Vol. 34 Nos. 3-4 (July-December 2013)
EROPA Bulletin
13
SEMINAR HIGHLIGHTS:
Government, Governability and Governance
(Photos: LAC, EROPA Secretariat)
SPECIAL SESSIONS
Renowned academicians and professionals in public
administration shared their expertise in a number of
special sessions organized as part of the conference.
These introductory sessions allowed the participants
to understand and analyze better each of the three
elements of the quality of government: government,
governability and governance.
Conveners of the special sessions include: Professor
Jun Matsunami, from Kobe University; Professor
Hideaki Shiroyama, from the University of Tokyo,
Japan; Professor Akio Kamiko, from Ritsumeikan
University; and Professor Osamu Koike, from
Yokohama University.
Special Session I
Dr. Alex Brillantes, Professor at the University of
the Philippines, talked about “Handles of Public
Sector Reform: Institutions, Values, Leadership,
Citizen Engagement
and Communication”,
which he drew from
earlier studies together
with colleagues Ms.
Maricel Fernandes
and Ms. Lizan Calina
in 2008. As context
for his presentation,
Dr. Brillantes
explained that
different countries in
Asia have tried to pursue two kinds of public sector
reform: 1) decentralization, and 2) reorganization.
However, reforms under the New Public Management
(NPM) paradigm have been initiated by different
reorganization bodies in as early as the late 19th
century. He reiterated that decentralization is
important to effective decision-making processes,
democratization, empowerment and citizens’
participation, responsiveness, greater local autonomy,
and good governance, among others. Reflecting on
existing public administration studies, he described
decentralization in Asia as undergoing different
contexts, policy designs and implementation levels
in terms of progress, advancement and impact. He
emphasized that the “handles” of public sector reform-institutions, processes and procedures, mindset
and paradigms, leadership or political will, citizen
engagement, and strategic communication--should be
molded in a way that will guarantee successful public
sector reform in the region.
Professor Masahiro
Horie of the
National Graduate
Institute for Policy
Studies (GRIPS),
Japan, discussed
the significance of
intergovernmental
cooperation and
competition in
addressing the challenges of globalization and
decentralization. He pointed out that globalization
brings together governments and countries in
an arena of common concerns, issues, interests,
challenges, opportunities and benefits. Meanwhile,
he also explained that within government units,
decentralization has become imperative in response
to the increasing demand for public services, and
shift of power from the central government to the
local governments. Prof. Horie explained that both
globalization and decentralization creates competition,
between national governments and local governments,
respectively, and that public administration
practitioners must look into and un