The Politics of Administrative Reforms in Asia: Paradigms and Legacies, Paths and Diversities

Many Asian governments have embarked on administrative reforms of one kind or another, engaging in rhetoric that resonates with the global paradigms of "new public management" and "good governance." This article seeks to understand Asian administrative reforms against the background of international influence, policy diffusion, domestic politics, institutional dynamics, and administrative traditions and legacies. It is impossible to capture the whole range of national reform types within any neat and tidy Asian paradigm, but some common strands of national reform paths in the region can still be traced. Different problems and failures are found to be addressed by Asian reforms, reflecting diverse motives and resulting in varied outcomes. The "old" public administration regime has largely coexisted with the "new" public management approaches and tools.     

Governance Reform in Thailand: Questionable Assumptions, Uncertain Outcomes

This article examines the nature of governance reform in Thailand. The argument is that Thai citizens are not especially benefiting from the public reform initiatives of Thai governments because government reformers made fourquestionable assumptions about reform which have in turn produced uncertain outcomes and provided the opportunity for government reformers to avoid responsibility for their reform choices. First, the reformers support the belief that a global reform paradigm with ready-made reform packages exists which can be easily transplanted in the Thai public sector. Second, the reformers prefer to define success largely as reform output rather than reform outcomes or long term reform consequences. Third, Thai government reformers have overemphasized the efficiency aspects of the new public management at the expense of other governance goals. Fourth, governance reform in Thailand has been portrayed as a managerial problem instead of a political one. The author supports his arguments by drawing on theoretical debates in the international literature on administrative reform, and relating these debates to the Thai case. Governance reform in Thailand is still at an early stage, but the role of unintended consequences is important to administrative reform. Furthermore, the Thai case may reflect governance reform in other countries as well.     

Tolerant,If Personal Goals Remain Unharmed: Explaining Supranational Bureaucrats' Attitudes to Organizational Change

Growth in membership and intensifying responsibilities require much greater adaptability in organizational structures and administrative arrangements at international than at national levels. The ongoing transformation toward multilevel governance seems to empower international organizations and thus shines a new spotlight on international civil servants. We know little, however, about what motivates this growing class of bureaucratic elite. Against this background, this article explores the question as to how officials of the European Commission relate to the recent management modernization within their institution (Kinnock reform). Competing explanatory approaches (opportunity, socialization, and governance views) are used to develop hypotheses about the relationship between Commission officials and their acceptance of or opposition to administrative reform. The main finding is that the individual attitudes of Commission officials toward administrative change can best be explained by the opportunity model, which emphasizes the rational calculation of individual costs and benefits.     

论构筑反腐败的制度平台

中国目前正处于从单一的以政府为中心的治理结构向多中心的、自主的治理结构的转变过程之中。中国目前许多腐败形式的流行,都与转型期治理结构的某些过渡性特征有着密切的关系。推进治理结构的变革,建立政治国家-市场经济-公民社会分工合作的新型治理结构,乃是构筑反腐败制度平台的重要举措。为此要求深化以市场化、民营化、分权化、自治化、网络化为基本面向的反腐败体制改革,同时要求市场经济和公民社会的各类主体共同参与到反腐败过程中来。     

ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: CONCEPTS, ISSUES, AND THE NATIONAL EXPERIENCE

This symposium examines issues related to the links between administrative reform policy and economic development policy. The symposium introduction paper consists of two parts. First, it offers an overview of the background of theoretical and conceptual issues that are important to the connection between administrative reform and economic development. The issues reviewed include the role of government in economic development, the importance of public policy and management to economic development, the contribution of development administration, and the need of administrative reform to remove bureaucratic problems and promote efficiency. Next, the introduction paper provides a brief summary of the research arguments and findings addressed in the following six articles. They include an evaluation of administrative reform in Arab world economic growth, an examination of administrative reform and economic development in Latin America and the Caribbean, a political economy analysis of policy reform in Korea, a study of the implementation of privatization strategies in India's public sector reform, a discussion of the concerns between efficiency and ethics in China's economic development, and the study of administrative and economic development in Mongolia. The implications of the research findings and the need for further study of the linkage between administrative reform and economic development are emphasized in the conclusion.     

