JAPANESE BUREAUCRATS AND POLICY IMPLEMENTATION: LESSONS FOR AMERICA?

Dan A. Cothran

Review of Policy Research, 1987, vol. 6, issue 3, 439-458

Abstract: In recent years, American business has attempted to learn the secrets of Japanese business success. This paper asks whether it would be equally useful to examine Japanese public administration to determine why the Japanese government seems to be so much more successful than American government in implementing public policies. It is widely agreed that policy implementation in the United States involves considerable “slippage” between policy intent and achievement. By contrast, scholars agree that Japanese public policy is usually implemented effectively and efficiently. This paper argues that the Japanese case has three important implications for the United States: effective policy implementation is possible, better implementation would result from allowing civil servants to participate more fully in policy formulation, and the development of an elite corps of top civil servants could make a major contribution to better policymaking and implementation.

Date: 1987
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1541-1338.1987.tb00760.x

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:revpol:v:6:y:1987:i:3:p:439-458

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.wiley.com/bw/subs.asp?ref=1541-132x

Access Statistics for this article

Review of Policy Research is currently edited by Christopher Gore

More articles in Review of Policy Research from Policy Studies Organization Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().