Serving the Unemployed: Do More Generous Social Insurance Programs Provide Better Quality Service?

The role and capacity of public administration in contributing to economic security is an increasingly important question. More generous social welfare programs may have greater capacity to insure households against risk, but those programs can effectively provide economic security only to the extent that public organizations deliver benefits promptly and properly to families in need. Administrative performance matters. Given that governments with more generous social programs have demonstrated social welfare to be a priority, are those governments also more likely to put effort towards better administration of welfare programs? This question is addressed here using administrative performance data from U.S. state-level unemployment insurance programs, from 2002-2015. Evidence points to a positive association between generosity and administrative quality: more generous states make fewer administrative errors and that relationship is driven by their making fewer underpayments. If unemployment insurance replacement rates reflect an institutionalized commitment to more generously protecting individuals from economic insecurity, that commitment is also evident in the types of administrative errors agents make.

The Impact of Socio-Economic Position on Perceived Oppression: Using Social Support as a Mediator

Within the continuing economic downturn, our society has been facing rapid dichotomization and bi-polarization between groups which reinforces social inequality. Young (2011) states that social inequality should be viewed as a concept of oppression, not by the distribution of resources, which has been considered as a general indicator of social inequality. Following her argument, she suggests exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence as sub-concepts of oppression. In this sense, this study uses the distribution of resources as an independent variable and the ‘perceived oppression’ presented by Young as a dependent variable to identify the role of social support as a factor that makes the difference between social-structural inequality and contextual inequality. Through hierarchical regression analyses and bootstrapping methods this paper looks at how the two different perspectives on inequality are related, and how the social support mediates the relationship between socio-economic position and perceived oppression. By shedding light on the meaning of socio-economic isolation of individuals, this study will contribute to the academia in searching for the alternatives to strengthen the stability of our society where the new paradigm of communication is being used to form network ties and corresponding sense of supports.

Job Switch From the Private Sector to the Public Sector: The Characteristics of the Switchers

While significant attention has been directed to the job switchers from the public sector to the private sector, there have been few studies about the job switchers in the opposite direction. This paper examines whether sector switchers’ characteristics from the private to the public sector are different from stayers. It is related to a broader set of questions that ask how employees’ characteristics and sector switching are related. The empirical analysis using the National Survey of College Graduates (2003, 2006, 2010, and 2013) shows the switchers’ characteristics. First, females and unmarried employees were more likely to switch their jobs from the private to the public sector from 2003 to 2006. However, these gender and marriage status differences became insignificant from 2010 to 2013. Second, black employees were more likely to move from the private to the public sector for the whole period. Third, the more educated employees seemed to have more freedom to change their private to public careers. Fourth, employees with experience in government-funded projects were more likely to switch jobs from the private to the public. Fifth, workers who showed a low satisfaction level in job security and considered PSM as an essential job principle were more likely to shift across sectors from the private to public. This paper’s findings highlight a neglected sector switch from private to public and open a window into the extent and characteristics of employees who switch their jobs from the private to the public sector.

Determinants and Implications for Creativity Education in Korea: Policy Tools, Street-level Administration, and Implementation Conditions

The success of a policy depends on whether policy tool is appropriately chosen and how they work well to effective policy implementation in complex policy environments. However, only a handful of empirical studies attempt to test the effects of policy tools. This study uses a hierarchical regression analysis with data from both administrative data and survey data gathered from 167 lower secondary school teachers in Korea to examine the effect of key policy tools. The results are as followings: for grant, subject classroom facility grant has statistically significant positive relationships with CE, whereas CE Model School grant does not; for regulation, textbook regulation has statistically significant positive relationships with CE, whereas fewer subjects per a semester regulation does not.

Government Officials’ Self-Assessed Expertise and Subject Organizational Performance: Does Recruitment Type Matter?

