Public policy and management issues in Taiwan's development

This symposium examines the experience of Taiwan's development and focuses on the role of government and the importance of public policy and management to the development. The symposium introduction paper consists of three sections addressing the following issues. First, the introduction section offers reasons for studying Taiwan's development experience. The second section provides an overview of the literature related to the relationship between government and economic development. Finally, the last section summarizes the major issues and findings emphasized in each symposium paper.     

Economic development policy in Taiwan: achievements,challenges, and implications

This study examines Taiwan's economic development experience and identifies major achievements and challenges. The study first provides an overview of the past development record by analyzing several key economic indicators. It then explores major factors contributing to economic development, including general social background and supporting economic conditions as well as government development policy and activities. The paper especially focuses on changes and challenges resulting from the implementation of internationalization and liberalization of economic policy and the introduction of political democratization since the 1980s. The paper concludes with the implications of Taiwan's achievements and challenges.     

The role of government in economic development: the chinese experience

This study examines the role of government in China's economic reform and development years. The study first provides a literature review about major functions government played in the modern economic system and the importance of government policies to economic development. It then evaluates the experience of the Chinese government in the process of reform and development by focusing on five major roles: (a) promoter of growth, (b) manager of economy, (c) distributor of income, (d) regulator of industry, and (e) protector of citizen and business. The implications of the Chinese experience are discussed.     

FUNCTIONAL REPRESENTATION IN HONG KONG: PROBLEMS AND POSSIBILITIES

Hong Kong has operated a system of functional representation in the Legislative Council since 1985. This system of representation, as it currently stands, provides for half of the seats in the legislature. This paper examines the potential merits and demerits of functional representation for democratic government. The first section provides a brief introduction on the background and system of functional representation in Hong Kong. The second section examines problems in the application of functional representation as encountered in Hong Kong's elections. In the third section, the potential of functional representation for democratic governments will be discussed.     

Retrospective and perspective on China's administrative reform

To promote China's modernization and development, the post-Mao Chinese leaders have implemented several reform measures that gradually changed the country's traditional cadre system. This study examines the experience of China's post-Mao administrative reform implemented since the late 1970s. First, the study reviews the background and scope of the administrative reform. It then analyzes several issues that may affect the future development of administrative reform. The implications of the Chinese experience are provided.     

From agricultural modernisation to agri-food globalisation: The waning of national development in Thailand

Agriculture has been central to accounts of Thailand's modernisation and the rise of the national development project between the 1940s and the 1970s. However, the role of agriculture in the waning of national development is rarely explored critically in the Thai context. This paper focuses on agriculture and the role of the state in the shift from national development to globalisation. The first part of the paper examines the beginnings of Thailand's modern agricultural sector, before turning to the state-sponsored diversification of agriculture in the 1950s. The paper locates shifting state responses to agriculture in the late 1950s and 1960s in the context of specific political and historical social forces, before exploring the emergence of agri-food exports in the 1970s and the rise of agribusiness in the 1980s and 1990s. The paper concludes by commenting on the significance of the Thai state's role in the national development project and the globalisation project.     

Another path to customs reform: Mexico's second inspection

This paper presents two theses about reforming customs administration in developing countries. First, that modern customs systems increasingly rely on documentary audit rather than physical control and that the private sector can improve the information needed to strengthen audit. Second, that reform of customs administration in developing countries requires building both accountability and efficiency. The widespread use of Pre-Shipment Inspection (PSI) services by developing countries and Mexico's innovative privatized second inspection supports the first thesis and Mexico's experience with privatizing a key layer of its customs administration supports the second thesis.

This paper examines Mexico's recently introduced Second Customs Inspection which is a novel approach of using private firms to improve the accountability of a customs system. The Second Inspection is uniquely poised to improve both physical control and documentary audit in Mexico's customs by clearly defining the inspection as “rough justice.” “Rough justice"” is an approach to physical customs inspection that recognizes the limitations oftime and space of customs inspections prior to detailed documentary audit. Rough justice is an approach to customs administration that promotes systematic but selective review of contents and documents in the front end of the customs process (inspection) that can be done within reasonable time limits that do not unduly delay trade.     

