Pilot Agency Research Articles

South Africa’s dwindling developmental local government: a dying dream?

ABSTRACT This article brings politics and Democratic Developmental State (DDS) theory back into the debates surrounding the operationalisation of Developmental Local Government (DLG) in South Africa. It interrogates the extent to domestic political factors and actors have impacted the ability of the DLG to fulfil its constitutional and developmental mandate. It does so by adopting a theoretical case study methodology in assessing the functioning of South Africa’s DLG against three ‘micro-foundations’ of the DDS model: Developmental-Oriented Leadership, Effective Local ‘Pilot Agency’ and Meritocratic Bureaucracy, and Developmental Performance. It finds that the political imperatives and motives of the ANC at play at the onset of democracy in 1994 coupled with the local politicking ever since has crippled the ability of local government to fulfil its constitutional and developmental mandate. This article proposes the adoption of the Developmental Civil Society (DCS) model as a tool to circumvent South African local power politics and boost developmental capacity at the local level in order to fully realise a DDS. It goes beyond the objective of DLG through the self-empowerment of citizens, not only as policy formulators and passive recipients of development, but as active producers of inclusive socioeconomic development.

Bringing the developmental state back in: explaining South Korea’s successful management of COVID-19

South Korea had the largest number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 after China by February 2020. This situation changed dramatically in less than two months as it effectively managed the pandemic without imposing a nationwide lockdown. Furthermore, Korean pharmaceutical companies quickly manufactured sufficient test-kits and other COVID-19 essential medical devices to meet domestic demand and exported them to more than one hundred countries, including developed countries, amid global shortages. What explains South Korea’s success story? Drawing on the developmental state concept, I argue that South Korea’s success story can be attributed to 1) the early creation of a health official-led pilot agency; 2) the government’s intervention for rapid production and export of medical equipment; 3) the distinct state-society relations. In doing so, contrary to the declinist literature, this study reveals that the Korean state’s institutional capacity has not declined. It also illustrates that the developmental state seems to be an effective system in dealing with a pandemic and promoting economic activities during the crisis. However, it is yet to be seen how Korea will deal with future challenges arising from the new wave. This study also suggests how the Global South can learn lessons from the South Korean experience.

COVID-19 and the Making of a South African Democratic Developmental State

This article assesses the impact of untraditional security threats on the origin and institutional configuration of existing and prospective developmental states in Africa. It adopts a case study research methodological approach which interrogates the effect of internal and global security threats on the formation of 21st-century African developmental states through the presence of four developmental state features: Development-Oriented Political Leadership; Presence of a Pilot Agency; Private Sector and/or Broad-Based Developmental Coalitions; and Popular Mobilisation through a Developmentalist Ideology. The case studies under review include four existing (Botswana, Mauritius, Ethiopia, and Rwanda) and one prospective (South Africa) African developmental states. This article finds that intense ethnic rivalries and domestic development imperatives were sufficient factors triggering the construction of developmental states in Botswana, Mauritius, Ethiopia, and Rwanda. Furthermore, the outbreak of COVID-19 has served as a global threat which precipitated developmental state project in South Africa.

Democratization, globalization, and institutional adaptation: the developmental states of South Korea and Taiwan

This paper concurs with Hamilton-Hart and Yeung that in South Korea and Taiwan, the predominance of global production networks, growth of private enterprises, and democratization have placed developmental state institutions under pressure. However, despite the reorganization of the pilot agency and state bureaucracy, new institutions have emerged to take on the functions of policy consultation and coordination. These institutions continue to control ample financial and regulatory resources, which allow state elites to coordinate industrial transformation and mediate global engagement. South Korea and Taiwan, however, differ in their ability to appease sociopolitical conflict and find common ground to defy neoliberal tendency. Moreover, they differ in their preexisting industrial structures, modes of engaging with the global market, and security considerations with respect to mainland China. Given path dependency, the two cases differ in their success in launching new industries and facilitating defensive globalization. Due to this divergence, the two economies hold disparate positions in the global division of labor: lead firms in South Korea, contract manufacturers in Taiwan, and aspiring platform leaders in both cases. Enterprises from these two economies also weave disparate types of production networks, with those from South Korea exhibiting a higher level of functional diversity and geographical expansion.

