Governance in South, Southeast, and East Asia: Trends, Issues and Challenges

258 Pages·2015·2.385 MB·English

by  Ishtiaq Jamil, Salahuddin M. Aminuzzaman, Sk. Tawfique M. Haque (eds.)

Public Administration, Governance
and Globalization
Volume 15
Series Editor
Ali Farazmand
Florida Atlantic University
Fort Lauderdale
Florida
USA
The aim of Public Administration, Governance and Globalization (PAGG) is to
publish primary research and theoretical contributions as well as practical reports
on fieldwork to help advance the knowledge and understanding about public, non-
profit, private, and non governmental organizations and institutions. The gover-
nance, administration, and management of these organizations at local, national,
regional, and international levels will be discussed in the context of this age of rapid
change and globalization. This series on public management offers original materi-
als that contribute to our better understanding of the critical issues as well as routine
processes of governance and public administration, now more than ever because of
the intricate forces of globalization that affect almost every nation-states and their
policy choices at all jurisdictions across the world. The series covers a wide range
of topics that address the key issues of interest to scholars, educators, practitioners,
and policymakers in public administration capacities around the globe. Books in the
series could be research monographs, edited volumes, textbooks, reference volumes
or handbooks.
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/8656
Ishtiaq Jamil • Salahuddin M. Aminuzzaman
Sk. Tawfique M. Haque
Editors
Governance in South,
Southeast, and East Asia
Trends, Issues and Challenges
1 3
Editors
Ishtiaq Jamil Sk. Tawfique M. Haque
Department of Administration and Department of Political Science and
Organization Theory Sociology
University of Bergen North South University
Bergen, Norway Dhaka
Bangladesh
Salahuddin M. Aminuzzaman
Department of Public Administration
University of Dhaka
Dhaka
Bangladesh
PPG Program, North South University
Dhaka
Bangladesh
Public Administration, Governance and Globalization
ISBN 978-3-319-15217-2 ISBN 978-3-319-15218-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-15218-9
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Preface
Several chapters in this book were first published in a special issue of the journal
Public Organization Review (POR, December 2013). As well as containing revised
versions of some of these texts, the book contains several new texts. The book
therefore addresses a wide scope of contemporary policy and governance issues in
South, Southeast and East Asia. In the chapters, the issues are addressed from the
angle of specific countries and through comparative studies of several countries
(naturally, not all the Asian countries are discussed). Furthermore, the issues are
researched using several theoretical perspectives and methods. Many of the chap-
ters were presented at the conference “Governance and Public Policy in South and
South East Asia”, which was held in Dhaka, Bangladesh and organized by the Mas-
ter in Public Policy and Governance program at North South University.
Governance is a highly contested concept and the discourse on it encompasses
a wide range of issues. Governance can include top-down administrative practices
prescribed by national authorities or by transnational and multilateral institutions,
but also inclusive practices that allow for greater representativeness and participa-
tion by more than just government actors. Sometimes governance practices involve
central-state steering or the building of state capacity to arrest the hollowing out of
the state; in other contexts the practices may involve decentralizing state power and
setting up partnerships with non-governmental actors.
The regions of South, Southeast, and East Asia provide interesting cases to study
from governance and policy perspectives because of their diverse nature, not only in
terms of size, culture, and geography, but also due to socio-political and economic
developments. Some have been very efficient in using state initiatives, combin-
ing them with market mechanisms to promote rapid economic development. The
Southeast and East Asian nations have been in the forefront of rapid economic de-
velopment, with China following closely on their heels. The South Asian case, how-
ever, presents a puzzle: despite high economic growth, these countries fare poorly
on most governance indicators. They display weak redistribution of wealth and thus
are failing to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor. As a result of weak gov-
ernance, South Asia’s citizens suffer from a lack of security and safety, and human
development has been poor. Generalized trust in society is weak, and citizens’ trust
in some public institutions has been low. This has negatively affected the prospect
v
vi Preface
of inclusive and representative governance. South Asian civil-service organizations
present a case where politicization has caused neutrality, representativeness, and the
quality of government to deteriorate.
The chapters in this volume focus on a number of challenging issues ranging
from the paradox of good governance, trust in public institutions, administrative re-
forms, network governance, women in public administration, and the World Bank’s
worldwide governance indicators and their implications for human development.
The book is a result of scholarly networks that have developed over a number of
years. The networks, which have contributed to building North-South and South-
South collaborations, have spawned numerous research projects, publications, con-
ferences, and seminars. In this regard, there are several institutions and individuals
to whom we owe deep debts of gratitude. We would like to thank the Norwegian
Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) for generously supporting pro-
