This study has two research objectives and themes; one is the analysis of the disciplinary development of policy studies in Korea, China, and Japan commonly imported from American policy theories and methods; the other is the comparative study on the ...
This study has two research objectives and themes; one is the analysis of the disciplinary development of policy studies in Korea, China, and Japan commonly imported from American policy theories and methods; the other is the comparative study on the disciplinary identity in policy studies among Korea, China, and Japan by suggesting future orientations in policy studies. As of this research method, the content analysis on the published literatures in policy studies printed out in the CiNii(Japanese sector), CNKI(chinese sector), and KISS and Korean Policy Studies Review websites, each country's leading citation databases with multidisciplinary coverage. The developmental analysis of each country's policy studies has rooted in adoption and accommodation of policy theories and methods originally developed in the United States. In the late 1990s, however, Korean, Chinese and even Japanese policy communities have turn to the each state's policy identity issue such as theories, methods, case-study in policy circles. Thus this project developed three criteria for the comparative study on the disciplinary identity of these policy studies in those countries as such scientific disciplinary identity, border identity, and collective and/or community identity. First, Korean, Chinese, and Japanese policy scholars have its own policy disciplinary theories and methods based on its academic policy organizations, namely the policy studies associations. In China and Japan, the Chinese and Japanese policy studies have been more oriented to the developments of each country's policy theory than those of Korean counterpart even though the Korean policy community has more powerful organizational connectedness to the policy studies. Second, the three countries have commonly used and consumed the American policy theories and methods, the so-called policy paradigmatic prototype for explaining and/or solving out their policy problems and subjetcs with a variety of analytical and evaluative methods and technigues to the study on each country's policy cases and programs. Finally and the third, the collective or community identity of policy studies among three countries easily find with its own policy study association and/or society. In Korea, however, the policy-related academic societies can be found about twenty names since the 1980s in comparative with the one or two policy study associations in both China and Japan. In the case of Japan, some names for the study of policy such as law, economics, labor study, health, education, social welfare, environment with long academic history with policy-orientation since the 1940s did not rooted in the study of modern policy science. As the final subject of this research project, the on-line questionnaires to policy scholars in Korea and Japan (except Chinese part because of very low participations) revealed out the future orientations to the study of policy; Korean policy professors stressed the development of the Korean policy studies while Japanes responders marked the diversity of the policy theories and methods in inter- and/or multi disciplinary approach, the comprehensive policy study in the Japanese term.