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International Relations
and Diplomacy
Volume 2, Number 10, October 2014 (Serial Number 13)
Contents
American Foreign Policy and Economy
Fraud and Deceit, or a Failure of American Political and Social Sciences: Towards a
Theory About the Impact of Banking on the Rise and Fall of Civilizations 639
Richard W. Chadwick
US Aid to Pakistan and Its Implications for India 655
Aslam Khan
Hong Kong Education Policy
Hong Kong Civic Education Policy From 1984 to 2014: An Historical Comparative Analysis 665
Hung Chung Fun Steven
The Development of Economic Regime and Local Governance
A Summary of the Developments Regarding the Economic Regime Implemented in
Developed and Developing Countries 680
Özlen Hiç Birol
Devolution of Sta. Ana Davao Port: Then and Now 691
Saidamin P. Bagolong, Neil John T. Audan, Angelica Faye G. Cameguing, Sunshine B. Cordero
International Relations and Diplomacy, ISSN 2328-2134
October 2014, Vol. 2, No. 10, 639-654
Fraud and Deceit, or a Failure of American Political and
Social Sciences: Towards a Theory About the Impact of
Banking on the Rise and Fall of Civilizations
Richard W. Chadwick
University of Hawaii, Hawaii, USA
Many scholars have documented and analyzed the widespread fraud and deceit associated with government failures
worldwide, comparing historical and recent policies leading up to the currently unstable global financial system.
Most of the attention to detail, however, has been focused on the actions and failures of corporations, corporate
leaders, and political and financial regulatory institutions, with little attention to generalizing political and
social-psychological theories that might explain not only current but historical failures, and also prepare the way for
formulating alternative futures in a manner that has some substantial likelihood of significantly impacting élites
who are held responsible for such systemic effects. This paper offers some suggestions for such theory construction,
exploring literature on grand theories of the rise and fall of empires, war and financial cycles, and
social-psychological theories of political decision making, and considers some implications for the literature on
growth and decline of civilizations and their worldviews, and in this context just what alternative futures might be
likely and how to choose. I also explores the possibility that the social sciences are close to an understanding of
civilization dynamics—close but not yet there. A framework is suggested which may be useful for continuing this
research to the point where alternative futures can be constructed that have significance for the future of our
globalized world order. In particular the works of Jared Diamond, Carroll Quigley, Niall Ferguson, Chalmers
Johnson, and Paul Kennedy, are compared for their macro-historical theories suggesting an evolutionary dynamic
in the life span of civilizations, the works of Johnson and Kwak and others for their research into the causes of
recurrent financial instability threatening the stability of regimes and whole societies, and various theories of
individual and group decision making (Leon Festinger, Harold Lasswell, Abraham Maslow, Richardson, and others)
which may explain the social-psychological processes linking these two phenomena. Further, regarding why such
comprehensive theory tends not to be addressed in the social and policy sciences, two stumbling blocks are
discussed: (1) the absence of any “standard theory” in political and social science, the absence of which motivates
academic struggles analogous to those characterized as security dilemmas in international relations; and (2)
students and practitioners of politics often speak past one another and get embroiled in needless conflicts because of
the latent structures of their dominant paradigms, specifically misunderstandings among the practitioners of
political science, political philosophy, and political practitioners.
Keywords: civilizations, banking, fraud, systems, decision-making
Richard W. Chadwick, professor, Political Science Department, University of Hawaii.
DAVID PUBLISHING
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FRAUD AND DECEIT, OR A FAILURE OF AMERICAN POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
640
Introduction
This essay began with the intention of developing a metatheoretical understanding of financial crises
which we are currently experiencing, “meta” theoretical because there are many explanations and historical
analyses of banking system failures, developed over centuries which conclude that there is a wave phenomenon
at work (Kondratiev waves immediately come to mind for instance and variations such as debt deflation and
credit cycles). War cycles theories (Richardson, application of Kondratiev waves) are similarly situated. The
basic hypothesis is that the political-economic breakdowns that occur are due to collective memory loss where
profits (or ambition or grievances, or paradoxically fear and distrust in the case of war) increase our willingness
to take risks known in the past to be quite dangerous.
As persuasive as these theories are, given their grounding in empirical research, the question remains, why
are our individual and collective memories so vulnerable to the enticements of immediate gratification?
Similarly, why react to perceptions of short term threats or vulnerabilities in a manner known at least in
principle to be long term dangerous (see Anatol Rapoport on the prisoner‟s dilemma and Richardson on
armaments decisions for instance). Bernard, Aleksandr, Palley, and Semmler (2013) had a review of these and
other models researching such dynamics.
The same type of problem is well known in Hardin‟s famous “tragedy of the commons” wherein
individual well being over the short term overrides collective well being in the longer term due to resulting
degradation of environmental resources. Worse, the perpetuation of such long term disastrous collective
behavior results in societies, in their struggle for survival, migrating and/or dominating other societies to
acquire the necessities of their survival, giving rise to colonization, empire building, genocide, and so on. Those
who are successful at this have their cultural habits reinforced; those that are not, doom their culture if not all of
their culture‟s human carriers who are often assimilated into other cultures. In either case the short term vs.
long term bias in decision making is reinforced.
It was with these explanations and problems in mind that I has proceeded to attempt an integration of
several streams of thought that broadened the question. There is a large literature on the rise and fall of
civilizations and great powers. Are the explanations for such change—cycles in the rise and fall of whole
societies and civilizations—just modified forms of the same line of thinking, just adapted to be more inclusive
of entire societies? If so, are there institutional “fixes” to the short term, small scale bias, or are we confronting
a limitation embedded in our genes and the conditions on our planet that activate them? And if that is so, is any
solution possible—perhaps at a minimum preserving the knowledge of the problem in a cultural subsystem that
after a disaster has an opportunity to readjust the society? And do such subcultures already exist?
Talcott Parsons’ Theory of Social Change
If I recalls Parsons‟ The Social System correctly, a nested process of social change is hypothesized that
begins with individuals‟ discontent. Taking advantage of Festinger‟s (1957) concept of cognitive dissonance
and Maslow‟s (1943, 1954, 1971) theory of basic needs, Parsons‟ (1964) process of social change can be
interpreted and explained in four steps. It begins with the assumption that individuals are in social positions,
with roles (responsibilities, functional expectations, duties or obligations) and statuses (social resources
enabling them to influence others):
(1) If individuals perceive themselves not to be fulfilling their obligations, they attempt to operate more
FRAUD AND DECEIT, OR A FAILURE OF AMERICAN POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
641
efficiently and/or increase their available resources. In short, they believe that they need to fix themselves.
Inadequacies in meeting their survival and security needs for instance, are interpreted as personal failure for
which the remedy is personal improvement.
(2) If this process of individual adjustment fails to some significant degree, individuals search for change
in their social and organization network(s), thus putting pressure on others for organizational change. In short
their problems are no longer perceived to be of their making but of their social network and organizations with
which they are associated, or relations between their organization(s) and others. For example, a regulatory
agency is preventing their company from making a profit, hence hurting their, interests. They need to fix
organizations, not themselves.
(3) If efforts at organizational change fail to result in a satisfactory achievement of whatever is being
sought, the problem then is diagnosed as institutional, that is, in the standards or rules by which society permits
the creation and legitimation of organizations of particular types, including those responsible for maintaining
such standards and rules. For instance, changing the laws governing regulation and financing of regulators
might be advocated.
(4) If institutional changes are effected but do not solve the problem, if I understand Parsons‟ view
correctly, is to question the fundamental values that are perceived to be at play, affecting goals as well as means
and outcomes. For instance, individuals having formed or participated in organizations that were successful in
changing laws now find that their efforts were in vain, and resort to demands for order to be restored at the
sacrifice of freedom and traditional legal procedures (or vice versa, demand more freedom and less interference
from inefficient or corrupt government agencies). In either case, we are now in the realm of value change.
Now, as useful as this explanation is as to why different types of strategies and explanations are prevalent
in a society (from individual self-worth, to organizational politics, to institutional ossification, to value
transformations), it leaves open the question of why, specifically, problems like financial and political crises
occur with some periodicity (Kondratiev), why there seem to be no permanent solutions, why they emerge with
fair regularity from societies‟ own internal dynamics as well as foreign relations, and why when solutions are
found and implemented, they do not endure.
Let‟s review the current situation as an exemplar of this problematique (problem-complex) to see if there
are any clues to answers to these questions.
Description and Analysis of the Current Ongoing Financial Meltdown
Characterizing the financial meltdown and bailouts of 2007-2009, William Black (2005) applied a
normative framework to define and explain the situation, thus:
Fraud is deceit. And the essence of fraud is, “I create trust in you, and then I betray that trust, and get you to give me
something of value”. And as a result, there's no more effective acid against trust than fraud, especially fraud by top elites,
and that‟s what we have. (Black, 2005)
In a follow-up interview in 2010, he theorized the source of fraud thus:
A criminogenic environment... spreads fraud. And there are two key elements. One... If you don‟t regulate, you create
a criminogenic environment because you can get away with the frauds. The second is compensation. And that has two
elements. One is the executive compensation that... creates the perverse incentives. But the second is for these
professionals and for the lower level employees, to give the bonuses. And it creates what we call a Gresham‟s dynamic.
And that just means cheaters prosper. And when cheaters prosper, markets become perverse and they drive honesty out of
FRAUD AND DECEIT, OR A FAILURE OF AMERICAN POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
642
the market. (Black, 2005)
Applying this model to the present Great Recession, the researchers would expect to find a process
roughly following these steps:
First, the process would be initiated by intentionally creating a criminogenic environment, in particular by
the Federal Reserve and bankers‟ successful lobbying efforts to remove legislation and regulation that required
them to regulate and limit what they could do. This occurred.
Then following these successful efforts at deregulation, some in the financial industries, putatively the six
major conglomerates discussed by Johnson and Kwak (2011), would (and presumably did) knowingly structure
and promote fraudulent practices since eliminating regulation eliminated the fear of getting caught. Cohan‟s
research on how Goldman Sachs avoided the 2007 crash of the mortgage market supports both Johnson and
Kwak‟s analysis and Black‟s criminogenic environment thesis (Cohan, 2011, Ch. 23).
Fraudulent practices then entice a significant proportion of the general population into entering into
mortgage deals that were known by the bankers involved, to predictably fail.
The bankers involved in the above practices then enticed insurance, retirement and other investment
institutions to invest their funds in financial instruments derivative of these mortgages (“ninja loans” as they
were known as in the industry, meaning no income verification, no job verification, and no asset verification,
aka “liars loans”).
Compounding the process, to insure that the derivatives market would attract more conservative investors,
the derivatives were in effect insured through the creation of “credit default swaps”. This Ponzi-like process
continues until the mortgage market collapses.
At each step in this process, fees were charged to clients for administration and the opportunity to make
these investments. The Gresham‟s dynamic was now complete. The sales at every stage appear to be legal sales,
thus insuring that the tens of thousands of sellers were free of any obligations other than paying their taxes. All
related markets had become perverse however; honesty had been driven out, for while it was known to the FBI
analysts of the housing market that a “bubble” was being built through highly profitable “ninja” loans, no one
sale was obviously fraudulent. As Black observed, when rating agencies like Fitch finally began to inspect the
mortgages on which the derivatives were based, they found nearly all to be fraudulent.
This process was not participated in by the entire financial and investment industry of course. As Black
notes, another researcher, Larry White, observed that perhaps 90% of bankers did not participate in this fraud,
and adhered to ethics the breach of which would most likely not entail legal actions. Thus the question arises,
what prevented the majority of individuals and firms in this business from participating? Further, why was this
dynamic allowed to start up and continue until the catastrophic failure of the global financial system was
imminent? Further, why was the imminent catastrophe managed with a massive bailout rather than with a
restructuring of the banking system and reform of the regulatory role of government? And why, after the
bailout of the banking and auto industries, were those involved not prosecuted? Black cites his own case at the
end of the Reagan administration by way of contrast where as a regulator himself, he and his team put more
than a thousand bankers in jail following the savings and load scandal.
Johnson and Kwak (2011) answered these questions straightforwardly: Lobbying efforts by the banking
industry, including the Federal Reserve, were successful in removing the legislation that mandated separation
of commercial and investment banking, and regulatory oversight by agencies including the Federal Reserve
FRAUD AND DECEIT, OR A FAILURE OF AMERICAN POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
643
itself. Four factors were important contributors to their success: massive funding for election campaigns,
patterns of rotation into and out of Congress by legislators that create lucrative career paths, a shared ideology,
and a community of interests among élites.
Short-term, Small-scale Systems Unfairly Burdened?
Reading over Black‟s account, Gretchen Morgenson‟s (2012), and many others‟, the general impression
one gets is of a political system in constant struggle against the enticements of private interests pursuing their
goals at the expense of society‟s well-being as a whole. This narrative, however, seems to assume that political
systems are designed by individuals mindful of society‟s collective well being, and are put in place to protect
society from individual interests overwhelming the common good through decision making that ignores the
long term needs of society to maximize the short term interests of politically active elites. Others, however, take
a very different, even diametrically opposed view. For instance, Lasswell (1930) characterized politicians at the
core as people who displace their private motives onto public objects (policies, regulations, laws),
“rationalized” in the public interest. To make a rather blunt analogy, it would seem that the purpose of a
political shepherd is to assure that the master (and only the master) gets to fleece the sheep—a far cry from the
high ideals of our Founding Fathers.
There is a complementary ethic at work here as well. Somewhat offhandedly, Lasswell (1935a) noted a
facet of American ideology that is missing in the ethical failure narrative:
Americans still have a sporting attitude toward economic activity and feel contemptuous of anyone who whines when
he loses. There is a fundamental admiration for the “big shots”…. Americans have the enterpriser's attitude toward money
and not the peasant‟s attitude; money is a scoring device and not a hoard in a sock. The expansion of personality possible
in the new world generates a respect for unlimited possibilities and bigness.... (pp. 166-167)
This orientation suggests a broad tolerance of and indeed admiration for cutthroat competition. The
“failure” of the American system to be fair is less important, from this viewpoint, than that it reward
competition, and reward it handsomely.
A contrary view by Peter Corning (2011) who saw “a daunting political obstacle...to the principle of
fairness and social justice” from the 30% of the population “who will fiercely defend the existing system, and
their self-interest” (p. 190). The subtext here is of course the 30% minority dominating the outcome affecting
the 70%, a populist appeal. But where in the world has political action been differently weighted? And is it true
that the “existing system” is inherently antithetical to the interests of the majority? Or that the majority do not
occasionally fight just as “fiercely”? Also, Corning (2011) noted that American individualism is not without
altruism in practice, nor is there a gross disrespect for law and order (recall Black‟s observation that 90% of
bankers did not participate in fraud); but there is no gainsaying the existence of “six gun justice”, and our
heroes—from the romanticized view of Billy the Kid and Robin Hood to the fictional James Bond and
Superman, and most recently Ironman; all show a “healthy” disrespect for legal formalities yet are strong
supporters of social justice in one sense or another. As in American sports, the losers presumably have the
opportunity to reenter the competition. The intent is to have a society that assures its members that competition,
while rough, offers opportunities to learn from mistakes, not just an unmarked grave.
I do not wish to turn this essay into a roundabout explanation of (or apology for) American exceptionalism,
but at this point simply to note that financial fraud and other cycles which result in loss of capital and life (as
with war cycles), are not easily explained by recourse to normative dissonance—juxtaposing one value against
FRAUD AND DECEIT, OR A FAILURE OF AMERICAN POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
644
another or one institutional arrangement vs. another. Yet this is often the conclusion reached, namely a failure
of ethics, that causes the fall of civilizations. But in a spirit of critical thinking let me assert the opposite, defend
that position, then respond to the defense. Can the researchers find in the societal evolution (“rise and fall” of
civilizations) literature the theme that inadequate ethics are to blame for the fall? Here is a sample of the
literature.
Paul Kennedy (1987) generally viewed the growth of civilizations as due to economic advantage, which in
turn creates a military advantage. Similarly when the economic advantage declines, so does the military. The
problem is exacerbated by economic competitors and the rise in the number of obligations to protect the far
reaches of its empire, impelling the great power to expend ever greater resources in proportion to its economy,
obligations that were incurred during the period of expansion (pp. 22-23). In the present system, the USA is
also faced with the additional problem of nuclear annihilation (p. 515).
Chalmers Johnson‟s (2004) writing almost two decades later echoed this view of the cause of decline,
noting the bellicosity of the USA response to the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center and the explicit goal to
“dominate the world through absolute military superiority” (p. 285). He projected this as another example of
over-extension which he expects will increasingly centralize power and military authority in the presidency and
eventually bankrupt the country (Ch. 10 passim). And he sited other long time observers of world politics like
Stanley Hoffman who characterizes American Mideast policies such as the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq as
“„breathtakingly unrealistic‟, „morally reckless‟, and „eerily reminiscent of the disastrously wishful thinking of
the Vietnam War‟” (p. 287).
Jared Diamond divides his studies of the rise and fall of societies into two books. In the first one Diamond
(1999) attributed the spread and domination of one society against others as due to the introduction and use of
new technologies that create surplus energy and military advantages (weaponry, logistics) and to the relative
deficit in these among societies with which the dominant society comes in contact. Diamond‟s (2005) sequel
describes a number of factors which have led societies to collapse: environmental damage, climate change,
hostile neighbors, loss of support from friendly neighbors, and its political, economic, and social institutions
and values which contribute to what decisions are arrived at in addressing the other four problem areas. In
particular, those societies that do “not” solve their problems with a very long term perspective as to what is best
for the common good tend to collapse.
Quigley (1961) wrote that he built on Toynbee‟s five “stages”1 in the rise and fall of civilizations (p. 418)
by adding two more (p. 146 lists the seven), to specify processes that initiate societies and bring about
transitions between them, and why societies succeed or fail to respond to the challenges presented at each stage.
Although he specifies six “levels” of “development” (i.e., change within each level) and a “morphology”
(interactions between levels)—the levels being intellectual, religious, social, economic, political, and
military—the core dynamic driving the rise and fall of societies is at its core technological and economic, in
particular the rate of investment in “instruments of expansion”—meaning adaptations that create surplus of
capital. As with Diamond, Quigley (1961) attributed “the cause of surplus” to technological innovations, but
goes further in focusing on the will of a society to invest in the use of new technologies, which he refers to as
have an “incentive to invent” and to invest in the use of “instruments of invention” for productive purposes
(p. 132). In the middle stage of civilization (stage 4), both the incentive to invent and to invest atrophy for two 1 Perhaps “phase changes” rather than “stages” would be a more appropriate term, since Quigley and other recognize the after
gradual, incremental nature of the dynamics involved in moving from one to another state.
FRAUD AND DECEIT, OR A FAILURE OF AMERICAN POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
645
reasons, the processes that produced innovations become institutionalized, meaning bureaucratized and
regulated, slowing down the rate of expansion, and the élite with surplus capital squander it in dissolute and
competitive practices such as class warfare, and “irrationality, pessimism, superstitions and otherworldliness”
takes over (pp. 150-152). It is worth quoting at some length his understanding of the historical period in
civilizations as they near the end of stage four:
The masses of people (who have no vested interest in the existing institution of expansion) engage in imperialist wars
because it seems the only way to overcome the slowing down of expansion. Unable to get ahead by other means (such as
economic means), they seek to get ahead by political action, above all by taking wealth from their political neighbors. At
the same time they turn to irrationality to compensate for the growing insecurity of life, for the chronic economic
depression, for the growing bitterness and dangers of class struggles, for the growing social disruption and insecurity from
imperialist wars. This is generally a period of gambling, use of narcotics or intoxicants, obsession with sex (frequently as
perversion), increasing crime, growing numbers of neurotics and psychotics, growing obsession with death and the
Hearafter. (Quigley, 1961, p. 152)
Quigley (1961) listed six human basic needs (group security, interpersonal power relations, material
wealth, companionship, psychological certainty, and understanding) (p. 101), only one, material wealth, is used
for investing in “instruments of expansion”, and seems to be the driver in the evolution of civilizations. One
wonders just why no mention is made of developing a surplus of security, interpersonal power relations,
companionship, psychological certainty and understanding, which could be the values in which to invest to
continue expansion.
