Globalization prompts governance activities to become more transnational and brought about the chain of reciprocal relations between multiple actors. Global governance is defined as the whole processes of making rules and norms and implementing governance activities to facilitate the coordination and interdependency of collective actions of multiple actors at the global, transnational regional, national, domestic regional, local levels. While there is no single polity like a world government, global governance does neither belong to a single hegemonic nation state, nor a single institution with a regulatory authority. As global governance activities are not limited to the activities of nation states, but should be carried by the activities of nonstate actors, they would be achieved through partnerships and participatory ways of multi-level actors by multiple linkages.
Though globalization brings about two dimensional dynamics of convergence and divergence, the latter typical example was the 9/11 terrorist attacks. While we were faced with the dysfunction of the existing rules and norms, we were obliged to reconsider how to deconstruct the structure and architecture of global political framework. Over this point, we will consider the present situation of global political governance after American ambition to become a single hegemonic state was collapsed at that point of 9/11 and America had to change its unilateralism to multilateralism to carry the two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. And next, we will scrutinize what kind of theoretical framework can explain both global governance and global activities. We will introduce theories of hyper state centrism and hyper globalism and propose to make up the transnational advocacy coalition networks by the global linkages among positive actors.

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In analyzing the process of norm diffusion, this contribution addresses the question of why the global problem of human trafficking remains one for the most serious human rights violations despite the existence of an anti-trafficking norm embedded in a global human rights regime. In arguing that the violation of human rights indicates the structural limits of the current global governance system, this study explores ways of how to explain the paradox of norm violations in parallel existence of globally adhered norms, and wishes to synthesize the current theoretical body of norm scholarship with new insights stressing the importance of local value and belief structures in the process of norm internalization. Thus, arguing for a culture-sensitive ‘bottom-up’ constructivism we will apply this model in reconsidering the case of human-trafficking. Here we emphasize the importance of cognitive factors beside the well studied economic incentives as underpinning causes of the trafficking problem. Considering the implications of a stronger emphasis on local values we will extend our argument in reconsidering the formation of transnational advocacy networks as carriers of global norms through introducing the notion of co-governance, before bringing the discussion back to its starting point in discussing the prospects of global governance in addressing the subject of norm protection.

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Since the 1990s much of the academic discourse in International Relations (IR) and International Political Economy (IPE) focused on the deep structural transformations associated with the process of economic globalization. With increased levels of political-economic and social interdependency across the world accompanied with increased levels of mutual vulnerability, the multilateral system of governance has increasingly lost ground in competition with globalization and the diffusion of threats highlighting the decreased importance of territory. And yet, the forces of globalization have forced governments to rescale to the new realities of a globalized economy creating new spaces of governance. The spread of regional governance frameworks across the world, its re-emergence as a possible conflict resolution mechanism within the UN-framework, as well as the increased tendency of inter-regional interaction indicates that international relations are witnessing a change of the Westphalian system with regions evolving into central arenas and actors of governance. It is therefore that this study will explore what role regional governance frameworks can play in enhancing global governance and thus to tame the negative implications of globalization. In doing so, the proclaimed argument is that the ‘regional’ has evolved into an important ‘meso-level’ in the global governance system, both, in terms of an additional layer as well as in form of powerful actors. Regions can function as intermediates between the local, national, and global levels. As such, regions integrate a broad set of actors linking them to the global and thus help to organize the condition of anarchy at the global level from below, while revitalizing multilateralism from its post-9/11 unilateral interlude. In systematically scrutinizing the links between global governance and regionalism as causally related and complementary responses to the overall process of globalization this paper enters wide uncharted waters, since global governance and regionalism have long been conceived of as inconsistent concepts. In analyzing the theoretical relationship between these concepts, I argue that the notion of regionalism as a part of the process of globalization should not be understood as a process which undermines global governance in its attempt to regulate the global challenges, but which can enhance the capacity of global governance in pushing forward its frontiers.

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This paper explores Japan’s perspectives on the East Asia Summit, and its attempts to revive open regionalism as a conjunction of globalism and regionalism. Japan’s approach to regionalism has been centred on what we call ‘open regionalism’. As this paper presumes, an open regionalism is symbolised and represented in Japan’s unique approach to regional governance that attempts to bridge the tension between globalism and regionalism. The aim of this paper is, therefore, to conceptualise the complex interplay between open regionalism and regional governance as initiated by Japan. By investigating Japan’s political discourses on domestic and foreign policies, this paper attempts to describe Japan’s open regionalism towards the Summit and towards the East Asian Community as a revival of open regionalism, and to investigate its impact on regional governance. The chief hypothesis is that Japan’s perspectives on the East Asia Summit can be seen as a resurgence of open regionalism discourses, and that discourses have been Japan’s typical approach to regional governance. For the purposes of examination, this paper assesses, with reference to Peter Katzenstein’s porous regionalism and T. J. Pempel’s geopsychology, a framework of Japan’s open regionalism in relation to its regional governance and contemporary Asian regionalism. The paper is organised into five parts: the first part theoretically and systematically reviews Japan’s approach to open regionalism and regional governance; the second part briefly overviews the East Asia Summit; the third and fourth parts examine the domestic political context, centred on Japan’s EPA policies, and then Japan’s foreign policy discourses toward the East Asia Summit; finally, the fifth part then evaluates a resurgence of open regionalism and Japan’s perspective on the East Asia Summit and its theoretical implications for regional governance.

