Governance and Public Sector Reform in Asia
Paradigm Shifts or Business as Usual?
Based on new field research, this book assesses the current state of governance and public sector reforms in eleven Asian countries and jurisdictions, especially in the wake of the recent regional financial crisis that seriously affected some of them. It analyses reform efforts comparatively against a backdrop of governance problems and seeks to establish whether these efforts represent a substantive shift in attitudes towards reform or whether they serve simply to reinforce existing practices.
The authors explore a number of important themes that are central to governance and public sector reform issues. These include the role of the state, the success or failure of organizational reforms, corruption, the applicability of the new public management model in the Asian context, and the governance values and reform models promoted by regional and international agencies.
Anthony B. L. Cheung is Professor at the Department of Public and Social Administration at the City University of Hong Kong. He is an associate director of the universitys Centre for Comparative Public Management and Social Policy (now renamed Governance in Asia Research Centre), and has written extensively on the civil service, public sector reforms and politics in Hong Kong and China.
Ian Scott was previously chair of Politics and Government at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia. He is now Emeritus Professor at Murdoch University and also teaches at the University of Hong Kong. He has written widely on Hong Kong politics and government, public sector management and public policy.
Governance and Public
Sector Reform in Asia
Paradigm shifts or business as usual?
Edited by
Anthony B. L. Cheung and
Ian Scott
First published 2003
by RoutledgeCurzon
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by RoutledgeCurzon
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003.
RoutledgeCurzon is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
2003 editorial matter and selection, Anthony B. L. Cheung and Ian Scott; individual chapters, the contributors
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
The publisher makes no representation, express or implied, with regard to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and cannot accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions that may be made.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Governance and public sector reform in Asia : paradigm shifts or business as usual? / edited by Anthony B.L. Cheung and Ian Scott.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Administrative agenciesAsiaManagementCase studies. 2. Organizational changeAsiaCase studies. I. Cheung, Anthony. II. Scott, Ian, 1943
JQ31 .G68 2002
351.5dc21
2002072690
ISBN 0-203-22169-9 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-27623-X (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-7007-1733-1 (Print Edition)
Illustrations
Figures
Tables
Contributors
Mark Beeson is Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the School of Political Science and International Studies, University of Queensland, Australia. He is the author of Competing Capitalisms: Australia, Japan, and Economic Competition in the Asia-Pacific (Macmillan 1999), and co-editor of Politics and Markets in the Wake of the Asian Crisis (Routledge 2000). His latest book is Reconfiguring East Asia: Regional Institutions and Organisations After the Crisis (Curzon Press 2001).
Brian Brewer is an Associate Professor at the Department of Public and Social Administration, City University of Hong Kong. He has an MPA from Queens University, Canada, and a Ph.D. in cross-cultural management from Aston University, UK, and he has worked in Canada in the social services and programme development areas of government. His recent research has focused on effective management practices, human resources management, the impact of public participation on policy development and organisational change in public sector organisations. Related book chapters and articles have been published regionally and internationally.
John P. Burns is Chair Professor of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Hong Kong, where he does research on civil service management, administrative reform, and partystate relations in China, including Hong Kong. He is currently working on a new book, entitled Government Capacity and the Hong Kong Civil Service, which will be published in 2002.
Anthony B. L. Cheung is Professor at the Department of Public and Social Administration and associate director in charge of the comparative public management stream at the Centre for Comparative Public Management and Social Policy, City University of Hong Kong. An ex-civil servant, former legislator and a specialist in civil service studies, he has published three books and over fifty scholarly articles and book chapters on privatisation, the civil service and public sector reforms, as well as government and politics in Hong Kong and China. His latest books are The Civil Service in Hong Kong: Continuity and Change (co-authored, Hong Kong University Press 1998) and Public Sector Reform in Hong Kong: Into the 21st Century (co-edited, Chinese University Press 2001).
Richard Common lectures in management at the University of Hull, UK. He is the author of Public Management and Policy Transfer in Southeast Asia (Ashgate 2001).
Mark Richard Hayllar is an Associate Professor at the Department of Public and Social Administration, City University of Hong Kong. His teaching and research interests include comparative public sector management and governance. He is currently leading a collaborative study into decentralisation reforms in the Philippines. Before joining the City University of Hong Kong, he worked as a Research Fellow in the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK, and has been a consultant to governments in Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Nepal, Indonesia and the Peoples Republic of China. He is an elected member of the Executive Council of the Eastern Regional Organisation for Public Administration and completed his studies at the London School of Economics and Brunel University, UK.
Grace O. M. Lee is an Associate Professor at the Department of Public and Social Administration, City University of Hong Kong. Previously a civil servant, her research interests lie in public management, employment policy and comparative labour markets. Her recent publications include Managing Public Services: Crises and Response From Hong Kong (with Ahmed Shafiqul Huque, Ashgate 2001) and The Civil Service in Hong Kong: Continuity and Change (with Ahmed Shafiqul Huque and Anthony B. L. Cheung, Hong Kong University Press 1998).
Joan Y. H. Leung