Niall Ferguson (2004) proposed three deficits which challenge the durability of what some have called the
USA‟s unipolar moment (Ferguson cites Tony Blair somewhat less pointedly: “All predominant power seems
for a time invincible, but in fact it is transient”) (p. 302): an economic deficit, a manpower deficit, and an
attention deficit (p. 290), meaning the growing debt, the number of military personnel in relation to the number
of countries with which the USA is in conflict, and the apparent inability of the American government to
sustain a foreign policy over multiple election cycles. The rise to empire in the classical sense is attributed to
the events that precipitated our direct participation in the World Wars: the 1915 sinking of the Lusitania by a
German U-boat, and the 1941 attack by Japan on Pearl Harbor (p. 61).
Now, I began this review with a speculation that historians generally conclude that societies decline from
dominance due to a failure of ethics. While each of the cited historians offer more complicated explanations,
note that Kennedy's observation that declining empires sinking more into debt in order to finance military
hegemony, is a rather long-term unethical policy. Chalmers Johnson‟s observation that the enunciated Bush
policy post 9/11 to dominate the world militarily (and inevitably unsuccessfully) was (using Hoffman's
language) “breathtakingly unrealistic”, thus would seem to qualify as a lapse of ethics. Diamond‟s dire
warnings regarding environmental degradation hurting the survivability of our society should qualify as
unethical. The turning point on the path to decline for Quigley is when at his stage four in a society‟s evolution,
a society that is used to experiencing “expansion” (improvement in meeting the basic needs of its members)
begins to stagnate due to the institutionalization of “instruments of invention” and investment, leading to
various forms of corrupt practices, again unethical. And in Ferguson‟s analysis, while debt and manpower
shortages are not inherently unethical, and a form of institutionalized attention deficit disorder can be
characterized as more a social disease than a breach of ethics, the combined and separate effects of these
situations would certainly be unethical, especially if those making decisions know the harm they do to their
FRAUD AND DECEIT, OR A FAILURE OF AMERICAN POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
646
society and societies with which they interact. Bremmer (2006) made a similar argument for nations relatively
high on the “J curve” of power that adopt “gated communities” policies as they gradually decline) (p. 276).
So, it seems that a case can be made for at least the presence of a lapse in ethics to be found in the fall of
civilizations. But in order to say more than that, at a minimum one would have to ask the questioning of logic:
is such a lapse a necessary condition for collapse? Or a sufficient condition? Or is it a “terminal statistic”? That
is, is it a consequence of a failing society. Or something in between, a contributor, “explaining a significant
amount of variance” in the fall of civilizations? As the title of this paper suggests, are fraud and deceit
sufficient explanation for financial crises, or are they somewhere else in the analytical mix, perhaps as
intervening or intermediate variables in a much more complicated systems dynamic involving surplus energy,
power distributions, and bureaucratic misperceptions? Reinhart and Rogoff (2009) for instance, looked at 66
countries over eight centuries of banking history, find definite patterns in the growth and decline of ethical
systems which seem to reduce to self-delusion through accounting practices that hide true debt and increasingly
take advantage of the short-term benefits of borrowing while ignoring long term costs, practices that end in
economic collapse.
The Need for a Vision Informed by Philosophy, Science and Practice
When one examines the professional behavior of students of politics themselves, one sees in their work
dysfunctionalities similar to those suggested in the decline of civilizations: scientists manipulating their data
and statistical tests, and developing theories that are nearly tautologies; philosophers ignoring or critiquing one
another from the viewpoint of their own political purposes or passion for a cultural change; and practitioners
simply pursuing private interests through public objects rationalized in the public interest. Ricci (1984) went to
great lengths to document and analyze the cacophonous state of the disciplines falling under the general
umbrella of political studies, concluding for instance that the political “science” practitioners have distanced
themselves increasingly from the normative political “philosophers” because, more or less by mutual agreement,
“Science cannot deal with this realm of intangibles decisively” (p. 296).
I suspect there is more to the problem than simply paradigmatic differences, specifically that as a small
society of autonomous actors, it shares many of the same types of problems as states do in our anarchic world
order. I will now proceed to develop this theme, applying various social science theories, including balance of
power for instance, to the problem. I conclude with Ricci that there is a failure, a “tragedy” as he puts it, of
students of politics to address the burning normative issues of the day (such as the current financial meltdown),
but not simply because adequate systematic knowledge has not been developed within political science, nor
because of the inapplicability of some of the better political philosophy dealing with ethics, but rather because
there is a “blindness of involvement” as Tom Shelling would say, among the practitioners. They have become
ensnared by their own paradigms to the extent that they are unable to communicate their observations and
reasoning to one another without inadvertently questions assumptions that others not only take for granted but
must take for granted to do their work. Where this leads is the subject, unfortunately, of another paper, but the
basic concepts can be sketched here.
A Political Psychology Dynamic: Implications for Students, Practitioners and Critics
Consider the creative and competitive fields of political science, political philosophy and applied politics,
each with their “critical thinkers” finding fault in every move and nuance in these contested realms (e.g.,
“science is merely power disguised as knowledge”) (Carlsnaes, Thomas, & Simmons, 2012, p. 135). Why is it
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647
that political studies within and across these fields appear so Balkanized, so factionalized as to resemble in
ideological if not militarized ways a post-Tito Yugoslavia, or if trends persist, a post-American Iraq and
Afghanistan?
Realists would say that conflicts tend to become militarized because in the absence of hegemonic power in
an anarchic world, the fear of the use of such power at a minimum promotes defensive arms races in a
perpetually failing effort to relieve mutual insecurity, and at a maximum preemptive (or “preventive”) attack.
From Thucydides‟ observations through Richardson‟s (1960) armaments models, to Rapoport‟s prisoner‟s
dilemma, to Mearshimer‟s offensive realism, the induced fear and anxiety of not having the assurance of a
trusted, hegemonic authority on the international scene has been seen as inducing a tragic, violent
destabilization of international politics.
“Power potential”, however, has two components, capabilities and intentions (Cline, 1975). The above
realist accounts generally rationalize fears of other nations‟ military power with “worst case scenarios”, as if
the defensive overreactions were inevitable because of the persuasive, logical necessity of minimizing possible
losses. Yet it is also commonly understood that the creation and maintenance of military capabilities for the
survival and security values attached to such capabilities, is very much a function of the creation and sustained
use of political symbols. Symbolic social constructs such as class or caste, race, religion, ethnicity, gender,
nationality, party, political beliefs and ideology, historical experience, and so on, are regularly used in
rationalizing (in Lasswell‟s sense) political competition in the struggle for power and hegemony to insure
security at all levels of political action from the global to the very local.2 Thus the absence of an overarching
symbolic construct, a widely accepted “standard model” of the political system and its relations to the social
system, invites the creation of one. A political belief system that appears empirically valid, emotionally
compelling, and philosophically reasonable is thus a necessary (but not sufficient) component of political power.3
Similarly, the creation and use of political symbols being a major source of political influence, the absence
of a dominant (hegemonic) theory, a standard model, in political studies creates an equivalent competition for
security in the realm of political symbols and unifying philosophy. Just as change in differences in relative
political-military power were significant in Thucydides‟ understanding of the motives of the Athenians and
Spartans because of the fear of assimilation by force, so it is with students of politics whether of the
philosophical, praxis, or science persuasion. The competition for status in and across these fields is similar
because in whatever pursuit, human basic needs are the same.
Operationally, grants, government contracts and university tenure serve our fields of political study to
support the search for a “standard model” just as major powers‟ military aid and client-state-like treaties,
agreements and covert support do in the formerly colonized nations. Thus our quests for theory, whether
grounded in historical reflections and tested with data, concocted in the crucible of hard knocks in applied
politics, or crafted in the debates within cultural élites, are tied deeply to the manufacture and manipulation of 2 The very local level is handily illustrated with Saul Alinsky‟s work: “No matter what, every action carries its rationalization”
(Alinsky, 1971, p. 108). 3 Alinsky (1971) offhandedly referred to power per se as “organized energy” and noted that “it is the very essence, the dynamo of
life” (p. 51). Dahl‟s more analytical and academic definition achieves a greater degree of precision (the ability of A to get B to do
y by doing x) but lacks usefulness beyond simply paralleling the general concept of causation. Alinsky‟s appeals (perhaps
unknowingly?) to our understanding of negative entropy, of rearranging the social universe for some unique purpose in life. I
think this conception of power suits Lasswell‟s discussion of the creation and use of political symbols better than his own as
simply coercive influence. For a broader treatment of the concept of power see Rummel, “Definition of power”, Ch. 19.1.
Retrieved from https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/TCH.CHAP19.HTM
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the personal insecurities of political scientists, and for that matter the personal insecurities of all involved in
ideological struggles.
Harold Lasswell, one of the earliest systems theorists, devoted a major part of his illustrious career to
exploring the linkages between politics and people‟s personal insecurities, including those of professional
political scientists, in his classic work, World Politics and Personal Insecurity. A contemporary of Freud, Jung,
and Adler and a student of psychoanalysis himself, Lasswell put at the core of his theorizing two critically
important observations—hypotheses if you will, but they are complex ones—first the definition of a politician,
one who projects his private motives onto public objects, rationalized in the public interest.4 Second, politics is
all about élite-mass relations; élite are those who get the most of whatever there is to have. The “have” was
originally characterized as three values, deference, income, and safety5
in both earlier work in 1930 and later
works notable with Kaplan (1950), an eight dimensional geometry was constructed consisting of eight values
the distributions of which were controlled politically, “politically” meaning through influential manipulation of
symbols, violence, goods and practices (Lasswell, 1935b, Ch. 2, Ch. 3, Ch. 4, Ch. 5). The eight values he
stipulated were in two categories of four each: deference values and welfare values. The deference values:
power, affection, respect, and rectitude. The welfare values: wealth, well-being, skill, and enlightenment.
Figure 1 below the large triangle depicting Goal, Drift, and Actual states (GDA) sketches the relationship
between stress and the cognitive dissonance experienced from three sources: frustration (e.g., gaps between
Maslowian basic needs and reality), alienation (difference between one‟s basic needs and opportunities to attain
those needs), and disempowerment (social and material pressures preventing the satisfaction of basic needs).
Stress, in turn, is a primary motivator in Easton‟s model of political decision making (wherein politicians weigh
what must be done to satisfy demands against what support will be gained or lost), and in political stability
(including feedback from policies) (Easton, 1953). Students of politics, like all humans, feel such stress and
impacts on decision making within their realm. Since all organized human activity can be analyzed in terms of
these three general characteristics (perceptions of goals, trends or drift states, and actual conditions) the model
applies as well to students as to practitioners of politics.
The GDA model enables a calculation of stress which when expressed politically becomes an inverse
measure of social justice, depicted to the lower right of the figure. The sense of social justice relates to both
political stability (the less the sense of social justice the more likely it is to be expressed in a manner to
destabilize politics) and repression (the more repression the greater the sense of social injustice). Since
repression induces fear, it also acts to stabilize politics because of fear of retribution. Note that a
“Machivellian” cycle, pS→R→F→pS, is created as well as a “democratic” cycle, pS→R→SJ→pS, one
increasing stability through repression, the other decreasing stability through repression. “Repression” means
attributing a decline in ability to meet basic needs due to government policies. Thus the banking fraud and
deceit, being attributed to the government policies of removing restrictions on bankers manipulation of
mortgages, is interpreted as repression, for instance. Cover-ups such as fabricating conflicts, suborning media,
4 Lasswell‟s oft referenced formula is rarely reproduced. It was: p} d} r = P, meaning “The symbol p represents private motives, d
displacement on to public objects, r rationalization in terms of public interest; P signifies the political man. The d and the r are
mainly derived from the contact of the personality with secondary group symbols” (Lasswell, 1935b, 31n). Here he cites his
original writing in Psychopathology and Politics (1930), pp. 261-263, for further discussion. 5 Lasswell (1935b), Ch. 1. The brackets refer to “transformation”.
FRAUD AND DECEIT, OR A FAILURE OF AMERICAN POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
649
under-financing investigations and ignoring elite collusion, exacerbate the problem. Whether a government
ultimately falls under such circumstances depends on the reaction to fear vs. injustice. Under such
circumstances political equilibrium becomes less and less stable, meaning heightened sensitivity to government
foul-ups. Regarding “social justice”, Lasswell‟s checklist of eight values provides a useful inventory of
variables to construct a measure of social stress (see Figure 1).
Goal states and Homeostatic Processes: Basic Needs
(Maslow, Corning re social justice, Ch.5
Drift
states (vision, trends)
Actual states
(“reality”)
-Disempowerment (~1/|D-A| relative to goals, i.e. ,=1-F/A)
Political dynamics:
Fear
Political stability
Repression Social justice
(SJ ←1/stress)
+
+
+
-
M
David Easton—political decision making
Demands
Supports
Political environment
(Δstress,as defined above)
D
DSL
Alien
atio
n -
A
Frustration –
F
DecisionMaking
Policy
Leon Festinger—motivation: cognitive dissonance.
Dissonance-generating gaps (graphed above) create stress.
Stress sources: Frustration ← gaps between goals and
(perceived) actual states; Alienation ← gaps between goals and
“drift” states, (perceived) trends; and Disempowerment ←
decreasing gaps between trends and acitual states, relative to
distance from goal states.
Harold Lasswell—politics: control of who gets what,
when, how. “What”—8 dimensions of values, each contributing
to a sense of social justice through stress reduction.
“Deference values”: emotional bases for compliant or non-
compliant relations: Power (coercive influence, fear of loss);
Affection (love-hate dimension); Respect (cultural
expectations); and Rectitude (moral influence).
“Welfare values” attributes: Wealth (income, property,
investments); Well-being (mental, physical health); Skill
(physical, communication abilities); and Enlightenment
(wisdom, knowledge).
Stress“bucket”(build-up
of frustration, alienation and
disempowerment)
Figure 1. A stress model of political stability and decision making: Frustration, alienation, and disempowerment → stress →
social justice decline → political demands → policy change.
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Richardson dynamics: multiple actors evaluating each others potential for
assimilation or as threats (control theory), assessing relative power
potential (cf. Cline s model) implicit fear of dissolution
Easton dynamics: politicians evaluating demands and
supports, e.g. re-election calculus
Individual psychology, decision making:
beliefs, traditions, experience, reason (Wesley
Quadralateral; Campbell et al.‟s “funnel of causality”)
Sociobiology: dissonance dynamics (Festinger, Maslow)
Means assessment (Lasswell → Saaty)
Ultimate concerns (Maslow, Tillich)
Figure 2. Contextualizing banking system dynamics: Longer term, larger scale, human and social dimensions
determinative of crises.
Figure 2 is a variation on the standard “levels of analysis” concept first proposed by J. David Singer and,
separately, Kenneth Waltz. What is interesting to me is that the theories noted at each level have existed for
some time but have not been integrated or interpreted in this manner to my knowledge. At the first level, the
individual level, the researchers have Maslow‟s characterization of basic human needs (not much different from
Quigley‟s independent efforts mentioned earlier). Lasswell‟s eight-dimensional value checklist stands in
relation to Maslow‟s basic needs as means do to ends, respectively (note that Maslow‟s belongingness and
Lasswell‟s affection appear similar and indeed they are; however, Lasswell‟s affection may be thought of as a
love-hate dimension motivating one to exhibit deference to another (or not) depending on the emotional affinity,
whereas Maslow‟s belongingness or love refers to a drive or passion, a need for a sense of identity in
community). Explaining individual dynamics is the stress model of Figure 1.
At the second level we have the usual organizational politics with decision makers communications in
terms of their demands and support content, and generating effects through policy implementation. Here,
models focused on duration and repetition of decision tasks such as Rapoport‟s “prisoner‟s dilemma”, Coplin,
O‟Leary, and Vasquez‟s (1976) “interest aggregation model”, and Saaty‟s (2001) more generalized “analytic
hierarchy process” are useful because they enable research into the systems dynamics of political decision
making. The most relevant outcome of decision implementation is the impact on social stress levels. If the
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651
consequences of banking fraud cover-ups are to exacerbate stress for instance, instability is likely to increase.
Recalling the discussion of Talcott Parsons‟ four levels of social change, under these circumstances popular
opinion my shift first from people blaming themselves for being so naive as to thinking bankers were on their
side when they participated in “ninja” loans, to blaming the organizations (banks) for their fraudulent behavior,
to past Congresses and Presidents for changing the “rules of the game” (legislation reducing bank regulations
and minimizing the capacity of government agencies to investigate fraud)—which seems to be about where we
are today (recall the Black interview by Moyers)—to questioning fundamental values around which a society or
even civilization is organized—such as was the case in the American revolution, the Bolshevik revolution, the
Roosevelt New Deal, China‟s Maoist revolution, and the end of the Soviet Union, and the ongoing Arab Spring
and IS fundamentalist revolt, and to a lesser extent the protest movement in Hong Kong.
Theory → models
of the possible
Pol
itic
al s
cien
ce
Data → models
of the “real”
Culture → models
of the desirable
Political philosophy
Figure 3. Political theory, political data, political culture: Semantic spaces within which are created models of the possible,
real and desirable, respectively.
At the third level we have systemic effects, usually unknown to participants but affecting them through
changes in their political environments as described at the first and second levels. These models—especially
Richardson‟s conflict dynamics model—describe dynamics that are usually not known to most participants in
conflict situations, because they describe cumulative consequences over time of multiple decisions, and involve
time periods that can be decades long. Such models require information built up by level one and two research.
Richardson (1960), in explaining how a simple arms race could lead to stable equilibria, unstable equilibria, or
no equilibria, depending on the relative levels of fear and fatigue coefficients, went much further, for instance,
the “fear” coefficient was conceived theoretically as a balance between conflict and cooperation between each
pair of states in his model. He suggested that while conflict might be indicated by military spending,
cooperation might be indicated by mutually profitable trade and related agreements. Similar research continues
today in examining the implications of the “democratic peace” and “capitalist peace” hypotheses (the latter by
FRAUD AND DECEIT, OR A FAILURE OF AMERICAN POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
652
Eric Gartzke). Unfortunately, research in this area is generally unavailable and what is, is rather sketchy.
Figure 3 is a condensation of a more elaborated model of paradigms prevalent in political studies and
practice. As mentioned earlier, the practices of science, philosophy and applied politics are quite different but
in a psychological sense the goal of all three is the same, to reduce cognitive dissonance. For the philosopher,
models of what is possible conflict in their assertions with what is desirable (or equivalently, vice versa). For
the political scientist, attention is drawn to inconsistencies between expectation and realities generated by
theory predictions and data collection and analysis. And for the politician or practitioner of politics more
generally, the gap between what is desired (e.g., election, campaign contribution, territorial acquisition or
preservation, and so on) and reality generates the dissonance.
Why these three paradigms are often represented as in conflict or competition, why one is consider by its
practitioners to be superior to the others, stems from the fact that each is looking for answers to questions which
in the process of their formulation make assumptions which practitioners of the other paradigms habitually call
into question. Thus there is always a certain amount of tension to be expected. A practitioner for instance may
need answers about what sorts of weapons a competitor has and what their motivations are (searching for
psychological certainty, one of Quigley‟s hypothesized “basic needs”). A philosopher might ask why are
weapons so important when the competitor‟s “worldview” may be of great importance. A political scientist
might well question what the practitioner considers to be “armament” noting differences between primarily
offensive vs. defensive weapons, and further, have several estimates of what is possessed, each depending on a
number of different assumptions about the quality of the data.
