PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN THE NICs

Also by Ahmed Shafiqul Huque

DEVELOPMENT THROUGH DECENTRALIZATION IN BANGLADESH (co-author)

PARADOXES IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION POLITICS AND ADMINISTRATION IN BANGLADESH

Also by J erma in T. M. Lam

THE DYNAMIC POLITICAL ACTORS IN HONG KONG (co-author) POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT: An Introduction

Also by Jane C. Y. Lee

THE DYNAMIC POLITICAL ACTORS IN HONG KONG (co-author) PUBLIC SECTOR REFORM IN HONG KONG (co-author)

Public Administration in the NICs Challenges and Accomplishments

Edited by

Ahmed Shafiqul Huque Associate Professor, Department of Public and Social Administration City University of Hong Kong

Jermain T. M. Lam Associate Professor, Department of Public and Social Administration City University of Hong Kong

and

Jane C. Y. Lee Chief Excecutive Officer Hong Kong Policy Research Institute

Foreword by Ferrel Heady

First published in Great Britain 1996 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills. Basingstoke. Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-1-349-24875-9 ISBN 978-1-349-24873-5 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-24873-5

First published in the United States of America 1996 by ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC., Scholarly and Reference Division. 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010

ISB:\1 978-0-312-16110-1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Public administration in the NICs : challenges and accomplishments I [edited by] Ahmed Shafiqul Huque, Jane C. Y. Lee, Jermain T. M. Lam. p. em. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-312-16110-1 I. Administrative agencies-Asia-Management-Case studies. 2. Public administration-Asia-Case studies. 3. Asia-Politics and govemment-1945- -Case studies. 4. Asia-Economic conditions-1945- -Case studies. I. Huque, Ahmed Shafiqul. II. Lee, Jane C. Y. III. Lam, Jermain T. M. JQ31.P83 1996 350'.00095--dc20 96-11843

CIP

Selection and editorial matter© Ahmed Shafiqul Huque, Jermain T. M. Lam and Jane C. Y. Lee 1996 Foreword © Ferrel Heady 1996 Chapters 1-6 © Macmillan Press Ltd 1996 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1996 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission.

No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced. copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. 90 Tottenham Court Road, London WI P 9HE.

Any person who does any unauthorised act in relalion to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

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Contents

List of Tables and Figures

Notes on the Contributors

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

Foreword by Ferrel Heady

Administering the Dragons: Challenges and Issues Ahmed Shafiqul Huque

2 Transformation of Public Administration in Hong Kong: Managing an Expanding Economy in the Process of Political Transition

vi

VII

IX

X

xi

Jane C. Y. Lee 33

3 Public Administration in Singapore: Managing Success in a Multi-Racial City-State Jon S. T. Quah 59

4 Korean Public Administration at a Crossroads: Culture, Development and Change Jong S. Jun and Jae Poong Yoon 90

5 Public Administration in Taiwan: Development, Challenges and the Future Jun-shu Chang and Jermain Lam 114

6 Public Administration in the NICs: Accomplishments and Challenges Ahmed Shafiqul Huque and Jermain Lam 142

Bibliography 162

Index 173

v

List of Tables and Figures

Tables 2.1 Typology of agency choices 43 2.2 A spectrum of public service provisions 45 5.1 Profile of the Civil Service 125 5.2 Expenditure of the central government 133

Figures 2.1 Relationship between resourcing, policy and management 41 5.1 Government organization of the ROC 116 5.2 The Executive Yuan Line-up 118

vi

Notes on the Contributors

Jun-Shu Chang is Professor of Public Administration at National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC. He has published several books and articles on public administration, organization and manage­ment, and American municipal government. He has served as Chairman of the Department of Public Administration, Director of the Center for Public and Business Administration Education, and Dean of the College of Social Sciences at Chengchi University. He was the President of the International Federation of Training and Development Organizations (IFTDO) 1992-93, and President of the Chinese Society of Training and Development (CSTD) 1987-93. At present, he is the President of the Chinese Society of Administration, and adviser to the Taiwan Provincial Government.

Ferrel Heady is Professor Emeritus of Public Administration and Political Science at the University of New Mexico. He served as the President of the American Society for Public Administration ( 1969-70) and is a member of the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) and has served in the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA). He has contributed numerous articles on various aspects of public administration and is best known as an authority on comparative public administration. He is now preparing the fifth edition of his textbook Public Administration: A Comparative Perspective.

Ahmed Shafiqul Hoque is Associate Professor and Associate Head of the Department of Public and Social Administration at the City University of Hong Kong. He has authored books and articles on various aspects of public administration, local government and development. He is editor of Hong Kong Public Administration and was a Vice-President of Hong Kong Public Administration Association during 1994-95.

Jong S. Jun is Professor of Public Administration at California State University, Hayward. He has published several books and numerous art­icles on public administration, organization theory, public policy and com­parative administration. In 1992, he was a visiting professor at Hosei University in Tokyo. He is an associate member of the Federal System Panel of the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) in the United States, and an elected member of the Managing Board of the

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viii Notes on the Contributors

International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration (IASIA) and the Executive Council of the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA). He has served as an edi­torial board member for several professional journals and is co-editor of Administrative Theory and Praxis.

