An Exploration of Policy Making in Public and Organisational Domains

This article critically analyses the interplay between policy at institutional level and policy at national level. It also examines the policy-making process by using examples from literature and identifies consultation as a more organic way of policy-making.

The Challenges of Water Pollution, Threat to Public Health, Flaws of Water Laws and Policies in Pakistan

In an era of unprecedented urbanization, population and industrial growth pressure is serious threat for the water management in Pakistan in present days. Water pollution from raw sewage, industrial wastes, and agricultural runoff limited natural fresh water resources in the country. Human health is facing serious problems due to deteriorating drinking water quality. Current review paper provides an insight to the water quality problems in Pakistan with an attempt to emphasize the challenges of water laws enforcement. Although Pakistan has developed many water laws the state of implementation is dominant, intermediate pollution crises are still remaining. We could come to the conclusion that strictly enforcement is compulsory for water environment regulations in Pakistan. Moreover, it is necessary to establish a reliable risk assessment system for water quality, human health and ecological safety.

Public Policy Supply for Successful Practice of the Xin’anjiang River Ecological Compensation Mechanism

The ecological protection of the inter-provincial river basin of Xin’anjiang River takes the ecological compensation mechanism as the starting point and achieves good results.The success of the mechanism is best reflected in its innovation of public policy supply,which is not only a vivid practice of Xi Jinping’s ecological civilization thought in the new era,but also establishes a model for absorption,transformation and export of policy supply.The effective supply of public policies on ecological environment is the realistic choice for the construction of ecological civilization in the new era.

Dialectic Approaches and Public Policy Interactions for Social, Environmental and Health Problems: Challenges for Health Promotion across Territorial Scales

A constant reproduction of environmental injustices and health iniquities has demanded the employment of participatory/dialectic approaches to research and to intervene in the reality making possible the involvement of social actors in healthy public policies. On this framework, the aim of this paper is to analyse scientific production with dialectic approaches associated with public policies in the context of social, environmental and health problems, considering territorial scales of intervention and the correspondence with some relevant strategies of health promotion. A systematic bibliographic review was applied on a wide pan-disciplinary scientific data base and 36 papers were analysed and classified by their territorial scales of approach. The amount of papers found and their spread through a variety of journals showed a modest, but increasing production which has been dispersed in terms of knowledge areas. Within the classification of territorial approaches, 14 papers were classified as local, 5 as expanded and 17 as a multi-level. Although the papers classified as local approaches were in a good structure of stakeholders’ participation, they are limited to dealing with the global driving forces that reproduce the environmental injustices. Regarding this limitation, the multilevel approaches were identified as more opportune to jointly deal with social, environmental and health problems by means of allowing interaction through multiple territorial scales, fomenting the strengthening of community action, creating supportive environments, and building healthy public policies.

Public Policies &Plans Study Regard to the Conservation of Shophouse Townscape in George Town, Pulau Pinang: Assessment, Limitations, and Current Issues

The conservation of townscape in George Town usually involves the enforcement of public policies and plans, which facilitate the conservation work in a sustainable and scientific way. In the recent decade, it has been increasingly recognized that public policies and plans in heritage sites have the significant impact on urban scenery, ethnic identity, and heritage sustainable development. However, the enforcement of public policies and plans in order to achieve successful townscape conservation is still insufficient in George Town. This study aims to assess the public policies and plans in relation to the townscape from the federal level to local level, and in turn, showing the current issues which caused by the deficiency of public policies and conservation plans. To ensure the objectives achieved, qualitative methods will be applied, including several approaches such as site investigation, cross-referencing, extrapolation and interpretation method. Empirical findings suggest that townscape in George Town should be ensured by implementing prudent public policy. Nevertheless, the current public policies and plans are inefficiently run, and various problems arise in the townscape such as de-contextualization, loss of authenticity and cultural integrity, Disneyfication, and environmental deterioration etc.