Students and practitioners of politics have generally failed to understand that the paradigms within which
they do the bulk of their work are quite different in the assumptions they make, the operational codes within
which they operate, and the value of their output for each other. A philosopher may well recommend a policy
based on the compatibility of certain theories with particular values (such as a policy that assumes a particular
country will never go to war with you as long as it remains maturely democratic), while the political decision
maker, looking at that same country‟s bloody history of colonization, who give very little credence to the
policy.
Conclusion
Fraud and deceit may well accurately describe the problems that beset the financial industry short term, as
well as be major factors in the unethical redistribution of wealth in societies. And policy analysts looking to
improving future prospects for a more equitable distribution of wealth and by more normative means may well
make promising recommendations. But until a theory is developed that both explains why and how such
deceptive practices occur “with some degree of periodicity”, and offer a process that is politically tractable for
removing a significant degree of fraud and deceit from the market place, it is not likely that we will see much
change in the pattern. And in an era of globalization and internet banking, this could prove to be a very
dangerous theoretical deficit. Because political philosophers, practitioners, and scientists operate with very
different goals and rationales for their work, they find it difficult to value each others‟ work, and the absence of
a “standard theory” to explain political-economic-military behavior only exacerbates the problems of personal
insecurity that they face. An approach to developing such a standard model involving the theories of social
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653
psychologists, political and social scientists, especially in decision sciences and systems dynamics, was
proposed. This approach uses the traditional three levels of analysis common in international relations theories,
and aims to integrate basic needs and values models into a larger scale and longer term framework that can
readily be researched in existing institutional frameworks (foundations, government and corporate contracts,
and universities dependent on financing from such). Yet the need is great if we are to avoid the errors of our
forebears which lead to short political life-spans, thinking in terms too small and short term, too limited by their
home society‟s belief systems, to recognize the larger contexts in which they operate. It is hoped that such
collaborative multidisciplinary research projects can be undertaken. A hint of what they might at least in part
look like can be seen in Barry Hughes‟ International Futures simulation at the Pardee Center at the University
of Denver (http://pardee.du.edu/), in Tom Saaty‟s (2001) decision making modeling efforts
(http://www.superdecisions.com/) and in the many specialized global modeling data bases now in existence,
dealing with everything from climate change to values studies, alternative futures and so on. Without such
progress, it does not seem likely that our current civilization will survive for long.
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International Relations and Diplomacy, ISSN 2328-2134
October 2014, Vol. 2, No. 10, 655-664
US Aid to Pakistan and Its Implications for India
Aslam Khan
Yobe State University, Damaturu, Nigeria
Establishment, existence and achievements of a state depend upon political culture, which are civic, liberal and
representative mostly available in Western politics. Political culture is generally manifested through the actions,
policy programs and operational aspects of the government, oppositions, political parties, pressure groups and the
public. Over the years, there has been a continued turbulence in institutionalizing democratic political culture
around our borders in which Pakistan figures more prominently mainly due to the ongoing military operations in its
western region supplemented by suicidal attacks and explosions in metropolitan areas. This tragic turbulence cannot
be isolated from the emerging incidents, violence and bloodshed in Afghanistan. Present situation of Pakistan is
witnessing that, the United States of America is trying everything to save Pakistan from being failed and collapse.
The American War on terror is badly dependent on Pakistan and for securing her interest, The US has created the
Coalition Support Funds (CSF) as a mechanism to reimburse Pakistan for the support in “global war on terror”.
Since Pakistan has turbulent borders with India, it is therefore unavoidable for India to assess and estimate some of
the crucial events and incidents beyond the borders in the larger interest of national interest and peace in South Asia.
The aim of the proposed research is to explore existing realities regarding US military aid to Pakistan and its
implications for Indo-US Relations. The US dependency on Pakistan, the misuse of American aid, which is clearly
directed against India, the new strategy of Obama administration to fight Taliban especially Pakistan based
Tahrik-e-Taliban and Al-Qaeda are the important factors to be highlighted. Attempt will be made to find out major
reasons of these phenomena and their impact on the regional dynamics. The American and Pakistan’s response
towards the Indian concern will also be taken into account.
Keywords: political culture, American War on terror, coalition support funds and Al-Qaeda
Introduction
The 9/11 tragedy has not only exposed the might of terror outfits but it has also created the opportunities
and challenges for the regional powers in South Asia. It was an opportunity for India, on the one hand and the
challenge to Pakistan, on the other hand. For a long time, India was dealing with this challenge and offered an
unconditional support to the United States to dismantle the global threat of terrorism. India, on the one hand,
was looking forward to become the most preferable ally in the Global War on Terror. But, on the other hand,
the US’s decision to select Pakistan as an ally was taken after deep assessment. They discuss the policy taking
into account the local factors, currents, undercurrents and crosscurrents which may affect and influence the
foreign policy formulation of US. The decision of the then President Bush changed the course of action in
South Asia especially the Pakistan’s politics and put Pakistan in a state of dilemma when he offered choice for
Pakistan to chose one of the following—either with us or with the terrorists. Though, Pakistan joined the US
Aslam Khan, Ph.D., Department of Political Science, Yobe State University.
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war on terror which brought several Pakistani groups in conflict with the administration. Pakistan took U turn
on its Afghanistan policy and was forced to leave its longstanding search for the strategic depth in Afghanistan.
Due to this, Pakistan is paying a heavy price and turning in the category of a failing state. Moreover, America’s
Afghan-Pak policy is totally dependent on Pakistan. America and West will not allow Pakistan to collapse on
this crucial juncture when the US is trying to dismantle the terrorist establishments. The current crisis is a
matter of concern not only for Pakistan, but also for the region and the international community at large.
History of US Aid Program to Pakistan Before 9/11
The US aid to Pakistan has the history of fluctuations and was purely circumstantial. Pakistan got the
opportunity of US funding by the signing of Mutual Defence Assistance Agreement of May 19, 1954 that
helped Pakistan to get US aid of $3.2 billion (US Department of State 1954). But the hostilities between
Pakistan and India in 1965 & 1971 halted the aid program for Pakistan. But US continued to provide the
economic aid for both India and Pakistan. Later on, Pakistan’s plan to develop enriching uranium in 1979
resulted in the suspension of all type of aid (except food aid) by the then President Carter. But, at the same time,
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan compelled US to change the gear, US administration carefully assessed the need
of Pakistan and Pakistan became a major player and a strategic ground for converting US support to anti-Soviet
forces in Afghanistan. As a result, US assistance to Pakistan took a long jump and Pakistan got $3.1 billion as
economic aid and $2.19 billion as military aid from 1980 to 1990 (Korb, 2007). The Afghan war lords got all
kind of support (military, weaponry, and economic) from Pakistan. But, US was equally concerned with the
nuclear ambitions of Pakistan. As a result US Congress passed the Pressler Amendment to the Foreign
Assistance Act (Rizvi, 2005), which led to the sanctions after sanction for Pakistan (p. 103). This amendment
conditioned with the certification of the President of the United States that Pakistan did not possessed a nuclear
weapon for the periods in which aid was granted. But in 1990, President George W. Bush refused to certify that
Pakistan is not having nuclear weapon technology, so most of the aid package to Pakistan was cut off (Rubinoff,
2001).
The United States blocked the delivery of major military equipments such as 28 F-16 jets that Pakistan had
already purchased. During this period, Pakistan only got the aid in the form of food and counter-narcotics.
Again, the nuclear test of 1998 and General Musharraf’s coup in 1999 resulted in the suspension of aid
programme. So, the pattern of US aid to Pakistan clearly indicates that American support to Pakistan was
always opportunistic and circumstantial.
US Aid and Global War on Terrorism (GWOT)
The scenario of 9/11 made a drastic change in the politics of subcontinent as well as the politics of United
States. America held Osama Bin Laden, the Al-Qaeda chief responsible for the attack on its territory.
Osama’s stay in Afghanistan and Taliban’s refusal to handing him over to US resulted in “Operation Enduring
Freedom”, a Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). To fight the GWOT and for the operation enduring freedom in
Afghanistan, the United States created the Coalition Support Funds (CSF), as a mechanism to reimburse
Pakistan to fight the American war against Taliban in Afghanistan. The aid provided by America has been
bifurcated, 60% in the head as CSF, 15% as security assistance, 15% toward budget support or direct cash
transfers to the Pakistan. This amount is supposed to provide macroeconomic stability and the other 10% has
been used specifically for development and humanitarian assistance. Pakistan has received more than $10.6
US AID TO PAKISTAN AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR INDIA
657
billion disbursed by the CSF, a full 81% of CSF funds (Korb, 2007). Since 9/11 terror attacks, Pakistan has
received more than $18 billion in reimbursement and assistance from the USA, about 2/3 of which is for the
security purpose. The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in its latest report that foreign
assistance is vital to help the government of Pakistan to overcome the political, economic, and security
challenges that threaten its long-term stability (Korb, 2007). The report further said, Pakistan has been a key US
ally in America’s “war on terror” launched after the September, 2011 terror attacks in the USA. The report also
mentioned that Taliban, Al Qaeda, and other terror networks have used parts of Pakistan to plan and launch
attacks on Afghan, USA and NATO security forces in Afghanistan, as well as on Pakistani citizens and security
forces of Pakistan (Korb, 2007).
The report also said that enhancing the effectiveness of civilian aid to Pakistan is one of the US
government’s top foreign policy and national security priorities. The GAO said in reports and testimonies since
2008, it has identified the need to improve planning, monitoring, documentation and oversight of US assistance
to Pakistan. For example, in previous reports the researchers have noted the need to increase oversight and
accountability for Pakistan’s reimbursement claims for Coalition Support Funds and to improve planning,
performance, and monitoring documentation of US development assistance to Pakistan’s Federally
Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) (Korb, 2007).
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen stressed that a key component of US
partnership with Pakistan was to help the military’s counter-terror and counter-insurgency operations. The
series of offensive operations undertaken by the Pakistani military in the tribal areas expanded dramatically in
2009. The US aid to Pakistan is aimed at strengthening the military’s capability to combat terrorism, besides
providing development assistance to the country. He further said, “because we are so heavily depend on
Pakistan as a supply route supporting our efforts in Afghanistan, Coalition Support Funds remain critical to
reimbursing the Pakistanis for their assistance” (Deccan Herald, February 18, 2011, p. 11)
Non-military assistance to Pakistan has increased considerably to Pakistan under the Obama
Administration, which is mainly attributable to the Kerry-Lugar-Berman bill which grants $7.5 billion to
Pakistan in five years beginning 2009 (The Times of India, February 23, 2010). In the year 2011, Obama has
proposed to the Congress to give $1.322 billion to Pakistan (The Times of India, February 23, 2010). But, the
restrictions of Kerry-Lugar-Berman bill, which prohibits fund from being used for nuclear proliferation, to
support terrorist groups, or to pay for attacks in neighboring countries. It also puts a new prominence on the
bottom line, reserving the right to cut off aid if Pakistan fails to crack down on militants. These restrictions
have created a disappointment and a split between the military and the civilian government in Pakistan, which
maintain an uneasy relationship following nearly a decade of military rule under General Musharraf. Military
leaders were equally worried of being sidelined by the increased US emphasis on development and
accountability, claimed the bill threatens Pakistan’s sovereignty. The opposition senators advised complete
rejection of Kerry-Lugar Bill saw it to target the Pakistan’s nuclear arsenals (Ali, 2009). PML (Q) President,
Chaudhry Shujat Hussain viewed that the “Kerry-Lugar Bill meant to plunder the assets of Pakistan”
(Chaudhry, 2009). PML-N leader, Raja Zafarul Haq claimed that most of the sections of the Bill were against
the national interests of Pakistan. He further said “the monitoring of the Pakistan’s army and court will pose a
serious threat to national integrity” (Malik, 2009). The main conclusion drawn in Pakistan was that under
Indian pressure, such conditions were imposed. But, the supporters of the bill termed the restrictions as no more
stern than previous ones, and accused Pakistani military leaders of manufacturing a crisis to undermine the
US AID TO PAKISTAN AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR INDIA
658
civilian government.
After much hue and cry over Kerry-Lugar Bill, US took a hard stand as the then US Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton forced to comment that “so many people in Pakistan think we are not helping at all and that is
incredibly frustrating to us” (The Nation, October 30, 2009). She further said, “the aid is being given to
Pakistan for stability and economic development and Pakistan could reject it if it wanted so” ( Pak Tribune,
October 29, 2009). John Kerry, the architect of the Bill said, “we should not play to cheap galleries here. If you
don’t want the money, say so. We are not forcing you to take it” (One India News, 2009). Richard Holbrook,
US President’s special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan commented that “those who oppose the
Kerry-Lugar Bill are the ones who either oppose the Pakistani government or support the Taliban” (Abraham,
2009). The bitterness of comments further extended as Hillary Clinton on her visit to Pakistan commented that,
Our best information is that Al-Qaeda leadership is somewhere in Pakistan. It is in the interest of Pakistan as well as
our own interest that we capture or kill Al-Qaeda leadership because that will give a very serious blow to terrorist
everywhere. (Syed, 2009)
Trust vs Mistrust
The pattern of aid program to Pakistan clearly shows that the vast majority of US assistance goes to the
Pakistani military establishment. But Pakistan’s tribal region still remains a safe haven for Al Qaeda and
Taliban forces resulting in cross-border attacks on US and coalition troops in Afghanistan. The frequencies of
attacks are increasing day by day. The simple reason behind it was as several American military officials have
already said, that much of the US money hasn’t reached frontline Pakistani units and has instead been diverted
to finance weapons systems designed to counter India, not Al Qaeda or the Taliban. The current situation in
Pakistan represents a difficult challenge. President Barack Obama’s top commander in Afghanistan General
Stanley McChristal had told him that without more troops the United States could lose the war that Obama has
described as the nation’s foremost military priority. He further said “Resources will not win this war, but
under-resourcing could lose it” (CBSnews, 2009). Moreover, Pakistan continued creating activities along the
Indian border to divert India’s concern regarding the diversion of American military aid. The confession of
General Musharraf (rtd.) that “Pakistan had been diverting American military aid to use it against India has
justified the Indian concerns” (The Hindu, September 13, 2009).
These concerns notwithstanding, the extent of US aid to Pakistan and the importance of Pakistan in the US
strategic framework but the problem is, whether this aid advancing towards the goals of regional priority or
objectives. If, the researchers see through the prism of these objectives then they can easily find out that the
intensity of attacks are increasing day by day, Al Qaeda and Taliban are strongly executing their command and
control and have reconstituted their training camps. Moreover, Talibanization is getting momentum all
throughout the Pakistan, as they have been advancing control in the Northwest Frontier Province and the
country is witnessing instability, violence and suicide attacks as a result. The Pakistani establishment has
committed an overwhelming portion of security aid to weaponry, for example, instead of Pakistan spending the
bulk of US assistance to counter-terrorism measures for Pakistani military and Para-military forces, the huge
amount of foreign military financing has been used to purchase of major weapons such as F16 fighters and
other aircrafts, anti-ship and anti-missile systems. In the Year 2006, Gen. Musharraf signed an arms deal with
the US for $3.5 billion, making Pakistan the largest recipient of US arms in the world in that year (Korb, 2007).
It has nothing to take with the counter-terrorism operations but was geared primarily against India.
US AID TO PAKISTAN AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR INDIA
659
Despite American aid to Pakistan, there is a heavy domestic opposition of US policies. As Secretary of
State, Hillary Clinton clearly pointed out that the two million Pakistanis forced out of their homes by
intensified fighting in and around the Swat Valley and announced $110 million for additional humanitarian aid
(Korb, 2007). This aid is not certainly the remedy of displacement. A survey conduct by the New America
Foundation and Terror Free Tomorrow suggests that in Drone Attacks more than 50% civilian have been killed.
The Obama’s Drone Policy is in heavy criticism and Obama is viewed unfavourably by 83% of Federally
Administered Tribal Area (FATA) residents according to poll (Bergen, Doherty & Ballen, 2010). Public
opinion in Pakistan, specially in FATA more than 87% peoples opposed the American militarism to fight
Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in their region. Nearly 70% of FATA locals favor the Pakistani Army to deal with
the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in the tribal region (Bergen, Doherty & Ballen, 2010). The passion of anger and
disagreement to the American military is running very high. Opinion suggests that the residents of FATA have
the soft corner with Pakistan Army rather than American Forces. Sixty percent justifies suicide attacks against
coalition forces, while only 10% justifies against Pakistani forces (Bergen, Doherty & Ballen, 2010).
The government of Pakistan is also witnessing the heavy opposition of Drone Attacks from other political
parties. The Jung reported that, “all parties had reached consensus by December 28, 2010, about ending the
drone strikes altogether” (Ahmad, 2011). Whether it was Professor Khursheed Ahmad, senior leader of
Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Haji Adeel, senior leader of the Awami National Party (ANP), spokesman for the Jamiat
Ulema-e-Islam-Fazalur Rahman Group (JUI-F) Maulana Amjad, senior Pakistan Muslim
League-Quaid-e-Azam Group (PML-Q) leader Mushahid Hussain Syed, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz
(PML-N) senior leader Pervaiz Rashid or the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief and cricketer turned
politician Imran Khan, everyone said that they wanted the end of drone strikes, but without much success
(Ahmad, 2011). Imran Khan has also moved to Supreme Court and filed a petition under article 184(3) to
declare the drone attacks as unconstitutional. Under this article, “the apex court can take action to protect the
fundamental rights of citizens” (Ahmad, 2011).
Political analyst like Hassan Askari Rizvi expressed that, 80% of the criticism against the drones comes
from the religious right wing which is directly under attack by the USA which has also led the country’s
anti-India and anti-US sentiments since partition (Ahmad, 2011). Samiullah Khan, PPP’s General Secretary,
Punjab said, “We are not hiding from the people the fact that drone attacks are taking place. We are negotiating
on acquiring the drone technology and taking action ourselves. The drone attacks by the US have prompted
extremism in Pakistan” (Ahmad, 2011). Senior leader of the Awami National Party (ANP), Haji Adeel
expressed, “No one should be allowed to enter the Pakistani border without the consent of the Pakistani
government. May it be Taliban, al-Qaeda, safe heavens for terrorists or US drones, we are against all of them
and very vocal about it” (Ahmad, 2011). Ahsan Iqbal, Information Secretary, PML-N said,
Drone attacks are the boon of the former puppet regimes and the resentment keeps growing. There are reasons behind
misinformation against the US. For one thing, the US aligned itself with Musharraf’s dictatorial regime, prompting the
idea that the US would have thrown Pakistan back into the Stone Age if it wasn’t for him. The US should respect
Pakistan’s sovereignty. The government should be transparent and not offend its 170 million people with such actions
(Ahmad, 2011)
Balancing Indo-Pak Hostility
Due to the US War on Terror and US engagement in the affairs of South Asian theatre played a proactive
US AID TO PAKISTAN AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR INDIA
660
role in the normalization of deteriorating Pakistan-India relations. It has now become the centre of global
attention in the global media and the central battle ground where the global war was either to be lost or won.
The war on terror has improved the regional stability in the form of mini missing tension between the nuclear
archrivals, India and Pakistan. This has been fully proved during the 2002 militancy standoff. Following the
December 13 attacks on Indian parliament, Mumbai terror attack of 26/11 caused the war hysteria up. There
was an unprecedented mobilization of armed forces on a large scale. The armed forces stood eyeball to eyeball
for several days, on both sides of the borders. Even nuclear threats were exchanged. An outbreak of war was
believed to be certain. Then the American military presence entered as a stabilizing factor. America perceived
that a war between India and Pakistan will certainly threaten, and upset its campaign against terror. Its war on
terror could only be saved by avoiding the outbreak of a regional conflict. So America initiated a whole-hearted
effort to defuse the situation. The tension came down. Those who believe that it was American diplomatic
activism which prevented an outbreak of war and nuclear holocaust believe that the USA’s presence in the
region is a factor for regional peace and stability.