Al-Shabaab,Social Identity Group,Human (In)Security,and Counterterrorism

This article examines the link between human security, social identity, and al-Shabaab. The first section explores how social identity group theory can help explain al-Shabaab's recruitment. The second part focuses on the counterterrorism campaign against al-Shabaab, which involves decapitation, aggressive peacekeeping through a proxy in the shape of the African Union Mission in Somalia, and the role of a domestic de-radicalization program. The article concludes that al-Shabaab's allure is in decline and the group is facing internal turmoil, which makes its overtures toward the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant very dangerous, as al-Shabaab could act as an effective conduit between the Arabian Peninsula and Africa.     

Labor law as an impediment to labor relations reform: Leveling the playing field

The primary professional society of American public administration has developed a code of ethics that appears to be largely irrelevant to the realities of bureaucratic experience. An explanation of this paradox can be found in the sociological literature on the professions and code-writing. Professional codes are designed to reyulate the behavior of a profession's members, but this is generally seen as a secondary aspect of a more fundamental objective: the need to assure the public at large that the profession's power is being exercised responsibly. From this perspective, the public administration code can be interpreted first as part of an attempt to legitimate the profession in the face of hostile challenges to its authority, and second as an effort to engender ethical behavior. Such an interpretation helps to explain the profession's failure to confront the organizational and political barriers that impede effective implementation of the code. The paper concludes with an observation on the implications of the argument for the further development of ethics in public administration.     

Bringing the world to Canada: 'The periphery of the centre'

Canada is not a peripheral country by most standards. However, since the 1960s, Canadian cities have sought to change the somewhat provincial image they have historically had, and they have used mega-events such as Olympic Games, World Expositions and other 'second order' international sports events to try to reposition themselves on the world stage. This paper examines the place promotion agendas of the two Canadian cities that have hosted Olympic Games, and will also comment on the aspirations of Vancouver, which will host the Winter Olympics in 2010. The core of the paper will concentrate on different aspects of 're-imaging' the city: image building, signalling and identity transformation. Here I argue that an important but widely overlooked aspect of increasing the stature of a city involves changing the ways that citizens of that city think about themselves. The next section will examine whether the exposure and the opportunities for civic promotion afforded by a Games actually translate into economic growth. I will argue that the evidence for this is mixed at best. Finally, the paper argues that the public money spent on Olympics typically brings the greatest benefits to local and regional elites, despite popular rhetoric that such events are good for the 'community as a whole'.     

Suicide Terrorism,Occupation, and the Globalization of Martyrdom: A Critique of Dying to Win

This article offers a three-pronged critique of Robert A. Pape's book Dying to Win. The first section of the article highlights problems related to the book's definition of key concepts, its assessment of existing research on suicide terrorism, and its presentation of data. The next section challenges the book's argument that suicide attacks have a high success rate of 54 percent. The alternative analysis offered here arrives at a significantly lower success rate of 24 percent. The last section argues that Pape exaggerates the link between occupation and suicide terrorism, especially with regard to the case of Al Qaeda. In this context, a distinction between traditional (localized) and contemporary (globalized) patterns of suicide attacks is introduced. It is argued that the occupation thesis may help explain the traditional (localized) pattern of suicide attacks, but falls short of illuminating the causes of the contemporary “globalization of martyrdom.”     

Gulick's efficiency the administrative management view

The works of Luther Gulick rank prominently among the contributors who influenced the modern administrative state's development. This paper examines how Gulick played a significant role during the New Deal Era in promoting administrative management in government operations. His commitment to administrative management is further explicated by how he structured efficiency of operations into his now classic organizational perspective so as to make managerial priorities inevitable. While Gulick's efficiency therefore illuminates the supremacy of management purposes, it is also critically elucidated as limiting human development and general participation among organizational employees.     

Explaining chronic inflation in Indonesia

This paper describes and analyses Indonesia's frustrating experience with chronic inflation, and demonstrates that the cause of continuing moderately high inflation is excessive growth of base money. It examines the central bank's current target growth rates for narrow and broad money and bank lending, and argues instead in favour of a single target rate for base money as the key to bringing inflation under control.     

