Public policy in asia

Public Policy in Asia Public Policy in Asia Implications for Business and Government Edited by Mukul G Asher, David Newman, and Thomas P Snyder QUORUM BOOKS Westport, Connecticut • London Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Public policy in Asia : implications for business and government / edited by Mukul G Asher, David Newman, Thomas P Snyder p cm Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 1–56720–432–5 (alk paper) Asia—Economic policy Policy sciences—Asia I Asher, Mukul G II Newman, David, 1956 HC412.P83 2002 338.95—dc21 2001016129 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available Copyright ᭧ 2002 by Mukul G Asher, David Newman, and Thomas P Snyder All rights reserved No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2001016129 ISBN: 1–56720–432–5 First published in 2002 Quorum Books, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc www.quorumbooks.com Printed in the United States of America TM The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984) 10 To Radha, Andrew, Benjamin, Trisha, and Janet Contents Preface Introduction: The Challenge of Policy Studies in Asia Thomas P Snyder, David Newman, and Mukul G Asher I Growth, Income Security, and Fiscal Reform ix Economic Growth and Income Inequality: The Malaysian Experience Donald R Snodgrass 11 Economic Growth and Income Inequality: The Korean and Thai Experiences Nanak Kakwani and Hyun H Son 33 Aging Populations and Income Security: The Challenges in East Asia Robert L Clark 61 Aging Populations and Income Security: A Framework for Analysis and Action G Shantakumar 81 Globalization and Fiscal Policy: Rationale for Reform in Southeast Asia Mukul G Asher 93 Globalization and Fiscal Policy: Tax Reform in Japan Hiromitsu Ishi 121 viii Contents II Governance and Management Reform 143 Globalization and Economic Management Anwar Shah 145 Learning and Innovation in Public Institutions: Lessons from Singapore Tan Tay Keong and Khoo Boon Hui 175 10 Good Governance: The Role of the United Nations Gambhir Bhatta 193 11 Good Governance: The Role of Legal Institutions Annie de Roo and Robert Jagtenberg 217 III Technology, Innovation, and the Role of Government 239 12 Science, Technology, and Innovation: Issues and Rationales Mark Dodgson 241 13 National Technology Policy: The Singapore Experience Koh Ai Tee and Koh How Eng 265 14 National Technology Policy: The Korean Experience Linsu Kim 283 IV Environmental Policy and Management 295 15 Integrated Environmental Assessment Colin Kirkpatrick 297 16 Environmental Valuation Jack L Knetsch 311 Index 331 About the Contributors 337 Preface Public policy and policy studies is a growth industry around the world, and Asia is no exception While the economic boom of the 1990s suggested to some that Asia was somehow removed from any economic budget constraint, post-crisis Asia has awakened to a new set of realities: political choice involves trade-offs between alternatives; individuals within particular countries have different propensities to trade off among alternatives, engendering decisions with a political element; an increasingly politicized environment raises questions of legitimacy with respect to process; and a new economic reality of limited budgets constrains government efforts to sweeten difficult decisions These environmental changes have attracted the attention of policy analysts from both within and outside the region internationalizing the field of policy studies Globalization, the growth of international institutions and transnational actors, and, particularly for those of us in Asia, the Asian economic crisis have internationalized policy studies and put policy studies on the map in Asia in the past decade In the United States in recent years, public policy programs have embarked on a new round of expansion in international and comparative policy studies While the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) editorial board is still drawn exclusively from the United States, it does have at least two international institutional members (the National University of Singapore and Keio University in Japan), and non-APPAM member schools have been created in Korea (as an offshoot of the Korean Development Institute), in Argentina (Universidad Torcuato di Tella), and in England (University College London School of Public Policy) The trend in the future will be to look cross-nationally at best policy practices and examine which are importable to one’s own circumstances However, the art of lesson drawing is not easy, and neither is implementation of strategies, however appropriate Indige- x Preface nous research capability, policy entrepreneurship, and sustained effort remain indispensable for successful lesson drawing Our goal in this volume, in part, is to bring established international and regional experts together to examine several of the most pressing concerns facing Asia In doing so, we have incurred a series of debts to numerous individuals and institutions We would like to thank Singapore Pools, the Lien Foundation, the Lee Foundation, and the International Development Research Centre for financial support related to this project We would like to express our appreciation to the National University of Singapore’s Public Policy Programme and its director, Ong Jin Hui, for providing an intellectually stimulating environment, which has made projects such as this possible In Singapore we would like to thank Agnes Tan and Deborah Chew for their administrative assistance with the details associated with this effort The contributors to this volume truly deserve the credit for it They labored under artificially tight deadlines and our requests for clarification and in some instances elucidation, especially when their knowledge exceeded our understanding We thank them for their contribution and understanding It was a pleasure to work with each and every one of them We gratefully thank Usha