India’s Concern Regarding Aid Diversion
Since Pakistan has turbulent borders with India, it is therefore unavoidable for India to assess and estimate
some of the crucial events and incidents beyond the borders in the larger interest of national interest and peace
in South Asia. India has constantly pointed out that much of military hardware of Pakistan’s military purchase
was never suited to anti-terrorism operations. America has paid more than $200 million to Pakistan for air
defence radar but Pakistan has no threat of air attack. Pakistan is modifying the weapon’s technology that has
nothing to do with counter terrorism. Pentagon has also exposed that even the pouring aid to Pakistan by Bush
after 9/11 to fight Al-Qaeda was used to develop offensive capabilities against India. This was all time high
between 2002-2009 (Dubey, 2009). Pakistan’s search of parity with India in terms of conventional weaponry
with the help of US aid directly effects Indian interests.
India’s relations with the United States is all time high. Pakistan is a strategic ally of US since its creation.
So, the every policy guideline to South Asia and especially for Pakistan is deeply manufactured through the
prism of balancing both the allies. After announcing the $2.29 billion military aid to Pakistan, US had clearly
mentioned that its ties with Islamabad do not come at the expense of India and vice-versa. State Department
spokesman, Crowley said in response to India’s concern regarding aid, “This is a subject (India’s concern about
US military assistance to Pakistan) that comes up in all our discussions with high level Indian officials. It
comes up in all of our discussions with high-level Pakistani officials”. He further said,
We continue to provide the same message to both countries. This is not a zero-sum proposition. Our assistance to
Pakistan does not come at the expense of India, and our relationship with India does not come at the expense of Pakistan.
(The Nation, October 24, 2010)
India’s Defence Minister, A K Antony in his meetings with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and
Defence Secretary Robert Gates had expressed his concerns that US military aid to Pakistan normally ends up
being used against India. He clearly mentioned, “We feel that even though the US is giving arms to Pakistan to
fight terrorism, our practical experience is (that) it is always being misused. They are diverting a portion of it
against India” (The Hindu, September 27, 2010).
Kashmir is still a bone of contention between India and Pakistan. Sensitization of this issue has resulted in
US AID TO PAKISTAN AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR INDIA
661
war and war hysteria several times. Pakistan has sought US intervention in resolving Kashmir issue but US has
refused to intervene in highly sensitive issue and stressed on dialogue by terming it a bilateral issue. On
Kashmir, Crowley said,
We recognize the importance of Kashmir to both India and Pakistan. We absolutely want to see tensions eased and
ultimately a resolution to the situation in Kashmir. We believe needs to come through additional dialogue between
Pakistan and India. We have not been asked by both countries to play a particular role. This is the reason why, for a
number of reasons we continue to encourage further dialogue between India and Pakistan. (Hindustan Times, March 3,
2010)
Crowley described both India and Pakistan as US allies and said his country will continue to encourage
both countries in their efforts to achieve peace and stability in the region (Hindustan Times, March 3, 2010).
In January, 2011, US and Pakistan signed two agreements to provide Pakistan with $66 million for
completion of the Gomal and Satpara dam projects (VOA, 2011). The agreements are a sign of the US
government’s commitment to helping Pakistan improve its infrastructure, said Acting Special Representative
for Afghanistan and Pakistan Frank Ruggiero: “Last year’s devastating floods demonstrated the need for flood
control infrastructure. These two multipurpose dams will control flood waters, provide electricity, and store
water for irrigation and household use for downstream villages” (VOA, 2011). But, the Satpara multipurpose
dam project will be built in the disputed territory, Gilgit, Balistan (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir). It shows a
nuanced shift in US policy on Kashmir. The US stand on Kashmir and aid program may effect and influence
the foreign policy formulation of US and Indian Interests. The United States must ensure that funding given to
Pakistan is utilized for the right purposes. Pakistan’s military must be under the guidance of an outcome-driven
approach based on mutual strategic interests. After-the-fact compensations with failed and limited oversight are
clearly not in American interest.
Pakistan is also deeply concerned about Indian influence in Afghanistan. This influence had been growing
rapidly in the last few years. Pakistan also alleged India regarding support to insurgency in Baluchistan
province and India directly blames Pakistan for terrorism and instability in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan had
officially complained about blatant interference in the Balochistan Province to the United States. But, The
United States smartly ignored Pakistan’s pleas as it did not wish to jeopardize its new friendship with India. If
the researchers see from the realistic prism, they find the fundamental difference of the national interest
US-Pakistan vis-à-vis India. This makes the future of relationship very hard and problematic. Pakistan is deeply
concerned with the growing power and status of India. It was also very apprehensive of the new strategic
relationship that the United States had established with India. The United States and India had also signed a
landmark civil nuclear agreement which had given India a new decency as a nuclear power. Now, Pakistan also
wants a similar kind of deal with the United States as given to India. But United States didn’t imply such kind
of agreement, because US is very much concerned about the A. Q. Khan Network and nuclear proliferation.
According to a report in the New York Times on March 26, 2010, it had been alleged that Pakistan had a history
of selling nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya. It was reported in Dawn on March 27, 2010 that
the United States had asked Pakistan to initiate steps that would “restore the confidence of the international
community in its nuclear program”. Pakistan had agreed to do so. So, this kind of treatment is also creating
mistrust in the minds of Pakistani establishment. It is clear that, more closely the India-America comes; the
more distance and suspicion will emerge in US-Pakistan relations.
Pakistan’s latest shoot in nuclear weapons as estimated 60 to 110 is unlikely to shift the balance of power
US AID TO PAKISTAN AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR INDIA
662
vis a vis India. But the Indian concern is how Pakistan made it convenient in the period of great economic
hardship? It is clearly the misuse of US aid that helping Pakistan to pose a threat to the neighbors and the
region at large. Pakistan should focus more on the most immediate threats like unstable future and domestic
turmoil. Heavily reliant on foreign aid, Pakistan faces severe economic problems as well as an armed, extremist
insurgency. The tension with India and increased nuclear arsenals are unlikely to help the Pakistani government
solve either of these internal problems or the external environment.
Conclusion
The present scenario suggests that US-Pakistan relations are now very complex. Both are fighting in the
same battlefield and with a common enemy but the way, the war on terror is being fought has very serious
divergence and is fuelling public bitterness against the United States and this in term is badly affecting
Pakistan’s capacity to fight terrorism. Pakistan’s cry for respect of sovereignty and the increasing drone attacks
on civilians pouring anti Americanism which has touched the highest peak since the US-Pakistan relations. In
this situation, vital interests of both the countries could suffer dire consequences unless effective damage
control measures are adopted. The US aid should focus mainly to the root causes of emerging threat of
extremism and should support democratic forces, civil society and socio-economic development. The past
experience of the democratic regimes in Pakistan is not so good. So, there is a strong need to strengthen
democratic institutions.
The traditional association of United States and Pakistani intelligence agencies have also shattered in the
present time that needs to be substantially retrieved and healed. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent
observations on Pakistan analyzed reinforcing the emerging trend of US-Pakistan relations skating on thin ice
are the recent public remarks on Pakistan. She is reported to have observed that Pakistan faces major
instabilities at home and that Pakistan should stop fomenting anti-American sentiments and that shocking and
unjustified and will not resolve Pakistan’s problems. More pointedly, Secretary of State Clinton stated that US
relations with Pakistan have plummeted to their lowest point in recent years (Kapila, 2011). In the light of this
statement, one can easily analyze that something is seriously gone wrong in US-Pakistan relations. In the three
“A” theory of Pakistan, the army has been and will remain major force in the stability of Pakistan. Any
condition imposed in this sector could result in frustration. The United States needs to maintain its goodwill in
military to military contacts, even while threatening a withdrawal of some aid from the army if it refuses to give
more priority to counter-terrorism operations.
The United States should also focus on the regional players like China and India and should try to engage
them as much as possible. China also has a very deep influence in the politics of Pakistan. India also wants to
spread her influence in Afghanistan. So, in these circumstances, US should be more careful in assessing these
currents. It is also important to point out that US and Pakistan are allies in global war on terror and on the other
hand Pakistani terror outfits has no hesitation to target Indian Territory. The civil institution and government of
Pakistan are not very effective. The law and order situation in whole Pakistan is worsening. Some part of
military and intelligentsia have the soft corners for Taliban. As a result politico-military developments in
Pakistan with the help of US aid could pose a danger to regional stability.
Pakistan, which has already witnessed the betrayal of United States in the aftermath of Soviet Withdrawal
from Afghanistan, is in no mood of repeating the same chapter. In this war, Pakistan played a very significant
role. It was only Pakistan’s assistance to the Afghan Mujahedeen which had ultimately defeated the Soviet
US AID TO PAKISTAN AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR INDIA
663
Union in Afghanistan. The United States very conveniently left the region when the war was won. Now the
Pakistani establishment has lots of worries in the mind about US-India strategic partnership, and what it may
mean for them when the war on Al-Qaeda and Taliban will over, United States will no longer need Pakistan.
But, United States had promised not to commit the same mistake again in Afghanistan and had promised not to
abandon the country. The United States had also assured Pakistan that it is now a strategic priority. The United
States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had noted, in a very recent testimony in the United States Senate, that:
“In Pakistan, our efforts are vital for America’s success in Afghanistan, but also to our own American security.
We have made it a strategic priority to strengthen our partnership with the Pakistani people”. She also said that
the situation had changed considerably since last year and had credited Pakistan for measures against militants
in Swat, South Waziristan, and other parts of the country (Dawn, March 27, 2010). Such type of mistrust is no
more beneficial for the future of global war on terrorism.
Lastly, Pakistan’s weak civilian government, turbulent domestic situation has resulted in the form of
economic hardship; violence between various ethnic sectarian and political groups threatens to escalate. The
Obama administration believe that an increase in US aid to Pakistan can solve the problem. But the situation is
deteriorating day by day. The present scenario suggests that both US and Pakistan should try to regain the
mutual trust and respect the sentiments of each other that still looks difficult. A stable and friendly Pakistan is
the need of the hour not for the US alone but for a region at large. In the wake of withdrawal of the Coalition
Forces from Afghanistan, the chances are so high that Taliban and Al-Qaeda can influence the power structure
in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. In view of this, the exit strategy needs to be carefully examined.
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http://www.nation.com.pk/politics/24-Oct-2010/New-mly-aid-to-Pak-in-our-own-interest-US-spokesman
VOA. (2011, April 2). U.S. helps builds dams in Pakistan. Retrieved February 2, 2012, from
http://www.editorials.voa.gov/content/us-helps-build-dams-in-pakistan-115510499/1482299.html
International Relations and Diplomacy, ISSN 2328-2134
October 2014, Vol. 2, No. 10, 665-679
Hong Kong Civic Education Policy From 1984 to 2014: An
Historical Comparative Analysis
Hung Chung Fun Steven
Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong, China
This paper aims to the analysis of civic education policy of the two governments of Hong Kong, the British Colony
before 1997 and the Chinese Special Administrative Region after 1997. Hong Kong people own questionable
identities, neither British citizens nor Chinese subjects. Basically, the decolonization showed that the policy of
domestication was implemented during the transition period of Hong Kong where the government patronized and
empowered the Hong Kong people through enhancing human rights and developing political democratization. After
handing over of sovereignty, the education policy made the contents of civic education more patriotic, cultural
hegemonic and national ideological. The intentions were quite obviously presented in policy documents and
responded in the historical contexts. The historical comparison intends to get the expandable interpretation of the
scenario of education policy in this period of Hong Kong.
Keywords: de-colonization, civic education, historical comparison
Introduction: The Statement of the Problem
If historical factors help to analyze policy proposal, initiation and implementation of civic education in
Hong Kong, comparison can help to analysis the changes before and after the handover of sovereignty from
Britain to China. From 1984 to 2014, these 30 years include the transition period of the British decolonization
and the governing under “one country two systems” formula by the People’s Republic of China. That is the
Chinese post-colonial or, more seriously, the new stage of re-colonization. It is interesting to understand
citizenship building and its education policy adopted by comparing these two kinds of governmental
administration. This policy analysis describes and explains the Hong Kong Government’s preparations and
intentions for their future citizens or masters.
Hong Kong’s Cantonese speaking majority originate from Guangdong province. Many of them fled to
escape from mainland China. Hong Kong can function under the common law framework. Hong Kong people
can never acquire autonomy and they are, no more, the ruled. What the governments intended to educate pupils
always show the way and the trend that the states or officials wanted to govern their subjects or citizens. The
understanding of governmentality describes the intention of policy practice making required citizens through
education.
The textual concerns give the document presentation to be put on understanding. The other contextual
concerns let the civic education policy be laid in historical situation for more plentiful explanation of policy
analysis. This article can help to compare the civic education policy of Hong Kong in the transfer of power.
Hung Chung Fun Steven, Ph.D., Department of Social Sciences, Hong Kong Institute of Education.
DAVID PUBLISHING
D
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666
The 30 years of history of policy initiation and implementation reveal the governmental intention which is
hegemonic, ideological and nationalist, sometimes, rational or irrational. If policy reflects the social and
political orientation and re-orientation of Hong Kong citizens, this analysis wants to understand the reality of
the two governments’ educational project of engineering and re-engineering student minds. This study is
related to the understanding of preparation and implementation of “one country, two systems”. The socialist
state allows both communist and capitalist systems to ran in which the society is organized and pupils are
educated.
Concepts of Citizenship and Education of Hong Kong
As Marshall provided his concepts of citizenship that civic education would be followed this basis for the
provision of welfare derives. Civil, political and economic rights are the basic concepts of citizenship and they
are institutionalized to our daily lives. However, the expert commentaries are expandable to more ideas. The
general noticeable concepts of citizenship can be extended to agree with multiculturalism and globalism, and
not to be sexual, gender, cultural, religious and racial discrimination.
If citizenship is merely and simply bounded to the rights and duties of citizens to each other as members of
a political entity and to the government, the two governments are the British Hong Kong and the Special
Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. The government of the British should indicate and
carry on its process of decolonization in which case citizenship is patronized and enhanced. The Chinese can
follow this concept as community building of Hong Kong but, on the contrary, the re-colonization process of
citizenship education can be re-organized to more cultural conservative, hegemonic, nationalistic and patriotic.
Identity is the problem of Hong Kong’s governance. We have to explain the dual nature of Hong Kong
identification. Hong Kong’s identity can be localism and Chinese identity can be nationalized. Hong Kong
people can identify themselves as Hongkongers as well as Chinese. The British Hongkongers is not common
but the Chinese Hong Kong is acceptable in Hong Kong historical context. If so, the policy balance of these
dual natures should be noted.
Method: Historical Comparative Analysis
Historical comparison is helpful for expanding insight into diverse social issues. These methods offer such
important insight into perplexing and pertinent social phenomena. Decolonization, rationalization,
nationalization, ideology and patriotism are processes that need to be analyzed in order to explain the dynamics
of Hong Kong’s governance under two types of governments. Civic education policy making is the process that
created it. It generally analyzes common structural and institutional factors shaping our society. As a
consequence, civic educations that affect pupils hold prominent stand points in comparative historical analysis.
Historical comparative methods explore the characteristics and causes of Hong Kong civic education
policy. The researcher classifies three key stages of comparisons in Hong Kong history of civic education
policy implementation. Each stage can represent the important initiation or turning point of the civic education
policy.
The history of the society and the education system is reinforced by changing and transforming
conceptions of the contribution of civic education to the national interest. Two different forms of dual
identifications with regional Hong Kong and Chinese ethnicity are forged among Hong Kong residents. The
related subject contents are expressed in education documents, acts and reports in Hong Kong. Where
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667
understandings have emerged, they are usually clouded by hegemonic or ideological controversy. The analysis
is going to uncover the real situations. With referencing to research questions and to historical comparative
analysis, the researchers intent to understand and explain what and why civic education to be initiated and
implemented in Hong Kong.
Contents of Study
The civic education policy of Hong Kong underwent continuous changes. It was because that the policy
makers intended to implement their soul engineering projects at different context. In order to have clearer
understanding and interpretation of this issues, the paper extents to a historical comparative analysis. The areas
of study cover with comparison between the transition period from 1984 to June 1997 and the after handover
period from July 1997 to June 2014. Each period has a noticeable stage which contains a document of civic
education policy issue at that moment. The transformation of civic education policy, of course, can be easily
observable.
Initiation of New Civic Education on Political Changes
Two special times were that Hong Kong was introduced political reform with parliamentary elections and
the Sino-Joint declaration was presented in 1984 and the finalized education reform after handing over
re-organized the Basic Education Curriculum in 2001. There were two documents for civic education issue in
1985 and 2002 respectively. These new generated policies indicated that the two governments want to initiate
new projects of civic or citizenship education.
The Curriculum Development Committee of the Hong Kong Education Department issued the guidelines
on civic education in schools in August 1985. There was no consultation process but an official document was
produced under public pressure and criticism. After handing over of Hong Kong’s sovereignty, the new
government embarked on serious education reforms. The Basic Education Curriculum was publicized after
these controversies and debates. One of the series of 15 booklets in the Basic Education Curriculum Guide was
Moral and Civic Education which was issued in 2002. At that moment, education reforms were praised to the
skies. Moral and Civic Education was set as one of the four major educational concerns.
Generally speaking, the curriculum before 1985 in Hong Kong was a-national. Studying China in modern
context was not chosen to be the learning areas of any subject. It was a milestone for civic education in Hong
Kong. The notion should be put on the subject contents of new initiated civic education which were not adopted
previously. Civic education in 1985 showed that modern China was the first time introduced into schooling
curriculum in Hong Kong. More dimensions on Hong Kong studies were introduced. The prominent concepts
such as rights, freedom and responsibilities were emphasized, but these important concepts of citizenship
education did not ever exist in the curriculum of Hong Kong’s schooling. Table 1 shows the details of the
contents introduced in the areas of Hong Kong and China at different levels of school education.
There directly addressed the prominence of national and political education in Hong Kong context. After
the Sino-British Joint Declaration was signed, Hong Kong would be handed over to China and Chinese
elements were the inevitable composition. However, through comparing the suggested contents, the contents of
Hong Kong were more than those of China obviously. Citizenship education was actually initiated into
educational curriculum in Hong Kong in 1985. The subject suggested contents were obviously based on Hong
Kong. The current political issues, especially after the Sino-British Joint Declaration confirmed, were address.
HONG KONG CIVIC EDUCATION POLICY FROM 1984 TO 2014
668
Moreover, it outlined the basic understanding of China. Citizenship education was given as the relationship
between Hong Kong citizens and the government, their rights and responsibilities. These were the key and
major concerns before the handover.
Table 1
The Contents of Hong Kong and China in Civic Education in the 1985 Guidelines
Hong Kong China
Senior Primary
Basic knowledge of Hong Kong’s physical environment, its people, its historical
and economic development.
The government: a. the function of a government, the work of the Hong Kong
government, the government and the people.
The citizen: rights, freedom and responsibilities.
Senior Primary
A basic understanding of the growth and
development of China, China’s physical
environment and human activities, its
cultures, Hong Kong’s link with china and
the region.
Junior Secondary
Introduction to Hong Kong with basic knowledge of its history, its geographical
setting, its people, its industrial, commercial, financial and cultural development.
How Hong Kong is governed: a brief description of the administration of Hong
Kong, the importance of law and order to community, the government and the
people.
Rights and responsibilities of a citizen: an understanding of certain basic rights,
freedom and responsibilities of a citizen.