Achieving Urban Regeneration Through Sukuk: A Case of Lagos Island, Nigeria

Sub-Saharan African states have developed rather slowly due to unstructured urban development and lack of adequate long-term funds to achieve such development. History and market failures have certainly affected urbanization patterns. Overall predatory governance and conventional financial models have not helped achieve urban regeneration either which has negatively obstructed socio-economic development. Financing such urban renewal then requires a more dynamic approach. It is in this vein that a unique capital market instrument is analyzed using Lagos Island as a typical case. Sukuk or Islamic certificates within the overall context of public-private partnership (PPP) securitization and learnings from state-led development embedded autonomy through a pilot agency is then being considerered.

The Evolution of the Japanese Developmental State: Institutions Locked in by Ideas by Hironori Sasada (review)

Reviewed by: The Evolution of the Japanese Developmental State: Institutions Locked in by Ideas by Hironori Sasada Gene Park (bio) The Evolution of the Japanese Developmental State: Institutions Locked in by Ideas. By Hironori Sasada. Routledge, London, 2013. xii, 212 pages. $140.00. At first glance, Hironori Sasada’s new book on the Japanese developmental state appears to travel over well-worn ground. After all, Chalmers Johnson’s classic MITI and the Japanese Miracle: The Growth of Industrial Policy, 1925–1975 (Stanford University Press, 1982) sparked a vigorous [End Page 248] debate over the Japanese developmental state and other East Asian variants too voluminous to cite here fully.1 Even more, others have studied the two specific subcases in the volume—industry associations and economic pilot agencies—and similarly located the origins of the developmental state in Manchuria under Japanese rule and the wartime period.2 Yet surprisingly and happily, Sasada’s book makes two fresh contributions. First, Sasada adds explanatory rigor to our understanding of the evolution of the developmental state. Second, his book, using the case of the Japanese developmental state, makes a broader case for taking the role of ideas seriously in the study of institutions. Unlike previous studies on the evolution of the developmental state, The Evolution of the Japanese Developmental State uses explicit hypothesis testing to explain how two key institutions of the developmental state—an economic pilot agency and industry associations—were first created in Manchuria and why they were reproduced during wartime Japan and through the early postwar period. Sasada, drawing on the literature on institutions, specifically considers hypotheses drawn from three theories that he calls “collective action theory,” “power-based rationalist theory,” and “ideational theory.” As he explains, collective action theory, really the rational choice approach to institutionalism, maintains that actors create institutions to overcome collective action problems. Furthermore, according to this view, institutions persist when all parties benefit from the institution and there are no incentives to defect. By contrast, power-based rationalist theory emphasizes the relative power of actors, who create institutions that reflect and maintain their power position. The distribution of power also determines institutional evolution with changes in relative power leading to institutional change. Finally, ideational theory contends that actors rely on ideas to guide choices about institutions. As Sasada explains, “they will make types of policies that comply with that [ideational] guidance and will reject policies [End Page 249] that contradict it” (p. 11). Ideas perpetuate institutional continuity by reproducing themselves through education, training, and career paths. To develop his argument, Sasada first lays out the case that the institutions of the developmental state did not exist prior to the 1930s in chapter 2, which compares the institutions and policies of the Meiji and Taisho eras with those of the developmental state. The book then tests each of the three theories to explain the evolution of the developmental state over three specific periods: first, in Manchuria under Japanese rule (1932–45) where he shows the origins of the developmental state were first developed (chapter 3); second, during wartime Japan (1937–45), when the institutions of the developmental state were introduced to the Japanese mainland (chapter 4); and third, during postwar Japan from 1946 to 1965 (chapter 5). In each of these cases, Sasada finds support for ideational theory. The book’s argument, supported by detailed research, is persuasive and balanced. While his framework tests discrete hypotheses, his analysis does not rule out the possibility of multiple causes, and in some cases he finds support for other theories, although he contends that they alone are not sufficient explanations. Sasada prefers thicker description and completeness over explanatory parsimony, a refreshing approach given the trends in social science. The book’s second contribution is to the larger debate on institutions and the role of ideas. Sasada’s work draws on a strain of the literature within the historical institutionalist vein that has argued that ideas, not only economic rationality and power, are critical to understanding social and political outcomes.3 While this literature made a promising start, the work on ideas has not become a mainstream approach to studying comparative politics, unlike the constructivist paradigm in the study of international...

