Global Public Policy: Effective Supply of Public Goods in an Era of Globalization

2019-07-10

On May 29th, The Shanghai Forum Roundtable “Global Public Policy: Effective Supply of Public Goods in an Era of Globalization ” hosted by the Fudan Institute of Global Public Policy was held in Siyuan Hall, Guanghua Tower, Fudan University. Generally, guests and experts are from the Fudan University, the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), the New York University Shanghai, the British Consul-General Shanghai, the National Academy of Public Administration, the World Bank Group, the Tsinghua University, the International Institute of Administrative Sciences, etc. A number of specialists and scholars from institutions and international organizations attended the Roundtable and witnessed the new book "New Development Assistance: Emerging Economies and the New Landscape of Development Assistance" release.

At the beginning, Professor Christopher Alden hosted the discussion, the keynote speeches were given by six top scholars at home and abroad, and reviewed by Dr. Martin de Jong, a professor at the School of Management & School of Law, Erasmus University Rotterdam. Firstly, Professor Simon Glendinning, Head of the European Institute of the London School of Economics and Political Science, spoke on the theme “National and International Political Institutions in an Era of Globalization”. He presented that globalization weakened the state of nation as the modernism led by globalization would gradually eliminate the national identity of people. Meanwhile, the technical and technological interaction among states profoundly affected the public space, it may influence the power of political authorities and elites, not only the setup of electoral democracy, but also party politics which was already being questioned.

Professor Mohan Kumar, Vice Dean of the Jindal School of International Affairs at the Jindal Global University, delivered his topic on “The Impact of Populism on Public Policy”. He supposed that to tackle the impact of populism, states needed to acknowledge the problems and face up to the challenges and find their roles back. Research institutes needed to support evidence-based researches and cultivate young people as future leaders to address populism. The public needed to be engaged to join in discussion and dialogue with governments to address issues they concern together. Multilateral organizations needed to do a better job to explain to people how and what they did and they can do to help other.

Dr. Jin Keyu, associate professor in the London School of Economics and Political Science, addressed on "China Writes Global Financial History”. She affirmed China's important role in the world financial system and looked forward to a more open, transparent financial market in China. She also elaborated that the liberalization of China's financial markets also means greater volatility in global financial markets. Professor Xue Lan, Dean of Schwarzman College of Tsinghua University, put his perspective on “Adaptive governance in the Development of Emerging Industries”. He affirmed tha facing the challenges posed by emerging technological industries, regulatory framework needed to be “adaptive” to tackle with the uncertain costs and risks for governance. It needed to be transformed to better balance multiple objectives, shaping mutual learning and dependence between regulators and innovators.

Professor Sofiane Sahraoui, Director-General of the International Institute of Administrative Sciences, gave his speech titled “Learned Societies as Multipliers of Transnational Policy Agendas: IIAS as a Partner of Choice for China”, emphasized the extent of transnational governance depends on importance of the issues, implications for sovereignty of states, level of trust or control between the partners, as well as leverage of non-state actors in helping achieve objectives and the “multiplier impact”of state initiatives. And the field of transnational governance scientific discourse should be based on facts and evidence. Dr. Joseph Mitchell, Director of Strategic Initiatives of National Academy of Public Administration, focused on “The Role of Think Tanks in Global Public Policy,” arguing that the think tanks need to work together across countries and regions to address major international challenges, increase concentration on comparative public administration and policy and improve strategic and operational capacity.

The second part of the Roundtable was hosted by Professor Tang Li from the School of International Relations and Public Affairs of Fudan University. Other six top scholars at home and abroad gave keynote speeches. Jose A. Puppim de Oliveira, Professor of the School of Public and Business Management, Getulio Vargas Foundation, made his wonderful review.

Timothy Hildebrandt, associate professor of social policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science, pointed to the persistence of mass poverty, weak states and undeveloped civil society, widespread informality, lack of infrastructure, hierarchical social stratification still exist, at the same time, the new problems of unhappiness and mental health, overconsumption and physical health are rising. The perilous situation of global social policy is exacerbated by the rise of populism and lingering exceptionalism. Professor Cheng Yuan, Vice Dean of School of Social Development and Public Policy from Fudan University believed that after decades of development, China's economic and social progress was typical, which was a global exception. However, to some degree of social policy, many problems our country were facing were similar to those of other countries.

The speech by Mr. Sergio Suchodolski, President of the Development Bank of Minas Gerais, Brazil, confirmed that the multilateral development banks played an crucial role in the global and local resources supply. Dr. Liang Xiaoyan, a senior education expert at the World Bank, gave a wonderful speech on “Global Education Partnership:Relevance of Chinese Experience”. She believed that the paradigm of global education partnership need to be changed, and the new cooperation should be promoted from “North-South” to “South-South”. Recognizing the role of the state in education planning and provision, encouraging honesty and trustworthiness, and cultivating long-term global partnerships.

Evan Berman, a professor at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, advocated “Public Governance as Global Public Good” and encourages Asian countries to summarize their own public governance experiences and contribute knowledge to relevant fields. Daniel Guttman, a professor at New York University in Shanghai, immediately emphasized in his speech that China and the West have different focuses on the understanding of the term “governance”. The West pays more attention to law, while China emphasizes on policy. Jose A. Puppim de Oliveira, Professor of the School of Public and Business Management at the Getulio-Vargas Foundation in Brazil, then made a wonderful review, encouraging scholars to be optimistic about the future, in order to adapt to new changes such as the development of science and technology, social policies need to be more flexible, and the government should be able to constantly adjust itself and change its thinking mode and administrative management system.

During the Roundtable, the book 《New Development Assistance: Emerging Economics and the New Landscape of Development Assistance》was published. Three editors of the book, Professor Jing Yujia, Dean of the Institute for Global Policy Studies at Fudan University, Professor Zheng Yu from the School of International Relations and Public Affairs of Fudan University, and Professor Alvaro Mendez from the London School of Economics and Political Science respectively gave a speech. Besides, this roundtable was also one of the launching activities of the Institute for Global Public Policy, Fudan University and the LSE-Fudan Research Centre for Global Public Policy held on the morning of the 26th May.