Alternative policy implementation: Theoretical explanation and case analysis of local government's action logic

Since the reform and opening up, the local government has played a key role in promoting the economic and social development of our country, and the effective implementation of the local government has become an important research topic. Therefore, based on the literature, the observation method of in-depth interviews, practice investigation and participation is adopted in this paper, which focuses on the implementation of special groups of social assistance policy. The theoretical framework of government' rational choice reveals the status of local government implementation policies and behavior behind the mechanism and organizational structure. The study found that:(1) the local government is easy to choose a quantifiable policy to implement;(2) there is a coexistence between the local government departments;(3) the local government selectively meets the needs of special personnel;(4) the local government's seeking political promotion and power leads to its behavior alienation.

Analysis on the Development Trend of Contemporary Local Governance Mode from the perspective of Economic Policy and Environmental Capacity Optimization

As the basic level of national governance, local governance is deeply influenced by administrative tradition, political system and economic development level of a country. With more than thirty years of reform and opening up, the pattern of local governance has become diversified. The diversity of governance model cannot be managed in the same way, however, it cannot affect the government’s ability to play the initiative role of governance. We need to innovate and improve the existing local governance models.

District Policy---Social Practice Through Internal and External Discourses： How the Implementation of a Single Regional Political Instrument Is Perceived, Understood and Communicated

This paper focuses on how the implementation of a single regional political instrument is perceived, understood and communicated. Designed as a regional political instrument, the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications started a pilot project： ＂Driver education as a part of upper secondary school in district Norway＂. The focal point in this paper is to explore how the professional participants understand and interpret the project as a regional political instrument in order to maintain the local community, identity and local belonging. The theoretical approach is based on Giddens＇s actor/structure theory, while the analysis based on discourse analysis, in the analysis we separated the arguments used in the professional discourse. We detected different categories of argument in the discourses among the professionals. In addition to the professional discourse, we became aware of a personal discourse. In both discourses the political instrument was perceived to be important in order to maintain the local community, create equality and maintain local identity and a sense of belonging.

State-of-the-Art Analysis and Perspectives for Peer-to-Peer Energy Trading

As a promising solution to address the“energy trilemma”confronting human society,peer-to-peer(P2P)energy trading has emerged and rapidly developed in recent years.When carrying out P2P energy trading,customers with distributed energy resources(DERs)are able to directly trade and share energy with each other.This paper summarizes and analyzes the global development of P2P energy trading based on a comprehensive review of related academic papers,research projects,and industrial practice.Key aspects in P2P energy trading are identified and discussed,including market design,trading platforms,physical infrastructure and information and communication technology(ICT)infrastructure,social science perspectives,and policy.For each key aspect,existing research and practice are critically reviewed and insights for future development are presented.Comprehensive concluding remarks are provided at the end,summarizing the major findings and perspectives of this paper.P2P energy trading is a growing field with great potential and opportunities for both academia and industry across the world.

Local Responses to Macro Development Policies and Their Effects on Rural System in China's Mountainous Regions:The Case of Shuanghe Village in Sichuan Province

China has promulgated a series of policies including the Western Development Program, the Grain for Green Project, agricultural support policies and building a new countryside strategy to eliminate east-west differences and urban-rural disparities since the late 1990s. This paper gives a holistic examination on local responses to the four typical macro socio-economic development policies and their effects on rural system based on a case study of a mountainous village in southern Sichuan Province. The results showed that the policies have not moved the case study village from its historically marginal status. To some extent, its socio-economic situation might have been worsened by accelerated out- migration of the youth, loss of agricultural land due to afforestation and industrial plants, increased fire hazard due to afforestation and reforestation, increased environmental pollution due to industrial enterprises attracted to the village and a steep decline in agricultural production due to loss of and inefficient use of cultivated land. Factors causing local villages' dilemmas include the nonuniformity of actors' objectives, finiteness of villagers' abilities, and the imperfect incentive and restraint mechanism for local government's activities under existing policy framework composed of uncoordinated one-size-fits- all policies. We suggest that China's rural policy in the new period should gradually shift from a sectoral to a place-based one, from top-down incentives to the development of bottom-up projects, and fully recognize the diversity of rural space, so as to lift localcapacities and make good use of the knowledge shared by different actors. Moreover, it is also necessary to integrate the various sectoral policies, and improve the interministerial and interdepartmental coordination of rural policies at regional and local levels.