The Revolutionary Power of Peripheral Agencies

This article challenges the long-standing emphasis in the developmental state literature on the powerful pilot agency as an essential component of industrialization. Although a pilot agency may be able to facilitate growth in mature industries, we argue that policy makers seeking to promote rapid innovation-based competition must instead rely on continuous, radical policy innovation. We argue that this kind of experimentation is more likely to occur at the periphery of the public sector, in agencies with few hard resources and limited political prestige. In addition to providing a novel interpretation of how states enter new, high-technology markets, we explain why some successful countries become less innovative over time. As agencies successfully introduce radical policy innovations, their higher profile exposes them to greater political interference and reduces their entrepreneurial capacity. The argument is supported by within-case analysis of two historically low-technology economies that successfully promoted rapid innovation-based growth, Finland and Israel.

Table of Contents

AbstractCiting Costs, N.J. Freezes DUI Admissions, Launches Vivitrol PilotAgency: Expansion to Sex Addiction Makes Sense on Multiple LevelsNew Jersey's Vivitrol PilotRise in Teen Drug Use Highlights Need for Prevention FundingDFC SuccessesStudy: Better Outcomes for Incarcerated Women With AAFDA Warns Against Ingestion of Tessalon by Children Under 10Briefly NotedIn the StatesResourcesNames in the NewsComing Up

Consolidating The Authoritarian Developmental State In The 1970S Korea: Chosen Strategies

This article examines the strategies or tools employed to consolidate the Authoritarian Developmental State (ADS) in Korea, placing emphasis on the 1970s Park Chung-hee government. For the aim, this article debated the theories on the developmental state and its selective affinity with authoritarian politics in East Asian countries. The progress and performance of the Korean ADS under the 1970s Park government was also explored. As a main section, this article empirically traced the strategies or tools that Korea employed in the 1970s to consolidate the ADS, by employing the following variables: environmental context, state bureaucracy and a pilot agency, state autonomy, politics of mobilization, political leadership, politics of control (constraints and inducements), and developmental strategy.

Developing and implementing a plan of action to improve care. The basics.

Once agencies have completed a process-of-care investigation, the next step of OBQI is the development and implementation of a plan of action to improve care. In this article, the authors share strategies for developing, implementing, and monitoring a successful plan of action and describe how pilot agencies developed their own action plan.

Bridging the Digital Divide in Southeast Asia: Pilot Agencies and Policy Implementation in Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines

This article emerges from a broader study of the role of information and communications technology (ICT) solutions in the economic and social development of Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. (1) These are four very diverse countries, but all have announced policy initiatives and created new agencies to lead their efforts to implement ICT solutions. The common features suggest an opportunity to revisit the idea of the developmental state, and in particular to inquire whether the new agencies can play the role of pilot agencies leading development in the new global situation. The structures and policies of the four case study countries are set in a comparative framework utilizing China as one end of a spectrum of size and development, and Singapore as the other. China is important in its own right because of its significance in the region, but also because it is still a developing country offering a wide range of experiences among regions and agencies. Singapore is not only an example of clearly focused policy and its implementation, but it also plays a crucial direct role as a regional commercial hub. Both yield insights into the conditions in countries more towards the middle of the spectrum. The approach is phenomenological, building from the aims, strategies, and implementation initiatives announced via policy statements on the one hand, and examination of the systems in operation on the other. Policies and programmes to address the digital divide remain no more than gestures unless they are reflected in the actual performance of the websites maintained by the responsible agencies. The study applies the duck to implementation--if it does not waddle and quack, it is not a duck. Each government's website has been accessed to test for functionality and service. If the answer to any question regarding availability of a service is negative, then announced policy is a hope for the future, and has not been supported by implemented solutions. Finally, but perhaps most important, even the best designed website and the most advanced back office solutions will not deliver services if the majority of the population does not have access to the system. The statistics on infrastructure availability, therefore, are an additional test of successful implementation. I. Background: The Threat and the Opportunity of the Digital Divide The digital divide separates those who are connected from those who are not. On one side, wealthy countries, progressive firms, and affluent individuals enjoy easy access to the Internet. They benefit from the instant availability of information, convenient contact with individuals and organizations, and efficient delivery of services. On the other side, less fortunate countries, slow-moving firms, and the poor and disadvantaged across the world are switched off. Without entree to the electronic world they are cut off from sources of information, unable to connect with those who might offer them assistance, and deprived of services. Use of the Internet continues to increase exponentially. The World Wide Web was created in 1991, and the first web browser in 1993. In late 2000, one estimate placed 332 million people online, and another forecast a billion users by 2004. But, of all these computers connected to the Internet, only 5 per cent were in the developing world. The disparity reflects average levels of income, high in the developed world and low in the developing world, and also the distribution of income, relatively equal in the developed world and relatively unequal in the developing world. It also reflects the availability of physical infrastructure. One of the key measures of telecommunications access is teledensity, the number of main telephone lines per 100 people. In the developed world, on average, there are nearly 50 phone lines per 100 people, but in low income countries, there are only 1.4 phone lines per 100 people. (2) Poverty is an age-old problem, but the revolution in ICT seems to present it in new and pressing forms. …

Institutions, Interests, and the Post-IMF Structural Adjustments in Korea

The role of the Korean state in structural adjustments after the economic crisis of 1997 has not been much different from the economic management style of the developmental state in the past. The state's intervention in structural adjustments of the corporate and financial sectors after the currency crisis relied on the conventional approaches of the developmental state. Compared to other countries that went through similar currency crises, Korea has efficiently performed structural adjustments. The main reasons to make structural adjustments effective include the IMF's coercive institutional isomorphism toward market economy. The high autonomy and policy capabilities that the Korean state enjoys also have supported its comparative success in structural adjustments. Such a high level of state autonomy and capability has been basically supported from the Korean people on the government's economic reform ropulsion in face of the recent economic crisis. The Korean state's institutional structure including the economic policy apparatus as pilot agencies and the existence of the economic technocrats with decades' experience of mercantilism also contibuted to the persistence of the developmental state. And the structural adjustments conducted by the developmental state were a rational choice of major stakeholders trying to improve their individual welfare in the political market.

Institutions and growth in Korea and Taiwan: The bureaucracy

How do competent bureaucracies emerge in developing countries? We examine bureaucratic reform in Korea and Taiwan and argue that in both cases political leaders had an interest in reforming the civil service to carry out their programmatic initiatives. In addition, both governments undertook organisational reforms that made certain parts of the bureaucracy more meritocratic, while utilising centralised and insulated pilot agencies’ in overall policy coordination. However, we reject the approach to bureaucratic reform that focuses primarily on its efficiency‐enhancing effects. If delegation, bureaucratic and policy reform provided an easily available solution to the authoritarian's dilemma, dictators would have more uniformly positive economic records. Rather, we analyse the political and institutional constraints under which governing elites operate. In doing so, we underscore several important variations in the design of bureaucratic organisation, which in turn mirror larger policy differences between the two countries.