Jermain T. M. Lam is Associate Professor of Public and Social Administration at the City University of Hong Kong. He is the author of Politics and Government: An Introduction and co-author of The Dynamic Political Actors in Hong Kong's Transition. He has contributed articles on the government and politics of Hong Kong in various international journals and is an Associate Editor of Hong Kong Public Administration.

Jane C. Y. Lee has taught at the City University of Hong Kong and was associated with the Central Policy Unit of the Hong Kong government. She is the co-author of The Dynamic Political Actors in Hong Kong's Transition and co-editor of Public Sector Reform in Hong Kong. She is now the Chief Executive Officer of the Hong Kong Policy Research Institute.

Jon S. T. Quah is Associate Professor and Head, Department of Political Science, and Coordinator, European Studies Programme, National University of Singapore. He has published extensively on administrative reform strategies, human resource development, anti-corruption measures, crime prevention, and government and politics in Singapore.

Jae-Poong Yoon is Professor of Public Administration at Seoul City University. He was Visiting Professor at California State University, Hayward and University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of several books and numerous articles on Korean public administration and organization theory. He is a former President of the Korean Association for Public Administration (1992-93).

Acknowledgements

The editors would like to thank the following individuals for their encour­agement and assistance in the preparation of this book: H. K. Wong, Julia Tao, Khaleda Yasmin, Wanica Lau and Chi Lan.

ix

List of Abbreviations ACB APCC APEC A SEAN BARS BMA CID CITIC CPIB DPP EDB EPB ESC Ex Co GDP GLCs GNP HDB ICAC KMT LegCo MBO MSD NICs PAB PAP PCDSC PMSC POCA POCO PRC PSC PSD RTHK SCR scs SIU SPR

Anti-Corruption Branch Asian-Pacific Cultural Centre Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Association of Southeast Asian Nations Behaviourally Anchored Rating Scales British Military Administration Criminal Investigation Department China International Trust and Investment Corporation Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau Democratic Progressive Party Economic Development Board Economic Planning Board Education Service Commission Executive Council Gross Domestic Product Government-linked companies Gross National Product Housing and Development Board Independent Commission Against Corruption Kuomintang Legislative Council Management by Objective Management Services Department Newly Industrializing Countries Personnel Admission Branch People's Action Party Police and Civil Defence Services Commission Personnel Management Steering Committee Prevention of Corruption Act Prevention of Corruption Ordinance People's Republic of China Public Service Commission Public Service Division Radio Television Hong Kong Staff Confidential Report Singapore Civil Service Service Improvement Unit Staff Performance Report

X

Foreword

Considering their relatively small areas, limited natural resources, mid­dling populations, diverse locations and modest presence on the world scene until recently, four political entities along the western rim of the Pacific have received an impressive amount of attention during the last couple of decades. Often called Asia's 'Little Tigers' or 'Little Dragons', but labelled more descriptively as Newly Industrializing Countries or NICs, these polities (listed in alphabetical order) are Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan.

What they have in common, of course, is a record of rapid and largely unanticipated economic progress as indicated by such measures as gross national product, per capita income, average growth rate, share of world income and share of world trade.

As a group, they have quadrupled their shares of world production and trade during the past 25 years, considerably outpacing Japan, generally regarded as the bell-wether among Asian countries.

Analysts have concentrated on explanation of this economic miracle, and reconciliation of the contrast between the economic performance of these NICs and that of most of the other developing countries of the world. This has proved to be difficult, partly because of what these NICs share, but even more because of how they differ. They are alike in the unimpressive original assets that they brought to the task of economic improvement, par­ticularly with regard to natural resources and scale of operations predicated on the basis of geographic size and population totals. Their location in the same part of the world, in an arc around the western Pacific basin, accounts for the fact that the inhabitants of all these countries are predominantly Oriental, with Chinese majorities except in South Korea, and that Confucianism is the most commonly shared traditional cultural pattern. The political past of this part of the globe also has imposed a current threat to continuing political stability in each of these countries, although the nature of the threat varies. For Taiwan and Hong Kong, the problem is working out harmonious relations with mainland China, with Taiwan acknowledg­ing its historic affiliation with China despite the estrangement since 1949, and with Hong Kong confronting the uncertainties of its already agreed­upon transfer from British to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. Singapore faces the dual challenges of either preserving or modifying its special brand of semi-authoritarian government and of keeping on good terms with its larger neighbours. South Korea not only must deal as in the past with its former

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Japanese and Chinese conquerors but continues to confront North Korea, its belligerent co-occupant of the Korean peninsula.

