The Evolution of Good Governance Conceptions: Formulating Approaches to Economic Development and Political Reform

A guest lecture by Prof. Bin Wong of the University of California Los Angeles.

This presentation considers the intentions and problems with World Bank good governance indicators as guides to development aid and outlines an alternative approach to linking economic development and political reform that combines two separate spheres of research and policy practice.

Before coming to UCLA in 2004, Bin Wong served as Director of the Center for Asian Studies at UC Irvine where he was also Chancellor's Professor of History and Economics. At UCLA he is responsible for overseeing and coordinating activities in five research centers and developing new initiatives in Asian Studies fields. Wong's own research has examined Chinese patterns of political, economic and social change, especially since eighteenth century, both within Asian regional contexts and compared with more familiar European patterns. Among his books, China Transformed: Historical Change and the Limits of European Experience (Cornell University Press, 1997) is the best known. Japanese and Korean translations are under way. Wong has also written or co-authored some fifty articles published in North America, East Asia and Europe, published in Chinese, English, French and Japanese in journals that reach diverse audiences within and beyond academia. Recent publications include an essay "East Asia as a World Region in the 21st Century" in Nihon Keizai Shimbun.

This lecture is made possible by ISID’s Program in Global Governance.