Suchergebnisse

Discusses the political economy of the SARS epidemic and its impact on human resources in East Asia, as it occurred in 2003. The epidemic spread from the PR China, to Hong Kong, Singapore and Tairan, amongst other countries in East Asia and as far away as North America, particularly Canada, the EU and elsewhere.

Unemployment in China is now a serious and growing problem. In this context, Shanghai has been a pioneer in establishing re-employment service facilities. Starting from a local experiment, the Shanghai programme has been mooted by the Chinese authorities as a model to be replicated nation-wide. In this article, we propose an evaluation of this specific Re-employment Service Centre (zaijiuye fuwu zhongxin) programme, so as to shed light on the measures to be taken in combating urban unemployment. Our empirical field research in Shanghai took the form of over 50 open-ended, qualitative interviews with policy makers, managers, trade union representatives, workers and unemployed persons. Economic developments may make Shanghai seem distinctly special and shed light on the question of wider applicability of the Shanghai model. The replication of such a model has, in our view, only achieved mixed outcomes and the research findings suggest a degree of scepticism as to how far it can be extended.

Public officials are entrusted with the primary responsibility of executing public policy and decisions of the political executive, but they are also required to contribute to the planning, dicision-making and execution phases in modern governments. The outbreak of a deadly virus in Hong Kong in 1998 caused considerable anxiety in the community, and the response of government could not satisfy the expectations of the public. The case of the Bird Flu highlights a number of issues related to the arrangements and procedures for managing crisis in general, and planning and coordination for execution on a specific level. The efforts to alleviate public anxiety were affected by the lack of political direction as well as the failure to ensure confidence through effective public communication. The effective management of such crises requires the existence of an open system of public communication and collaboration between the government and the community on the basis of political direction. (Int Rev o Publ Admin/DÜI)