The differences are sufficient to complicate considerably attempts to answer the question as to why these four NICs have shared such economic success. Hong Kong and Singapore are essentially city-states that have developed around excellent harbours and have reached extremely high population densities as they have grown. South Korea and Taiwan, one occupying the southern part of the Korean peninsula, and the other an island off the Chinese coast, are sizeable land masses with significant agri­cultural and mineral resources capable of supporting their considerable but less dense populations.

Although all four emerged as political entities in their present form fol­lowing the Second World War, the political situation during the last half­century has also varied in each case. After the Japanese were defeated, Hong Kong was reinstated as a British crown colony governed through a highly centralized administration, and it now faces absorption by the People's Republic of China, without ever having attained national sover­eignty. After being granted independence from Great Britain in 1959, Singapore was briefly during the 1960s part of a federation with Malaysia, before becoming an independent country in 1965, and has since then been tightly and sternly governed under the leadership of Lee Kuan Yew. Taiwan, as the Republic of China, became the retreat bastion of the nation­alist government of Chiang Kai-shek after the Chinese Communists took control of the mainland, with a government (gradually being run more by Taiwanese than by mainlanders) that has undertaken extensive land reform measures and has step-by-step liberalized political participation over the years. After partition of the Korean peninsula between the United States and the Soviet Union at the end of the Second World War, the Republic of Korea was established in the US southern zone, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the north. Following the invasion by North Korea in 1950 and the ensuing conflict ending in 1953, the current bcund­ary was established between the two countries, with South Korea highly dependent on American economic and military aid. Under military rule from the early 1960s until recently, South Korea has gradually opened up channels permitting more democratization and has now clearly moved away from leadership by military professionals.

Economic and trade policies of these diversified political regimes have also differed, despite the overall successful outcome in all instances. Hong Kong has adopted a laissez-faire approach, with little governmental inter­vention in economic affairs, few business regulations, minimal restrictions on trade and low taxes. The primary governmental role has been to

Foreword xiii

provide the infrastructure for growth. With the resumption of Chinese sov­ereignty imminent, future policy directions are of course uncertain, to say the least. Singapore also has generally pursued a free trade policy, encour­aging investments in the economy by foreign firms, particularly multi­national corporations, while adopting domestic labour measures designed to attract such investments. Encouragement of high-technology industries has been a recent priority, financed in large part by publicly generated savings channelled into such developments. Economic strategy in Taiwan has involved much more government intervention, with frequent shifts in policy objectives, but a gradual tendency toward liberalization of restric­tions on foreign participation. In South Korea, the years of military rule saw a strong commitment toward state involvement in the process of industrialization, with the government setting economic development goals and then striving to assist private firms in meeting them. The most dramatic shift has been from agricultural to manufacturing production. Foreign investment has been of lesser importance than in other cases, although US economic aid has been a major external contributing factor.

Comparative study of these Asian NICs has concentrated on their eco­nomic records, and how to explain the contrast between what they have accomplished and the much less impressive results elsewhere, even in instances (such as Argentina, for example) where earlier prognostications were much more optimistic. Dependency theorists examining the obstacles preventing or slowing national economic development have had a particu­larly difficult time wrestling with this deviation from outcomes anticipated by their hypotheses, without reaching a consensus as to how it should be accounted for.

The search for answers has naturally led to exploration of some primar­ily non-economic factors that might be relevant. For example, Latin American cultural patterns have been suggested as impeding economic development in the region, whereas the prevailing Confucian work ethic has been advanced as contributing to relatively greater economic success in numerous East Asian countries, including Japan and the NICs. Nco­institutionalists have focused on variations in the role of the state, with some arguing that an expanded range of state action has had positive con­sequences for national economic development, especially in dependent capitalist countries. A neglected factor up to now has been systematic analysis of the possible connections between national systems of linked political and administrative arrangements and success or failure in achiev­ing national developmental objectives.

This book is the product of a cooperative effort along these lines, con­centrating on the four 'Little Dragon' East Asian NICs, and undertaken by

xiv Foreword

a group of well-informed scholars, aJI of whom have their academic roots in the region.

This project does not have to start from scratch. In all of these· NICs, as well as in numerous other neighbouring countries, there have been previ­ous studies, often by nationals of the countries concerned, examining and reporting on their public administration systems as they have inevitably operated in the context of their respective political environments. What has been Jacking or has received only incidental attention in these earlier studies is the common theme here - the interrelationships between institu­tions and practices in public administration and the economic performance of the countries surveyed.

Professor Ahmed Shafiqul Huque and two coJleagues at City University of Hong Kong - Jane C. Y. Lee and Jermain T. M. Lam - have planned, contributed to and edited this volume. They have recruited a team of con­tributors familiar with each of the four NICs, and have organized their product to include an introductory chapter on challenges and issues, individ­ual chapters on each country and a concluding chapter on accomplishments.

I am confident that this addition to our store of knowledge about com­parative public administration will be welcomed as timely and relevant, not just for a better understanding of what has happened and what is in prospect in these four NICs, but for the global implications that emerge from these case studies, and that it wiii provide a firm foundation for future research on the linkages between public administration and national development.

FERREL HEADY