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This paper focuses on the IMF in order to assess the degree to which international financial institutions can meet increasing expectations to stabilize the international financial system. To do so, this paper reviews prior studies of the IMF to examine how political factors affect the IMF’s decision making and policy implementation of IMF programs. The IMF is not free from political interference. This paper also analyzes the IMF from two theoretical perspectives: the IMF as a bureaucratic organization and principal-agent relationships and the IMF. While the IMF makes various reform efforts, balancing the trade-offs between effectiveness and representation remains a difficult task given the sequential principal-agent relationships.

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Human security, both its theory and practice, has attracted a significant number of audiences. Japan is no exception. Nowadays the country is equipped with a powerful set of discourse about human-centred security. With these as a background, this paper aims to analyse the relationship between human security and the country’s central pursuer: academic-policy complex.
Because of its origin and development, human security itself is not a born-in-Japan concept. However, this paper will argue that it is still in a sense quite “Japanese”. Focusing on major progress both in the country’s intellectual and policy arenas, the paper will regard Japan as a good “assembly line” of human security discourse, where relevant elements have been collected, got together, and actualised as an efficient international policy. The key here is that there are some contributing factors. In particular, two of them are striking: (1) the effective application of social constructivism, policy-oriented theories of international law as well as policy science, and (2) the unique and intimate relationship between national government and academic institutions, under the country’s aspiration for “international contribution”. The paper will conclude although such close cooperation between academic and practical sectors has led to successful production of human security discourse, it also have deficiencies, and therefore needs serious reconsideration.

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In recent years the Internet has changed dramatically. The ‘Web 2.0’ with its new technologies such as Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube is now an important tool for social-networking with significant implications for both, the online and offline realms of society and politics. At the same time, while the development of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) has advanced in an unprecedented speed, the spread of such technologies was accompanied with significant political changes in Indonesia since 1998, marking the collapse of the Suharto-regime and the move towards a democratic governance system. After more than three decades of authoritarian rule, ‘democracy 1.0’ has marked a fundamental reform process creating new political parties and allowing the free expression of opinion. While ICTs played a visible yet limited role in this transition process towards a mature democratic system, the role of ‘Web 2.0’ technologies is increasing, especially in election times facilitating the formation of public opinion while connecting citizens to the political process. In systematically analyzing the development of ICTs in Indonesia this study wishes to explain the role that new information technologies play in the political process of this country since 1998, while paying special attention to the most recent parliamentary and presidential elections of 2009. In studying the role of ICTs in political transformation processes and democratic development represents a widely unexplored question in the scholarship addressing the political developments in Southeast Asia. Therefore, this study attempts to address this important new field of research through taking a closer look at Indonesia while applying new theoretic insights generated from the discussion of the concepts of e-government, e-governance, and e-democracy and the links that bind them, online and offline.

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The public-private partnerships (PPPs) model provides a feasible framework for the delivery of public services. In recent years, the PPPs scheme was introduced to China, though, still on narrow scale. This step highlights the fact that the service provision by governments are insufficient and inefficient in their current form while various public services and infrastructures are required to meet the needs of the growing Chinese economy. A few local governments have realized the significance of the PPPs model applying it to public infrastructure projects. In China, the government plays an important role in promoting this model. However, many problems remain in applying this model to China. In this paper, we will analyze the present conditions and future trends of the PPPs model in its application to China from a theoretical as well as a practical perspective.

