Managing foreign policy decision making with respect to the "two chinas"
Date
1997
Authors
Chaplog, Shirley, Marlene
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Abstract
The deciding of foreign policy for any Government is complex. This
report develops a framework to analyse this complexity with a case
study of the key policy change by the South African government to date.
The decision to switch diplomatic relations from the Republic of China to
the People's Republic of China involved the full range of ideological,
political and economic dimensions. Data was gathered from interviews
and documents, which was analysed by developing themes and using a
coding and matrix system.
The study explores the traditional models of decision making, the
"Rational Actor", "Organisational Process" and "Bureaucratic Politics",
and argues that none alone can explain and predict foreign policy. It
considers whether a hybrid model, combining all three, is a satisfactory
framework in this case. It concludes that the decisive intervention of
President Mandela cannot be incorporated into the traditional models
and so a framework called model Z for convenience was developed.
Whether President Mandela's (or his successor's) personality and
leadership style will determine foreign policy into the millennium and
therefore need to be
Description
A research report submitted to the Faculty of Management,
University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfillment of the
requirements fur the degree of Master of Management (in the
field of Public and Development Management). Johannesburg, December 1997.