Hasil untuk "Political institutions and public administration - Asia (Asian studies only)"

Fumiaki Inagaki

This special issue examines how the regional order in Central Asia is being reshaped amid major geopolitical transformations, particularly following the Russia – Ukraine war. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the region has faced persistent instability rooted in Soviet legacies, uneven resource distribution, and increasing external engagement by major powers. The war has intensified geopolitical competition and reshaped debates over regional order and the role of external actors. This volume brings nine articles that analyze these dynamics through three analytical layers. The first layer focuses on intra-regional relations among the five Central Asian states, including economic and logistical linkages as well as environmental challenges such as climate change and water resources. The second layer examines interactions with neighboring powers, especially China and Russia, highlighting economic integration, security cooperation, and digital governance. The third layer addresses broader geopolitical relations, particularly the evolving Sino-Russian partnership. These studies demonstrate that Central Asia cannot be understood solely as a site of great-power competition. Regional transformations predate the Russia – Ukraine war, while developments such as the Taliban’s return to power remain equally significant. Overall, Central Asia emerges as a complex and dynamic space shaped by global pressures and overlapping forms of cooperation.

Seungwoo Han

Abstract Mass education is commonly viewed as a foundation for democratic development, assumed to cultivate democratic values. However, the political trajectories of many Asian countries challenge this premise. This study reassesses the relationship between mass education and democratic development using panel data and applies both linear interaction models and difference-in-differences designs. While findings show a positive association between education and democratic development in Europe, the relationship is absent in much of Asia. These results suggest that education’s political effects are not inherently democratizing but depend on its institutional and historical context. In particular, where education expanded under centralized, non-democratic regimes, it often reinforced authority rather than enabled democratic engagement. The absence of sequencing between state-building and democratic reform emerges as a critical factor limiting democratic consolidation. This study highlights the need to move beyond universalist assumptions and instead examine how education interacts with regime type and institutional development across different regions.

Arya Ananta Pramudya, Hendri Koeswara, Desna Aromatica

The Kepenuhan Hulu Village Government has successfully encouraged the community to participate actively in deliberation forums to convey information about accountability and receive feedback from the community. This indicates the existence of social accountability practices in financial management in Kepenuhan Hulu Village. This study examines how social accountability in village financial management is implemented using the Social Accountability theory of Grandvoinnet et al. The results show that social accountability in financial management in Kepenuhan Hulu Village is built through active community involvement and the village government's commitment to creating transparent and participatory governance. Social accountability is manifested in deliberation forums such as hamlet deliberations, village deliberations, and village development planning deliberations. These forums have become a space for the community to express aspirations and determine the direction of village development. The findings of this social accountability study have implications for strengthening accountability in village financial management by optimizing the deliberation mechanism regulated by the regulation to be more inclusive and based on real community needs. With a clear commitment from the village government to meeting community demands and needs, this social accountability approach can serve as a reference for strengthening more transparent village financial management.

Katja Levy

This article contributes to the emerging field of research on collaborative governance in crises. It asks how social organisations see their contribution of skills and expertise to tackling a wicked problem such as the Covid-19 pandemic. For this purpose, I interviewed representatives of ethnic Chinese organisations about their work and relationships with the local government in Manchester in 2020 and 2021. Ethnic Chinese organisations are an interesting group because they had early access to knowledge about the spread of the virus and its harmfulness. Collaboration with them could potentially have helped to contain the pandemic in the ethnic Chinese community in the city and beyond. Based on semi-structured interviews with representatives of ethnic Chinese organisations and applying the combined theoretical frameworks of social capital and collaborative governance theories, the study identifies five organisational types in terms of their involvement in collaborative governance efforts.

Chaereyranba Sholeh, Firman Firman, Jalaluddin Abdul Malek et al.