Junior Secondary
A basic understanding of the history of
China, its geographical setting and cultural
heritage.
Awareness of China’s recent political and
economic development.
An understanding of Hong Kong’s cultural,
political and economic link with China.
Senior Secondary
The Hong Kong government: functions and policy making, need for rules and
regulations, types of rules in society.
The government and the people: representative system under liberal democratic,
consultation with people, major official channels for the redress of grievances,
informal influences on policy making.
Greater understanding of the rights and responsibilities of a citizen.
Greater understanding of current issues related to the political, economic, social
and cultural development in Hong Kong.
Senior Secondary
Greater understanding of the cultural
heritage of China and its latest economic
developments
Greater understanding of Hong Kong’s link
with China and her role in maintaining
stability and prosperity in Hong Kong
Sixth-form
An analysis of how Hong Kong is governed.
Development of representative government and local administration in Hong Kong
Modes of participation in Hong Kong’s political affairs
Major issues in public policy areas in Hong Kong, e.g. housing, law and order,
education, medical and health, social welfare, transport.
The future of Hong Kong as set out in the Sino-British Joint Declaration.
Sixth-form
Basic knowledge of the government and
politics of the People’s Republic of China.
After the handover, the goals of the school curriculum were re-set. The Curriculum Development Institute
issued the report of China Elements in the School Curriculum: Curriculum Examination Report in 1998. It was
expressed that students should be able to recognize their roles and responsibilities as members in the family, the
society and the nation and show concern for their well-being, and understand their national identity and be
committed to contributing to the nation and society (Curriculum Development Council, 2000, p. 18). The
hidden agenda was that national identity should be put on the first priority in our education system. It was
predictable that, following the handover of sovereignty, civic education should be laid stress on building
nationalism and patriotism.
The issued Moral and Civic Education booklet in 2002 set five priority values and attitudes which were
perseverance, respect for others, responsibility, national identity and commitment. These values were set
without any consultation and assumed to prepare students to meet the challenges of the 21st Century (Education
and Manpower Branch, 2002, p. 2). Of course, the researchers might doubt why such values were helpful for
the challenges. It was said that the values which were fostered and interconnected should help students to
become informed and responsible citizens committed to the well-being of their fellow humans (Education and
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669
Manpower Branch 2002, p. 2). However, the researchers could not explain how these values could help
students to become such citizens. They actually adopted nationalist, patriotic and traditional Chinese values and
made these be explainable. The core modern rational values were excluded such as the rule of law, democracy
and human rights education not being included in generating curriculum content for the reform of basic
education system. More actually, the priority of the priorities was national identity. The return of Hong Kong to
China since 1997 called for a deeper understanding of the history and culture of China. The document
expressed that there was a need to strengthen the sense of national identity among students (Education and
Manpower Branch, 2002, p. 3). It was imperative to enhance pupils’ interest in and concern for the
development of China through involving them in different learning experiences and life-wide learning. More
opportunities must be provided for pupils to develop a sense of belonging to China (Education and Manpower
Branch 2002, p. 3). It could be nurtured through developing in students an understanding and appreciation of
the achievements of China (Education and Manpower Branch, 2002, p. 15). The national flag-raising ceremony
were recognized as real life learning experiences at the Tiananmen Square by visiting to the mainland or at the
Golden Bauhinia Square in Hong Kong which could provide the opportunities to develop their nation identity
(Education and Manpower Branch, 2002, p. 16, p. 27, p. 30, p. 34). But it is not to educate, it is only ritualism
or hegemonic to indoctrinate or imperceptible to influence. It is not a rational way of education in order to
nurture our future and responsible citizens. The continuous studies by surveys find that students hate to identify
themselves as Chinese. Ritualism cannot be effectual.
In addition to citizenship education building, a new kind of socialist and collective citizenship might be
required by fostering Hong Kong’s students a national identity which might resemble a pan-Chinese identity, but
Hong Kong’s students still strongly identify themselves as Hongkongers which are proved by many surveys.
Middle Evaluation of Civic Education by Chinese Official Institutions
When the day of the handover came near, the Chinese government organized the Preliminary Working
Committee1 of Preparing the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in 1995. The organization was obviously
formed for the Chinese government to take over Hong Kong. The Cultural Sub-group2 drafted the basic principle
of civic education for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It showed how the importance of civic
education would be for the future of Hong Kong. Nationalism and patriotism education was undervalued in
Hong Kong. Following the resumption of sovereignty, the Report in 1998 concluded that the major aims of
civic education were to mould pupil to have state national consciousness, social responsibility, respect and
obedience of law, equipped with moral ethic concepts and characters. They pointed out that civic education should
establish social order, settle national people, and nurture state and society required talents (Preliminary Working
Committee of the Preparatory Committee for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, 1995, p. 189)
About the implementation of civic education, the committee suggested that the Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region should lay stress on the following contents in the priority order: State concept and
national consciousness; introducing the Basic Law; Chinese history and geography; Chinese cultural traditions
and ethic morality; democratic education; nurturing individual ideal and sentiment; environmental education;
1 The organization consisted of 57 members, of which 30 came from Hong Kong. The chairman was QIAN Qi-chen who served
as Chinese foreign minister. The six vice-chairmen consisted of four Mainland officials and two Hong Kong vice-chairmen were
Fok Ying-tung Henry and Ann Tse-kai. Other Hong Kong members included those were the targets of the united front, such as Li
Kwok-po David, Li Ka-shing, Lo Tak-shing and Tam Wai-chu Maria. 2 The chairman was WU Wai-yung Raymond and he was a member of the Hong Kong Basic law Drafting Committee.
HONG KONG CIVIC EDUCATION POLICY FROM 1984 TO 2014
670
and international horizon.
However, it was set prominently that state concept and national consciousness were the first priorities of civic
education for the coming Special Administrative Region. Concepts of the state would be introduced with the
combination of learning Chinese geography and history, sense of belonging and glory as being a Chinese, national
consciousness and social responsibility of the state people, civic rights and obligations, and knowledge of modern
China (Preliminary Working Committee of the Preparatory Committee for the Hong Kong Special Administrative
Region, 1995, p. 195). About the future implementation of civic education in the Hong Kong Special Administrative
Region, it was suggested the mode of making steady progress incrementally [shun syujianjin, 循序漸進]. Taking a
mild mode to nurture state concept and national consciousness could prevent from flourishing moodiness of
narrow minded statism, nationalism and racialism (Preliminary Working Committee of the Preparatory
Committee for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, 1995, p. 197). It was not required to give up all
pre-1997 content of civic education. The part of moral and social education could be retained and enhanced
(Preliminary Working Committee of the Preparatory Committee for the Hong Kong Special Administrative
Region, 1995, p. 198). The opinion was nationalistic and patriotic education. The intention of the direction was
to educate Hong Kong citizens to be concerned with human rights and democratic citizenship education.
The State Chairman of the People’s Republic of China, HU Jin-tao, visited Hong Kong for the 10th
Anniversary of the Establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in 2007. Accidentally, he
placed the emphasis on national education for the Hong Kong young people. He obviously intervened Hong
Kong internal affairs which was promised by the Sino-British Joint Declaration that Hong Kong could enjoy a
high degree of autonomy except for foreign and defense affairs. After this effect, the Central Policy Unit3 of
the Hong Kong Government formed the Task Group on National Education of the Commission on Strategic
Development in September 2007. One of the terms of references was to propose strategies and plans and to
improve or adjust current directions, policies and measures for guaranteeing the effectiveness of promoting
national education in Hong Kong (The Secretary of the Commission on Strategic Development, 2008a, p. 2).
The head of Central Policy Unit, professor Lau Siukai, acted as the convener of the Task Group, revealing the
prominent importance of this Task Group. Many very important persons acted as non-official members of the
committee, such as, Chan Cho-chak John4, Cheng Hoi-chuenVincent
5, Cheng Kar-shun Henry
6, Cheung
Chi-kong7, Leung Oisie Elsie
8, Shih Wing-ching
9, and Tsang Yok-sing Jasper
10.
3 The Central Policy Unit (CPU) came into being in 1989 and has retained its structure after 1997. Its major function is to provide
advice on policy matters to the Chief Executive (CE), the Chief Secretary for Administration (CS) and the Financial Secretary
(FS). 4 Chan Chochak John was formerly the British Hong Kong government official and he held many key positions including:
Private Secretary to Governor Murray MacLehose, Deputy Secretary, Director of Information services, Deputy chief Secretary,
Secretary for Trade and Industry and Secretary for Education and Manpower. 5 Cheng Hoichuen Vincent was the first Chinese Executive Director of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation
Holdings and the first Chinese Chairman of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, 6 Cheng Karshun Henry is a Hong Kong entrepreneur and billionaire. He is the elder son of Cheng Yutung and the Chairman of
the New World Development. 7 Chueng Chikong is the executive director of the One Country Two systems Research Institute and non-official member of the
Executive Council. 8 Leung Oisie Elsie was the Secretary for Justice of Hong Kong from 1997 to 2005. She is now the deputy director of the Hong
Kong special Administrative Region’s Basic Law Committee under the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of
the People’s Republic of China. 9 Shih Wingching established Centaline Property agency Limited in 1978, which is now one of the largest property agencies in
Hong Kong and china.
HONG KONG CIVIC EDUCATION POLICY FROM 1984 TO 2014
671
One month later, Donald Tsang, the Chief Executive, expressed his policy speech which was the first time
that it contained the individual national education section. This section had five paragraphs in the whole
document containing only 130 paragraphs. He stated that the government should make every effort to promote
national education (Tsang, 2007, para. 118). With the attachment of great importance in promoting national
education among Hong Kong young people, it could be expected that they could grow to love China and Hong
Kong, aspire to win honor and make contributions for the country, and have a strong sense of pride as nationals
of the People’s Republic of China (Tsang, 2007, para. 118). He noted that the promotion of national education
would be an undertaking of the whole community (Tsang, 2007, para. 119). In schooling, this could be done
through classroom teaching, teacher education, extracurricular activities and exchanges with young people from
the Mainland (Tsang, 2007, para. 119). More weight to the elements of national education in the existing
curricula and the new senior secondary curriculum framework11
would be given. It was to help school pupils
acquire a clearer understanding of the country and stronger sense of national identity (Tsang, 2007, para. 120).
Moreover, the Hong Kong government encouraged more schools to form flag guard teams and to stage more
national flag-raising ceremonies, and subsidize more Mainland study trips and exchange programmes for
youths (Tsang, 2007, para. 120).
The Task Group on National Education of the Commission on Strategic Development conducted the third
meeting on April 14, 2008. The strategy on promoting national education was finalized. The national education
that they defined was focused on the nation and the establishment of education for state concept and
remembrance. Trough national education, it can make each national comply with state law, take care of state
interest and undertake state destiny (The Secretary of the Commission on Strategic Development, 2008b, p. 1).
Their understanding of national identity was expressed by:
National identity is a kind of the process of mass identification, related to how to establish a kind of consciousness of
we-ness of the group belonging to same one country. Speaking in Hong Kong, it means that we are the Chinese and the
each other are close related and fellow citizens. (translated in Chinese, the Secretary of the Commission on Strategic
Development, 2008b, p. 6)
The researchers can only conclude that these two organizations were constituted by the pro-China
governmental officials or elites. The ideas are one-sided domination. Public intellectuals were not included for
the generation or consultation of the knowledge content and aim of civic education. If the researchers can note
that the power and knowledge relationship, the statement is not the expression itself, but the rules which make
an expression discursively meaningful. It is the question of discursive formation. The Moral and Civic
Education Section of the Education Bureau issued the revised version of civic education, and it was to collect a
hundred rivers, enrich young seedlings with moral rain: new revised moral and civic education framework (in
Chinese only, which is 匯聚百川流.德雨育青苗:新修訂德育及公民教育課程架構) in April 2008. The
policy paper did not consult the public. It was only issued as an administrative process. The policy researchers
generally did not take note of this policy. Teachers were made known in March 2009 through conducting a
conference. It suggested that life events exemplars should be used as learning contexts to enable pupils to
realize positive values. Schools should help to enhance pupils’ understanding of China and national identity as
10
Tsang Yoksing Jasper is the second and current President of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. 11
The new academic structure of the 3-3-4Scheme was adopted for senior secondary education and higher education In Hong
Kong and began staring in 2009 where the British education system of 3-2-2-3 education structure was abolished.
HONG KONG CIVIC EDUCATION POLICY FROM 1984 TO 2014
672
the prominent task of Education Bureau to strengthen the promotion of national education.
Unsuccessful Attempts of the Policy Preparation for the Future Citizens
Two polices documents were issued for consultation and finalized as policies on Civic or National
Education in 1996 and 2012 respectively. These two documents were the documents for citizenship education
which was ever existing in the most comprehensive forms. The explanation was in details through different
perspectives and dimensions with the concept of co-centric ideas. The core was the self, and then it extended to
interpersonal, society, nation and global world. However, these did not target to the necessities of our society.
On the contrary, these indicated that two different policies for generating and making contents of knowledge
serving for two different governances. The following is the table to compare their aims of civic or national
education.
Table 2
Comparing the Aims of Education for Civics in 1996 and Nationals in 2012
Aims of Civic Education in 1996 Aims of Moral and National Education in 2012
To enable student to understand how the
individual, as a citizen, relates to the
family, the neighboring community, the
regional community, the national
community and the world, and to develop
in them positive attitudes and values
conducive to the development of a sense
of belonging to China.
Hong Kong and China so that they are
ready to contribute to the betterment of
the society, the state and the world.
To help students understand the
characteristics of Hong Kong society and
importance of democracy, liberty,
equality, human rights and rule of law,
and to employ these concepts in daily life.
To develop in students critical thinking
dispositions and problem-solving skills
that would allow them to analyze social
and political issues objectively and to
arrive at a rational appraisal of these
issues.
Development of moral qualities: to preserve Chinese virtues, including benevolence,
righteousness, courtesy and wisdom; to foster universal values, including peace,
benevolence, justice, freedom, democracy, human rights, responsibility, respect for
others, etc..
Development of a positive and optimistic attitude: to follow the direction of “Know
oneself, Find one’s niche in Hong Kong. Levering on the Mainland, engaging
ourselves globally” and put the desirable qualities into practice; to be willing to care
about one’s family and to serve society; to be will to act in the interests of the country
and people of the world; and to develop a positive and meaningful life attitude.
Self-recognition: to enhance recognition of oneself and understanding of one’s roles,
responsibilities, right and obligations in family, society, the country and the world
Judging in a caring and reasonable manner: to develop the skills of independent and
critical thinking from multiple perspectives, and the ability to discern the meaning and
values embedded in relevant life events in an objective and rational way, and making
caring and reasonable judgement.
Recognition of identity: to build identities in different domains; to care for family,
society, the country and the world; to become informed and responsible family
members, citizens, nationals and global citizens.
Practice: to develop desirable habits of making rational and responsible decisions with
an enthusiastic attitude in various domains, and to be committed to loving out them.
The first observation was that the curriculum adopted diversified mode which our society should accept
diversity and not discriminate the disadvantaged. This communitarian approaches should be generally selected
to develop and strengthen our pupils good sense of belonging of our society. Their contrasts were comparable.
The expectation in the 1996 guideline was to strengthen knowledge of citizenship, human rights, political
democracy, liberty and the rule of law. Such kind of knowledge was classified as international standard of
human beings. On the contrary, the 2012 guideline introduced more traditional, cultural and conservative
Chinese values. This was something like the revival of Confucian classical values which were adopted as
ideological and hegemonic educational strategy for education. Pupils were taught and intended to be more
patriotic, nationalized and identified to be Chinese. These cannot hide the real situations of these policies in
2012 after the handover of 15 years’ sovereignty. The aims of education can be set more high-sounding in a
HONG KONG CIVIC EDUCATION POLICY FROM 1984 TO 2014
673
dignified manner. That is to say, the documents sounded very pompous and self-congratulatory. We should not
overlook the issues and revisiting the issues in more details required.
As the day came near for the handover of Hong Kong’s sovereignty, Guidelines on Civic Education in
Schools was issued in April 1996. The first sentence of the document was:
Foreword: As Hong Kong prepares to be the Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of
China in 1997 and meets the challenges of 21st century, the schools in Hong Kong have the mission to equip
our young people with the attitudes, values, beliefs and competence which help them become contributing
citizens to society, the country and the world.
The differences of ideas are comparable to that of Moral And National Education Curriculum in 2012. At
the Policy Address 2010-2011, Tsang expressed to review the curriculum framework for moral and civic
education and to develop an independent subject “moral and national education” (Tsang, 2010, para. 161). The
original planning wanted this subject to be implemented in the 2013-2014 school year (Tsang 2010, para.161),
not to be 2012. The Hong Kong government issued the document of the Moral and National Education
Curriculum and consulted the public in May 2011. The Moral and National Education Curriculum was
immediately and strongly criticized as the brain-washing education by the public but the officials always denied.
However, it should be observable that the national identity education was put on the first priority on education.
The first sentence of the consultation document was:
Foreword: Cultivating students’ moral and national qualities has always been the main objective of school
education. After the return of Hong Kong to China, promoting national education and increasing students’
understanding of their country and national identity have become the common goals of primary and secondary
schools in Hong Kong.
The slightly changed statement was re-occurred in the curriculum guide recommend for use in schools in
May 2012 which statement was:
Preamble: Cultivating students’ moral and national qualities has always been one of the main objectives of
school education in Hong Kong. Since the return of sovereignty, promoting national education and enhancing
students understanding of their country and national identity have become a common goal of primary and
secondary schools.
It can be concluded that national identity was always put on the most important position. It could be
observable that the curriculum in 1996 set citizenship education prominently and the guideline in 2012 made
national identity be the first priority of teaching national education. Human rights and political education were
further marginalized in school curriculum in 2012. Moreover, it indicated seriously that after handing over the
sovereignty for 15 years, education of national identity was so unsuccessful that mental project of education
should re-state it again and again. The adoption of concepts and values could be compared. Table 3 gave social
and individual concepts and values adopted in 1996.
As a matter of fact, to promote a more political democratization and enhance greater citizen participation
in Hong Kong society in 1996, civic education was adopted to promote democracy, human rights, civil and
universal or global citizenship. On the other hand, recently generated values were set priorities that were listed
in the websites of moral and civic education (see Table 4). The government played a more active role in
creating a unified national identity after the handover. More values could be classified as collectivism. Social
order, collective recognition and national identity were the task to make the required society for the governance
of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The themes were the promotion of traditional Chinese values,
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674
the avoidance of confrontation and obeying social orders or public interests, a focus on the obligations and
responsibilities, not on human rights, of individual towards China and the Hong Kong’s society collectively.
Pupils were generally told to be morally correct and to obey societal values.
Table 3
Concepts and Values Recommended by the Guidelines in 1996
Universal Core Concepts and Values: Individual
Sanctity of Life
Truth
Aesthetics
Human dignity
Rationality
Creativity
Courage
Liberty
Affectivity
Individuality
Universal Core Concepts and Values: Social
Equality
Benevolence
Freedom
Common Good
Mutuality
Justice
Betterment of Human Kind
Sustaining Concepts and Values: Individual
Self Reflection
Self Regulation
Self Cultivation
Principled Morality
Well-being
Self Determination
Openness
Sustaining Concepts and Values: Social
Plurality
Due Process of Law
Common will
Patriotism
Tolerance
Equal Opportunities
Culture & civilization Heritage
Human Rights & Responsibilities
Table 4
Priority Values Adopted by Moral and Civic Education Unit of Education Bureau12
Perseverance
National Identity
Democracy
Participation
To be considerate
Love and Care
Optimistic
Confidence
Co-operation
Respect for others
Commitment
Human Rights
Social Justice
Self-discipline
Service
Rationality
Rightfulness
Appreciation
Responsibility
Critical Thinking
Integrity
Sustainability
Simplicity
Positive
Cherish
Creativity
Flexible and adaptable to change
Concepts and values for civic education were adopted which were individualistic and social collective
separately in 1996. The ideas of individualism were suppressed and reduced after 1997. More types of values
were selected to serve for collectivism and social order in 2012.The focus was on strengthening the promotion of
collective social order and homogenized communist values. The other point caused attention was the distinct
Hong Kong local culture which was ever very important and prominent in Hong Kong. The one excellent example
was the Hong Kong cultural industry where there were numerous of products such as songs, films and cartoons.
