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Skepticism as to the relevance of collaborative governance theory and practice is often found in the literature on Korean public administration. It is not always clear, however, why and how collaborative governance is irrelevant. The purpose of this paper is to revisit the relevance of collaborative governance theory to South Korean public administration from the perspective of statelessness of the United States via three theoretical approaches: descriptive and explanatory, normative, and instrumental. Although collaborative governance can generate desirable public values related to participatory democracy, this paper suggests that if we are to apply the practice to Korean public administration, we need to develop an empirical theory of collaborative governance that incorporates the characteristics of a strong state and an instrumental theory of collaborative governance that explicitly considers group dynamics within the indigenous culture. To do this, furthermore, we first need to consider the degree to which Korean civil society appreciates the values related to collaborative governance.

Authentic dialogue is a key component of deliberative democracy. Public administration scholars and practitioners have focused on institutional settings for authentic dialogue, but they have paid less attention to behavioral aspects, especially the emotional component, of authentic dialogue. The author proposes a conceptual framework for authentic dialogue that highlights the three dimensions of its social‐behavioral foundation: epistemic, social, and compassionate information processing motivation. The article reviews the discourse on authentic dialogue in public administration and provides a conceptual framework for authentic dialogue, with a discussion of the three behavioral dimensions, their relationships, and their effects. This framework may be used in empirical analysis of authentic dialogue and the design of institutions for deliberative democracy.

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to provide an overview of agent-based modeling as an alternative method for public administration research. It is focused on encouraging public administration scholars to come to better understanding of the method.Design/methodology/approachThis article performed a comprehensive review of methodological issues relative to agent-based modeling.FindingsAfter reviewing the current research themes in public administration and the methodological nature of agent-based modeling, we found that agent-based modeling can help researchers to advance theories by means of sophisticated thought experiment which is not possible by formal modeling and verbal reasoning. We also pointed out that agent-based modeling does not substitute empirical research, but can add much value through being part of a mixed-method and multidisciplinary research.Practical implicationsWe suggested that interested researchers may need to take a strategic approach in developing and describing a pertinent model and reporting its results.Originality/valueAgent-based modeling has rarely been used in public administration research. The article provides an introductory overview for researchers not familiar with ABM and suggests to the academic community future venues that would unfold from agent-based modeling.

In research on policy learning, target groups' responses have been insufficiently investigated. This article aims to expand the theory of policy learning by focusing on the effect of policy layering on disparity in learning among target groups, and its social consequences. Using the case of South Korea's education policy, we show that policy layering to pursue multiple goals over 25 years has resulted in a complexly layered policy structure that has generated a discriminatory effect among different target groups and policy instability. We conclude that research on target groups renders implications for effective and ethical policy learning.

Anticorruption policy transfer has been discussed for decades, but the influence of culture in target countries has not received comparable attention sufficient to explain the lack of progress in reducing corruption in those countries. The conceptualization of culture so far has provided only a limited tool for developing a dynamic theory of policy transfer. We propose a bottomup model of dynamic policy transfer that takes into account the cultural context in target countries. We first define culture as a set of values that are consistent with each other but that also conflict. We then develop a dynamic policy transfer model that revises the traditional model by considering the proposed concept of culture. Finally, we discuss the practical implications of the model, emphasizing the importance of knowledge of culture at the local level, where a bottom-up implementation of anticorruption policy takes place. We conclude by suggesting strategies for empirical research and specific implications regarding the Korean policy context.

The purpose of the present research is to contribute to the task of building theory pertinent to collaborative governance through the use of a novel research method-computer simulation using agent-based modeling (ABM). We explore the relationships between a number of characteristics and outcomes of collaborative forums, focusing on the effects of a process of deliberation through which stakeholders build shared understanding of the issue, and of decision-making rules used to control power imbalances among stakeholders. Three measures were used to assess the results of the decision-making process: decision success rate, defined as the percentage of forums that reached a decision; decision acceptability, defined as the mean level of acceptability (across agents) of the alternatives chosen in successful forums; and decision equity, defined as the standard deviation of the level of acceptability (across agents) of the alternatives chosen in successful forums. Based on the results of the computational model, we suggest propositions regarding the positive effect of deliberation on consensus building and decision quality, the advantages of a supermajority requirement, and interactions between decision rules and deliberation. We conclude the article by discussing the strengths and weaknesses of this approach and commenting on the issue of empirical measurement of these issues. Adapted from the source document.