Sritharan and Brenda Nicole Lim Mei Lin for their assistance in preparing the manuscript The two of them responded with good spirit to having three bosses insisting on incompatible changes Juliana Bte Ali and Josephine Chiu also deserve our appreciation for liberating Usha’s time As always, we remain responsible for any errors Chapter Introduction: The Challenge of Policy Studies in Asia Thomas P Snyder, David Newman, and Mukul G Asher Much of East Asia and Southeast Asia has seen dramatic changes over the past two decades These changes provide an excellent laboratory for exploring and examining our understanding of social, economic, and political institutions and theories The region also provides an excellent opportunity to apply theories and concepts to improve policy decisions and the lives of the people It is the objective of this book to aid in these endeavors EAST ASIA AND SOUTHEAST ASIA—DIVERSITY AND CHANGE Over the past two decades many countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia have experienced rapid growth At the same time growth seems to have passed over other countries where citizens barely eke out a daily existence At one end of the spectrum is Japan, which modernized rapidly after World War II, and by any standards is a fully developed country Then there are the Asian Tigers— Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore—which grew rapidly in the 1980s and 1990s and are on the verge of or have achieved developed status Then there are Malaysia and Thailand, and to a lesser degree China, Indonesia, and the Philippines, which have begun to develop but still have a long way to go; and at the bottom of the development ladder are Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam, which are essentially undeveloped countries Just as the level of development varies widely in East Asia and Southeast Asia, so development policies and practices Some countries have relied largely on internal savings and investment, such as Japan and Korea, while other countries have relied heavily on foreign investment, such as Singapore In some countries development has focused on trade, while in others it has focused on Public Policy in Asia increased internal demand The countries have also varied widely in their policies toward education and the adoption and diffusion of new technology No clear-cut development model has emerged that meets the needs of all the countries in the region Diversity in the region also extends beyond growth, development, and economics The size of the countries ranges from two of the largest countries in the world, China and Indonesia, with over billion and 200 million people, respectively, to Singapore, a city-state with only million people The region has some of the most densely populated areas of the world in Java, Japan, and coastal China, and some of the most sparsely populated areas in Borneo, Laos, and Western China The countries of the region also vary greatly along ethnic lines China and Japan are relatively homogeneous, while Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore are ethnically diverse Politically the countries run the spectrum from open democracies in countries such as the Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand to authoritarian states in countries such as China, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam THE EMERGENCE OF POLICY ANALYSIS IN ASIA With the growth in East Asia and Southeast Asia over the past two decades and the diversity of political, social, cultural, and economic institutions, the region is an ideal place for policy analysts and social scientists to examine and verify, as well as to apply, the theories and principles that underlie contemporary policy analysis The region is thus a natural place to examine the determinants of growth—why growth occurs and why certain policies work in one area and not in others The region is also a natural place to look at the consequences of growth—who benefits from growth and who gets left behind, and what can be done to improve the fate of those who get left behind Much of social science theory has evolved in the West, and there are questions about the universality and cultural/contextual relevancy of the theory in the rest of the world The issues of verification and applicability are just starting to emerge in both the traditional academic disciplines, such as economics and political science, and in policy analysis circles Much of the research on Asia prior to this decade focused on comparative studies and area/regional studies Usually these fields have had weak links to traditional academic disciplines in the social sciences and have often focused on descriptive and cultural analysis In recent years the lines between comparative analysis and traditional academic disciplines have begun to merge Comparative analysis is becoming more formal and dependent on the theories and foundations of the traditional academic disciplines, and the academic disciplines are becoming more cognizant of Asia and the rest of the world in developing the theories and principles that underlie their fields The primary objective of this book is to improve policy analysis in Asia by bridging the gap between theory and practice In some of the chapters, the focus is on the application of theory to problems in the regions Chapter on aging ... with Asia always lagging behind In Chapter 13 Koh Ai Tee and Koh How Eng examine technology policy in Singapore, and in Chapter 14 Linsu Kim looks at technology policy in Korea Singapore is an interesting... drawing Our goal in this volume, in part, is to bring established international and regional experts together to examine several of the most pressing concerns facing Asia In doing so, we have incurred... put policy studies on the map in Asia in the past decade In the United States in recent years, public policy programs have embarked on a new round of expansion in international and comparative policy