The Japanese Civil Service and Economic Development: Catalysts of Change - Hardcover

by Muramatsu Pempel Kim (Author), Kyung-Ki Kim (Editor), Kozo Yamamura (Editor)

This volume analyzes how the Japanese civil service has contributed to Japan's phenomenally successful economic growth, and provides much new information about its structure, function, and policymaking activities. It emphasizes the degree of competitiveness within the Japanese bureaucracy; the extent to which political authority, rather than formal power, is wielded; and the way in which government policy has stimulated market forces. Written by experts in the field, this work will be invaluable to economists and policymakers interested in the Japanese system and in models for developing and transitional economies.

Back Jacket

This volume analyses the way in which the Japanese civil service has contributed to Japan's successful economic growth and the lessons - both positive and negative - that experience may offer for other developing countries. It provides rich new information about the structures, functions, and policy-making activities of the Japanese civil service. Its emphasis is on the degree of competitiveness within the Japanese bureaucracy, the extent to which political authority rather than formal power is relied upon, and the ways in which the civil service played indispensable roles in formulating and administering policies to enable the economy to achieve high performance over time. In short, the volume's most important lesson is that a competent and motivated civil service can contribute to economic growth in substantive ways by altering the incentives of firms and local governments without unduly restricting market forces. The volume also includes chapters that caution against overestimating the roles of the civil service.