Under pressure from the World Bank, the International Monetary Funds and the World Trade Organization governments of both industrialized and less developed nations have undertaken extensive reforms and reorganization to streamline their public sectors. This volume, with chapters written by authorities from around the world, provides information on administrative reform in varied nations. Following an introduction, which sets a theoretical framework, the book contains sections devoted to Asia, the Near/Middle East, Africa, and a comparison of East/South Europe and Asia. Administrative reform has become a widespread challenge to national and sub-national governments around the globe. Under pressure from the World Bank, the International Monetary Funds and the World Trade Organization governments of both industrialized and less developed nations have undertaken extensive reforms and reorganization to streamline their public sectors. This volume, with chapters written by authorities from around the world, provides information on administrative reform in varied nations. Developing nations face acute problems on a daily basis, making administrative reform an essential function of public administration. With chapters devoted to experiences in such nations as Korea, India, Iran, Turkey, the Arab States, Nigeria, and South Africa, this volume sheds valuable light on administrative reform in developing countries and provides lessons for future policy actions.

The lack of sufficient access to clean water is a common problem faced by communities, efforts to alleviate poverty and gender inequality and improve economic growth in developing countries. While reforms have been implemented to manage water resources, these have taken little notice of how people use and manage their water and have had limited effect at the ground level. On the other hand, regulations developed within communities are livelihood-oriented and provide incentives for collective action but they can also be hierarchal, enforcing power and gender inequalities. This book shows how bringing together the strengths of community-based laws rooted in user participation and the formalized legal systems of the public sector, water management regimes will be more able to reach their goals.

This title was first published in 2000: Economic development has become one of the popular public policies in many developing and economic-transforming countries for the past few decades. Public policy makers and researchers have recognized that an effective administrative system is critical to the success of economic development and administrative reform is necessary to promote economic development. This book studies economic development policy by focusing on the relationship between administrative reform and economic development.

The underpinning assumption of public management in the developing world as a process of planned change is increasingly being recognized as unrealistic. In reality, the practice of development management is characterized by processes of mutual adjustment among individuals, agencies, and interest groups that can constrain behaviour, as well as provide incentives for collaborative action. Paradoxes inevitably emerge in policy network practice and design. The ability to manage government departments and operations has become less important than the ability to navigate the complex world of interconnected policy implementation processes. Public sector reform policies and programmes, as a consequence, are a study in the complexities of the institutional and environmental context in which these reforms are pursued. Building on theory and practice, this book argues that advancing the theoretical frontlines of development management research and practice can benefit from developing models based on innovation, collaboration and governance. The themes addressed in Public Sector Reforms in Developing Countries will enable public managers in developing countries cope in uncertain and turbulent environments as they seek optimal fits between their institutional goals and environmental contingencies.

A country-by-country synopsis of the public sector reform programmes in 40 Commonwealth developing countries, with a profile of each country and an outline of the reform initiatives, implementation processes, achievements and problems encountered.

This volume explores the foreign policy environment facing developing nations and their particular foreign policy-making structures and processes. By defining foreign policy broadly to incorporate the activities of a range of state actors and non-state actors, the book broadens the range of analytical frameworks for studying foreign policy-making in developing nations. Thus, the actions of small groups of elites, international institutions and transnational networks are seen to be part of foreign policy-making, as well as the traditional operations of foreign ministries. The volume is comprised of an extensive introduction, four thematic chapters, six country studies and a conclusion that ties together common themes. These serve as a useful contribution to the analysis of foreign policy-making in developing nations, a neglected area in the comparative study of foreign policy.

Reform is a politicized, ideological, sometimes drifting, and chaotic process. As such, what public administration reform means, why it occurs, whose interests it serves, and whether it makes the world a better place, remain contested. Addressing these questions, this major comparative study sheds new light on existing and emerging issues in the field of public administration reform.

In this volume, a range of case studies that identify good and sustainable practices in administrative reform in India are offered. The book examines three distinct areas: urban governance; energy and environmental governance; and service delivery systems. The contributors investigate the role of public and private partners as agents of change and showcase successful experiments that have transformed the lives of communities in rural areas. The book provides contextual and epistemological rationale for reforms through micro-level experiments and examines the element of sustainability which in turn could translate into a wider package of reforms.

This book provides the solid and detailed evidence for some debated theories in Chinese studies, based on quantitative-qualitative analysis or mixed methods, which is quite novel compared with the extant work through qualitative or quantitative research alone. In addition, the country's latest particular political phenomena, such as anti-corruption campaigns in the Xi Jinping era or career satisfaction of graduate village officials, have been carefully studied. What’s more, the current situation of political development and participation in the Internet era is fully discussed from a comparative historical perspective. Such examples as the cybereconomy of Chinese rural areas together with the regional differentiation of voting behaviors between rural and urban areas are the focus of investigation. Meanwhile, the legitimacy and characteristics of China’s governance, and government reforms along with the adaptability of foreign theories are also illustrated in this book.