2009年公共管理国际会议论文集-专业化、伦理、责任、公共安全、腐败专题（246页WORD版）The Profession.doc

Part Three The Profession Public Administration as a Profession Professional Associations? Public Executive Leadership Ethics and Integrity Accountability and Performance Social Security Explaining and Interpreting—Two Methodological Approaches towards Asian Corruption CHUAN-YU Ernie KO( General Education Committee, Yu Da University (Taiwan P. R. China) Miao-Li, Taiwan P. R. China 361 Abstract Process-tracing is a qualitative methodology, which examines the casual effects of research hypotheses by applying history, archives, interviewing elites, and other sources of evidence. In the field of corruption, process-tracing is relatively more accurate that any other research methodology in terms of sampling, representation, and theory development. This paper first discusses the general rules of process-tracing in social science and followed by the critics on its limitations. The second part of this paper analyzes the applicability of process-tracing methodology in Asian corruption. Geographic allocation is assumed to have impact on the academic research in the study of corruption due to institutional and cultural differentiation. East Asia as a whole is perceived widely as a Confucianism and paternalistic authoritarian area. These man-made features are more apparent when the geographic area is specified to include Taiwan P. R. China, China, Japan, and Korea. In light of theses cultural settings, process-tracing methodology faces serious challenges in uncovering unbiased and representative sources of evidence. Two landmark cases of large-scale Business Bribery in East Asia, including Lockheed in Japan and Amoy Customs Scandal in China, are illustrated. The author’s recommendations of addressing the methodological weakness include objective explanation of three cultural factors: power distance, structural corruption, and corruption/prosperity coexistence on the one hand and be alert to bribe takers and givers’ subjective interpretation of their justification based on