PUBLIC MANAGEMENT AND POLICY TRANSFER IN SOUTHEAST ASIA Richard K. Common Thesis submission for the award of D.Phil. The University of York Department of Politics October 1999 Public Management and Policy Transfer in Southeast Asia Abstract New Public Management (NPM) is considered by many scholars to be the new global paradigm for public administration. Although NPM is a highly contestable term, it appears that the methods and techniques that constitute NPM are being adopted by governments the world over. To challenge the apparent globalisation of NPM, this thesis analyses administrative change in three Southeast Asian countries: Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. This is achieved by employing an integrated multi-level framework, which is systematically applied to each country. At the macro-level, a model of administrative change is presented to identify the pressures for change both outside and within a particular administrative system. At the meso-level, policy transfer analysis is used as a mode of inquiry to establish whether the globalisation of NPM is the consequence of decision-making elites actively searching for policy solutions from the international environment. At the micro-level, a model of NPM is developed to analyse the extent to which administrative change in an individual country is coterminous with NPM. In addition, the thesis provides a critical evaluation of the policy processes of individual countries with the aim of assessing whether standard accounts of policy formulation need to be recast so that policy transfer is regarded as an increasingly integral part of the policy process. The empirical research found that the implementation of NPM in each of the three case-study countries was uneven and could not simply be explained by policy transfer activity alone. In fact, strong countervailing tendencies exist that served to mitigate against the introduction of NPM. Moreover, the distinctiveness of the appeal of NPM lies in its rhetorical value, which serves a number of political and social purposes, rather than its capacity to deliver meaningful and lasting administrative reforms. Acknowledgements I wish to extend my profound gratitude to Dr. Mark Evans for his calm and assured supervision of my dissertation. I was fortunate to have him guide me through the course of the last five years, and I greatly appreciate the time and effort he put into ensuring my dissertation was complete and ready for examination. It was a pleasure to work with him. In addition, my old friend Norman Flynn made some useful and provocative remarks about the development of both the theoretical and empirical chapters. During my stay in Hong Kong, colleagues in the Department of Public and Social Administration at the City University of Hong Kong made helpful comments about my work, in particular, Dr. Anthony Cheung, Dr. Brian Brewer and Dr. Shafiqul Huque. My thanks are also extended to Prof. Jon Quah at the National University of Singapore and Mr. Shafie at MAMIPU in Malaysia for their help in arranging the fieldwork and their comments on drafts of my case study chapters on Singapore and Malaysia respectively. Finally, I met my partner, Shaida, when I first embarked on this study, and we had a son together, Kieran, who later accompanied me on my field trips to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. In many ways, they have suffered because of this thesis, and so I dedicate it to them. 11 List of Contents Abstract Acknowledgements 11 List of Contents 111 Part 1: Theory, Methods and Context Introduction ........................................................................................1 Chapter One: Is Policy Transfer Analysis a Useful Mode of Enquiry in Political Science? ................................................................................................5 Introduction..........................................................................................5 1. The Problematic Nature of Globalisation...................................................7 2. Policy Convergence...........................................................................13 3. PolicyDiffusion.................................................................................16 3. Policy Transfer................................................................................19 4. Pre-Requisites for Policy Transfer..............................................................26 5. Searching for Best Policies.................................................................29 Conclusion.......................................................................................... 32 Chapter Two: Theoretical and Methodological Issues in Policy Transfer Analysis..............................................................................................35 Introduction.......................................................................................35 1. The Analytical Framework - A Multi-Level Approach............................................35 2. Methodological Issues........................................................................40 3. Methodology.................................................................................50 111 Conclusion .56 Chapter 3: The New Public Management: Origins, Development and Globalisation ....................................................................................58 Introduction....................................................................................... 58 1. What is New Public Management2..........................................................59 2. Globalisation and New Public Management: the Rise of the Competition State......69 3. NPM: The New Global Paradigm for Public Administration'?............................ 73 4. Explaining the International Trend of NPM............................................. 77 Conclusion..........................................................................................82 Chapter 4: The Role of International Organisations in Policy Transfer ................83 Introduction.......................................................................................83 1. Modernisation and Democratisation......................................................84 2. The Role of International Organisations....................................................89 3. Policy Transfer and International Organisations...........................................91 4. What is being transferred - NPM and Privatisation........................................96 5. What is being transferred - 'Good Governance'...........................................99 6. NPM: An Inappropriate Policy Transfer'?................................................103 Conclusions .......................................................................................107 Chapter 5: Accounting for Administrative Change in the Asia-Pacific: A Case of PolicyTransfer' .................................................................................109 Introduction.......................................................................................109 1. The Appeal of New Public Management in the Asia-Pacific lv Region .111 2. Accounting for Administrative Change in the Asia-Pacific Region..................113 3. Political Systems in the Asia-Pacific Region.............................................144 Conclusions.......................................................................................148 Part Two: Applications Introductionto Part Two .....................................................................149 A Preliminary Comparison of Hong Kong SAR, Malaysia and Singapore.................151 Chapter 6: Administrative Change in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region(SAR) of the People's Republic of China .............................................155 1. Political and Administrative Context.......................................................155 2. Explaining Administrative Reform in Hong Kong........................................158 3. The Political System........................................................................167 4. Policy learning..............................................................................170 5. Administrative Change in Hong Kong...................................................172 6. Applying the NPM model to Hong Kong................................................179 7. Policy Transfer..............................................................................183 Conclusion.......................................................................................189 Chapter 7: Administrative Change in Malaysia ..........................................192 1. Political and Administrative Context.......................................................192 2. Explaining Administrative Reform in Malaysia...........................................194 3. The Political System............................................................................206 4. Looking East: Policy Learning in Malaysia.............................................210 V 5. Administrative Change in Malaysia......................................................214 6. Application of NPM model to Malaysia....................................................222 7. Policy Transfer..............................................................................226 Conclusion.......................................................................................231 Chapter 8: Administrative Reform in Singapore .......................................233 10 Political and Administrative Context.......................................................233