This extensive book critically examines and contrasts the civil service systems of eight diverse Asian countries; Bangladesh, China, India, Japan, Laos, the Philippines, South Korea and Thailand, using a common comparative framework. The authors compare the civil service systems in each country discussing several factors including historical development, internal labour markets, degree of representativeness, level of politicization, the effect of public opinion, the impact of reform and diffusion and their place in two popular configurations of civil service systems.The authors go on to demonstrate the utility of comparative research by analysing the findings of the country studies and comparing the Asian countries against each other and the Asian experience as a whole against that of the West. They discover that there are considerable differences between the Asian civil service systems, illustrated by the degree to which political parties penetrate the civil service and the extent to which government agencies act as employers of last resort. Other conclusions drawn highlight the fact that in spite of many similarities, there are also sizeable differences between Asian and Western civil services, including a lack of political neutrality in many Asian countries. Civil Service Systems in Asia will be of great interest and value to academics and advanced level students in public administration, law, political science and Asian studies.

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 Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, and co-sponsored by the International Public Management Network, the Asia-Pacific Governance Institute, and Thailand Democracy Watch. This book presents some of the works contributed by participating scholars and practitioners at the conference. The contents fall into three categories: corruption and anti-corruption initiatives, public financial management reforms, and public management reforms with emphasis on performance and results.

Asian countries are highly diverse in terms of their wealth, culture, and historical experience. Yet, in different ways, they are working hard to improve public sector governance in areas such as democratic accountability, openness, transparency, integrity, government trust, high performance standards and combating corruption. The chapters in this book analyze and compare the experiences of Asian countries in carrying out governance reforms. Some of the questions tackled in this title are: how common reform packages designed for developed countries are implemented in developing countries? What happens in the reform diffusion process? What are the obstacles to reform success? The diversity of the Asian region is well reflected in these chapters, covering a range of topics, theories, methodologies, and findings. The book will be of interest to both academics and practitioners researching and working with public policy in the region.