Does public participation matter? Inclusive growth in East Asia

ABSTRACT

Inclusiveness in economic development has lately emerged as a critical factor for development. This paper adopts an analytical concept of inclusive growth to evaluate East Asia’s economic success. It contests the Western conceptualization of the critical role of public participation in development, and argues that it has played a limited role in terms of inclusive growth in East Asia. Several factors have influenced the outcome of research in this area including the choice of methodology adopted, the challenge of defining and measuring inclusive growth, and the unclear mode and impact of public participation in the process.

KEYWORDS:

• Inclusive Growth
• Public Participation
• East Asia
• China
• Hong Kong
• Japan
• Korea

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Bill K.P. Chou is a guest lecturer of the Master of Social Science Programme in Global Political Economy, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His teaching and research interests include political economy and governance of Greater China, central–local relations, and identity politics. His publications can be found in the Journal of Contemporary China, China Information, and East Asia: An International Quarterly.

Ahmed Shafiqul Huque is Chair and Professor of the Department of Political Science, McMaster University. His research and teaching interests are in public administration and management, public policy, development, South Asian government and politics, governance and climate change. He has published 13 books and numerous research articles in leading international journals including Public Administration Review, Governance, Public Management Review, International Review of Administrative Sciences, International Journal of Public Administration, Journal of Comparative and Comparative Politics, Pacific Affairs and Asian Survey.

Notes

1 Available at: http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/ourwork/povertyreduction/focus_areas/focus_inclusive_development.html (accessed 1 May 2015).

2 Premchaiporn. Available at: http://www.correntewire.com/thoughts_soft_authoritarianism