تدریس سیاست عمومی در آرمان مقایسه ای، ظرفیت ها و مشکلات آسیای شرقی Teaching Public Policy in East Asia: Comparing Aspirations, Potentials and Challenges

Although public policy as a field of study was introduced to East Asia as early as the 1960s (Kim and Kang 1992; Jan 2003), the mainstreaming of public policy training in the development of educational programs and professional practices in public affairs has been a recent phenomenon, stimulated by rapid changes in the political, social, and economic environment in many East Asian countries as well as the proliferation of professional training programs, such as Master in Public Administration (MPA), in the region. In Korea and Taiwan, the transition towards democratic systems has broadened the scope of participation in the policy process and thus boosted demand for policy specialists and analysts with professional training in public policy (Lee 2007; Mok 2007). In mainland China, where there were only a handful of universities Correspondence address: Email: dmchoi@cnu.ac.kr Department of Public Administration, Chungnam National University, 99 Dae-Hak-Ro, Gung-Dong Yu-Seoung-Ku, Daejeon South Korea 305–۷۶۴ Xun Wu is an associate professor in the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. His current research focuses on water governance, anti-corruption strategies, comparative healthcare reforms, and integrated approaches to sustainable development. He teaches policy analysis, cost–benefit analysis, program evaluation, and research methods. Allen Yu-Hung Lai is a doctoral candidate in the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. His research interest is collaborative governance and organizational learning. He has published widely in the fields of governance and administration, public health, health policy, and comparative policy analysis. Do Lim Choi is an associate professor at the Department of Public Administration at Chungnam National University. His teaching and research interests include public ethics, human resources management, and organizational theory. His research has appeared in various journals including Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory and International Review of Public Administration. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis, Vol. 14, No. 5, 376–۳۹۰, November 2012 ISSN 1387-6988 Print/1572-5448 Online/12/050376-15 ª ۲۰۱۲ The Editor, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13876988.2012.724965 Downloaded by [Allen Lai] at 06:26 28 November 2012 offering courses on public policy in the mid-1990s, under the guidelines stipulated by the National MPA Steering Committee, public policy analysis has became one of the nine compulsory courses for MPA programs, which are now offered in more than 100 universities across the country (Wu and He 2009). In addition, public policy has been included as a key subject in civil service entrance exams in a number of countries (Jan 2003; Park 2009; Watanabe 2009). The increased emphasis on public policy training should provide not only tremendous impetus to the development of the field of public policy in East Asia, but also unprecedented opportunities to strengthen policy capacity among government agencies, NGOs, and civil society. While East Asian countries made great strides towards economic and social development in the last century, each of them has been confronted with a set of daunting challenges, such as global warming, terrorism, and an aging population. Policy capacity in dealing with these challenges in these countries may be the decisive factor in determining their success in the twenty-first century, and public policy training can be the catalyst. On the other hand, however, the rapidly growing demand for public policy training in East Asia may present serious challenges. Due to the limited number of graduate programs in public policy in East Asia, very few scholars have been trained in the field of public policy. In mainland China, for example, the public policy analysis courses required for MPA programs are often taught by faculty members with neither training nor professional experience in the field of public policy (Ren 2002; Qian 2007). In Taiwan, Korea, and Japan, though, generations of scholars have pursued their studies in Western countries where there is a longer history in public policy education. More important, the development of learning materials may not keep pace with the fast-growing demand for public policy training. Although the origin of the field of public policy can be traced to the emergence of policy science inWestern countries, particularly the US, the study of public policy is deeply rooted in political systems, cultural norms, and historical contexts that differ considerably from one country to another, and therefore it is critical to assess the applicability of theories and practices developed in other contexts. However, the fast-growing demand for public policy training may leave little time for the development of learning materials based on local contexts, forcing instructors/scholars to rely on learning materials from Western countries. This paper focuses on various tensions in the development of public policy training in East Asia and their potential impacts on the development of the field in the long run. In particular, we examine teaching capacity, coverage, and learning materials for public policy training in East Asia through the analysis of 62 syllabi used in graduate programs in top universities in mainland China, Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. Our analysis allows us to uncover some salient features in the development of public policy training in East Asia and to gain insight into potentials and challenges in such development.