Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: While studies of democratic transition has yielded significant theoretical convergence on the commonalities and peculiarities of Third world democratization, there remain much confusion in studies of democratic consolidation largely due to their preoccupation with establishing general theories that privilege factors considered to have mattered for the rise and consolidation of Western democracy--e.g., class relations, civil society, political institutions, economic development, and culture--and indiscriminately applying the same logic to analyses of non-Western democracies without an adequate account of their contemporary relevance and potentially disparate impacts. However, while such practice of evaluating Third world democracies based on a set of criteria derived from the Western democratic experience was useful for grasping the differences between the two, it does not seem to have been equally successful in elucidating what fundamentally threatens the future of these nascent democracies in the first place. Without negating what the former approach has taught us so far, the limitation of existing consolidation studies as such suggests the need for theoretical reorientation in ways that facilitate explicit theorizing on each country's distinct path to democratic development and spatiotemporallty-specific challenges. From this line of analyses, exploring the South Korean democratic quest in terms of how national division as its unique "visceral conflict"--in the presence of which democracy cannot function--constantly and inherently undermines the quality of its democratic consolidation can complement the ongoing search for approaches that better address the elements of peculiarity in each Third wave democratic project thereby revising and expanding the way non-Western democracies should be understood and conceptualized.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper will look at how the Party control, the paternalistic style of state control, and legacies of the Soviet model of talent cultivation in the pre-reform era have contributed to the unique features of Chinese universities, such as the mission and core values of the university in the PRC (People’s Republic of China) context. Emphasis will be laid on how the Party has exercised its control over Chinese universities through an array of ideological and organizational means, how the Party control has shaped the internal power structure and functioning of Chinese universities, as well as how the Party control has affected the realization of reform objective set by the government.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Many scholars, lawyers and observers from all sides of the debate have argued that the particularly divisive and politically salient nature of the abortion debate in the United States is the result of the fact that the courts, rather than legislatures, have engaged in decisive policy-making. After examining the various theoretical assumptions of these claims, I examine their empirical validity. By examing the nature of the debate during the time when abortion policy was decided by state legislatures, I argue that there is little reason to believe that litigation per se is what has made the abortion debate different in the United States than in other countries. In particular, I will focus on an examination of conservative media sources before and after Roe.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Chile's two-party system is the result of institutional setting and internal political developments. In the absence of either, the outcomes would have been much less stable.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Many previous studies have shown what e-government means, or what success factors of e-government are. Yet, their focus has been mainly on developed countries as it was difficult to deal with e-government in developing countries that show meager development. While recent development of e-government in developing countries makes it possible to analyze its implementation and identify success and failure factors, empirical studies that examine unique requirements or conditions of e-government in developing countries are still scanty.
In this study, by conducting a survey on success factors of e-government, targeting 109 ICT experts and public officers from 53 developing countries who participate in e-government projects of their countries, we tried to identify core success factors of e-government in developing countries and find unique meanings and implications for developing countries in achieving successful e-government.
By the factor analysis, 6 success factors are identified: changes in work process, technical/human resources, organizational culture/values, vision/strategy/internal leadership, external/financial support, and laws/regulations/policies. The multivariate regression analysis shows that ‘changes in work process’ and ‘technical/human resources’ are the important factors. ‘External/financial support’ and ‘organizational culture/values are also determining factors recognized as unique challenges to developing countries. In conclusion, we found that developing countries need to satisfy certain unique requirements, while fulfilling some conditions that are similarly required for developed countries to achieve successful e-government.