Asian Journal of Public Affairs, Volume 1, Issue 1, Summer 2007
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Table of Contents
Notes from the Editors' Desk
Dear Reader,
The Asian Journal of Public Affairs was founded to alleviate the perceived absence of publishing outlets for graduate students of Asian-Pacific policy. Submissions from four continents and fourteen countries verified both this belief and another: that Asian public policy is of global concern and not restricted only to Asian classrooms or ministries. Likewise, AJPA’s editorial board spans the continents, but its members still find common ground, as public policy students in Singapore and as future leaders and decision-makers in the eight countries we represent.
Our inaugural issue opens with a commentary by Kishore Mahbubani, Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, on the benefits of studying and observing Singapore's policies firsthand. While Singaporean policy-making which is known for its innovations and effectiveness, consistently attracts worldwide interest, best practices still travel both ways. This is illustrated in an essay on the problems faced by Singaporean single-parent families in accessing social security, which advocates identifying policy successes and failures elsewhere: a useful practice in any domestic policy-making process.
Drawing upon others’ experiences and resources is a motif throughout this issue. As felt in February’s brief but worrisome plummeting of global stock exchanges and the chronic, trans-boundary threats of climate change, the inter-connectedness of nations is indisputable and should prompt greater dialogue on how states might better assist one other. Such was Norway’s intention in attempting to broker peace in Sri Lanka. A similar effort lay in Australia ’s humanitarian aid to quell rising violence in Timor-Leste.
And yet, success is never guaranteed: sometimes efforts fail, or even backfire, stressing the variance between expected and actual outcomes. Here, a timely review of William Easterly's White Man's Burden critiques the author’s indictment of international aid. Easterly‘s own career spanned many years with the World Bank, a body that has recently spurred renewed calls for institutional reform. In the development field, the more vociferous debate still remains between supporters of top-down policies and advocates for a grassroots approach.
Effective top-down strategies require accurate macroeconomic data, which is often unavailable or unreliable. An analysis of the theory and practice of international data revisions. While allowing that data can never be perfectly accurate, identifies pitfalls of policies based on faulty data. But despite uncertainties, policies have to be made and policymakers must work with what is available Thus, an article on enterprise licensing and bureaucratic bribery in China considers the tragedy of the anti-commons. It offers suggestions to improve the process of administering enterprise licenses, given the incomplete information available to bureaucrats in reviewing license requests.
AJPA ’s mandate is to serve as a clearinghouse for the diversity of policy issues that students worldwide grapple with, but the Journal is also a vehicle for the primary research of students at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. This issue’s research abstract highlights the application of a public sector assessment model in the evaluation of an organisation’s objectives and output as undertaken in an Asian ministry.
We hope you will find these contributions both informative and useful. We would like to thank all those whose effort and guidance were invaluable in helping launch this inaugural issue: Dean Kishore Mahbubani, our faculty advisors, Prof. Mukul Asher and Assoc. Prof. Darryl Jarvis, Ruth Choe and her constant support, Stavros Yiannouka, the LKY SPP web team, Jiao Xi and Wang Xiao, and all those who contributed either wisdom or inspiring words. And to Maciej Drozd, simply, Kochający.
Warm Regards,
The AJPA Editorial Team
June 2007
Editorial Board
Kishore Mahbubani
ARTICLE
Giacomo Santangelo
David Chick
Madhawa Palihapitiya
Wee Ming Ting
Ying Qianwei and Zhang Guangnan
POLICY ANALYSIS EXERCISE ABSTRACT
Ashish Varma, Garima Singh, Jeetendra Patil, & Mini S Verma
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BOOK REVIEW
Thomas Jandl
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