an outline of a ...discussion and research agenda for theorizing the policy process under globalisation, by (b) identifying some theoretical consensus across disciplines and epistemological paradigms. The literature shows a consensus on 'constrained' state thesis and that globalisation affects all states through structural pressures as well as the neoliberal discourse. However, policy outcomes vary across states depending on their position in the international power structure and domestic adjustment costs. The paper concludes that policy studies shall focus on the changing functions and organisational forms of the state and explicitly incorporate domestic-international interactions into the theories of the policy process.
This study examines how NPO/NGO-related themes and theories are incorporated into public administration education in South Korea. By analyzing NPO/NGO-related courses in selected public ...administration programs, this research breaks down their curricula into major categories from the public administration and policy standpoints. This study found that civil society constitutes the public administration environment on the macro-level, while NPO/NGOs are key actors in the participatory governance and contracting-out on the micro-level. From the public policy standpoint, the advocacy function of NPO/NGOs took the central role in the public policy formation stage, while their service delivery function was highlighted in the public policy implementation stage. South Korean PA education is evaluated to take a top-down-style approach in embracing the roles of NPO/NGOs in the public policy implementation process. This study contributes to strengthening ties between PA education and NPO/NGO education and practices.
In this article we describe the adoption and execution of public administration reforms in Central and Eastern Europe between 2008 and 2013, as well as examine whether post-communist countries differ ...from other groups of European countries in terms of the substance of reforms and their implementation process. Instead of following popular Western administrative theoretical frames, we adopt the policy process approach. We focus on the role of policy actors during reform policymaking and implementation at the level of policy subsystems. More specifically, we employ the rational-comprehensive and garbage can perspectives to understand the reform processes in the post-communist region. Our research is based on the statistical analysis of survey data and two case studies of reforms initiated by the 2008-2012 Lithuanian government. The article concludes that countries in Central and Eastern Europe share some common characteristics: they focused on the issues of civil service and public or administrative services, their reform policy was often formulated on a top-down basis, and its execution often lacked adequate capacities. Despite a rational reform façade in these countries, the implementation of governance change appears to be quite erratic, as anticipated in the garbage can perspective. This can have negative consequences on the effectiveness of public policy, continuing to generate public distrust in post-communist state institutions.
How does evidence-based sociological research influence public policymaking either directly or indirectly? Based on an analysis of a 2014 NSF-funded public policy research workshop and written case ...studies by workshop participants, this article provides a conceptual roadmap and varied examples of the pathways through which social science research and social scientists can inform public policy decision-making. Pathways include networks and relationships among academics, social scientists employed in government, special interest groups and non-profits, and members of the media. Many sociologists are committed to using their evidence-based findings to inform solutions to societal problems, yet are often too narrowly trained to write only for scholarly communities and are often unaware of the relations, connections, and networks that can increase the use of sociological and other social science research in public discourse and in the public policy arena. The paper highlights lessons learned about effective networks, communication channels and dissemination strategies from the workshop and case studies in order to better equip those social scientists interested to bring their research into a public policy realm with the tools to do so. Given the current political climate, this resolve seems all the more important.
The growth in the use of collaborative governance arrangements has been accompanied by burgeoning scholarship in the field of public affairs that seeks to understand the benefits of engaging diverse ...stakeholders in common venues. However, few scholars have formally assessed the role of government actors in facilitating outcomes for individual participants in such efforts. Moreover, little work on collaborative governance examines how individual incentives and barriers to collective action are formed within the nested nature of these contexts. We contribute to the study of collaborative governance by formally investigating how the relative centrality of government actors in collaborative policy‐making venues affects individual relationship building and learning for participants therein. We find that government actor centrality is positively associated with relationship building and learning. However, in testing two different conceptualizations of “centrality,” we find that the definition of this construct clearly matters.
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