IAPA Annual Conference

Background

Over the last ten years, the world has been gripped by rapid, wide ranging changes. The world today is a society that is experiencing and living a new world order, which many today refer to as the “global and digital society”. Rapid advancements in information technology have made territorial boundaries no longer relevant in relations among nations.

Today global values can easily permeate the society in remote areas. Consequently, marginalized people, who are often considered to be very far from the center of power, also have access to drivers of global developments. Local population has easy access to information on global politics taking shape in other countries. Meanwhile, local phenomena is easily picked up by international community to become international issues. The most recent issues such as terrorism, human trafficking, cybercrime, are examples of some of the issues that can be regarded as being global and local at the same time.

Within the context of the above change, what is the actual position and role of public administration? Based on the general perception of public administration science experts, public policy is often regarded as the product of the interaction among domestic actors such as bureaucrats, politicians, members of business and civil society community who conduct their work based on conventional mechanisms. The reality is that there many international actors who play various roles in public policy process of any given country. Donor agencies (IMF and World Bank), Multi-National Corporations, international non-governmental organizations, regional bloc organizations (ASEAN, AFTA, etc) are institutions that often influence policy in a certain country.

To that end, issues and problems which any government face today have changed as well. What problems do governments face today?; which public will influence and be influenced by policy?; what institutional mechanisms can be used to solve social problems that governments face today?; To what extent can local institutions collaborate with global institutions in resolving public problems? The International IAPA Conference will attempt to explore and delve into the above issues in order to enrich extant research on this theme in the realm of public administration science.

1. Publicness and Citizenship in Public Administration.

As most countries are gripped by the global drive towards democracy, questions
about publicness and citizenship are gaining more attention among scholars. The issues of keeping activities of government agencies under public consent and improving the quality of services for all citizens are being addressed and are likely to be an interesting field of research among public administration experts. Meanwhile, findings from current research also indicate that publicness at the organizational and state policy levels are both important determinants of public service outcomes. To that end, this topic while challenging, is also an interesting one for discussion in this conference.

2. Social Capital and Indigenous Public Administration.

Policy instruments that owe their origin and relevancy to foreign systems have oftentimes been used in helping nations solve social problems they face. This is the case, despite the fact that nations that borrow foreign policy instruments to resolve social problems have local wisdom that is embedded in local culture, which can help in solving local problems. What local wisdom can be revisited for subsequent transformation into universal values that can later be applied in public administration?

3. Digital Society and e-Government

Wide ranging and deep advancements in information technology have created the digital society. The implication of the emergence of a digital society on the government is an issue that is interesting both from the upside and flipside. Besides, this theme can help in developing into what elements or components of the digital technology the government may adopt to make its functions more effective.

4. International and Collaborative Governance

Collaborative governance is today serving as the medium that facilitates the coming together of various stakeholders meet public agencies in a process that has fostered participatory, common ground-oriented decision making. This is an inevitable consequence of the increasingly participatory public policy process that leverages networking of all elements of governance process that involves members of business, civil society, and international agencies. Moreover, the increasing importance of multi-stakeholder decision making will enhance the benefits of cooperation and collaboration between state and non-state stakeholders in future.