These were Hong Kong collective memories and indicated localism of Hong Kong identity which was hardly
replaceable or duplicated. So, to understand this policy, the researchers can compare the subject contents further.
The following are the details of comparing Hong Kong studies of two guidelines. The areas of study provided in
1996 were much reduced in 2012 at different stages of schooling on one hand. The Hong Kong based teaching
and learning in 1996 was reduced by education serving for the government on the other hand. Civic society in
Hong Kong was intended to be reduced in size. Localism was disappeared in curriculum knowledge. Hong Kong
12
Retrieved June, 2014, from http://mce.edb.hkedcity.net/eng/emb_main.jsp
HONG KONG CIVIC EDUCATION POLICY FROM 1984 TO 2014
675
studies were hijacked by the contents of study catering the necessities of China’s governance.
About the contents of China studies, these can be classified as knowing China before the handover and
national education after the changing of sovereignty. It can be summarized that the individualistic values
suggested in 1996 against collectivist values in 2013. Civic education should have its historical and institutional
footing. The basic citizenship education should include more discussion on political citizenship, power
relationship between Hong Kong and the People’s Republic of China and the process of power delegation and
empowerment provided by the Basic Law. Schools should deal with politics and education for civil rights and
responsibilities. The researchers should not dichotomize nationalism and colonialism. The following
comparisons were the other areas of China studies in 1996 and 2012 respectively.
Table 5
Comparing Hong Kong’s Contents of the 1996 Civic Education Guideline and the 2012 National Education
Guideline
1996 guidelines 2012 curriculum guideline
Junior Primary
(1) Hong Kong as a SAR of PRC, e.g. HKSAR flag, HKSAR
emblem;
(2) Festivities and customs in Hong Kong;
(3) Contributions of the people who provide public and community
services;
(4) Children’s rights and related ordinances, e.g. UN Convention of
the Rights of the Child.
Key stage 1
(1) Establish a loving and living campus and learn actively;
(2) Respect others and be able to demonstrate appropriate
etiquette on different occasions;
(3) Understand the Basic Law and the spirit of One Country,
Two Systems, respect the regional emblem of Hong Kong
and the HKSAR Establishment Day.
1996 guidelines 2012 guideline
Senior Primary
(1) The Hong Kong society: history, culture, population etc.;
(2) Hong Kong-China relationships: (a) sovereignty; (b) HKSAR and the Basic Law
(3) Rights and responsibilities of Hong Kong people;
(4) The Hong Kong government: (a) structure and organization; (b) functions and roles.
(5) Welfare and services: (a) governmental, e.g. the Urban Council and the Regional
Council; (b) nongovernmental and voluntary agencies, e.g. Hospital Authority, Tung
Wah Groups, Caritas;
(6) Representative government and election.
(7) Communications between the government and the people;
(8) Affiliations and groupings in society;
(9) Law and order;
(10) Current social issues.
Key stage 2
(1) Be willing to take the responsibilities
as a student, serve schoolmates and the
school with a sense of belonging to the
school and establish good
teacher-student relationships;
(2) Speak cautiously, practice
self-discipline and get along well with
others in a rational and respectful manner;
(3) assume responsibilities towards
society, e.g. taking good care of public
property, obeying rules and abiding by
laws
1996 guidelines 2012 guideline
Junior Secondary
(1) The Hong Kong society: history, economy, geography and population;
(2) The Hong Kong citizens: (a) origins and identity; (b) responsibilities and rights; and (c)
Hong Kong spirit;
(3) Development of the political system: (a) sovereignty and legitimacy: sovereignty before
and after 1997, HKSAR and the Basic Law; (b) structure and organization of the
government: the HKSAR legal system, the Hong Kong civil service; (c) checks and balances:
separation of powers, e.g. legislative, executive and judiciary, prevention of power abuse,
e.g. COMAC, ICAC, the mass media etc.; (d) electoral system: the tripartite system:
legislative, urban and region, and district; and (e) communication between the government
and the people: official or unofficial channels;
(4) Means and modes of social and political participation;
(5) Contemporary and current issues;
(6) Issues in relation to a just society: (a) individual rights and responsibilities; (b)
democracy and election; (c) rule of law and justice, d. freedom and limitations; (e) equality
and discrimination; and (f) concepts of charters, e.g. youth charter, patient’s charter.
Key stage 3
(1) Discuss various social issues in
a rational and practical manner and
show concern for the long-term
betterment of Hong Kong;
(2) Learn to cope with peer
pressure from any inappropriate
behavior;
(3) Understand the importance of
the Basic Law in maintaining the
prosperity and stability of Hong
Kong, thereby recognizing the
essence of Rule of Law and
Human Rights as foundation for
the development of Hong Kong.
HONG KONG CIVIC EDUCATION POLICY FROM 1984 TO 2014
676
1996 guidelines 2012 guideline
Senior Secondary
(1) the Hong Kong society: (a) culture and tradition; and (b) contemporary and current
issues;
(2) Political authority and legitimacy: (a) Hong Kong as British 1842-1997; and (b) Hong
Kong as SAR of PRC from 1997;
(3) Central-local government relationship beyond 1997: one country, two systems;
(4) Constitutional document and legal system: (a) Letters of Patent and the Royal
Instructions; (b) the Basic Law; and (c) the Hong Kong legal system and Common law;
(5) Social and political participation of Hong Kong citizens: (a) awareness of social and
political issues; (b) means and modes of participation; and (c) contributions of public
opinions: the consultation mechanism, others, e.g. demonstration, press and mass media,
etc.;
(6) Elements of a just society, e.g. human rights, democracy, rule of law, freedom, justice,
equality;
(7) Means of realizing a just society: (a) constitution and the legal system: limited
government, protection of human rights and minority rights, e.g. Hong Kong Bill of Rights,
children rights, judiciary and law enforcement; (b) democratic structure: separation of
powers, checks and balances, elections; and (c) freedom of speech.
Key stage 4
(1) Develop an acute sense and
discern the values embedded in
social issues;
(2) Undertake civic responsibilities,
maintain a balance between
individual and public interests by
adopting a macro perspective and be
willing to strive for the betterment of
Hong Kong;
(3) Actively develop and adopt
proper attitudes required for working
in society, such as punctuality,
honesty, sense of responsibility, as
well as those required for
maintaining harmonious
relationships with colleagues.
Source: Curriculum Development Council, 1996; Curriculum Development Council, 2012.
Table 6
Compare Chinese National Elements of the Civic Education Guidelines at Different Stages of Schooling in
1996 and 2012
1996 guidelines 2012 curriculum guide
Junior Primary
(1) Chinese nationhood: e.g.
representative symbols of China:
national anthem, national emblem,
national flag, etc.;
(2) Important cities and places in china;
(3) Chinese festivities and customs;
(4) Children’s life and activities in
china, e.g. Young Pioneers, Children’s
Palace.
Key stage 1
(1) Enhance the sense of belonging towards the country through understanding its
landscape, natural resources and antiquities.
(2) Learn about the country’s contemporary development, and develop a sense of
self-reflection and national identity.
(3) Foster a sense of belonging towards one’s country, ancestral home and place of
residence through tracing traditional Chinese customs and one’s/peers’ native and
ancestral home.
(4) Realize the importance of continuation and inheritance through learning the admire
qualities and virtues of outstanding personalities from various fields in the country.
1996 guidelines 2012 guide
Senior Primary
(1) Chinese nationhood: (a) geography and
population; (b) multi-ethnicity and languages,
(c) culture and art; (d) major historical
figures;
(2) Administrative regional divisions of
China, e.g. provinces, cities, counties, etc.;
(3) Important national festivals of China, e.g.
National day, May 1 Labor Day;
(4) Ways of life of people in china, e.g. rural
and urban ways of life;
(5) current issues of China.
Key stage 2
(1) Develop an awareness of and concern for nature and environmental
conservation through caring about the use of natural resources and environmental
conservation in the country;.
(2) Learn about the close relationship between the country and Hong Kong in
their development, understand the difficulties in the course of collaboration,
explore the solutions, and develop a common sense of belonging;
(3) Capture the essence of Chinese culture, and put the virtues learnt into practice
in daily life;
(4) Acquire a better understanding of the situations of the country from a
historical perspective, experience and process of exploration and advancement,
thereby understanding the directions for improvement, broadening horizons and
affirming national identity.
1996 guidelines 2012 guide
Junior Secondary
(1) Chinese nationhood: (a) major contemporary historical events
and the founding of PRC; (b) highlights of traditions: origins and
development of Chinese nation, thoughts and religions, e.g.
Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, culture and art, major
achievements and inventions;
(2) Major contemporary and current social and political social and
Key stage 3
(1) Understand the country’s efforts and achievements made
in natural resources conservation, reflect on the constraints
and challenges involved, and show concern for the way
forward for the country’s sustainable development;
(2) Show concern for the relationship between the Mainland
and Hong Kong, realize the constraints in the country’s
HONG KONG CIVIC EDUCATION POLICY FROM 1984 TO 2014
677
political issues in china, e.g. modernization issues, etc.;
(3)The government institutions in China: (a) structure of the state
government; (b) levels of the government;
(4) concepts of government: (a) authority and legitimacy:
sovereignty, the government and the governed, e.g. consent of the
governed, social contract, rights and responsibilities, etc.,
separation and balance of powers, checks and balances; (b)
constitution and the legal system, c. different types of
representative government and electoral system; (d) social and
political participation of public: means and modes of participation,
contribution of public opinions.
development and its directions for improvement through
understanding the government organizations and the
country’s key projects;
(3) Learn to appreciate Chinese literature and art, and
understand the charm and spirit embedded therein to
enhance national qualities;
(4) Understand from a historical perspective the
development of the country and features of multiculturalism,
learn about the present with reference to past experience,
and be committed to taking on one’s responsibilities as a
citizen of the country.
1996 guidelines 2012 guide
Senior Secondary
(1) Chinese nationhood: (a) ideology; (b) political system;
(c) economic system;
(2) Political authority and legitimacy: (a) Chinese
Constitution; (b) the government institutions in china: the
bureaucracy and the Cadre system; (c) democratic
centralism; (d) State and the Chinese Communist Party:
functions and role of the Party, structure of the Party; and
(e) social and political participation and recruitment:
means and modes of participation, e.g. Chinese People’s
Consultative Conference, communication system;
(3) Chinese citizenship: (a) citizen identity; (b) national
pride, nationalism and patriotism; and (c) responsibilities
and rights;
(4) Concepts of nation and state: (a) political ideologies,
political systems; (b) economic systems; and (c) nation
and state;
(5) Concepts of government: (a) the government
bureaucracy; (b) accountability and redress system; and
(c) public policy making;
(6) concepts of citizenship: (a) rights : individual,
political and economic etc.; and (b) responsibilities:
individual, civic, etc..
Key stage 4
(1) Understand one’s responsibilities for the sustainable development
of the country, and enhance the awareness of protecting natural
resources through exploring the relationship between the use of
resources and development of the country, as well as examining
existing issues, difficulties and solutions;
(2) Understanding the impact on people’s livelihood brought about by
the development of the country in contemporary politics, economy,
diplomatic relations and technology, as well as the exemplification of
values such as democracy, rule of law and human rights so as to
comprehend the close connection between the country and the world
and be willing to strive for the betterment of the country and its
people;
(3) Explore traditional thinking and beliefs that shed light on a
positive lifestyle and enrich the very essence of life, and exemplify the
wisdom and virtues of such thinking and beliefs in contemporary
living;
(4) Examine significant events in Chinese history form a macro
perspective and make comparisons with major world events,
understand, from an objective standpoint, internal hardships and
external challenges encountered in the course of reform and
opening-up, and realize the adversities, struggles, difficulties,
development and accomplishments within.
The discursive processes were similar. More localized contents of Hong Kong were adopted in the 1996
guideline but the local contents were reduced in the 2012 guideline. On the contrary, the contents of China were
much more increased in the 2012 guideline of Moral and National Education. There was taken for granted
understanding of the nature if these kind of traditional Chinese culture and ideological Confucian values were
required for students’ understanding. While the western citizenship education emphasized teaching in the values
guiding the relation of the state and individual, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s government laid
stress on interpersonal, social and moral values. The teaching was relied on education with loyalty to the People’s
Republic of China. The sense of national identity was based upon a sense of traditional culture, Confucian
morality and ideological values which were classified as correct attitude and moral responsibilities.
Even with the differences of these two documents in many areas, the outcome of these two documents was
the same. The 1996 civic education guideline was ignored by the coming Special Administrative Region’s
government. The established government after 1997 preformed a series of education reforms and followed with
the revision of basic education curriculum, so that, the old curriculum was forgotten and initiated new themes of
education for national identity and patriotic education. Moral and national education originally was the second
Chief Executive’s last education. After finished all official procedure and ready for implementation, it caused our
society protesting against its implementation. As the third Chief Executive carried on his new term of governance,
HONG KONG CIVIC EDUCATION POLICY FROM 1984 TO 2014
678
a series of political crisis occurred and the curriculum had no choice but shelved on 8 October 2012.
Conclusion
Hong Kong has undergone momentous events and changes during this period of 30 years. In accordance with
the One Country, two systems formula agreed, the socialist system would not be practiced in Hong Kong and
Hong Kong could kept on its capitalist system operating. After the transfer of power to China, Hong Kong faced a
serious of political problems. Comparatively speaking, the scenario was differently appeared before and after the
handover. The political conflicts were accelerated with the discontents of implementation of “one country, two
systems” policy in Hong Kong. It was questionable how the government is ran and that it can maintain high
degree of autonomy. As the intervention of local governance is increased by the communist government,
people doubt whether Hong Kong can retain its political, economic, social and judicial systems and unique way
of life. The freedom of assembly is restricted by the Public Order Ordinance and covert surveillance is the other
concern. The tensions are increased by the more radical democratization and social movement.
To an obviously description of introducing citizenship education in Hong Kong during this 30 years, the
processes of decolonization and re-colonization are comparable and noticeable. In the political transition period
of Hong Kong, the decolonizing strategy was adopted which the power was kept at the authorities’ hand until
the last moment. The patronizing and empowering policy was given to Hong Kong people with the so called
limited or handicapped political democratization and this political system was not accepted by the Chinese
authority and banned. After the handover of sovereignty, the re-colonization process was not taken immediately
and it was obviously radicalized recently. However, any intentions of moulding Hong Kong citizens were not
successful. The society of Hong Kong did not obey the policy’s intention but politicalized institutions activated
people with more in depth participation in politics. The governance was nothing but more challenged.
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International Relations and Diplomacy, ISSN 2328-2134
October 2014, Vol. 2, No. 10, 680-690
A Summary of the Developments Regarding the Economic
Regime Implemented in Developed and Developing Countries
Özlen Hiç Birol
Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey
Since the developments regarding the economic regime in developed countries follow a different path as opposed to
those in developing countries, in this article, these two groups of countries will be examined separately. Priority
will be given to investigate the economic regime in developed countries due to historical and theoretical reasons.
Today, both in developed and developing countries the economic activities basically are taken up by the private
sector, nevertheless the government contributes to these activities through intervention, guidance, protectionism,
and investment. Still the level of government intervention, protection and public investments in developed countries
appears to be at the minimum. The role of government in developing countries, however, seems to be more
significant. The gravity of the government’s role depends on the degree of development for the countries concerned.
In the countries where the level of development is low, the role of government increases, in other words, the
improvement in development decreases the role government.
Keywords: economic regime, developed and developing countries, government intervention
Outlines of the Economic Regime
What is meant by the economic regime or the economic system is to identify whether fundamental
economic and social activities such as production, allocation of resources, and distribution of income are
conducted by the government or the private sector and to what extent. One of the major subjects of the
economic regime has to do with the issues of foreign trade and economic relations, and the existence of market
economy or government restrictions and protectionism.
As it is well understood by the definition given above, there are two extremes in this topic. First one
requires that all economic and social activities are conducted by the private sector through price and market
mechanism and profit maximization principle based on the free interaction. In this economic regime, private
ownership is essential. Considering their own interests, the owners of land and capital decide which goods to
produce and how much to produce, which type of technologies they will use, and how much labor they will
employ according to the market conditions, supply and demand, and prices and wages. It is claimed that in the
end, the optimal point, in other words, full employment equilibrium and at the same time, balance of payments
are reached automatically. Under these circumstances, the government should only carry on its classical
functions such as external and internal security, the judiciary and health and education. Although this economic
regime, first introduced in the 18th century, is called the “liberal economic regime” as a result of the inspiration
from the Marxist publications, it has come to be named as “capitalism”.
Özlen Hiç Birol, associate professor, Economics in English Department, Istanbul University.
DAVID PUBLISHING
D
A SUMMARY OF THE DEVELOPMENTS REGARDING THE ECONOMIC REGIME
681
The second extreme or the opposite end of the spectrum would refer to all economic and social activities
that are carried out by government. K. Marx and Marxists call this economic system as “socialism”, but the
term generally used and accepted is “communism”. In the communist system, the ownership of the land and
capital which are the main factors of production is in the hands of the government. The government conducts
all economic and social activities by means of central planning.
At this stage, it is necessary to touch upon the interaction between these different economic regimes with
the political regime. The political regime which is commensurate with the liberal economic regime seems to be
democracy which upholds individual freedom up to the maximum level. Although in autocracies, private sector
also plays an important role in economic activities as it was the case with Hitler and Nationalist Socialism,
Mussolini and Fascism, the private sector has to be compliant with government’s restraints and directions.
Similarly, in the countries where democratic regime is not fully implemented, there again private sector is
subjected to various pressures coming from the government. Moreover, the communist regime essentially
emerged as a dictatorship regime; government ownership and central planning which government conducting
all economic and social activities cannot exist side by side with any multi-party system or true “democratic”
political system.
At the very outset it should be stated that, these two extreme regimes are not practically enforced. The
implementation of private sector conducting all economic activities had began in the developed countries, yet
since they had caused various problems government started to take part in many economic and social activities
by means of macroeconomic and social interventions, and government aids. At present this economic regime is
identified as “mixed economy” in many standard economics books. Here the main point is to emphasize the
existence of both the private and the public sector together. Still the term of “mixed economy” would not give
away the fact whether the role of government or private enterprise is more important, and it can sometimes
even be misleading. That is why both international economic institutions and economics literature mostly make
use of the term of “market economy”.
The alternative to it as a second extreme or the opposite end of the spectrum which is government
conducting all activities disappeared in practice since the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
(USSR) and China’s transformation into a mixed economy with private enterprise. All these developments will
be dealt more thoroughly in the following sections.
Evolution of the Economic Regime in the Developed Countries
The Birth of Liberal Economic Regime
Before the advent of the science of economics, throughout the 16th-18th centuries, European countries, in
other words, the developed countries at that time, implemented a very heavy interventionist and protectionist
economic regime which was dubbed by Adam Smith as “Mercantilism”. In Mercantilism each county was
cutting down on its imports as much as possible whereas promoting its exports. But these countries could not
issue the gold which was entering the country as the result of their foreign trade surpluses into the market as
money; the gold was accumulating in the vaults of the Central Bank. The countries believed that this was the
only way their countries’ wealth would increase. Eventually, Mercantilism was restraining the volume of
foreign trade among developed countries on one hand, and on the other hand it was reducing their rate of
growth. Additionally, Mercantilism led these countries to colonialism (imperialism). The rational behind
possessing a colony was to have cheap raw material and to be able to sell their goods at high prices.