Talent Management is a crucial element for public organizations, which includes absorbing, identifying, and retaining civil servants who have outstanding talents in each organization and make a significant contribution to the progress of public organizations to create excellent public services. A talent management model in the public sector, especially at the local government level, is needed because approximately 80% of civil servants are placed in the regions, and the dynamics of the bureaucratic environment are more dynamic and complex. The Riau Archipelago Province is one of the areas that has implemented a merit system, but the career pattern could have gone better. This study aims to analyze strategies for implementing Talent Management to accelerate bureaucratic reform and manage the capacity of civil servants in the Provincial Government of the Riau Archipelago. This research method uses a qualitative exploratory case study methodology. The results of this study show that the Riau Islands Provincial Government has not implemented Talent Management for civil servants by the mandate of the PAN RB Ministerial Regulation Number 3 of 2020, which is currently in the preparation stage of regulations in the form of a Governor's Regulation concerning the Management of Civil Servants Talents in the Islands Provincial Government Riau. Therefore, aspects of career development in the merit system must be a significant concern so that the Riau Islands Provincial Government can meet the desired targets.

Elena K. Skribnik

Goals. This paper discusses strategies of expressing Stimuli in Buryat emotive causative constructions. Results. We argue that a series of such constructions can be seen as a system that allows the speaker to put different components of the Stimulus event into the focus of attention, depending on their informational relevance to the speaker. The component in focus of attention is represented as a main clause subject; it can be the Stimulus event as a whole (expressed by a subject clause or an action noun) or its first argument (an Agent, understood as a Causer); with a Causer as a subject, the central inanimate argument can be additionally expressed as an Instrument or the action itself as a Means (in both cases the instrumental case is used). The focus of attention on further arguments is not registered. As the study has shown, relevant for the analysis is the structure of a potential full clause describing the Stimulus and characteristics of its components: an animate or inanimate noun as a subject, a verbal or nominal predicate, a transitive or intransitive verb. Materials. The research is based on the language data from dictionaries and Buryat literary texts, including those published in the Buryat National Corpus, as well as on elicitation data. In the analysis we used descriptive, comparative and transformational methods, introspection and elicitation.

Cut Zamharira, Muqni Affan Abdullah

This article aims to explain what efforts have been made by the Aceh Health Service to build public confidence in the importance of injecting the COVID-19 vaccination. The low coverage of the COVID-19 vaccination in Aceh as of 18 September 2021, which was only 11.74%, made Aceh one of the 3 regions with the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rate in Indonesia, until the end of November 2021. Many people refused to get vaccinated because the background of mistrust was the reason for the low coverage of the COVID-19 vaccination in Aceh at that time. However, since the end of December 2021, the coverage of Covid-19 vaccinations in Aceh has begun to increase, so that in February 2022 Aceh is ranked 18th nationally. This study uses a descriptive qualitative approach through interviews, observation, and documentation techniques. The results of the study show that public trust sought by the Aceh Health Service, Banda Aceh City Health Office, and Sabang City increases when people benefit from programs carried out by the government as explained by J. M. Lewis in Mohammad Thahir (2020), If the community benefits from programs carried out by the government, then public trust will increase.

Sumie Yoshikawa

This paper examines how China has conducted its diplomacy with Myanmar through the efforts of the Chinese central government and the local government of Yunnan Province, which borders Myanmar. China has defined Myanmar as a country of strategic importance in the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and is deepening its economic cooperation with Myanmar. China’s most important project in Myanmar is the oil and gas pipelines from ports in Myanmar to Yunnan Province. The construction of the energy pipelines was drafted and proposed by Yunnan Province and was submitted to the State Council. Due to the strong support of the state-owned enterprise, the proposal was adopted as a national project within two years since its proposal. In addition, Yunnan continued to propose to the central government for the construction of a Border Economic Cooperation Zone. The government of Dehong State in Yunnan proposed the plan to the Yunnan local government. Then, Yunnan continuously proposed it to the State Council. Yunnan could not get the strong support of Chinese major state-owned enterprises and the Myanmar government. It took nearly two decades for the proposal to be approved as one of the national projects by Beijing. In China, local governments can be involved in foreign economic relations within their capacity and responsibility for local socio-economic development. In the context of Beijing’s emphasis on strengthening relations with Southeast Asian countries, there are fair chances that Chinese local government proposals will be directly incorporated into the central government’s strategy.

