Public Administration in East Asia

Written by leading experts, Public Administration in East Asia: Mainland China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan examines the inner workings of governments in East Asia, in particular its public administration and related public policy processes. It focuses on the apparatus of government — the agencies, their values, context, and policies within which they operate. Organized in parallel sections, the book covers the history, public policy processes, organization, HRM, ethics, corruption, intergovernmental relations, performance management, and e-government. It discusses each of these topics separately for Mainland China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, providing an unusual and important comparative perspective. The book includes essential knowledge and facts, discussions of emerging issues, and useful resources for further reading. It addresses questions such as:

• What is the history of public administration in East Asia?
• How are decisions made?
• What is the role of Confucianism in shaping public administration?
• How does the developmental path affect public administration?
• Why is performance management emphasized?
• What is the state of citizen participation?
• How are ethical underpinnings of the civil service different from the West?
• Why are intergovernmental relations an essential issue in East Asia?
• What are the politics behind world-class achievements in IT?
• What is the nature of civil service reform?
• What is the nature of efforts to combat government corruption?

You can find many books on trade policy and politics that sometimes give good insight into the operation of government agencies. You can also find a few edited books that contain single chapters on countries in the Asia-Pacific region. What is missing, however, is a single resource that provides an overview with depth on matters solely about public administration. This state-of-the-art resource brings together the fragments of existing knowledge on East Asian economies, filling the need for a comprehensive compendium that showcases the public administration practices in the region and East Asia’s innovative approaches to governance and its many challenges.