2014, Vol.41, No.1

Korean Social Science Journal 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.06

pISSN : 1225-0368 / eISSN : 2196-4424
https://journal.kci.go.kr/kssj

The openness of government information is an unavoidable issue in the digitalage. The Chinese government makes great effort to publish administrative information andseek advice on good governance from the general public, but is nonetheless unable to meetcitizens’ legitimate demands for the right to know and participate. This study analyzes thiscontradiction from four angles: the driving force, the type of information, the accessplatform, and the annual examination and supervision system for government informationdisclosure. The findings showed that (a) netizens’ heavy pressure rather than Chineseauthorities’ strong leadership pushes forward the disclosure of government information;(b) administrative information concerning the public agenda rather than the policy agendabest meets the needs of the general public; (c) commercial Weibo websites are a moresatisfactory channel than official government websites for practical requests; and (d) as aunique institutional arrangement for examination and supervision, the annual report ongovernment information disclosure should be standardized.

Despite a huge amount of speculation and expectation surrounding medical tourism,hard empirical evidence is only now beginning to emerge. This paper widens the focus ofdiscussion by contrasting two country experiences (UK and Korea) which on the surfaceillustrate the diversity of medical tourism and little else. However, considered more comparatively,the accounts contribute toward wider, albeit tentative, theoretical understandings, andinsights. The paper is drawn from two broad programs of empirical study conducted over threeyears in UK and Korea, respectively. The article is structured in three parts: first, a briefoverview of policy, legislative, and accreditation frameworks that exist to govern medicaltourist flows. Second, we present evidence around flows, demographics, treatment, andmedicaltourism for Korea and UK (both for supply and demand). Third, we examine conceptual andtheoretical implications of this evidence. We argue that viewing medical tourism as a globalmarket is problematic; somemedical touristmarkets are best viewed as networks with long-termexchange relationships; some specific areas of activity do function more strongly as pricerelated;decision making around medical tourismfrequently involves a range of information andsocial networks (economic action as embedded social structure); and medical tourism is afunction of globalization.

This paper investigates how democracies protect the lives of enemy civilians incounterinsurgency warfare. A theoretical model is developed where the elected leaders’decisions are influenced by what is known as ‘‘endowment effect’’ or ‘‘memory effect’’ incognitive psychology. It is shown that too many civilians are killed in equilibrium as theleaders choose to pass some of the long-term costs of civilian casualties to their successors. The bias becomes more pronounced when the leaders are subject to binding term limits. The existing law of war is interpreted and evaluated using the theoretical framework. Theanalysis shows that the law falls short of the optimal constraint as it regulates the relativerather than absolute size of civilian casualties.