Public Agenda, Media Agenda and Policy Communication Process of Government Annual Reports:Based on the Survey in 19 Chinese Cities

Promoting direct policy communication between policy makers and the public is both an important function of government annual reports (GARs) and a key issue in democratic politics.According to this survey,conducted in 19 major cities in China,to promote the policy communication function of the GARs the government should make full use of changes in public policy communication habits and the convergence of public policy preferences in different groups while dealing with routine problems such as “public opinion deficits” and “being popular among the institutional staff but unnoticed the non-institutional staff.”

Civic and Social Applications to Support Public Policies on Health

The discussion with emphasis on social control is expressed in new guidelines for its effectiveness through normative instruments and the legal creation of institutional spaces that guarantee the participation of organized civil society in the direct supervision of the executive in the three spheres of government.Social participation for the strengthening of public health in Brazil has undergone complex processes of change,which have resulted in an increasingly qualified,deliberative,independent,and representative social control system.However,policy makers need to identify new technologies and carefully analyze their potential before they begin to exert their breaking power in the economy and society.Mobility and unlimited connectivity deserve special attention from the public power for the ability to achieve the digital inclusion of the citizen through smartphones.This requires a transformation of the governance structure into a platform that is based on the tripod transparency,participation,and collaboration,which relies on the Internet,social networks and connectivity.

Water-Energy-Food Nexus： Comparative Scenarios and Public Policy Perspectives from Some Latin American Countries Regarding Biogas from Agriculture and Livestock

Latin American and the Caribbean countries have one of the world＇s largest sources of renewable energy. Nonetheless, it estimated that nearly three-quarters of their energy consumption relies on the use of fossil fuels, with most of the countries being net importers, ultimately imposing a marked economic and political dependence on those energy commodities. Therefore, the opportunity lies in a higher utilization of various renewable energy resources, which contribute to the country＇s energy security while promoting significant environmental benefits. This manuscript aimed to provide a comparative analysis of current energy scenarios of six Latin American countries （Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua, Brazil, Chile and Ecuador） to evaluate their policies, programs and strategies implemented in the search for greater participation of renewable energy, with a special attention to biogas. Given the importance of the water-energy-food nexus that could foment the use of renewable energies under conditions of water scarcity, a qualitative data comparison was accomplished, considering biogas production potential, biogas projects and CO2 emissions.

Human Rights, Governance and Public Policy to Counter the Structural Problems and Brain Drain in Latin America and Haiti

This article will analyze human rights linked to their impact on democracy, inequality, government policies and other structural problems such as an imminent obstacle for socioeconomic development in Latin America and the Caribbean, which is considerable challenges for construction of a rule of law, regional policy and that all people can live in a suitable environment. Today daily brain drain contributes a handicap for the socio-educational and professional development in the region particularly in Haiti. At the end of the article, the results of the research on the difficult socioeconomic situations that prevent extremely poor Haitians to enjoy a dignified life, resulting in partial emigrations to abroad and brain drain will occur. Also, the aspirations of the people are shown in the two poorest departments： Northeast and Northwest.

Making Sense of Public Relations as Culture Policy

Culture is a process in which meaning is produced, distributed, consumed, materialised, re-produced infinitely and discussed with society. As meanings generally disperse extensively in different social groups through different associations, they display certain changes in time depending on their usage. Meanwhile, it is hard to define the public relations concept, because it may refer to different meanings even in the same culture. According to the assumptions pertaining to the public relations practices shaping the dominant discourse of the USA, language which produces certain cultural meanings also shapes the way we think and act. Thus, due to its ideological and discursive nature, public relations functions as a culture policy. Being an integral communication management configuring and directing the social sphere and the practices related to it, public relations refers to the concept of habitus introduced by Bourdieu inasmuch as habitus resides in the situations formed by actions that individuals learn throughout their lives. Culture policy; on the other hand, purports the effective participation of people in cultural life, their development in social, economic and cultural areas as well as the creation of convenient conditions to sustain it, which can be achieved with public relations practices. Public relations determines the culture policies in a society with regard to the structured discourses and actions and also acts as the mouthpiece of these policies. The purpose of public communication that is necessary for development and sustainability is to inform the public objectively in cultural, social, political and economic senses by obtaining feedback form them. For the purpose of administering sound public communication strategies in a society, public relations should direct the forms of public discourse. The purpose of this study is to put forth a critical evaluation based on the idea that for the realisation of effective and sensible communication policies in a society, the perception and practice public relations in that society should be regarded as a culture policy. According, this study focuses on whether or not public relations as culture policy serve the development of democracy and public sphere.