Local perceptions of the conversion of cropland to forestland program in Jiangxi, Shaanxi, and Sichuan, China

Numerous land-use policies have been implemented in China in recent decades for ecological restoration and conservation to reduce environmental disasters and promote environmental sustainability.Many of these policies follow a top-down approach to implementation and as such,emphasize the hierarchical control within government structures.An understanding of local perceptions of land-use policies is important if the disconnect between policy makers and the target population is to be reduced and if program support is to improve.This study aimed to help improve local implementation,attitude toward,and engagement by examining the influence of socio-economic characteristics on the target population’s(local farmers)perception of the conversion of cropland to forestland program(CFPP)land use policy in Jiangxi,Sichuan,and Shaanxi provinces.It uses logistical regression models,with robust aspects of perception including confidence,support,transparency,prospects,fairness,and willingness to participate.Results indicate that social aspects as well as economic aspects are most important in influencing farmers’perceptions towards the CFPP.The farmers who have received technical support,rural male habitants,educated,and non-middle-aged farmers exhibit more positive perceptions of the program and are much more likely to support it,whereas farmers without any technical support or formal education,and female and middle-aged farmers are less likely to support the program.Importantly,this study also reveals the differences in responses,experiences and perceptions of the farmers living across different provinces.These empirical results provide insight into the influence of socio-economic characteristics on the perception of farmers towards land-use policies,which has important implications for designing targeted policy instruments and increasing farmer support for these policies.This knowledge can be harnessed and further evaluated in future research to improve citizen engagement,support,and understanding in order to help ecological restoration and conservation objectives be more effectively achieved.

The Synergized Quality Improvement Program in Teacher Education:A Policy for Improving the Quality of China's Rural Teachers

Purpose This study elucidates the rationale,implementation,values,and challenges of the Synergized Quality Improvement Program in Teacher Education(SQIPTE)—the first policy specifically dedicated to the development of teaching staff since the founding of the People's Republic of China.Design/Approach/Methods After introducing the primary structure and rationale of the SQIPTE,this study reviews the existing data and research to explain why the program focuses on local normal colleges and determine how it could be implemented more effectively.Findings In establishing group-based assistance under the principle of“1+M+N”(M≥N),the SQIPTE seeks to make normal colleges the primary force in the education of rural teachers and explores a collaborative operating mechanism to this end.Evidence suggests that this innovative program will provide new practical experience for the collaborative development and quality improvement of teachers.Originality/Value This study reviews the SQIPTE as a new Chinese intervention to improve the quality of rural teachers.There is strong evidence to suggest that this innovative program will inspire the construction of collaborative operating mechanisms incorporating multiple resources for teacher education systems across different areas.

The impact of local U.S. tobacco policies on youth tobacco use: a critical review

Tobacco use continues to be the leading preventable cause of premature death in the United States, killing over 430,000 people annually. To-bacco initiation and use among youth remains a significant public health concern. Despite declines in U.S. youth tobacco use in recent years, state and national survey results are still cause for alarm. Although traditional school-based curricular programs are the most common strategy to prevent or reduce youth tobacco use, their effectiveness may be limited because young people are immersed in a broader social context in which tobacco is readily available. Environmental strategies change this social context by focusing on policy, enforcement, and media. A compelling body of evidence suggests that interventions at the state and federal levels can, when implemented in combination, reduce youth tobacco use. The impact of policies implemented at the local levels is less well understood and effects of environmental strategies on smokeless tobacco consumption have been largely ignored. The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on environmental strategies implemented at the local level on youth use of both cigarettes and smokeless tobacco. We highlight results of the extant *-literature, hypothesize possible effects where research is lacking, and suggest where future studies might be warranted.

Water Myths: The Illusion of Canada’s Endless Water Supply

This paper explores the common misconception that Canada has an infinite supply of freshwater. The true amount of water availability in Canada is explored, and the location of the majority of Canada’s water supply is described. As a consequence of a more precise assessment of Canada’s actual hydrologic situation the paper seeks to dash the dangerous myth of Canada’s water inexhaustibility, which is straining the country’s precious resource increasingly. Finally, this paper discusses the major threats to Canada’s water supply, which are from both external factors as well as its internal sociopolitical weakness. A solution to these problems is considered.