grams such as the Norwegian Program for Development, Research and Education
(NUFU), Norad’s Program for Master Studies (NOMA) and now the Norwegian
Program for Capacity Development in Higher Education and Research for Devel-
opment (NORHED). This support has been crucial for bringing together scholars
from the North and South, all of whom have contributed to the capacity building
of higher institutions of learning, especially in the areas of teaching, research, and
knowledge dissemination. We would like to thank our colleagues and friends at
University of Bergen in Norway, Tribhuvan University in Nepal, North South Uni-
versity in Bangladesh, and University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka for the coopera-
tion and support that led to building North-South as well as South-South academic
networks. These networks now also extend to Southeast and East Asian regions.
All who are involved in the collegial networks share an interest in governance and
policy issues, both in terms of conducting research as well as sharing findings with
stakeholders.
Special thanks go to Arlyne Moi for her excellent and skillful help in copy edit-
ing, and to Hasan Baniamin and Akram Hossain for editorial assistance. We would
like to thank the publisher and Ali Farazmand of the School of Public Administra-
tion at Florida Atlantic University for encouraging us to expand on the POR special
issue and turn it into a book. Finally, we are deeply grateful to our host institu-
tions – the Department of Administration and Organization Theory at the University
of Bergen in Norway, and the Department of Sociology and Political Science at
North South University in Dhaka, Bangladesh—for providing support and stimulat-
ing research environments over the years.
I. Jamil et al.
Contents
1 Introduction ................................................................................................ 1
Ishtiaq Jamil, Salahuddin M. Aminuzzaman and Sk. Tawfique M. Haque
2 Governance in the Age of Globalization: Challenges
and Opportunities for South and Southeast Asia .................................... 11
Ali Farazmand
3 Theories of Governance: South Asian Perspective ................................. 27
Sk. Tawfique M. Haque
4 Network Governance and Policy Making: Developments
and Directions in Asia ................................................................................ 45
Habib Zafarullah
5 Public Management as a Building Block for Governance:
Drawing on the Experiences of Hong Kong ............................................ 65
Ahmed Shafiqul Huque
6 Globalization, State Formation, and Reinvention in Public
Governance: Exploring the Linkages and Patterns in Southeast Asia .... 83
M. Shamsul Haque
7 T he Relevance of the Concept of Good Governance:
Revisiting Goals, Agendas and Strategies ................................................ 101
Akbar Ali Khan
8 Good Governance and Human Development in Developing
Countries, with Special Reference to South Asia .................................... 117
Haroon Khan
9 Key Issues in Women’s Representation in Bureaucracy:
Lessons from South Asia ........................................................................... 137
Syeda Lasna Kabir
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viii Contents
10 Citizens’ Trust in Public and Political Institutions in
Bangladesh and Nepal ............................................................................. 157
Ishtiaq Jamil and Steinar Askvik
11 C onstructing Co-Governance Between Government and
Civil Society: An Institutional Approach to Collaboration .................. 175
Yutaka Tsujinaka, Shakil Ahmed and Yohei Kobashi
12 The Reform of Public Service Units in China: A
Decentralization Approach ...................................................................... 191
Mei Li
13 Dynamics of Public Policy: Determinants of Policymaking
and Implementation in Bangladesh ........................................................ 211
Salahuddin M. Aminuzzaman
14 T he Purposeful Destruction of State Capacity in Bihar, India ............ 229
Santhosh Mathew and Mick Moore
15 Does Governance Matter in South Asia and Beyond? .......................... 245
Salahuddin M. Aminuzzaman, Ishtiaq Jamil and Sk. Tawfique M. Haque
Contributors
Shakil Ahmed Center for International, Comparative and Advanced Japanese
Studies, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan
Salahuddin M. Aminuzzaman Department of Public Administration, University
of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh
PPG Program, North South University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Steinar Askvik Department of Administration and Organization Theory,
University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
Ali Farazmand School of Public Administration, Florida Atlantic University,
Boca Rato, USA
M. Shamsul Haque Department of Political Science, National University of
Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
Sk. Tawfique M. Haque Department of Political Science and Sociology, North
South University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Ahmed Shafiqul Huque Department of Political Science, McMaster University,
Ontario, Canada
Ishtiaq Jamil Department of Administration and Organization Theory, University
of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
Syeda Lasna Kabir Department of Public Administration, University of Dhaka,
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Akbar Ali Khan BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Haroon Khan Department of Political Science, Henderson State University,
Arkadelphia, USA
Yohei Kobashi Institute for Research in Contemporary Political and Economic
Affairs Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
Mei Li School of Public Administration, Yunnan University, Yunnan, Peopleʹs
Republic of China
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