1st Edition

Globalization, Democratization and Asian Leadership Power Sharing, Foreign Policy and Society in the Philippines and Japan

By Vincent Kelly Pollard Copyright 2004
    224 Pages
    by Routledge

    224 Pages
    by Routledge

    The foreign policies of presidents, prime ministers and their foreign secretaries can be influenced by the preferences of domestic and international nongovernmental actors, as well as those of other governments. Representative democracy, media power, citizen activism and the globalization of politics and telecommunications, for example, have accelerated changes in the sharing of power. This book focuses on the Philippines and Japan where, willingly and unwillingly, foreign policy executives share power with individuals and groups inside and outside of government bureaucracies and their societies. The book retells the foreign policy narratives of regional cooperation, military relations and official development assistance (foreign aid), revealing how executive foreign policy makers and civil society organizations share power - and succeed or fail - in a globalizing, democratizing world. A variety of published, unpublished and declassified sources provide journalists, scholars, government practitioners and global citizens with a sophisticated understanding of the domestic politics of foreign policy making, as well as its intergovernmental and transnational side.

    Contents: Globalization, democratization and plural governance; Social inference in foreign policy analysis; Spreading the risks: co-marketing ASEAN in a contested election; Information asymmetry in Aquino's electoral foreign policy; Semi-dictatorship and democracy in foreign policy making; ASEAN free riders and senate resistance; Guiding foreign aid with contested standard; Domesticating and transnationalizing ODA policy: NGO agendas and limits to change; Power sharing, plural governance, and foreign policy success in globalizing Asia; References; Index.

    Biography

    Vincent Kelly Pollard is Lecturer for the Department of Political Science and Asian Studies Program and Temporary Assistant Professor for the Undergraduate Honors Program at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. Also he has been an Affiliate Research Associate at the Yuchengco Center for East Asia, De La Salle University in Manila, Philippines. He is a member of the International Studies Association, Association for Asian Studies, American Political Science Association, and Fulbright Alumni Association.

    'Dr Pollard has written a book that weaves skillfully together many recent strands of foreign, military and domestic politics in the Philippines and Japan ... His book is valuable to area specialists as well as to anyone interested in learning more about the complexity of politics in general.' Jim Dator, University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA 'The author makes good use of his experience and knowledge of the Philippines and Japan to skillfully capture how their leaders, bureaucrats and NGOs deal with the wave of globalization and democratization sweeping those countries...The reader will find his extensive use of the property-space concept, tables and diagrams in describing and explaining policies, models, and ideas very reader-friendly. They help the reader get a quick view of timely and key sets of ideas in a nutshell.' Yasumasa Kuroda, University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA 'This book does...successfully conduct a tightly-drawn thesis into a definitive academic book suggesting a useful paradigm for the future, by way of exploring the changing and the developing face of foreign policy-making in the Philippines and Japan.' Democracy and Security '...reflects solid research work...[the] focus on NGOs probably makes this volume attractive not only to academics, but also to activists, practitioners, journalists, etc...it leads to a better understanding of the electoral democracies in East and Southeast Asia.' Journal of Chinese Political Studies 'Pollard's book is most impressive when seen as a well-documented, thoroughly researched and incredibly detailed investigation of elite decision making in two distinctive Asian societies, with an impressive array of in-country investigation, interviews and use of original source material. It is an adept historical inquiry...' Political Studies Review 'Dr Pollard's book is a fascinating attempt to compare the engagement of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in foreign policy-making in the presidential Philippines and in parli