A SUMMARY OF THE DEVELOPMENTS REGARDING THE ECONOMIC REGIME
682
However, the “industrial revolution” brought about significant changes in these countries. With the
invention of steam engine, boat and train transportation expanded to a great extent, factories emerged as a result
of mechanization of the weaving looms. According to Arnold Toynbee, the industrial revolution evolved
through 1760-1840; first started in England and then it spread throughout other European countries. The
industrial revolution created rather a large group of entrepreneurs. The most significant of all is the fact that
these entrepreneurs started to realize that heavy interventionism and protectionism of the government, in fact,
were restraining their economic activities and decreasing their profits. In his work written in 1776, Adam Smith
identified this important development. When he was establishing the science of economics, he claimed that
through the liberal economic system he developed, the government taking off his hands from all the economic
activities would result in the most optimal economic and social outcome for the whole society. Adam Smith
assumes that in all markets including the labor market, perfect competition prevails. In an economy under these
conditions, the “invisible hand”, that is the price mechanism, will solve all economic problems at an optimum
point for the whole society. Full employment equilibrium will be reached automatically, and the balance of
payments will restore itself so that the trade balance will be reached automatically via the automatic gold
standard theorem (Hiç, 1994). In this case, any intervention or protection coming from government would
disrupt the equilibrium, and the welfare of the society would decrease. In perfectly competitive markets, the
profits of the firms would fall down to under their “normal” levels. However, if monopolies arise, the
government should abolish the monopoly. The government should not intervene on wages. However, if labor
union (labor monopoly) emerges, the government should intervene again; the monopolist rises the wage of the
unions would prevent the economy from reaching the full employment equilibrium automatically. Free foreign
trade based on Adam Smith’s absolute advantage theory has gained validity and universality through David
Ricardo’s (1817) comparative advantage theory; this theory is still valid in our times.
The classical model based on Adam Smith developed further by the following classical economist Alfred
Marshall in 1890 (Hiç, 1994; Paya, 1997; Ackley, 1961; Branson, 1989). In this article, though, there is no need
to go into the details of the classical system, as for a collective information about classical economists (Hiç,
1974, pp. 1-9).
We can safely assume Adam Smith as the starting point of the science of economics and the
implementation of economic policies based on this science. As mentioned before, Smith’s system is called
“liberal economic regime” or laissez-faire. The very same economic regime had been named by Marx and
Marxist writers as “capitalism” or “wild capitalism”.
In practice, the implementation of “Laissez-faire” has caused two main problems. Firstly, through its
implementation in the early years, the conditions of the workers got worsened, that is the “labor problem” or
“social problem”. Secondly, economies did not grow at the full employment equilibrium, on the contrary, there
had been continuous cyclical fluctuations, and the problem of unemployment in the depression period remained
unsolved.
The Birth of the Communist System
In 1848, Karl Marx, with F.G. Engels introduced the second extreme regime with their work the
“Communist Manifesto”. During the first period these serious labor problems and cyclical fluctuations,
depression and unemployment were encountered by the European countries. Marx, later on, developed his
thoughts in Das Kapital (1867, Vol. 1; 1885, Vol. 2; 1884, Vol. 3 after his death).
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According to Marx, the capitalist system was dynamic but it would give rise to exploitation of workers,
monopolies and increased poverty of the workers; the business cycles stem from the nature of the capitalist
system, and they are inevitable. Marx argued that the governments in the capitalist system had become the
powns (true owners) of the capitalists and could not prevent this doom; on the contrary, the problem will
become more serious. In fact, he derided all efforts such as establishing a social security system or
wage-legislation. Marx also argued against the religion thought which was there only to calm down and make
the workers accept their poor plight.
Marx prophesized that the capitalist system would eventually be destroyed after a severe depression by a
“bloody” revolution of workers who had nothing to lose but their chains. After capitalism is destroyed, Marx
noted that the production of factors would be owned by the government or the community, free enterprise
system would stop and the government would take up all economic activities including investment and
production and would implement central planning. According to Marx, in such a system, exploitation of
workers and business cycles would be eliminated, and we should have a prosperity, equality, true democracy
and full-employment.
The Communist Manifesto had been adopted by all labor unions of the European countries, especially by
the German labor unions. However, the de facto developments had taken place very differently from Marx’s
arguments.
De Facto Developments, Evolution of Laissez-faire or Liberal System into the Market
Economy
Contrary to Marx’s arguments, the governments of developed countries did not stay indifferent to
problems of workers. Affected by the views of intellectuals on one hand and the voting potential of the workers
in democracies on the other hand, as well as for humane reasons, almost all governments prioritized the issue of
betterment of the conditions of the workers. In these early periods, the workers were given the fundamental
rights such as prevention of child labor, limits of the working hours, provision of work safety by regulating
working conditions, determination of the minimum wage. Even one more step further, the social security
system was institutionalized and at the same time, the labor unions were granted the right to go on strike, the
employer was given the right for lockout as opposed to the right to go on strike. By doing this, social objectives
were first introduced in the liberal economic regime (laissez-faire) as public policy for the first time, meaning
“rightist” standpoint heading towards “center-right”. Thus, the conditions of the workers had started getting
better.
The business cycles, however, could not be prevented until the Great Depression of 1929-1934. After the
Great Depression, Keynes introduced his macroeconomic system through his work (1936) showing that the
automatic full-employment equilibrium in the classical system was not a true assumption and that the economy
will settle at a less-than-full-employment equilibrium if the government does not increase the level of aggregate
demand. According to Keynes’ macroeconomic system, in order to ensure the full-employment equilibrium and
to prevent unemployment, the total expenditures should be increased up to the level which will bring about full
employment; so the government would implement monetary policy (money, credit, interest rate) and fiscal
policy (government expenditures, taxes). The central banks in charge of determining the amount of money and
credit as well the interest rates, later on, have been made independent from governments; obviously, it is always
possible for the central bank to consult with the government. The same macro policies would be implemented
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684
in the opposite direction to prevent inflationist periods (Hiç, 1994).
Keynes’ ideas and policy recommendations were embraced by all European countries and implemented
during the World War II (to decrease inflation) and after the war (to prevent the business cycles). The
government interventions in the economy on a macro level (through monetary and fiscal policies) to avoid
cyclical fluctuations and to ensure a full-employment has become an inseparable part of the economic regime.
After the World War II (1939-1945), the world had split into two parts as the Western World and the
Communist Bloc. Since the European governments made again use of trade restrictions and protectionism
before the World War I (1914-1915), in order to prevent this tendency, the liberalization of the free foreign
trade was initialized through GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) signed in 1947. The World
Bank established in 1944 (with its first period name and function, International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (IBRD)) as well as the IMF provided the implementation of the market economy in the Western
World including the developing countries. Instead of liberal economy or laissez-faire, the economic regime
comprising of social and Keynesian macroeconomic interventions has started to be called as “market
economy”.
In the 1970s, stagflation aroused as a result of the increase in oil prices by the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC), consequently, conservatism in the general public in the US and in Europe
increased, and the views against the Keynesian system, namely, Monetarism and Neo-Classical School became
widespread. Nevertheless, the implementation of these policies (especially during R. Reagan in the United
States through 1980-1988 and M. Thatcher in Britain through 1979-1988) did not bring about positive results,
and on the contrary, unemployment increased. Upon this development, Keynesian macroeconomic system was
inclined in the academic circles in the 1980s. Alongside with the main Keynesian macroeconomic system,
Post-Keynesian and New-Keynesian schools gained some momentum. The 1990s had seen the return to
Keynesian macroeconomic policy implementations (Birol, 2001).
The global financial crisis and recession started in September 2008 in the United States, then spread to the
whole world with serious dimensions (Hiç, 2010a), and resulted in very important outcomes in terms of
macroeconomic policies and the market economy. Firstly, especially Reagan in the United States and Thatcher
in Britain decreased the size of the government control over the financial sector, and this decrease in oversight
was an important factor in the break out of the financial crisis. When the crisis arose, the financial sector was
put under severe government control. Thus, the control of the financial sector was accepted as a requirement of
the market economy; secondly, alongside with the financial aid by government against the global crisis,
intensive Keynesian macroeconomic policies such as decreasing the interest rates (monetary policy), changes in
public investment programs and taxing system (fiscal policy) were implemented. Thus, the requirement for
Keynesian macroeconomic policy implementation was confirmed; and thirdly, international cooperation was
sought through G-20 instead of G-7, nevertheless, in the essence, market economy and globalization process
which started in the 1990s were not abandoned (Hiç, 2010a).
The fundamental element in market economy is the private sector; investment and production are
delivered by private enterprise. Government, though, invests only in social and productive infra-structure fields;
private investment is also allowed in these same areas. The sectorial and regional distribution of income is
merely intervened on an exceptional basis. Government interventions are made on the grounds of Keynesian
recommendations as well as social objectives and they are limited only for those areas. Foreign trade is
liberalized, restrictions on quotas are eliminated, and customs duties are at their minimum levels. The trade
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balance is reached by the exchange rates determined in foreign exchange market. Beside the free foreign trade,
the entry of foreign private capital is also free. In the process of globalization, international flow of the financial
funds plays the most significant role.
The market economy with its guidelines given above is being implemented in the freest fashion in the
countries such as United States, Britain, Canada, and Germany. Moreover, in France, government control is
traditionally and relatively more intense.
Heading Towards Social Democracy in Developed Countries
Marx’s Communist Manifesto of 1848 had been published by the German labor unions, and especially in
Germany, labor unions in all European countries embraced communism. Yet, the labor unions noticed the fact
that the governments were dealing with social issues and the conditions of workers were getting better. They
also realized that they played an efficient role in these improvements, and eventually they moved away from
communism and headed towards democratic socialism or, in short, towards socialism.
When the Marxist-Leninist communist revolution broken out in Russia in 1917/1918, the majority of the
labor unions in the European countries left communism completely adopting democratic left movement. Only
the minority groups had to be faithful to the communist system, and they supported communist parties.
Following the communist revolution, the USSR founded “Comintern” (an international association of
communist parties) in 1919, however, this organization was abolished in 1942. After the World War II, the
USSR established Cominform (Communist Information Bureau), and this organization was also disbanded in
1956.
After the World War II, the democratic leftist parties in Europe came together and founded the “Socialist
International” in 1951. The Socialist International accepted democracy and market economy as their principle.
Within this framework, the promotion of democracy, human rights and equal opportunities were targeted and
acknowledged. The Socialist International supported NATO, opposed the USSR and was pro-disarmament. The
British Labor Party, the French Socialist Party and the German Democratic Party took part in the Socialist
International as democratic leftist parties.
The development in the field of social policy starting from the World War II until today has improved
relatively compared to the past. Those improvements including minority rights, women’s rights, freedom of the
media, freedom of justice, unemployment insurance, health services and tax system taking into account the
income distribution are among the fields where social democrats succeeded.
In relatively recent times, the democratic leftist parties headed towards the center-left. The British Labor
Party and Tony Blair were the pioneers in this inclination. Today, the conditions of the workers in Europe and
certainly in the United States have improved; many of them own their houses and cars, and they go to different
countries on holiday.
The fundamental reason for the democracy functioning relatively well in the European countries seems to
be the high level of education and the long standing democracy experience. As a result of this fact, the
central-right and center-left (social democrat) parties share the majority of the votes whereas the liberals stand
in between and in the middle. Both communist parties and anti-workers, racist, radical rightist parties generally
compose the minority. Moreover, the voters may vote differently depending on the time and conditions. In this
way, the central-left presents a powerful alternative, and in many occasions, come into power and govern
competently. The fact that the general principle of the central-right and the central-left happens to be
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democracy and the market economy plays an essential role in this outcome, because the difference between
these two parties does not lie in the economic or political regime change, rather in their priorities and focus on
the social targets. It should be kept in mind, however, that the economic growth and the employment as the
social objectives are their common and most important targets that they seek to accomplish.
The Expansion and the Collapse of Communism
According to Marx, to bring about a revolution by the working class and the establishment of socialism
(communism) would only be happening in the “mature” industrialized countries, like in England and in
Germany. Yet, his expectation never materialized. Later on, the Marxist writers tried to explain this delay. For
instance, Rosa Luxemburg (1912) claimed that European countries turned to imperialism, and exploiting the
colonies alleviated temporarily the exploitation of the workers (Hiç, 1974, pp. 44-79).
Contrary to Marx’s assumptions, in Tsarist Russia which was relatively less developed in terms of
industrialization compared to the European countries at that time, in 1917 a minor militant group, but not the
working class, staged a communist revolution taking advantage of the economic and political gap created by
the World War II; and thus, Lenin established communism (bolshevism). The second wave of communism had
been created, again not as a result of the revolution by the working class, but as an outcome of 1945 Yalta
Conference attended by Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin right after the World War II. In the conference,
Northeastern and Balkan countries were left under the influence of the USSR, and eventually the USSR had
brought communist dictatorship to these countries. The third important wave was that China is becoming a
communist country. After a long standing struggle with chiang kai-shek and Japan, Mao Zedong founded
People’s Republic of China in 1949. Additionally, after serious internal and external problems and wars, North
Korea, Cuba and two Indochina countries Vietnam and Laos chose the communist regime.
After the World War II, the USSR prioritized to bring communism to the developing countries as part of
its expansionist policy, making use of her finances and propaganda towards this goal. Stalin, most probably,
saw the fact that, virtually, there was no likelihood for the expansion of communism in the developed Western
countries. Developing countries, though, were not yet industrialized, and many of them had a feudal structure.
There were new departments established in universities to study and research on how these countries could
become communist step by step. As a matter of fact, Şevket Süreyya Aydemir, the leader of cadre movement
during Atatürk period, had studied this subject at Moscow University. This propaganda of the USSR, in general,
had not been successful, and no country had chosen communism just because of such propagandas. On the
other hand, the NEP (The New Economic Policy) implemented during Stalin era, based on the closed economy,
import-substitution, development strategy relying on public investments and central planning created an
opinion that these elements were the reasons why the USSR achieved a very high growth rate; hence the NEP
was taken as an example by many developing countries. Essentially, although the low level of development in
these countries could not be compared to the one in the USSR, these countries generally required an economic
regime featuring these strategies. Following this perspective, in India, even a Marxist model (mahalanobis
model) was put into practice; nevertheless, since it failed, it was abolished in a year’s time.
In time, it was realized that the central planning depending solely on public ownership and public
enterprise brings about a restriction on the growth rate and technological progress, and public enterprise lacks
the dynamism of that of the private enterprise. Eventually, the Soviet system, namely the communism, let alone
to provide prosperity for the workers, it transformed into an oppression and police state. The communist regime
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caused setback to the development and industrialization of Russia and the countries part of the USSR states.
The burden of the countries within the USSR on the Russian budget accompanied by the intensive military
spending to compete with the United States incurred serious economic problems.
In the years when the communications facilities were limited, the Soviet propaganda was emphasizing
freely that the conditions of the workers in Europe were very bad. However, in the following years, as the
communications technologies have improved and the difficulty of restricting communications has become a
reality, the people in Russia and in other member countries realized that the welfare of the working class in the
European countries were much higher contrary what the propaganda was asserting; and that gave rise to
discontent. In the end, let alone the claims of the USSR and Krushchev to excel over the United States, even the
glasnost efforts of Gorbachev did not prove fruitful. In 1990, the Berlin wall fell, and the East Germany broke
its ties with Russia and acceded to the West Germany. In 1991 the USSR disintegrated and communism
collapsed. Russia and all the now independent countries have chosen democracy and the market economy.
Majority of the Northeastern European and Balkan countries have been accepted as a member of the EU
(Karluk, 2007). The others, though, have established the Commonwealth of Independent States with Russia,
and all of them have forsaken communism. Both in Russia and in these countries, problems in the application
of democracy and market economy pose a distinct challenge, yet none of them seem to be likely to return again
to communism.
With the collapse of the USSR, there are only five communist countries left in the world: China, Cuba,
North Korea, Vietnam, and Laos. However, a very significant development in China did occur though. After
the death of Mao in 1976 and during the 80s, under the guidance of DENG Xiao-ping, rather than following
merely the doctrine, China opted for pragmatic economic policy. Being accepted as a member of the World
Trade Organization in 2001, Chinese economic policy not only encouraged the private enterprise but started to
encourage foreign private investment flow radically as well. At the same time, with this economic strategy
based on the foreign private capital, China has occupied an important place in the globalization process of the
90s. Eventually, with its very high growth rate secured for a long time, in terms of the level of gross national
product, she has reached the second position just right after the United States; but the per capita income level is
still lagging behind. Today, what China implements as an economic regime is not a central planning which is
peculiar to the communist system; the new regime which is open the external world could be considered as a
mixed economy model based on encouragement of the private enterprise and private foreign capital. Thus, in
practice, there are only four countries left that implement the actual central planning, and therefore they can be
called communist countries: Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam and Laos. Cuba and Vietnam could leave
communism if appropriate external and domestic opportunities arise, and eventually they may forsake the
central planning in terms of economic regime, despite the fact that they may maintain their dictatorship
structure. In short, from the point of the economic regime, communism and central planning which represent
the second extreme have been dwarfed with no possibility of revival, getting close to the zero point. On the
other hand, global economic and political problems are still handful, and new challenges are in the waiting.
Evolution of the Economic Regime in the Developing Countries
As to the problem of development and economic regime in the developing countries, this issue could be
traced back to the aftermath of the World War II. The IMF and the World Bank set up after of the war had
advocated the market economy as the economic regime for the developing countries in the Western world.
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Nevertheless, in the early stages of their development process, in the developing countries there were not
enough private enterprises and private investment, and generally speaking, this led to very heavy
interventionism, protectionism and public investment based, closed and import-substituted industrialization; the
governments intervening the sectorial and regional distribution of income. In fact, the great majority of the
economists and economic advisors of the developed countries during those years, actually advocated
government interventionism and public investments due to lack of competitiveness in the markets of this
countries and the existing price mechanism’s not being a good indicator in terms of their productivity (Hiç,
2001; Toye, 1993).
As their development progressed, the intensity of the public investments, government interventions and
protectionism has decreased gradually as a result of this development. Therefore, developing countries have
proceeded in the opposite direction compared to the developed countries. Developed countries had started with
laissez-faire, and then, they allowed government interventions to a certain degree. Developing countries,
though, have started with statism, after the private sector and the market economy expanded over time, the role
of the government diminished; meaning that the developing countries also headed for the market economy;
however, they cannot be considered implementing the market economy yet. On the other hand, for these
developing countries we can safely state that they prioritize the encouragement of the private enterprise and
foreign private capital, and they are open to outward-oriented industrialization, and implement a mixed
economic regime with a strong private sector.
As their development progressed, the intensity of the public investments, government interventions and
protectionism has decreased gradually as a result of this development. Therefore, developing countries have
proceeded in the opposite direction compared to the developed countries. Developed countries had started with
laissez-faire, and then, they allowed government interventions to a certain degree. Developing countries,
though, have started with statism, after the private sector and the market economy expanded over time, the role
of the government diminished; meaning that the developing countries also headed for the market economy;
however, they cannot be considered implementing the market economy yet. On the other hand, for these
developing countries we can safely state that they prioritize the encouragement of the private enterprise and
foreign private capital, and they are open to outward-oriented industrialization, and implement a mixed
economic regime with a strong private sector.
