The Postcard Project:

Future Directions in International and Comparative Administration

The Original Six Postcards

Introduction
Postcards from
... Paris
... Seoul
... Bamako
... New York City
... Rio de Janeiro
... Washington, DC
References

Further Contributions

... Derick Brinkerhoff
... Marc Lindenberg
... Fred Riggs
... Ted Thomas
... Tjip Walker

Links

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All material on this web site is copyright by Tjip Walker and
Derick Brinkerhoff.

Postcard from New York City

The globalization of economic activity has perforated the jurisdictional boundaries along which public administration has been organized. National, state, and local governments have seen their traditional functions, powers, and authority leak away as the new international economic order has become established as the dominant factor in the public as well as the private sector. The features of this new economic order are well known: the dominance and independence of transnational corporate investment, interconnected markets, and emphasis on export trade and competitive advantage, unfettered international financial flows, and rapid communication. New contours have superseded the old boundaries. At the supranational level, trading arrangements, such as GATT, WTO, NAFTA, etc., configure economic relationships among nations. At the local level, economic empowerment zones, regional development authorities, direct overseas links, and so on shape new forms of public-private interaction.

What Coolidge said of the US in the 1920's, that "the business of America is business," is true of the world in the 1980's and 90's. Successful public administration creates a climate that supports business investment and export growth. The lessons for comparative public administration are clear. Consider this comparison between the East Asian tigers, with efficient, modernizing civil services and investment-friendly policies, and Sub-Saharan Africa, with its weak states and poor policy frameworks.

Comparative Growth Rates

	Annual growth, GNP per capita 1985-1995	Annual Growth, real trade/ GDP 1980/83- 1990/93
East Asia and Pacific	7.2	1.40
Sub-Saharan Africa	-1.1	-0.35

Socio-economic betterment depends upon successful integration into the new world economic order. Governments at all levels and in all countries can learn from watching where investment, trade, and growth flourish. For public administration, less is definitely more.

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