South-South Coalitions, Bilateral Agreements, and Regional Coordination： Public Opinion and Brazilian Foreign Policy

Emerging powers suffer the effects from the resource deficits in attempting to project their power globally. The developing nations are faced with difficult choices in determining their resource allocation strategies when compared to the already established powers. This article uses Brazil as a case study to analyze how emerging powers articulate strategies to conduct operations across the distinct areas of the international stage, paying special attention to regional and global arenas. Our interest is to analyze how power projection strategies are articulated and formed. More specifically, our research works to understand how a country compares and relates its regional operations to its global ones.

Social Media and the Public Policy Process in Egypt

For the past three years the political environment in Egypt, and the middle east in general, has undergone substantial change such as increase in public opinion and awareness, increase in political participation, increase in voting turnout franchise as well as introducing a new paradigm of communication which has great influence on the political and social landscape of the world ＂Social Media＂. The aim of this study is to explore the impact and effect of social media （Facebook） on the changing political environment of the public policy process in Egypt. This article analyzes the different stages of the Public Policy Process in Egypt, with application to the Minimum and Maximum Wage Policy, and examines how it was influenced by the Facebook, as a device of the social media, as a new channel of political mobilization.

Discussion on Road Traffic Problems and “Public Transport Priority” Policy in the Macao Peninsula

The roads on the Macao Peninsula are famous for their short, fast, and small features. At the same time, due to the protection of historical and cultural sites, the road network system is mostly based on the planning and design of the previous road network system. Although the planning of the contemporary road network system is quite unique, it has not been considered to the contemporary transporting needs of the citizens of Macao. At the same time, the complexity of the road network makes zonings unobvious functional and mixes urban functions in the region. Therefore, through field surveys, the relevant data of the Macao Transport Bureau (DSAT) is combined to find out the current problems of the road traffic on the Macao Peninsula and analyze the strategy of optimizing the “public transport priority” public transportation prove system. At Last, regarding the citizen as the core and find out the relationship between passengers and the public transportation system to explore the future development direction of the road traffic planning and design of the Macao Peninsula will become the main direction of this study.

Institutions as Tools of Public Policy： A Comparative Evaluation of South East Asian-Sub-Saharan African Post War Development

In general, it can be argued that institutional framework a country or region designs plays a significant role in crafting, applying or even success of public policy. Drawing lessons from how Asia exploited the developmental state＇s concept by designing institutions which targeted key public policy areas such as education, health, domestic savings, and rural development, or aligned infrastructures such as roads, transport and ports, to drive economic development. The paper explores how this approach can be applied in sub-Saharan Africa （or individual countries）. The objective is to extricate constant factors impacting development both in ahistorical and atemporal terms. The investigation is guided by the key question： whether quality of institutions and institutional analysis can help explain development failures in Africa？ Hence, on one part, it probes institutions, institution-making, public policy making and what uniquely the Asian developmental state did that can help illuminate institutional role in policymaking and application. In pursuing this objective, the paper is cognisant of the question by Brousseau et al. asked, regarding generalizability of institutional capabilities, ＂If growth-enhancing institutions are identified in a specific country, can other countries learn from and transplant these＂. The investigation concludes that in public policy and development strategy-making institutions do matter as they delimit or even help create possibilities necessary for development and its sustenance, and to a certain extent, they are the vital constant （factors） that explains development differentiations in different geographic spaces or time periods.