In the first stages of their development, developing countries used to employ a closed economy and fixed
exchange rate system. However, the governments were increasing their expenditures in order to raise the
growth rate and to address the social issues; the necessary finances were provided by the central bank which
was not independent from the government. This rise in inflation caused by the increase in the volume of money
because the exchange rates were fixed was giving rise to an increase in the volume of imports and decrease in
the volume of exports, even though they were trying to restrict imports via high rates of customs and import
quotas and encourage exports via export incentives. Eventually, the deficits in their balance of payments were
forcing these countries to apply to the IMF. On the other hand, the IMF was stipulating devaluation and
stability measures, namely, to eliminate their budget deficits, and additionally, instead of public investments, to
encourage the private sector and the flow of foreign private capital. The developing country complied with
these recommendations in accordance with the stand-by agreement, after a while, was again pursuing the wrong
development strategies, and eventually it had to end up applying to the IMF one more time.
From the very outset, as an exception, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea succeeded
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implementing a development strategy based on the open economy, encouragement of private sector and foreign
private capital flow and as export-oriented industrialization. Still, these countries had different traits compared
to other developing countries. On the one hand, Hong Kong, for instance, was an international trade center and
Singapore was an international finance center, they were both city-states. Taiwan and South Korea on the other
hand, were appropriate places in terms of political objectives and from the economic point of view, thus, they
benefited greatly from the flow of intensive American capital. American companies have been importing goods
that they manufactured in Taiwan and South Korea at very low prices. None of the other developing and newly
industrializing country, including Turkey, was never subject to such intense foreign capital flow to this extent.
Nevertheless, the economic regime implemented in these countries cannot be defined as a pure “market
economy” because of the practice of intensive government interventions and protectionism (Toye, 1993).
In the 1970s, many development economists draw the attention to the shortcomings of the closed economy
implemented generally in the developing countries, and they advocated development strategies based on open
economy and export-oriented industrialization (Hiç, 2001; Toye, 1993).
In fact, many developing countries which were applying the closed economy model were increasing their
public investments and consumption expenditures; they could not collect taxes, eventually ending up with high
rates inflation. In some Latin American countries the inflation rate reached over 1000%. Due to the fixed
exchange policy, the demand for imports was increasing while the exports were falling, and despite of the
IMF’s aid, the deficit in the balance of payments was reducing the growth rate for a long time, resulting in
economic frustration in terms of growth and social welfare. Many governments of developing countries that
became aware of the situation tried to maintain the same principles even after the “stand-by” agreements with
the IMF throughout the 1970s. That is to say, they tried to minimize the budget deficit and encourage the
private sector and foreign capital flow, and they returned to the market exchange rate system by forsaking the
fixed exchange rate system. Since the market exchange rate system will enable the balance of payments
equilibrium, it facilitated the liberalization of imports. Moreover, because the existing state economic
enterprises were not profitable and productive, privatization programs were carried out within the framework of
the IMF’s recommendations. Following a series of unsuccessful and inadequate devaluations in the 1970s,
Turkey, through 24 January austerity measures, has accomplished a very successful economic policy change in
this direction (Hiç, 1980; 2008, pp. 82-83). After 1983, serious economic measures were taken in many areas
including the implementation of open economy, liberalization of imports, adopting market exchange rate
regime, providing incentives for foreign private capital (Hiç, 2008, pp. 21-129). The last significant revision
was successfully implemented during the 1999 and 2001 economic crises (Hiç, 2008, pp. 191-198;
Yeni Türkiye, 2001).
Conclusion
As it was explained before, the economic regime applied in the developing countries cannot be
characterized as “market economy”. Since the level of development in these countries are lower compared to
the developed countries, the need of the level of government interventions, protections and public investments
is higher. For this reason, as we mentioned earlier, what is implemented in these countries is not the market
economy but a “mixed economy” heading for the market economy which is based on the encouragement of the
private sector and foreign private capital. Moreover, democracies of these countries have some difficulties not
allowing the market economy to function properly and effectively, and partisanship, nepotism and level of
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corruption as well as off-the-record sector are much higher than the developed countries. The whole issue here
is to have fewer problems in time as the level of education and economic development rises.
In Latin America, though, a limited number of countries such as Venezuela, Argentina and Bolivia have
turned into dictatorship and heavy socialist statism because of many failures. These countries make up a very
narrow island on the world map.
Moreover, many countries, including Turkey, have entered the globalization process started in the 1990s.
China, India and Brazil have taken much advantage from the globalization by conducting pragmatic and
successful economic policies, eventually positioning themselves as economically very powerful BRIC (Brazil,
Russia, India and China) countries along side with the developed countries. Despite the negative impact of the
2008 economic crisis, Turkey has recovered very rapidly and today she is among the “emerging markets” group
(Hiç, 2010b). In conclusion, in spite of the 2008 global economic crisis, heading for the market economy and
globalization in general will go on in the majority of the developing countries.
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International Relations and Diplomacy, ISSN 2328-2134
October 2014, Vol. 2, No. 10, 691-696
Devolution of Sta. Ana Davao Port: Then and Now
Saidamin P. Bagolong, Neil John T. Audan
, Angelica Faye G. Cameguing
, Sunshine B. Cordero
The University of Mindanao, Davao City, Philippines
Better seaport operation is one of the indicators that a city is achieving its goals towards progress and development.
The Sta. Ana Davao Port for example is one of the many seaports in Region XI that caters to thousands of
passengers going from one terminal to another and from one island to another. In this study, it will revisit the status
of Sta. Davao Port from the time when it was devolved from the national government under Philippine Ports
Authority (PPA) to local government of Davao City. The devolution was in accordance with the Memorandum of
Agreement by two parties, which clearly stipulates the full-control of operation of the local government of Davao
City with an end view of bringing more investors, tourist hubs and other business related concerns. This study
utilized descriptive-evaluative method using interview guide question as a qualitative approach in gathering data.
The participants were the former employees of the PPA and the current management of Sta. Ana Davao Port under
the local government. Data gathered were analyzed using Nvivo software for qualitative research and content
analysis to obtain factual information direct from the participants. It was found out that most of the employees
agreed that the office needs improvement in terms of physical, financial and human aspects. For several years, the
passengers of both local and foreign shipping lines were complaining on its limited berthing capacities, saturated
container yards and even worse the collapse of the berthing area which resulted to the delay of transactions in the
operation of the vessels. In spite of employees claimed that prior to devolution of Sta. Ana Davao Port to the local
government of Davao City, the operation was well-managed and maintained, thereby resulted to passengers’
satisfaction. Thus, the researchers aimed to provide an action plan as basis by the management of the Sta. Davao
Port to achieve its vision, missions and goals.
Keywords: port operation, Sta. Ana Davao Port, devolution, public administration, local government, Davao,
Philippines
Introduction
Infrastructure services play a significant role in trade costs by reducing distribution margins, lowering
prices, and raising consumer welfare. They also lower transaction costs, add value, and increase profitability for
exporters while expanding linkages to global distribution networks. Infrastructure is a significant determinant
of both export levels and the likelihood of exporting (Francois & Manchin, 2007).
However, the country’s inefficient maritime transport has effectively acted as barrier to domestic and
international trade integration. It has stymied countryside development because of the high cost of transporting
people and goods and has stunted efforts to improve productivity and the competitiveness of exports and
Saidamin P. Bagolong, DPA, College of Arts and Sciences Education, The University of Mindanao.
Neil John T. Audan, bachelor, College of Arts and Sciences Education, The University of Mindanao.
Angelica Faye G. Cameguing, bachelor, College of Arts and Sciences Education, The University of Mindanao.
Sunshine B. Cordero, bachelor, College of Arts and Sciences Education, The University of Mindanao.
DAVID PUBLISHING
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tourism. Inefficiencies in maritime transport intensify transaction costs resulting in higher goods prices and the
erosion of the competitiveness of exports. Poor development in the operation of port may become—if not acted
upon—a barrier to domestic and international trade integration. It has stymied countryside development
because the port infrastructure is old and needs immediate rehabilitation. If only the government has ability or
willing to invest on expensive port development projects or equipment, the port operation would be beneficial
to trade, transport and tourism, and ultimately to national competitiveness (Limao & Venables, 2001).
The inefficiencies stem from (1) inadequate port and vessel capacities; (2) ineffective ports management
and administration; and (3) constraints arising from anti-competitive policies and regulation. Port efficiency, a
major determinant of shipping costs, is affected by government regulation in a non-linear way, that is to say,
increasing at some level of intervention and decreasing in excess of regulation (Clark, Micco, & Dollar, 2004).
The lack of competition in the shipping industry undermines incentives to minimize costs which could be
simply passed on to the consumers of the service (Llanto, Basilio, E., & Basilio, L., 2007).
Privatization in the port operation sector has rendered the industry as an appropriate empirical ground for
addressing the interface between transport and economic geographies which is evidently observed in the Asian
port systems and business networks (Bird, et. al., 2006). In fact, study on port conducted by Tongzon and Heng
(2005) emphasized that the participation of private sector in the port industry to some extent can improve port
operation efficiency, which will in turn increase port competitiveness. Another important determinant of port
competitiveness is the adaptability to the customers’ demand. All these provide some policy implication and
guidance for port authorities and port operators in formulating effective strategies to improve their
competitiveness vis-à-vis rivals.
For this reason, this study adhered to revisit the Sta. Ana Davao port and its challenges in the current
development and trends of the port industry. This somehow will discuss the range of devolution adapted by the
Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) as a guarantee to develop it as a global port.
Objectives of the Study
The purpose of the study is to determine the challenges experienced by the employees of Sta. Ana Davao
Port before and after it was devolved from PPA to local government of Davao City.
Materials and Methods
The study utilized descriptive–evaluative research using qualitative method. The research participants
were from Philippine Port Authority and Sta. Ana Davao Port. The participants were chosen based on their
positions held in the ladder of its operation; they were the Head of Technical Services Division (PPA),
Marketing Officer (PPA), Division Manager (PPA), Officer In-Charge (SADP) and the Assessment Officers
(SADP). In analyzing the data, the researchers utilized Nvivo—using software to cluster and categorize the data
through themes and sub-themes.
Theoretical Lens
This study was anchored on the work of Ludwig von Bertallanfy’s System Theory which focuses on the
transdisciplinary study of the abstract organization of phenomena, independent of their substance, type, or
spatial or temporal scale of existence (Heylighen & Joslyn, 1992). Further, Anderson, Carter, & Lowe (1999)
as cited by Friedman and Allen (2010) stated that a systems theory is a way of elaborating increasingly
DEVOLUTION OF STA. ANA DAVAO PORT: THEN AND NOW
693
complex systems by means of a continuum that encompasses the person in environment. This also enables us to
understand the components and dynamics of client systems in order to interpret problems and develop balanced
intervention strategies, with the goal of enhancing the ―goodness of fit‖ between individuals and their
environments. In this paper, the Sta. Ana Davao Port is an industry of knowledge management. A model to
manage the knowledge assets in an organization is proposed based on systems theory, which examines the role
of the systems in an organization and how the system has unique responsibilities for managing knowledge in an
organization. Thus, the need to know their point of entry into a client’s management knowledge systems as well
as the need to be very aware that how they manage their own knowledge capital is relevant (Delahaye, 2002).
Moreover, this study also supports model on port governance which has been developed to fit the largest
ports, and tend to simplify the devolution process as one involving the transfer of jurisdiction from the State to
the private sector. The devolution of smaller ports have been largely ignored because of the transfer from the
upper levels of government to lower tiers of public administration. Hence, the existing models of port
governance are incomplete and the role of public administration in port governance is greater, albeit in a
different form, than claimed in the existing literature (Debrie, Gouvernal, & Slack, 2007).
Results and Discussion
The presentation and analysis of data gathered regarding the status of Sta. Ana Davao Port before and after
it was devolved from PPA to the local government of Davao was categorized based on the objectives posed
earlier.
The operation of the Sta. Ana Davao Port was managed by the PPA but because of the program of the
government to devolve some of its agencies, the Sta. Ana Davao Port operation is now transferred to the local
government of Davao City by virtue of Memorandum of Agreement (MOA)1 signed on June 23, 2000. The
PPA as a government-owned and controlled corporation is vested with the statutory duty to implement
integrated program for the planning, development, financing and operation of ports for the entire country
pursuant of the Presidential Decree 857, as amended, otherwise as the revised charter of the PPA.
The MOA allows the city government of Davao to manage, operate, maintain and develop commercial and
tourism activities within 25 years but the ownership of the port remains to be under the national government.
The PPA as the main developer, operator, and regulator of the port serves as the main agency of the Sta.
Ana Davao Port. They can issue permit to construct and operate the port and set and collect port charges such
as wharf fees and dues, berthing/usage fees, and terminal handling costs. Section 4 of the MOA authorizes the
city government of Davao to a management fee equivalent to 90% of the total collection from wharfage, port
dues, dockage fee and usage fee. The remaining 10% of the said port charges shall be remitted to PPA
accordingly. Fifty percent of the 10% government share of the gross income is derived from the existing lease
contracts while the remaining 50% is intended for future improvements and developments of the port starting
from the 11th year to the 25th year. Thus, the city government of Davao is granted a 10-year grace period from
the start of business operation wherein the PPA shall not have a share in its net profit (section 5 of the MOA).
They also approve to increase in cargo handling rates and receive 10% and 20% from cargo handling
revenues on domestic and foreign cargo, respectively. Also, responsible for awarding contracts to private
1 Memorandum of Agreement for the Administration of Sta. Ana Davao Port davao City. Signed by the Philippine Ports
Authority and the City Government of Davao, June 23, 2000.
DEVOLUTION OF STA. ANA DAVAO PORT: THEN AND NOW
694
terminal and cargo handling.
To determine the status of Sta. Ana Port Operation, the researchers administered three different questions:
First, to find out how the physical, financial and human operations were managed, second, to identify the
different challenges faced by the local government of Davao City as well as the issues and concerns of the
employees in their personal apprehension and to the port as a whole, and third, the effects concerning the
outcomes of the port operation. The operation was classified into two: the operation of the port when it was still
under the management of the PPA and the operation of the port when it is under the management of the local
government of Davao.
The Physical, Financial and Human Resources Operation
Thirteen years ago, the operation of the Sta. Ana Davao Port was managed by the PPA, because of the
MOA, the local government of Davao City took over the operation which provides that 10% shares of their
income will be given to the PPA.
In identifying the common practices of the Sta. Ana Port Operation, the researchers found out that
collection of port dues and charges from the vessels docking at port and from the cargoes discharged and load
on board the vessels, the collection of terminal fees from the vehicles going inside the port, the collection of
arrester’s share from the existing cargo handling operator doing business inside the port as well the safety and
security of the passengers are well-observed. In addition, procedure on the collection of fees has no difference
with how the local government managed it.
In terms of the structural arrangement, the PPA is headed by a terminal supervisor with few staffs, the
operation officer, cashier, statistician and a utility. But, when it was devolved, terminal supervisor was replaced
with a head engineer, who oversees the entire operation with only the cashier and utility around.
In terms of financial resources, the PPA respondents relied on their remuneration received as a
Government-owned and Controlled Corporation (GOCC) but does not receive support from the local
government, while, the Sta. Ana Davao Port is dependent on the support from the local government in all
aspects, from salaries of the port employees to their operating expenditures.
Apart from these, the most challenging experiences of both offices in terms of income, was taken from the
money they received from their clients. Money and other dues received were remitted at the local government
for transparency and accountability purpose.
Concerning with the human resources, both the Sta. Ana and PPA are equipped with professional and
technical employees as they undergo various seminars and trainings. These are given both by the Central Office
and local agencies. They believed that this will help become more effective and efficient employees to serve the
public better.
Challenges of the Local Government
It can be observed that both parties have different views based on how the port was managed.
Respondents mentioned during the interview that the local government’s management on the operation of the
Sta. Ana Davao Port is not as good as it was handled by the PPA.
It can be observed that the facilities, like the birthing areas, waiting lounge and the comfort rooms, need to
be renovated. Another challenge for the local government of Davao is during high tide which resulted to
disruption of work because water from the sea overflows in the office along with the human waste from the
squatters’ area. Proper sanitation causes the passengers not to stay long in the waiting lounge because of the
DEVOLUTION OF STA. ANA DAVAO PORT: THEN AND NOW
695
rubbish placed everywhere. Also, it was observed that some of the employees were not able to receive their
salaries on time despite of the remittance given to the city. Time schedule is also a challenge for the city on
how to properly manage the operation since employees may be assigned on a shift basis. And the last challenge
is the resistance to private investors by the local government because of the limited number of years to operate
the port as stipulated in the MOA. The resistance will hamper the investors not to invest because the local
government believes that if the agreement lapses, the national government will again operate the Sta. Davao
Port.
Table 1
Themes and Core Ideas on the Physical, Financial and Human Resources Operation
Major Theme Frequency of Response Core Ideas
Physical Resource
General
General
General
Collecting of Port Dues (PPA and Sta. Ana)
Treated as a Terminal Port headed by a terminal supervisor (PPA)
Managed by the Local Government, and headed by a Head Engineer (Sta. Ana)
Financial Resource General
General
Autonomous (PPA)
Supported by the Local Government (Sta. Ana)
Human Resource General Seminars are being conducted both PPA and Sta. Ana
Challenges
General
General
Variant
Variant
Facilities Improvement (Sta. Ana)
High Tide (Sta. Ana)
Delay of Salary (Sta. Ana)
Time Schedule (PPA)
Effects to the Operation General
General
To have bigger vessel, is to have bigger income (Sta. Ana)
Totality of Port (PPA)
Effects to the Sta. Ana Port Operation
Findings show that the Sta. Ana Davao Port as an income generating office deserved to have better
facilities in order to attract the passengers and investors. Respondents believed that if these facilities will be
repaired, development will also be observed. The income generated from the operation shall be allotted to
development of infrastructure so that the port can accommodate bigger vessels. If this happens, income will
also increase.
The PPA believed that the totality of the operation of the port plays a vital role in the development of the
city. If it will not be maintained, it will have an effect in the income especially that many of the passengers
opted to use the barge and the small boat as their transportation going to other island.
Conclusion
The PPA and the Sta. Ana Davao Port presently have the same/common practices. The issues and
concerns as identified by the Sta. Ana Davao Port employees are the presence of the informal settlers, delayed
salaries and the facilities improvement of the port.
The Philippine Port Authority only encountered problem on the time schedule of the employees since it
operates 24/7. Effects of the operation are the totality of the port since it generates income. A poor service leads
to low income.
Upon analysis of the information gathered and interpreted from the respondents between the common
practices and issues/concerns on port operation before and after the turned-over to the local government of
Davao City from the Philippine Port Authority, the researchers found that the Sta. Ana Davao Port needs a lot
of improvement and development in terms of its physical, financial and human resource operations.
DEVOLUTION OF STA. ANA DAVAO PORT: THEN AND NOW
696
For more than 13 years prior to devolution, the researchers found that the only improvement the local
government has made is the construction on the elevation of the entrance gate to their office. But still, the
advancement of Sta. Ana Davao Port as an eco-tourism hub has never realized. The MOA undertaken by the
local government remained to be undone and still work on progress. Thus, the researchers can conclude that
devolution as a government strategy to transfer its power and responsibilities to other entity for supposed
development was not taken seriously hence, development and progress remained to be unrealized.
Thus, port devolution may be good in some way depending on how the government runs the operation of
the port. Ghashat and Cullinane (2013) suggested that successful port devolution depends upon adopting an
approach appropriate to achieving the objectives of the policy. The selection of an appropriate governance
structure, as well as stakeholders’ satisfaction, also makes an important contribution to the success of a port
devolution policy. The findings showed that better operation of the port lies on how it is properly managed. In
the case of Sta. Ana Davao Port, the local government shall see that the MOA shall be followed regardless on
the period it shall be operated. After all, the port’s development is also the development of the city.
Transparency, accountability and stakeholders’ involvement must also be considered. No other people will
benefit this port other than the people of the city.
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