Importing Governance into the Thai Polity: Competing Hybrids and Reform Consequences

The author argues that the import of the idea of “governance” into the Thai polity has resulted in several competing interpretations. The body of knowledge on governance in Thailand is not yet well-developed. Chaos and contradictions are characteristics of the field of study. First, the author explains the six interpretations of governance: the new democracy or democratic governance, good governance, the efficiency perspective, the Ten Guiding Principles for the King, the Thaksin system, and the ethical issue interpretation. Second, the author discusses the four reform consequences arisen from the import of governance: the difficulty in determining which is the correct prototype of governance; the problem from cloning deformed hybrids; the confrontation among competing hybrids; and the appropriate level of analysis for the concept of governance

The Many Faces of Public Management Reform in Asia-Pacific: Moving Ahead Amidst Challenges and Opportunities in Emerging Markets and in Difficult Times

During the past decade, globalization and democratization have been the major forces that helped transform the structures, functions, and processes of Asian public sectors. Nevertheless, these transformation efforts of Asian countries vary considerably depending on local context, and have met with different degrees of success. Some countries experienced smooth transformations. For others, the reform process has been more volatile. These issues were explored at a conference July 7-9, 2008 in Bangkok, Thailand, hosted by the Department of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, and co-sponsored by the International Public Management Network, the Asia-Pacific Governance Institute, and Thailand Democracy Watch. This special issue presents a sample of the work by participating scholars and practitioners..

Managing Reforms: The Politics of Organizing Reform Work

Literature in the field of New Public Administration has focused mainly on individual countries especially the successes and failures of public sector reform efforts. This article introduces a more comparative perspective by looking at the different ways governments are managing public sector reforms without judging the successes and failures. The authors take an inductive approach by first introducing descriptions of reform works in six countries: Thailand, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Malaysia, the United States, and Japan. Then all the cases are synthesized into a framework for comparison. Findings from the study show that there are no distinct patterns. Thus, there is no one golden rule for organizing reform work. Copyright Springer Science + Business Media, Inc. 2005new public management, comparative public administration, bureaucratic reforms, managing reforms,

Bureaucratic Politics and Administrative Reform: Why Politics Matters

Bureaucratic politics, Administrative reform, Politics, Administration,