What shapes characteristics and types of state governance in a specific country? How do they change over time? More importantly, what will they look like in the near and far future? This book addresses these fundamental yet timely questions by introducing and analyzing a distinctive group of Japanese statesmen: Seikai-Tensin, which means one's transformation into politicians in Japanese. The book looks at the Japanese developmental state through a time-series analysis on historical data to determine the dynamic pattern of a prototype developmental state. It offers comparative implications for other developmental states, including South Korea and Singapore, to have a better understanding of themselves and their counterparts and useful lessons for governance practitioners to pursue a better balance between politics and administration. This book will interest those researching governance, comparative politics, government bureaucracy, and public policy.

With a range of case studies from every continent, the contributors to this book analyze the challenges that arise for states living with much larger neighbors, and the policies they develop to account for this asymmetry. Bringing together the perspectives of bilateral relations and the study of small states, this book analyzes a range of scenarios where one or more smaller countries must manage relations with a much larger neighbor or neighbors, from the perspective of the smaller countries. Each case presents different priorities, depending on the relationship between the states concerned, while highlighting the commonalities across the various scenarios. The range of cases and contributors is wide and diverse, with examples including Togo’s relationship with Ghana, Mongolia’s with China, and Colombia’s with Brazil – as well as more widely known examples such as Canada and the United States, or Australia and New Zealand. A valuable resource for scholars and students of international relations, and public policy of small- and medium-sized states.