Muhammad Bibin

Damage to coral reefs in the waters of Palopo City poses danger to the productivity of the habitat. Therefore, carrying out the adopting the principles of a conservation in the use and  management of coral reefs in Palopo City area waters through an integrated system and participation of  multi-stakeholders is considered imperative. The study analyzed the level and causes of damage coral reefs, assessed the role of stakeholders in managing coral reef ecosystems, and formulated a strategic model for managing coral reef ecosystems in Palopo City waters. Methods of data analysis included assessment of coral reef condition, stakeholder analysis, and hierarchical analysis. Result showed that fishing activity using environmentally unfriendly gear such as fish bombs and potassium is one of the principal causes of damage to coral reefs in the waters of Palopo City. Most damage occured to coral reefs at a depth of 4 meters at station 1, which registered a the percentage of the mortality index of 82.07%. Meanwhile, the least damage was 69.73%. At the depth of 4 meters station two is Result of stakeholder mapping identified three groups inter alia, contest setters, key players, and subject. The first priority strategy in the management of coral reef ecosystems in the waters of Palopo City should be designate the  zoning of coastal areas, coordination among stakeholders that are relevant and important with respect to coral reef ecosystems power relations, drafting local regulations that mandate sustainable use and management of coral reef ecosystems and increasing training programs for fishing communities.

Barbara Schulte, Marina Svensson

This special issue approaches information and communication technologies (ICT) visions and their realisation/implementation at various levels, among different actors and from various perspectives. Conceptually, we distinguish three different dimensions, even though those overlap in the individual contributions as well as in empirical reality – namely ideational, instrumental, and relational. The different contributions address both visions formulated by the Chinese state and by individual actors such as entrepreneurs. Even though the conditions for the use of ICT in China are deeply affected by state governance, this governance is in no way tantamount to one single government. As this issue’s contributions show, state attempts at building a stable cyber-governance are in need of allies and, depending on the allies’ visions and other, competitive visions, the outcomes of these dynamics are seldom truthful realisations of one original grand masterplan.

I. White, B. Wilkinson

................................................................................................................... On March 14, 2018, the Brookings Institute issued a short press release entitled, “The US Will Become ‘MinorityWhite’ in 2045, Census Projects” (Frey 2018). The story, authored by William H. Frey, a Senior Fellow at Brookings and author of the book “Diversity Explosion: How New Racial Demographics are Remaking America,” describes the dynamics of population growth in the United States and concludes that racial minorities will be “the primary demographic engine of the nation’s future growth.” Frey (2018) noted that in the next 30 or so years, “Minorities will be the source of all of the growth in the nation’s youth and working-age population, most of the growth in its voters, and much of the growth in its consumers and tax base.” The growing economic and political strength of racial minorities in the United States once again has brought race into the spotlight of American politics. Renewed attempts by politicians to stoke racist and xenophobic fears around the growing political and economic clout of Black and Brown communities, and the efforts of Black, Asian, and Latinx communities to take advantage of this moment by empowering group members and forming coalitional partners across racial minority groups, have resulted in what some might call a new American racial dilemma. This is unlike the racial dilemma described by Gunnar Myrdal (1944) in the first half of the twentieth century, in which America reckoned with a conflict between its cherished principles of equality and freedom, on the one hand, and the overt discriminatory treatment of Black Americans on the other. The modern racial dilemma represents a conflict between one of the most enshrined principles of American democracy—majority rule —and the increasing economic and political power of racial minorities resulting from their rapidly growing populations. The threat ofWhite Americans’ imminent loss of economic and political control vis-à-vis the democratic process raises a new and intriguing set of questions for the study of race and ethnic politics in theUnited States. Understanding howWhite Americans will respond to this threat—whether they will attempt to change the rules of democratic governance to ensure White political control in perpetuity, redefine Whiteness to make it more inclusive of certain racial minorities, or simply accept the inevitablemove to amultiracial democracy— poses a unique set of theoretical and methodological challenges for race and ethnic politics researchers. Departing from previous research that centered almost exclusively on a Black/ White racial framework, this modern racial dilemma necessitates a broader understanding of race that is inclusive of not only traditional racial groups but also groups that may be racialized as non-White, such as Muslim Americans and White ethnics. This modern racial framework also would necessitate an understanding of racial subgroup differentiations that might consider different racialized experiences within racial groups, such as those that exist at the intersections of race and gender or race and social/economic class. Additionally, to adequately understand this new racial dilemma, a modern racial framework would necessitate greater attention to coalitional politics between racial minority groups and Whites’ perceptions of threat. Each research agenda—the broadening of racial definitions, the acknowledgment of diversity in racialized experiences, the need to understand coalitional politics, and the nature and origins ofWhitethreat perceptions—explains different dimensions of the modern racial dilemma. Together, they characterize what we see as the new directions of racial politics research. The studies presented in this symposium broadly reflect this new direction of race and ethnic politics. Each article explores different aspects of this modern racial politics. All show how the experiences of people of color in America have shaped the American political system (i.e., public policy, political behavior, and political institutions) and how people of color have come to understand their position within this system. We briefly discuss how the studies represented in this symposium add to our understanding of the rapidly changing landscape of racial politics in America.