David e. lilienthal: Exemplar of public purpose

This is an analysis of the public career of David E. Lilienthal, one of the first directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority and first Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. It examines that career with a special eye toward understanding the nature and form of Lilienthal's commitment to the public realm. The essay develops a four-fold definition of public purpose and critically analyzes how well this ambitious bureaucratic entrepreneur exemplified each variation. The essay concludes with several contemporary “lessons” for politics and bureaucratic action today which are revealed by the Lilienthal experience.     

China Has Good Laws,But They Should Apply to the Party

The return of the Middle Kingdom to the center stage of history is the most significant geo‐civilizaitonal development of the 21st Century. China's rise raises anew the great question, thought settled after the Cold War, of what system of governance will stand on the right or wrong side of history. In this section the leading ideologists of the China model and its “peaceful rise” appear alongside the fiercest critics of China's way.     

The EU's Support for Democratic Governance in the Eastern Neighbourhood: The Role of Transition Experience from the New Member States

The European Union seems to place an increasing rhetorical emphasis on harnessing the transition experience of the new member states. This article examines whether the EU actually makes use of this experience in its promotion of democratic governance in the eastern neighbourhood. The main conclusion is that while reform priorities of the EU in the region are aligned with transition experience, the actual participation of actors from the new members in implementing EU-financed projects aimed at promoting democratic governance is limited. This contradiction should be resolved or it will further erode the credibility of the EU's external policies.     

Persistence and renewal: the German Left Party's journey from outcast to opposition

This article examines electoral support for the German Left Party (Die Linke) at the 2013 Federal election. It focuses on two substantive issues. The first is that whilst studies have commonly linked the party's support to political culture, the party has modernised and it is unclear how this has influenced its support. The second is that the election was held amidst the fallout of the global financial crisis and thus enables us to test if the party benefitted from economic adversity. Using multivariate logistic regression models, these issues are investigated at the individual-level using data from the German Longitudinal Election Study. The results demonstrate that the party's support is steeped in political culture, but with important east–west variation. Further, there is no evidence that the party attracted support from economically anxious voters. These findings present a basis for broader reflections on the party's influence on the contemporary political landscape.     

Experiences of a learning organization in the public sector

This article explores the experience of a municipal government agency as it confronts the challenges and opportunities of meeting seemingly unlimited demands with limited resources. The City of Scottsdale, Arizona, enjoys a national reputation for innovative approaches to public policy issues. This article examines Scottsdale's efforts to create a learning organization, through a Venture Team which represents a core strategy for continuous improvement and lifelong learning.     

The Arab Spring and the Chinese Autumn

For 500 years the West was on the rise, culminating in Globalizaiton 1.0—the open system of trade, information flows and the spread of technology on the terms and in the image of the West. The benefits of that system over the last 30 years have led to the rise of the emerging economies. As a result we are entering the new era of Globalization 2.0 characterized by new forms of non‐Western modernity and the interdependence of plural identities. The advent of this new era has been hastened by the fiscal and financial crisis in Europe and the United States. Turkey, with its Islamic‐oriented democracy that has become a template for the liberated peoples of the Arab Spring, and China, with its effective neo‐Confucian form of governance, are the most sharply defined new players in this multi‐polar and multi‐dimensional world. In this section, one of Turkey's most insightful sociologists examines the post‐secular transformation of that nation. One of China's more provocative philosophers proposes a hybrid model that combines what has been learned from the experience of Western and Chinese governance in a way that “enhances democracy” in both systems.     

Ethno-Psychological Characteristics and Terror-Producing Countries: Linking Uncertainty Avoidance to Terrorist Acts in the 1970s

Most of the world's terrorism occurs in but a few of the world's countries. This study examines why. The extent to which Hofstede's cultural values relate to terrorism in the 1970s in 51 countries is analyzed. Uncertainty avoidance emerges as the single cultural value that is related to terrorism. Uncertainty avoidance, related to stress, may provide important prerequisites for group-induced aberrant behavior when formerly alienated group members find comfort in adhering to a collective belief system where dissent is discouraged, a sense of group purpose is reinforced, and rules are strictly imposed—apparently confirming the writings of terrorism psychologists.