How Structural Conflicts Stymie Reinvention

Government is in the throes of reinvention. Managers proceed through results-based strategic planning, processes, and other such means to identify innovative ways to provide services. Then they attempt to implement the plans. Often, however, agencies are thwarted by a little-known condition called (Fritz, 1989; 1996). This article analyzes structural conflicts in the federal government, showing how efforts are likely to be stymied until new, appropriate structures are created. If those who genuinely desire change in government could transcend these structural conflicts, they would be more likely to create the desired change. article shows that, when structures leading toward resolution are in place, organizations achieve their goals more readily. framework illustrates how highly effective organizations begin with anticipatory need (Wade, 1989) or vision and move toward the desired ends, employing tension (Fritz, 1996). concept of structural conflict explains much of what occurs when organizations move forward in a determined and vigorous manner, then move away from the target, oscillating and often ultimately giving up on their goal (Fritz, 1994). When organizations initiate change, other forces are often simultaneously working to maintain the existing situation, causing the organization to oscillate back to the status quo. In this situation several deep structural elements are in conflict with each other. These elements include the cognitive focus, organizational structure, and actions of the various participants. A resolving structure, on the other hand, is designed to lead to the accomplishment of the desired results. These notions of oscillation and resolution can easily be applied to the efforts to reinvent government. Reinventing Government federal government's effort to reinvent government is driven principally by the Government Performance and Results Act (P.L. No. 103-62, August 3, 1993), and the National Performance Review (Gore, 1993). act introduced a number of measures to improve government's way of doing business, including mandatory strategic planning and performance measurement tied to outcomes. Pilot agencies were selected and have already begun the process; others are beginning early, both in order to get a head start and also to initiate activities that they perceive as beneficial. As Vice President Gore writes, The National Performance Review is about change--historic change in the way government works. Clinton administration believes it is time for a new customer service contract with the American people. Such a shift would move government from tape to (1993, i). If enacted, the recommendations are estimated to produce savings of $108 billion and reduce the size of the civilian, nonpostal work force by 12 percent over five years. This change would bring government employment to below two million for the first time since 1967. Nonessential staff and unnecessary layers of management would be eliminated including supervisors, headquarters staff, personnel specialists, procurement specialists, budget analysts, accountants, and auditors. Central control functions that stifle creativity and cost billions would be eliminated as well (Gore, 1993, iv). To meet this hefty challenge, organization teams of federal employees from throughout government examined what works, what doesn't work, and how things should be changed (Gore, 1993). Citizens and leaders of organizations, businesses, and other levels of government were consulted. Reinvention teams were charged to lead departmental transformations; transformation labs were challenged to experiment with different ideas. reinventing government summit brought thinkers together to explore ideas. recommendations of the National Performance Review had four characteristics: (1) cutting red tape and making people accountable for results rather than rules; (2) putting customers first by placing maximum emphasis on satisfying those people who receive benefits from specific programs; (3) empowering employees to get results through decentralizing authority; and (4) cutting back to basics in order to produce better government for less through re-engineering, re-examining programs and processes, eliminating duplication, abandoning obsolete programs, and ending special interest privileges (Gore, 1993). …

Bridging the Gap Between Information Technology and Human Services

Summary The requirements for management information systems in human services are conceptually little different from those of many other programs or industry sectors. Yet numerous attempts to develop effective systems for casework services and programs have been unsuccessful. There is ready recognition of the potential for the utilization of information technology but little awareness of the pitfalls inherent in its implementation. A pilot project revealed that critical determinants of success are a function of die quality, extent and nature of the collaboration between agency practitioners, managers at all levels, and system designers. It was found that the technical expertise of the information technology specialist contracted to develop the system was less important. Although there were many interesting technical challenges and components of the project this paper focuses primarily on the model underpinning the system and its implementation within pilot agencies.