SiuSue Mark, Indra Overland, Roman Vakulchuk

This article studies the impact of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on economic actors in Myanmar. It hypothesizes that the BRI has strong transformative potential, because Chinese projects are likely to transform Myanmar’s economy on different scales and influence the allocation of economic benefits and losses for different actors. The study identifies economic actors in Myanmar who are likely to be most affected by BRI projects. It also discusses how BRI-related investments could affect the country’s complex conflict dynamics. The article concludes with policy recommendations for decision makers in Myanmar, China, and the international community for mitigating the BRI’s possible negative impacts. The analysis draws on secondary sources and primary data collection in the form of interviews with key actors in Hsipaw, Lashio, and Yangon, involved with and informed about the BRI in Myanmar at the local, regional, and national levels.

Yang Ting

With social media booming, newspapers are facing an enormous challenge, and some have even had to exit the market. Likewise, their role as a main force of public opinion guidance in China has also been challenged. They have lost their vantage ground. The present study conducted a case study on one well-known Chinese online public opinion event. Through analyzing the newspapers' role played in different public opinion development stages, this study displayed how Chinese newspapers worked together and successfully guided online public opinion in that case. The newspapers' advantages in guiding public opinion and suggestions as to how newspapers can survive and guide public opinion in the new media era are put forward in the final section.

