Business and Public Administration Studies (E-Journal, Washington Institute of China Studies - WICS)
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Editorial Note
Full text linkThis current issue of BPA Journal is also an overdue labor of love and endurance. We are still exploring both ways and means to expand the Regional Editors. We have lost our China Editor, who accepted a fulltime position at a major university. We are actively seeking a replacement. Our other major goals include: grow more active readership and contributions from policy makers, professionals and aspiring academics
The Human Ecology Of Social Justice
Full text linkThe first and fundamental structure for “human ecology” is the family, in which man receives his first formative ideas about truth and goodness, and learns what it means to love and to be loved, and thus what it actually means to be a person. --Centesimus Annus, 39, 1991No one denies that the moral climate of the place into which parents introduce their children may give an upward push -- or a downward push -- to their children’s ability to grow up with good habits, among good companions, in a culture that encourages the good and the beautiful. A sharp moral decline throughout the culture is deadly to children. President Obama says that global warming is the greatest threat facing our generation. But the moral ecology in which human beings live and move is more important for their well-being than the ecology of the biosphere
What Transformative Leaders Can Do to Initiate and Institute Effective Federal Change
Full text linkMany Americans have the expectation that their government through the mix of public policies and pragmatism will respond to its citizens’ core needs, and when this requires change, that progress will be straightforward. However, in reality, achieving successful transformation and change in government can be exceptionally challenging. Sometimes political or economic conditions have changed, sometimes methods for achieving progress are outdated or obsolete, and sometimes the public’s expectations have changed.The Federal government can be trusted to reliably do much good for its citizens. Year in and year out the government provides essential services without a hitch: retirees receive their Social Security checks on time, medical support is provided for the poor, and our nation’s security apparatus provides globally-deployed defense forces across all time zones. Despite these benefits, some citizens have grown to expect instantaneous results from a system that was not designed for speed. This could be anticipated if one’s expectations are influenced by the experience of using modern apps on an iPhone or Android to instantly contact a ride, buy a new suit, or find a restaurant. To people unfamiliar with the inner workings of government political change seems to be stymied by complexity and confounded by process. But our government was designed to be careful and deliberative, with the legislative process being sometimes contentious. Within this context, government leaders need to discern how to manage achieving the art of what is possible
Rehabilitation of the Ecological Functions of the Senegal River Delta
Full text linkThis report is an initial effort to evaluate the options for rehabilitating the Ndiaël. It is the result of a desk study carried out in November 2000 and of two month-long field mission held in May and August of 2001. The findings will serve in preparation for the Environmental Management Component of the Long Term Water Sector Project, which also includes a management plan for the Lac de Guiers and the rehabilitation of the Baie de Hann (Dakar). The work was researched in the context of two other World Bank projects: the Coastal and Marine Biodiversity Management GEF project and the Senegal River Basin GEF project
Books That Are Noteworthy
Full text linkReview of two books:Modernizing China Investing in Soft Infrastructure by Raphael W Lam, Markus Rodlauer, and Alfred Schipke , 2017, pp.372, ISBN 9781513539942, IMF.Cybersecurity Leadership: Powering the Modern Organization, by Mansur Hasib, 2014, pp. 174, published by Tomorrow Strategy Today, LLC, ISBN: 1502312115
China vs. Itself. The Perpetual War Against Corruption
Full text linkThe compelling task of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the disasters of the Maoist regime was to reform both the economy and the instruments of government toward a set of far more effective institutions. Chinese governments and indeed all of China’s society had been perverted by the commune movement so that it was not until Mao died in 1976 that the successor political leadership could safely begin a purge of government structure, procedures and workforce. The CCP finally realized that it had created a monster – truly the worst government in the world. One of the great truths for the Chinese people is the fact that, whatever their dissatisfactions with their current government, everything – everything – was far worse under Mao.The Maoist mess existed at all government levels: national, provincial, township, county and municipality. Three things were critical: first, the amateur apparatus of communes, collectives, work brigades and so forth had quietly to be dismantled with a minimum of political turmoil. Second, thousands of local governments had to build up sturdier and more professional local administrations, capable of taking on a far more complex range of public responsibilities. But this had to be accomplished in a country in which few had an adequate education, and more than 80% were still illiterate. Third, the whole financial system of revenues, expenditures and management of the flow of funds had to be gotten under control
Internet of Things Report: The FTC Overstepped its Agency Rulemaking Authority
Full text linkIn January 2015, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC” or “Commission” or “agency”) issued a series of best practices on a very novel phenomenon, the Internet of Things (“IoT”). For example, the Commission informed companies that they should implement “security by design” by building security into their products at the outset as companies design their products. (Federal Trade Commission, 2015). The Commission also pronounced that companies should delete data after the data served its purpose in order to mitigate the harm associate with a data breach. Similar best practices span across various industries and businesses that the FTC regulates. (Federal Trade Commission, 2015). The FTC is not the only government agency that has been engaging in this new approach to rulemaking. In fact, “regulation through best practices has increased sevenfold in the past ten years in the federal government alone, touching every aspect of administrative law”
The Impact of Logistics Costs on the Economic Development: The Case of Thailand
Full text linkThai economy has been suffering from the low efficiency of its logistics systems, which is revealed by its remarkably high logistics costs in relation to its gross domestic product. Having impacts on both the industrial structure and spatial distribution of the economy, high relative logistics costs in Thailand greatly constrains the sustainable development of Thai economy. While the Thai government are taking proactive measures to reduce its logistics costs in relation to its gross domestic product, special attention should be paid to the relation between the logistics costs and economic development to develop appropriate logistics policies to accommodate the need of economic development
Editorial Note
Full text linkOur current issue of Business and Public Administration Studies (BPAS) continues to experience a mix of joyous growing pains with continuous concerns and search to expand Editorial Board to best serve the needs of readers and contributors. We have been actively exploring the possibility to team up with a University where we might have a more solid base of students-readers (and writers) at a high academic level. So the stream of continuous contributions and readership remains our number one priority. We also are pursuing another, yet related strategy of searching to team up with an Institution in Washington DC that would help anchor PBAS with public policy interests, issues and profiles. I have held several discussions with a number of professors from various universities. Some of them having read previous issues of the WICS Journal have suggested that it should be morphing into even broader and more ethics-related topics to reflect the need of global forum. Also, having approached some leading think-tanks that might benefit from a synergy of our publication offers, it is clear that there is an imminent need to explore and expand in to this area
Strategies for government reform
Full text linkGovernance is the ultimate mechanism for directing the affairs of a nation, and it is, of necessity, the exercise of power because it is the primary official and approved instrument for the making national decisions. This remains true even where there is a strong and independent private sector which controls most of the economic life of the country, because even then, the government has enormous influence over the environment in which the private sector functions. If a government is dictatorial and authoritarian, chances are that decision-making is in the hands of a single individual or a small group of elite power holders. If a government is more democratic and representative, the power of the government must be focused by building a reasonable public consensus for major decisions. In either case, second and third level decisions are linked to the functioning of elaborate structures of government agencies with power designated by laws enacted by legislative bodies that own and operate mechanisms for negotiation, compromise, or decision by fiat