政府公共管理新理念及其在社会实践中的运用

随着我国改革开放的深入和社会主义市场经济体制建设的日益完善,传统公共行政的那种僵化的、等级森严的官僚制式的观念正在被新的政府公共管理理念所替代。本文透析了我国政府在进行行政管理改革的进程中所暴露出的一系列有关政府公共管理事务能力、国民素质、非政府组织、政府外交管理事务、政府行政改革滞后于经济改革等方面的问题。最后认为,当前我国应该采纳新的政府公共管理理论,重塑公共政策的价值起点,加快新一轮的政府体制和职能改革,早日使我们的政府变成真正的“统一、高效、公正、廉洁”的政府。     

Public Management Reform: Competing Drivers of Change

Public management reforms often are portrayed as part of a global wave of change, and all organizational change is interpreted within a single reform paradigm that is rooted in economics and market–based principles. Reforms outside this paradigm go unnoticed. This article examines the assertion that different drivers of change competing with the dominant focus of management discourse remain present and influence the direction of reform. It presents three alternative drivers of change rooted in normative values and provides evidence of their relevance from three national cases. Normative influences are reflected in a stream of activities occurring within the same time period in different civil service systems. The direction of public management practice cannot be seen as fully determined by any one approach to government reform or as traveling in only one direction. Understanding the balance among competing drivers of change is a key to interpreting both contemporary and future administrative reform.     

改革开放以来国务院机构历次重大改革比较研究

改革开放以来国务院机构共进行了五次大的改革。除1982年机构改革外，1988年、1993年、1998年机构改革有四个方面的特点：改革的长远目标是明确一致的，即政企分开，转变政府职能，建立有中国特色的行政管理体系；改革重点集中在经济管理部门和专业管理部门；人员分流的趋向、安排思路基本一致；每次改革的具体目标和措施各有所侧重，但改革在逐步深化和完善。受历史条件的制约，这三次机构改革都具有过渡性质，并存在一定的误区。2003年国务院机构改革表现出新的趋向，即加强政府监管力度，凸现政府管理专业化特色；最大限度地完善市场经济体制；努力和国际经济接轨。但此次机构改革的盲点仍然存在。     

Reinventing the Proverbs of Government

The field of public administration has a long history of popular reform movements. Many of these reforms have failed to deliver the improvements promised. The current "reinventing government" reforms, which follow largely from the writings of David Osborne and his coauthors, claim to establish a new governmental paradigm based on liberating employees and citizens to do their best and using new management methods to get the most out of what government does. However, a careful analysis of Osborne's chief works, Reinventing Government and Banishing Bureaucracy, reveals that their advice cannot be applied because it is inconsistent. No new paradigm is established, and, more importantly, because of the ahistorical nature of these texts, Osborne proposes discredited ideas for administrative reform and misleads the reader concerning the significance of his observations.     

新中国70年机关事务治理的制度变迁:一项历史制度主义的考察

机关事务治理制度是国家治理体系的一项重要内容,有机融汇于新中国成立70年来的历史叙事之中。如何理解我国机关事务治理制度的历史变迁,是影响国家治理体系和治理能力现代化的一个重要命题。我国的机关事务治理从以"后勤服务"为主要表现形态的传统机关事务管理向以"运行保障"为主要表现形态的现代机关事务治理转型,经历了雏形渐成、改革发展、深化改革三次重大的制度变迁。基于历史制度主义的分析范式,机关事务治理制度变迁过程中制度背景、政治变量、路径依赖和关键节点的"混合体"模式深刻影响着机关事务治理制度的变迁历程,国家治理范式下的政治、经济、文化、社会因素则是制度变迁的动力所在。展望未来,机关事务治理现代化要正视新时代赋予的新要求,加强制度创新消解路径依赖逆向张力,推进机关事务治理职能法定化,完善多元协同的机关事务治理模式,从而推进新时代机关事务工作高质量发展。     

实现我国经济主动权的必要性与战略布局——关于应对当前国际金融危机的思考

自我国采取市场化道路和对外开放政策以来,总体经济发生了翻天覆地的变化,总量经济规模日益壮大,经济改革取得了世人瞩目的成绩.然而,我国高度的对外开放和对外依存度,也使我国的经济发展陷入某种被动,造成一些宏观调控的被动局面.当前国际金融危机爆发,以及对我国经济造成的严重冲击,使得如何取得经济主动权显得更加突出.分析我国经济被动的一些侧面与表现,认为一个崛起中的经济大国必须争取经济主动必要性诉求,并提出了为取得经济及经济政策主动权的思路和相关战略布局的具体措施.     