Rakefet Sela-Sheffy

SeokIn Kim

The last two decades of the 19th century is still being called the period of new imperialism, when colonial scrambles for Asia and Africa were heated unprecedentedly among the European colonial pow- ers(colonial empires or metropoles). This article has focused on an analysis on the examples which show the new born German Empire had diverted regional tensions from the European core to its peripheries in a period between 1871 when German people achieved national unification and 1894 when the Sino-Japanese war broke out. For this, King Kojong(高宗)’s evaluation of the international relations, his policy of drawing Russian power into the Chosun Kingdom as was counseled by his German advisor Möllendorff amid the two emeutes of 1882 and 1884, and overheated rivalry over Korea by the European colonial powers as well as by Qing(淸國) and Japan were analyzed - from the perspectives of modern theories of international politics such as realism, liberalism, and constructivism - in concert with the Bismarckian alliance system persisted during the European colonial period. Since it was difficult for the core of European colonial empires to absorb all of the impacts which were generated by the unification of German people and had roughly shaken European political stage, Bismarck had thought outside the box to divert tensions and instabilities of the core areas to a periphery of northeast Asia, and consequently was successful. Möllendorff as an advisor to the Korean government, and Jacob Meckel to Japanese government were the persons who allegedly had carried out such important missions of analyzing respective domestic situation of northeast Asian countries, finding and exploiting the weaknesses deriving from the international relations among them. Not a few Germany’s alliance treaties with other countries in and out of Europe, concluded by the initiatives of Bismarck during his service(1862-90), had been maintained even after his resignation. And the basic principles and practices applied to ruling the German Empire were continued except young Kaiser Wilhelm II’s overseas expansion policy(Weltpolitik). The Russo-Korean secret agreement of March 1885 had triggered chained effects from the Port Hamilton incident(15 April 1885~27 February 1887), Russian Tsar’s decision to embark on the construction of Trans-Siberian Railroad(1886), adoption of sphere of influence logic by the Japanese government(1890) that seriously dreaded this railroad, and Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars. Even though Russia who was tenaciously penetrating into the Balkan and Turkish straits after the end of Napoleonic war(1815) had turned her eyes to northeast Asia to some extent since 1886, it was impossible for her to exert powerful political influences on the region because of her lack in the inter- continental railroad. Seen from the political perspectives of realism, liberalism, and constructivism, the strength and weak- nesses of the Bismarckian system are as follows. From the realist perspective, since use of all available means for achieving certain purposes can be justified, Bismarck’s policy of diverting intra-European ten- sions to northeast Asia was appropriate. His policy not only assured survival of German Empire, but prevented intra-European wars by reducing politico-military tensions inside Europe. From the liberalist perspective, human-beings’ rational thought processes backed up by sound reasoning, universal values like natural order and tolerance are esteemed. Also, it is deemed necessary to establish parliamentary institutions by state, and a global government to abolish global anarchy. However, Bismarck’s manipulation of the masses and outdated German Reich’s parliamentary system which couldn’t effectively propose majority public opinions to the government deserve criticism.

Ufi Rahmi Rozani, Aprillia Mutiasari H, Nurin Rachmania A Rachmania A

Electronic Government merupakan penggunaan teknologi dan informasi untuk administrasi pemerintahan yang efisien dan efektif serta memberikan pelayanan yang transparan dan memuaskan kepada masyarakat. Program E-lampid adalah program yang digagas oleh Disdukcapil Kota Surabaya sebagai wujud dari penerapan electronic government Kota Surabaya yang menjadi percontohan bagi 40 kepala daerah di Indonesia seperti Pemerintah Provinsi Sumatera Utara, Pemerintah Kota Medan, Pemerintah Provinsi Riau dan lain sebagainya. Latar belakang pembuatan program E-lampid adalah kepadatan volume antrean dalam pengurusan administrasi kependudukan seperti akta kelahiran, kematian dan surat pindah datang yang selalu padat setiap hari kerja. Hal ini menyebabkan penumpukan arsip dan banyaknya arsip yang terselip sehingga pengurusan administrasi kependudukan tidak sesuai dengan prosedur yang ada. Program yang digagas pada tahun 2013 ini bertujuan untuk memudahkan masyarakat Kota Surabaya dalam pelayanan administrasi kependudukan, meminimalisir penumpukan arsip, meningkatkan kualitas pelayanan kependudukan dan mempermudah Pemerintah Kota Surabaya dalam melakukan update data. Harapannya, ketika tujuan E-lampid tercapai Pemerintah Kota Surabaya mampu memanfaatkan informasi kependudukan sebagai bahan pembuat kebijakan untuk kesejahteraan masyarakat Kota Surabaya. Berdasarkan hasil observasi, E-lampid ini telah sampai pada 2 tipe relasi yaitu Government to Government dan Government to Citizens dimana pihak yang dapat merasakan manfaat dari pelaksanaannya adalah masyarakat Kota Surabaya dan juga pejabat pemerintah ditingkat kelurahan, kecamatan maupun Dinas Kependudukan dan Catatan Sipil Kota Surabaya. Diharapkan program E-lampid kedepannya dapat bekerjasama dengan rumah sakit swasta maupun pemerintah dalam pelaporan surat keterangan lahir sehingga dapat mewujudkan tipe relasi Government to Business. Pada pelaksanaannya program E-lampid terdapat berbagai tantangan dan hambatan yang dihadapi oleh Pemerintah Kota Surabaya dan Disdukcapil Kota Surabaya sehingga 2 instansi ini terus berusaha untuk mengatasi hambatan dan tantangan yang ada agar pelayanan program E-lampid dapat berjalan sesuai target yang sudah ditentukan