Stakeholder Perspectives on Use,Trade,and Conservation of Medicinal Plants in the Rasuwa District of Central Nepal

People's livelihood in several Himalayan regions largely depends on collection,use,and trade of medicinal plants.Traditional use is generally not a problem,but commercial gathering of selected species to meet increasing national and international demand can result in over-exploitation.Sustainable management of medicinal plants requires a clear understanding of the respective roles,responsibilities and viewpoints of the various stakeholders involved.Through personal interviews and group discussions,this study aimed at investigating the views of two stakeholder groups on use,trade and conservation of medicinal plants in the Rasuwa district of Nepal.Local people and district and national organizations agreed that medicinal plants are collected for a combination of commercial and personal uses.Perceptions on market availability differed significantly:100 % of the respondents from district and national organizations saw markets as easily available,against only 36 % for local people.This could explain why medicinal plants were perceived by local people to contribute less to income generation than to livelihood improvement.Different viewpoints were also expressed concerning the status of medicinal plants in the district:81 % of the respondents from district and national organizationsconsidered that medicinal plants were threatened,compared to only 28 % for local people.Despite this disparity,both stakeholder groups agreed upon potential threats to medicinal plants:over-harvesting;habitat loss due to land-use change and deforestation;and over-grazing by livestock.Several challenges were identified regarding sustainable management of medicinal plants,such as ambiguous policies;lack of resources,information and infrastructures;habitat degradation;and over-exploitation.Despite these challenges,respondents agreed that the medicinal plants sector offers huge opportunities in the Rasuwa district,given resource availability,community awareness and motivation,and the priority given to the sector by governments and other agencies.Proper collaboration,communication and coordination among stakeholders are needed to grab these opportunities.

Research on the Public Opinions of the USA by the Scholars in China

When researching the public opinions abroad,scholars in China tend to choose the USA as the research object. Well- known for democracy,the USA attaches great importance to the public opinions,the influence of which has already spread to the foreign policies of the USA. As the hot spot of the international politics,there is lots of research upon the relationship between the public opinions and the foreign policies. This paper attempts to analyze the research on the public opinions of the USA by the scholars in China in order to make clear the direction of the related research in the future.

1944-1949 in the North East of Latvia： Soviet Myths and Reality

The scientific work on collecting and studying life stories started in Latvia in late 1980s, and mainly was devoted to creation of a multi-voiced counteraction to Soviet-era history. In this article, a life story and associated discourse units illustrate not only a point about the speaker, but also about the facts and notions that are common to the post-war Latvia. Post-Soviet society still use to give different accounts of the same facts and of the reasons why they happened. Studying multiform social memories that are forming Latvian collective memory is a way to perceive the processes by which these common-sense notions are constructed. The article demonstrates how to use the life story as a source for local history research and at the same time for people self-awareness research. This article is devoted to the analysis of eye-witnesses＇ （materials gathered from 12 neighboring farmer families） narratives about the post-war reality, comparing the main presumptions of Soviet ideology, existing in Latvia and all other Baltic states, to real life. Provided those presumptions being myths--the term being understood in political science as deceit as a falsifying construct, the author analyses true life stories to show the real danger of intention to exist in some irrational, mythical sphere.

Preferential Policy and Tax Regulations Income Tax of Enterprises and Local Income Tax

*Newly-built joint ventures engaged in new and high technological enterprises shall enjoy a 15 percent reduction of income tax for two years, or a 24 percent reduction for two years and a 50 percent reduction in the following three years. A choice between the two may be decided by the said enterprises. **Service industry, those enterprises with a foreign capital of more than US$5 million shall be exempt from the tax

An Algorithm for Generation of Attack Signatures Based on Sequences Alignment

This paper presents a new algorithm for generation of attack signatures based on sequence alignment. The algorithm is composed of two parts: a local alignment algorithm-GASBSLA (Generation of Attack Signatures Based on Sequence Local Alignment) and a multi-sequence alignment algorithm-TGMSA (Tri-stage Gradual Multi-Sequence Alignment). With the inspiration of sequence alignment used in Bioinformatics, GASBSLA replaces global alignment and constant weight penalty model by local alignment and affine penalty model to improve the generality of attack signatures. TGMSA presents a new pruning policy to make the algorithm more insensitive to noises in the generation of attack signatures. In this paper, GASBSLA and TGMSA are described in detail and validated by experiments.