The Innovation Public Policies and the Firms＇ Adoption of Innovative Processes： Some Notes About the Portuguese Case

Innovation is considered an important competitiveness factor for firms and a source of wealth for economies. Innovation appears as a positive value and as a solution to solve social problems and firm＇s competitiveness. Therefore it is an important subject of policy intervention and territory development, so organizations are encouraged to adopt innovative practices through incentives and innovation policies. This paper aims to propose a new methodological approach for public policy supporting innovation evaluation in a territorial-based analysis. A new methodology which intended to contribute to strengthen and reinforce the innovation effectiveness in firms and territory development resulting from support of public mechanisms. Some economic and sociological studies had showed that Portuguese firms adopt more easily technological innovations （with short-term effects） than organizational and social innovations. In this sense, we will consider innovation public policies effects at firms and how they take available opportunities for innovation. The aim is to know if the concept of innovation spread by these policies is multidimensional （e.g., social, economic and technological） or restricted. We propose to study the factors （internal and external） that affect innovation processes in firms through case studies methodology. This research strategy will show the processes of innovation from within the organizations and analyze the socio-economic context in which organizations operate.

On the policy of mainstream media to enhance public opinion＇s guide and influence

Under the new situation, news and propaganda work must hold high the banner around the overall situation, serve the people, make reform and innovation, adhere to the correct guidance of public opinion, to improve the ability to guide public opinion, to create a good public opinion environment, to better play and publicize the party＇ s ideas, to promote social justice, to access to social conditions public opinion, to guide social hot spots, to divert the public mood, to improve the important role of public opinion. We should put the improvement of the ability to guide public opinion in a prominent position, conduct in-depth research, and come up with concrete measures to achieve new results. We must adhere to the Party＇ s principles; firmly grasp the correct guidance of public opinion. Guiding correctly public opinion will benefit the country, party and people; guiding media wrong will make damage to China, party and people. To firmly establish political awareness, the overall sense of responsibility, position sense, we should put adhering to the correct orientation in the first place on the news and propaganda work.

Study on the Public Policy Process of Urban Planning of Henan Province

Along with the development progress of the economy in Central China, there are new breakthroughs achieved by Henan province in the public policy making in the urban planning. In Henan province, the implementation schemes related to the public policies such as Zhengzhou City Planning, High-tech Zone Construction in the First-tier City, and the Integrated Development of the Central Plains Urban Areas appeared in the process of implementing the new urbanization strategy.

Policy Guiding and Dividend Behavior of Public Corporations

Reviewing the background of dividend policy adopted by public corporations in China, this paper investigates the relationship between dividend policy of public corporation and the state supervisory policy upon the promulgation and implementation of Regulatory Measures on New Issues of Public Corporations in 2001. We collect all listed companies with dividend distribution from 1992 to 2002 as sample data. The results of analyses indicate that corporate dividend is affected evidently by the state supervisory policy and different majority shareholders have distinct reaction to governance. The majority shareholders are obviously motivated to maximize their benefits and evade the supervision from the state. At last we propose that supervisory policy of corporations should adopt unambiguous guideline.

Scientific Initiation： Meanings and Peculiarities of Public Policy in Brazil

This paper aims to analyze the Scientific Initiation （SI） as public policy of higher education in Brazil, from meanings and peculiarities of this device in the undergraduate academic＇s formation, created jointly with the National Research Council in 1951 currently National Council for Scientific and Technological Development （CNPq）. This corporation emerged from the recognition of the strategic importance of science and necessity of institutionalization of encouragement and fostering research. This is a theoretical bibliographical study and documentary that evidences the contributions and limits of SI while political science training should be part of academic activities to provide the development and support of investigative spirit. The concept of SI was established in universities as an activity to be developed in order to encourage the student to become familiar with scientific practices. The study concluded that SI is based on institutionalized norms within higher education to foster the development of science, and it is considered as an important strategy of expansion of graduate studies in Brazil.

Research on low-carbon development of electric power industry:from the perspectives of public policy

It is a fundamental way to achieve sustainable development and inclusive growth that China takes the low-carbon development path.And low-carbon development is an effective way to respond to many threats,including global climate anomalies,environmental degradation,and energy shortage.Low-carbon economy is policy economy to a large extent.Although the external environment demands low-carbon development of electric power industry,enterprises lack intrinsic motivation.Electric power industry is the pillar industry of China,and is one of the key industries for China's low-carbon development.The government needs to ensure its dominant position in the low-carbon development of electric power industry,and reform the government performance management system and promote the planning and management of electric power industry through appropriate public policy,in order to adjust the structure of the electric power industry and take a low-carbon development road with Chinese characteristics.