JAPANESE BUREAUCRATS AND POLICY IMPLEMENTATION: LESSONS FOR AMERICA? |
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| Authors: | Dan A. Cothran |
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| Affiliation: | DAN A. COTHRAN is Associate Professor of political science at Northern Arizona University. His research interests revolve around political development and governmental capacity. He has published articles on budgeting in Western Political Quarterly, Public Budgeting and Finance, State and Local Government Review, Mexican Studies;, and other journals. His current currently doing research on the political development of Mexico and Argentina, arid is beginning a major research effort on the question of what the United States can learn from other countries. |
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| Abstract: | In recent years, American business has attempted to learn the secrets of Japanese business success. This paper asks whether it would be equally useful to examine Japanese public administration to determine why the Japanese government seems to be so much more successful than American government in implementing public policies. It is widely agreed that policy implementation in the United States involves considerable "slippage" between policy intent and achievement. By contrast, scholars agree that Japanese public policy is usually implemented effectively and efficiently. This paper argues that the Japanese case has three important implications for the United States: effective policy implementation is possible, better implementation would result from allowing civil servants to participate more fully in policy formulation, and the development of an elite corps of top civil servants could make a major contribution to better policymaking and implementation. |
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