Wilber Orlando Romero Villarroel, Sara Nidhya Camacho Estrada

Have you heard of the ITEP/TOEIC/TSE/BULLATS/TOEFL/CELTA/DELTA exams? Among many others, these exams are currently being promoted not only by educative institutions, but by a large number of local governments and even international relationship instances (Bunce, 2016). On this regard, it is imperative to wonder and analyze how the idea of taking language exams became into fashion and at what moment in history it became into a necessity, a requirement, or as synonym of social and academic status. On such basis this study aims at determining how the implementation of English international tests have contributed in the spread of English globally. The spread of the English language globally has occurred because of different factors. Clyne (2008) regards the demographic aspect as an important element for the growth and rapid evolution of this language. The effect of the use of the English language has reached almost all the areas of human domain such as the educational. The spread in this area has determined the future of many countries. On the field of education, a standardized visible system is clearly set. Most of the books and material used to teach English are based on the Common European Framework. This framework stablishes the standardization of teaching contents and methodologies which are later used and applied into exams to evaluate students´ English language proficiency around the world. CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) programs have been implemented in schools in many countries of the world like Asia, Australia and Europe. “In recent years, LAC and CLIL are gaining intense attention particularly in context where English is learnt as a foreign language or as an international language” (Lin, 2016, p.1). Lin regards this implementation to the desire of countries like the Asian for becoming modern and take part in the development of a global economy. When comparing English with other languages it can be said that it is the pioneer in standardizing a language. According to Mulcaster (as cited by Crystal, 2003, p. 73) the English language had no competence internationally. If we take a look at other languages trying to do the same, it can be seen that they have not become as successful as English.   It does not matter if those systems are better, they simply have not been able to reach that level of internationalization. The important fact here is that those countries in these case languages do not have the economic, political power, and the influence that The United States has. According to Sharifian (2010, p.192) the English language dominance originated along the colonialism period. Phillipson (as cited in Sharifian, 2010) explains that “many elites in society have strong links with the inner circle because they have been educated in inner circle countries”. The inner circle is referred to countries where the English language is spoken as a mother tongue. To conclude, this essay presents an analysis of the way standardized exams have contributed widely to the internationalization of English around the world. This standardized examination system has influenced in many aspects like education, negotiation, culture, ideology and public policy.  It will present an overview about every aspect mentioned as well as the causes and effects of these factors which have influence in a positive and negative way in society. Besides, there will be presented examples in a general way about percentages of people who have taken standardized exams and how it has contributed to the expansion of English around the world.

Saeed Ghiasi Nodooshan, Ebrahim Khalili

"University autonomy" is considered as the cornerstone of the university system and it means that universities are to be free in the setting of their goals and priorities and implementation of them. University autonomy is significantly dependent on the university overall perspective and the degree of political interference. Despite the fact that securing the independence of universities in higher education is relative, it has not been fully realized in any higher education institution. But this concept in its lifetime, has always been faced with two major problems; misunderstanding of dimensions and indicators, and particularly, the different obstacles and barriers to it especially those that are affected by government interference. Thus, this study is aimed to assess different aspects of university autonomy and the role of government in achieving its obstacles and barriers and qualitative approach based on structuralism method and used the documentary analysis as the means for data collection. The findings suggest experts on the four dimensions of organizational autonomy, financial, academic and staffing as the main dimensions of independence, most opinions are, Political processes of countries, the rule of political thought, decision making centralized system of government, financial constraints and recruitment, particular bias or sectarian factions of the most important obstacles and barriers on the path to achieve university autonomy which in formation of all these obstacles and barriers, governments play an essential role.