Governance in Developing Asia is one of the first books of its kind to provide an overview of the role that better governance and citizen empowerment can play in improving public service delivery in developing Asia. The World Development Report 2004 se

Investors are increasingly integrating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues into their investment decisions. Currently, more than half of managed assets in Europe are linked to ESG factors, while in Japan, ESG investment has grown dramatically in recent years. In principle, ESG investment can help to bridge the gap between profit-driven investment and economic and social sustainability in Asia and the Pacific. However, a number of challenges, such as unclear and varied sustainable investment criteria, untested impacts on corporate value and social issues, and the lack of quality data cloud the potential for increasing ESG investment. This book aims to contribute to developing a framework for future analysis and monitoring to ensure the growth of ESG investment.

The search for good governance has become an increasingly important element of public policy and public management and is high on the political agenda of East Asian countries. The need for robust governance structures and institutions was brought into sharp focus by the Asian Financial Crisis which adversely affected most East Asian societies. Since then they have begun to look for ways to restructure their public administration and political systems in order to develop new mechanisms and structures to promote good governance. This book focuses on how selected Asian states have responded to the growing impact of "liberalizing and marketizing trends" in public policy formulation and public management. To what extent is the "state-guided" regime in Asia still relevant to governing public policy / public management? What are the policy implications for a growing number of Asian states which are pursuing more pro-competition policy instruments? The book is a timely and important collection that offers critical analysis of the search for new governance in Asia and compares and contrasts experiences in selected Asian societies such as China, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, and other parts of South East Asia. Chapters are written by leading scholars in the fields of comparative development, policy and governance studies from Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, China, Singapore, Japan and the United Kingdom.

This book explores and analyzes governance and policy issues in South, Southeast, and East Asia. It maps governance challenges and analyzes current trends from the perspectives of democracy, public policy, and public institutions. Regional public administration and governance systems have undergone some phenomenal changes over the last three decades and have played a key role in the economic progress of the area, especially in the Southeast and East Asian nations. Rich with country-specific evidence and analyses, the chapters in the book apply empirical and other research methods to examine shifting paradigms and best practices. This book develops an understanding of changes in the forms, process and practices of governance, both within the context of each nation and in a comparative perspective. The book will appeal to scholars, academics, students, and practitioners of public administration, political science, and policy issues.

This book documents experimentation with various policy and governance approaches that produce structural differences in the composition and organisation of Asia’s higher education systems. In view of the wide variation in the public and private provision of higher education, it showcases how issues of access, equity and modes of participation are addressed, how institutional and programme quality are managed and how academic labour is treated and developed. The book both maps these differences and analyses the country-level dynamics, policy approaches and the problems faced by a variety of states in Asia in the race to develop competitive higher education systems. Focusing on the intersection of governance and higher education policy, it addresses the challenges facing higher education in Asia and the national responses of governments in terms of the organisation of the sector.

The worst chemical disaster ever could be happening right now. In India and Bangladesh between forty and eighty million people are at risk of consuming too much arsenic from well water that might have already caused one hundred thousand cancer cases and thousands of deaths. Many millions elsewhere in South-East Asia and South America may soon suffer a similar fate. Venomous Earth is the story of this tragedy: the geology, the biology, the politics and the history. It starts in Ancient Greece, touches down in today's North America and takes in William Morris, alchemy, farming, medicine, mining and a cosmetic that killed two popes.

Although Asia has a long history of governance practices, its modern governance systems have been profoundly influenced by the Western models. This book explores how the declining economic and political influences on the global stage of the USA and Europe has significantly reduced developing countries’ confidence in the public governance models promoted by the Western world. As academics have begun to challenge the assuredness of the conventional logic of ‘Western = Global = Best’, scholarship has also grown on the contextualized governance experiences in Asia. This timely volume explores the emergence of Asian models of governance, taking into account the shifting global political economic landscape and the region’s rapid growth in recent decades. Could there be Asian models of governance that are distinct from the Western ones? If so, what are the key characteristics? The authors examine the potentials and challenges of Asian models of governance based on empirical studies from various Asian societies, ranging from Singapore and South Korea to Myanmar and Vietnam. As well as theoretical explorations, the book also provides rich empirical evidence on the contextualized lessons accumulated in Asia, offering a more nuanced understanding of Asian governance experience through comparative case studies. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Asian Public Policy which was supported by the Singapore Ministry of Education AcRF Tier 2 Grant entitled “Transnational Knowledge Transfer and Dynamic Governance in Comparative Perspective”.