The development and reform of court organization and administration

Over the past decade, court reform has become an integral part of the process of economic, political and administrative development. This article will examine the causes and consequences of court reform's new role. After reviewing the key national and international actors and examining the political and economic assumptions used to justify this initiative, the article will then argue that (1) the priority of judicial reform in the development agenda is linked not only to a theory of the role of courts and law in political and economic development, but also to the emergence of the field of judicial administration and court management, beginning in the United States and extending to a number of other countries; (2) the limitations built into the judicial administrative reforms implemented in OECD countries may be accentuated in the developing world; and (3) the very success of judicial administration as a field allows it to be used, in conflict with its fundamental tenets, to advance the political agendas of OECD countries as well as developing and transitional regimes. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Strategic management of privatization: a framework for planning and implementation

The continuing interest of governments around the world in privatizing state-owned enterprises (SOEs) is making privatization policy an important instrument for promoting market-oriented approaches to economic development. Privatization has become an integral part of administrative reform in former centrally planned socialist economies, developing countries, and post-industrial societies. More than a decade of experience with privatization provides lessons that can help governments to plan, implement and manage the process more efficiently, effectively, and responsively. The framework for managing privatization described here draws from lessons of that experience to define the forms, scope and pace of privatization, choose organizational structures for management, identify macropolicy and institutional reforms necessary to facilitate privatization, and develop management procedures for implementing privatization programmes successfully.     

Administrative reform in Belgium: Maintenance or modernisation?

This article aims to analyse, classify and explain similarities and differences in administrative reform in four separate Belgian administrations along four internationally observed trends in administrative reform: organisation, personnel, strategy, and finance. Comparatively, Flanders can be classified as an early moderniser, followed by the federal government, which had been locked longer in a trajectory of maintenance. The French-speaking governments of the Walloon Region and French Community are late modernisers, and compared to both the Flemish and federal government their reform efforts are more fragmented and incremental. The main factors explaining variations in administrative reform in Belgium are differences in institutional continuity, policy entrepreneurship and policy diffusion, all three of which combined to support administrative reform efforts at the Flemish and, slightly less so, at the federal levels, and were markedly absent in the French-speaking governments. Aggregated indicators of differences in political culture do not convincingly explain differences in public sector reform, but the degree of partisan control over the administration, as a meso dimension of politico-administrative culture, impacts on the French-speaking governments' resistance against certain types of organisational and human resources management reforms.     

Reform: the Theme of the Development of Chinese Administrative Science

Administrative science studies have thrived in China, motivated by the new reforms and opening up to the outside world during the last decade. Both professional public servants and academicians are greatly interested in the studies of administrative reforms. In fact, reform has become the theme of the development of administrative science during the last decade and outlines the framework of administrative reform in China. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of Chinese administrative reform through a general introduction and discussion of the main research problems in administrative science.     

Public service reform: A comparative west European perspective

This article compares recent public service reforms in Britain, France and Germany in terms of reform origins, the trade‐off between managerial and administrative values in the overall reform orientation and the balance within managerial reform between public choice and business management strands. An explanation is advanced of variations in national reform profiles which draws on elements of both political economy and historical institutionalist approaches. Particular importance is attributed to the composition of French and German administrative reform policy communities, and to the resilience of collectivist ideals of public service within the respective memberships, as compared with Britain.     

China: Administrative Corruption — Experience in a Comparative Context

As a new world economy emerges what is being learned about the accompanying phenomenon of administrative corruption? To probe this question we combine study of current developments in China with prevailing theories of corruption. The administrative corruption experience, as it has unfolded during the economic development thrust of the Deng reform era, is described and analysed in a comparative context. In specifically interjecting the American experience we suggest that a balanced control response to corruption —rather than an elimination focus—could be a fruitful avenue for policy and research, and that informal, social approaches to corruption control are pregnant with possibilities. China's experience offers a significant opportunity to push the margin of wisdom on these issues as they relate to economic and political development.     

学术界关于深化行政管理体制改革的建议观点综述

本文就1988年以来,行政管理学界关于政府职能转变、机构改革、精减人员、行政管理方式改革、政府人力资源开发等问题提出的新观点,进行了搜集和梳理,以期推动学术界对深化行政管理体制改革的研究.     

改革过程中的行政权力畸变及其校正

行政权力是公共权力,是服务于公共利益的权力。行政改革的目的是要校正行政权力对公共利益的偏离。但是央我国的行政改革过程中,出现了行政行为不规范的问题;提出了行政权力减少数人所窃取并服务于少数人利益的问题,出现了地方极限截留来自上面的分权,并运用这些权力搞地方保护主义和以权谋私,从而破坏了社会主义市场经济健康发展的２,行政权力之所以背离了公共利益,原因是复杂的,其中,旧的利益关系、权力格避的影响和新折