This study verified whether the relationship between self-assessed expertise and subject organizational performance of government officials in South Korea would vary depending on the type of recruitment system?open competitive examination for recruitment (OCER) and mid-career competitive recruitment (MCCR). Multiple regression analysis was conducted using Public Employee Perception Survey data from the Korea Institute of Public Administration. The results demonstrated that self-assessed expertise positively affected organizational performance. However, when the two groups were analyzed separately, self-assessed professionalism was not a significant factor in the MCCR model. Additionally, the mediation effect of work autonomy was confirmed between the two models; the mediation effect was present in the OCER group, but not in the MCCR group. The results suggest that creating conditions for work and personnel management that allow MCCR employees to maximize their expertise is necessary, however, the government’s current personnel management system prevents their expertise from being fully utilized.

The Transition of the Presidency, 2020-2021

The peaceful transition of power from one set of rulers to another is the essence of democracy. The United States has enjoyed the consensus that elections are the means to change leadership of the country for more than two centuries. The 2020-2021 transition of the presidency marks an exception to that consensus. President Trump refused to accept the reality of his 2020 defeat at the polls, despite the fact that Joe Biden won more than 7 million more votes than Trump and won the electoral college by a vote of 306 to 232. Trump declared that he had won the election and that his opponent, Joseph Biden, had conspired to steal the election through fraudulent ballots. This paper will briefly characterize the development of presidential transitions over the past half century. It will then examine the extensive efforts of President Trump to overturn the 2020 election that culminated in the volent attack on the United State Capitol on January 6, 2021. Finally, it will show how Trump tried to thwart the incoming Biden administration. It will conclude that Trump’s actions in 2020 and 2021 presented a serious threat to the American polity.

The Arts as a Polarized Issue and the Role of Political Trust in Promoting the Arts: Evidence From the United States

The arts in the United States, for a long time received strong support from both sides of the political aisle. However, in recent years, the arts have been transformed into a partisan issue that pits conservatives against liberals. The article points to the importance of political trust as a means of helping conservatives overcome their ideological inclinations and support the arts. Scholars argue that political trust influences more strongly individuals who perceive a given policy to be one that imposes ideological risks for them compared with those without such risks. Focusing on the moderating role of political trust, the article examines whether political trust can help alleviate the conservatives’ hostility to the arts. Relying on the 2016 General Social Survey, the article finds that conservatives have no direct relationship with arts spending, but they will be more likely to support arts spending when this is contingent upon political trust.

National Informatization Policy in Korea: A Historical Reflection and Policy Implications

This study examines, from a historical and macro perspective, the national informatization strategy that Korea has pursued over the past 40 years which laid the foundation for the rise of Korea as one of the leading countries in the digital revolution today. In particular, the informatization process is divided into five phases from the 1980s to the present, and analyzed in three aspects ? main policies and plans, policy implementation system and structure, and major laws. And based on the previous research results, the success factors of informatization in Korea are discussed in terms of policy actors and institutions, policy implementation process, and policy environment. After examining the limitations of Korea’s informatization policy, policy implications for developing countries are drawn in terms of policy process, policy design, and policy instruments.

From Fragile to Collapsed Statehood: The Case of the Republic of Yemen (1990-2020)

The unification of the two Yemeni states?the northern Yemen Arab Republic (YAR) and the southern People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY), respectively?in 1990 has been a resounding failure. Merging the tribal-dominated northern and state-party dominated southern regimes meant increasing the number of factions competing for access to state resources to satisfy material and security needs of their respective networks of influence. In particular, efforts at growing the resource base of the unified state after 1990, by means of an expansion of oil and gas exploration and extraction, raised the revenue base of the state in an unsustainable manner. Such growth in national oil and gas rents increased rather than decreased competition over state authority to control the spoils. The major subsequent events, such as the 1994 civil war, the 2004-2010 “Saada wars” against the Houthi movement, the Yemeni version of the “Arab Spring” in 2011, the failure of the National Dialogue Conference (March 2013-January 2014), and the start of the Saudi and Emirati bombing campaign and subsequent ground war in Yemen since March 2015 all triggered major clashes between different factions of the Yemeni state bureaucracy, army, and civil society. On each of these occasions, efforts to freeze out some Yemeni actors produced escalating conflict between the remaining factions instead of a winning coalition that could have reestablished a degree of stability. The article explains how local, regional, and global factors have jointly overwhelmed the Yemeni actors, and how foreign intervention has led to the further deterioration of the pre-existing national crisis.