The Tsar Legacy: Russian Foreign Policy in the Mediterranean Area from the Romanovs to Putin

This paper aims at offering an analysis of the attempts of Russian empire before, and the Soviet empire later, until to now, to exert its influence in the Mediterranean area. Drawing also from Russian archival sources, the relations between the Soviet Union and Russia, on one side, and some countries in the Mediterranean or Adriatic areas, like former Yugoslavia or Syria, will be examined. Part of the historiography, firstly Soviet and then Russian, continued to maintain a theory, according to which Stalin’s foreign policy choices were made as a sheer reaction to English and American challenges in the region which goes from the Adriatic to the Persian Gulf. According to others, Stalin’s foreign policy was formed during and immediately after World War II and was dictated by Stalin’s personal ambitions, reinforced by the victory over Nazi Germany. However, the documents consulted until now allow for a new approach and a new evaluation of the events. The picture that emerges from an analysis of the new documentation is more complex than what could have been imagined. The clarification of the objectives and actions to be undertaken in various European countries, where communist regimes were intended to be established, was dictated by pragmatic considerations and by the development of the situation in the various countries under the Soviet influence. In addition, the USSR indirectly aimed at influencing foreign as well as internal policy in countries, such as Italy, which did not belong to the Soviet sphere.

Reflections on Employment Problems of Local University Students

In recent years, how to solve employment problems of university graduates has become a hot topic in the whole society. This paper conducts in-depth discussion on employment problem of local university students, in the hope of promoting research in this hot issue.

An Analysis of Government Behavior in China's Dairy Industry

The quality of agricultural products should be regulated and guided by the industrial association consisting of various links of agricultural production chain. The government has to purchase the regulatory services from agricultural associations. In the production of dairy products in China,the improper government intervention has been in violation of the socialist market economic law,resulting in damage to the node enterprises on the dairy production chain. Therefore,it is necessary to establish the agricultural associations to ensure the quality of agricultural products.

Local Governments as an Integrative Organizer:The Policy Practice of Constructing Innovation Platforms in South China

Based on an in-depth study of one city district and four new investment projects in South China,this article analyses the implementation practice of innovation policy by Chinese local governments.It is found that at the regional level,innovation policy as practice is a highly mixed-up and integrated process composed of steps from targeting emerging industries,to constructing platforms,and to developing new clusters,during which the most important policy concept of“innovation platform”is used in a distinctive way by local governments to effectively foster regional innovation-oriented development.In general,the local government intervenes heavily in or even“manages”every step of the implementation process with specific policy approach and instrument.Managing regional development as a whole process of innovation,the entrepreneurial Chinese local government indeed plays a role of meso-level organizer equivalent to the innovation project manager in business sector.These new practical approaches of regional innovation development with Chinese characteristics can inspire other emerging and catch-up economies for their policy making in five aspects.

语言政策民族志本土化路径探究

随着语言政策与规划研究的实证转向,语言政策民族志所包含的本体论、认识论和方法论越来越得到国际语言规划与政策研究的重视。然而,这一研究范式尚未在我国得到充分关注。文章厘清语言政策民族志的内涵、方法及应用,阐述语言政策民族志对语言规划学科的重要意义,并提出语言政策民族志本土化的3点建议:一是培养本土文化意识,将研究置于地方历史文化中进行阐释;二是积极探索替代性认识论、方法论和其他会话资源;三是坚持中国立场,保持批判性反思,以期为探究适用于中国特色的语言规划理论提供借鉴和参考。

我国地方高校转型发展政策研究——138份中央与省级政策文本的分析

本研究基于138份政策文本,构建“政策工具政策内容要素”二维分析框架,考察地方高校转型政策工具的组合方式和不同政策内容要素的受重视程度。研究发现,转型政策过于依赖能力建设性政策工具,政策工具组合方式有待优化;政策内容呈现碎片化倾向,政策之间尚未形成发展合力;政策内容要素与政策工具的适配性不足,政策制定的科学性有待提升。基于此,我国应以新一轮审核评估为参照,提高应用型高校建设政策与评估政策的协同效应;出台高水平应用型高校支持计划,发挥政策示范效应;加强高校分类研究与设计,建设高质量应用型高等教育。