Vol. 3 No. 2 (2018): 10th issue
Dear Reader,
We are pleased to present you with the 10th issue of the International Journal of Civil Service Reform and Practice published by the Astana Civil Service Hub.
The current edition begins with the article of Professor Akira Nakamura and Assistant Professor Wataru Nishimura, both at Meiji University in Tokyo, Japan. The authors explore and provide some answers to the troublesome question of why Japanese governments have often failed to produce effective and enduring leadership in government affairs and policy making.
The next article is written by Max Everest-Phillips and Samuel Henry from UNDP's Global Centre for Public Service Excellence in Singapore examines the question whether the capacity of public administration differs according to a country’s size by looking at the governance capacity constraints of small and very small states, concluding that even in small states achieving the SDGs is primarily a political and not a capacity challenge, like it is in other states.
This issue concludes with the article of Alisher Suyunov, Bakhrom Mirkasimov and Komiljon Karimov from the Westminster International University in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, which focuses on Research and Development (R&D) in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. By using evidence from both countries, the article demonstrates that despite the higher R&D capacity Uzbekistan possesses compared to Kazakhstan, scientists of the latter are significantly ahead in the number of publications they produce and patents they register. The authors also argue that the low productivity of researchers in Uzbekistan is due to low incentives provided for R&D, lack of private investments and inefficiency of research processes, relative to Kazakhstan. They conclude by proposing three policy options to improve the quality of R&D in Uzbekistan.
We hope that the content of this issue of the Journal will be of value to scholars, practitioners and other readers interested in acquiring a deeper understanding of the topics considered by the above authors.
Yours sincerely,
The Editorial Team