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Nowadays strong emphasis has been placed on “governance” and “citizen participation”; citizens are expected to be ever more involved in the policy process and to ever more actively govern society. The promotion of citizen participation, however, should entail thorough consideration on citizenship or citizens’ qualifications and capabilities. This paper theoretically examines the notion of citizen in the era of governance and highlights active citizenship as necessary for citizen participation; any participant must be an active citizen.
This paper avers that education for active citizenship significantly contribute to individuals being active. Given that values, knowledge and skills — both basic and practical/applied — need to be developed for political participation, education for active citizenship should be provided for not only young people, but also adults who are participating or will soon participate in the policy process; in this sense, both child/youth education and adult/social education are important. Due to the heterogeneity and diversity of individuals, and given that a wide range of knowledge is necessary for active citizen participation, moreover, education for active citizenship should be provided by various agencies in various ways. An educational system for active citizenship, consequently, needs to be designed on the basis of the recognition that the system should contain child, youth, postgraduate and adult/social education programs; and that the system should utilize characteristics of diverse agencies such as elementary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, graduate schools, NPOs and citizen’s colleges. Without such a citizen development system, active citizen participation would be hardly possible to be successfully promoted.
Designing a citizen participation mechanism accompanied with citizen development programs (educational programs for active citizenship) is an arduous task. This task involves not only new participants in the policy process, viz., so-called ordinary citizens. Policymakers also have to adapt to the changing political process. Scholars in various study fields, as well, are required to academically and practically contribute to designing and facilitating citizen participation. Citizen participation in the policy process, nevertheless, sounds nice to many people and thus might be promoted without careful consideration. This paper is intended to warn against such promotion and to be a starting point for defining “citizen in the era of governance” and for establishing an effective citizen participation mechanism accompanied with an educational system.

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Nearly 15 years have passed since the evaluation system in Japanese local government was introduced as a tool of administrative reform. However, there is still little empirical research on the effectiveness of evaluation systems. Our purpose in this paper is to verify quantitatively the effects that evaluation systems have on the quality of administrative services. We compare the size of this impact with that of other systems. Based on a discussion of recent governance, we analyze these effects in terms of efficiency and transparency in local governments. The dependent variable is the “Administrative service degree” taken from data at the city and special ward levels for fiscal year 2006. Using an ordinary least squares regression analysis, the predictor variables include the introduction of evaluation systems and making the balance sheet, evaluation results, and committee meeting minutes publicly available. We found that the introduction of evaluation systems and the appointed provider systems, and making the results of evaluations and all committee meeting minutes public, contributed to the improvement of administrative services. Moreover, the effect of the appointed provider systems was larger than that of introducing evaluation systems.

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This paper addresses some issues that arise in connection with the effects of government borrowing on an economy, particularly that of a developing country. We empirically investigated the case of Indonesia to address this problem. The analysis is intended to illuminate ongoing discussion related to the roles of domestic and external debt. The problem implies that the government is confronted with a choice between external and domestic debt. Government borrowing has apparently been a part of reasonable strategies; particularly, foreign debt has played a central role in Indonesia’s experience. In particular, the rising trend of domestic debt subsequent to the financial crisis 1997 has not attracted much attention. Therefore, we used a macroeconometric model and found a primary result that the rising trend of domestic debt discouraged private investment because of the so-called crowding-out effect.

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We derive a simple formula to compute implied volatility approximately, and give an estimate of its relative error, in the framework developed by Black-Scholes. In particular, our error estimate ensures that the relative error of our formula is converging to 0 under certain condition.

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In this article, we will examine a displacement phenomenon in English called Heavy NP Shift (henceforth HNPS), which has traditionally received a rightward movement analysis in which the heavy NP undergoes a rightward movement operation, thereby occupying the adjunct position of the VP (Ross (1967), etc). On the other hand, Rochemont and Culicover (1997), among others, propose that HNPS involves the leftward movement of a heavy NP to the specifier position of a functional projection lower than TP and the subsequent leftward movement of a remnant category which contains the trace of the heavy NP to a higher position.
Though partially adopting the idea of the previous leftward movement analyses, we argue against the analyses and propose a different kind of leftward \\bar{A}-movement analysis of HNPS. More specifically, pointing out some similarities between HNPS and Focus-Topicalization, we claim that HNPS involves the combination of two types of leftward \\bar{A}-movement operations to the functional projections in the left periphery, namely Focus-Topicalization of the heavy NP and Topic-Topicalization of the remnant TP. Moreover, we will claim that the generalization that no element is moved rightward across a sentence boundary, also known as the “Right Roof Constraint,” should be explained by the Phase Impenetrability Condition (Chomsky (2000, 2001)). Finally, we will address some potential problems concerning our analysis of HNPS and provide a possible solution to each of them.

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In this paper, explicit estimations of the convergence rates of the Boltzmann machine on simulated annealing are given. As its applications, quantitative bounds of the temperature and the transition times of the Boltzmann machine to optimal distribution are given.

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We study a probabilistic model for single connected cycles on an undirected planar graph for which the degree of every vertex is restricted to two or three. By using a diagrammatical method to solve a free fermion model, we derive the exact expression of the partition function as well as marginal probabilities. We compare the exact results for the marginals with the approximations obtained with Loopy Belief Propagation allowing us to evaluate the efficacy of the latter.

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