International Relations and Diplomacy (ISSN 2328-2134) Volume 6, Number 5,2018

International Relations
and Diplomacy
Volume 6, Number 5, May 2018 (Serial Number 56)
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Editorial Board Members of International Relations and Diplomacy:

★Abdel-Hady (Qatar University, Qatar); Poland);
★Abosede Omowumi Bababtunde (National Open ★Martha Mutisi (African Centre for the Constructive
University of Nigeria, Nigeria); Resolution of Disputes, South Africa);
★Adriana Lukaszewicz (University of Warsaw, Poland); ★Menderes Koyuncu (Univercity of Yuzuncu Yil-Van,
★Ahmed Y. Zohny (Coppin State University, USA) Turkey);
★Alessandro Vagnini (Sapienza University of Rome, ★Myroslava Antonovych (University of Kyiv-Mohyla
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★Ali Bilgiç (Bilkent University, Turkey); ★Nazreen Shaik-Peremanov (University of Cambridge,
★András Mérei (University of Pécs, Hungary); UK);
★Anna Rosario D. Malindog (Ateneo De Manila University, ★Nermin Allam (University of Alberta, Edmonton,
Philippines); Canada);
★Basia Spalek (Kingston University, UK); ★Nadejda Komendantova (International Institute for
★Beata Przybylska-Maszner (Adam Mickiewicz University, Applied Systems Analysis, Austria);
Poland); ★Ngozi C. Kamalu (Fayetteville State University, USA);
★Brian Leonard Hocking (University of London, UK); ★Niklas Eklund (Umeå University, Sweden);
★Caner Bakir (Koç University, Turkey); ★Phua Chao Rong, Charles (Lee Kuan Yew School of
★Chandra Lal Pandey (University of Waikato, New Public Policy, Singapore);
Zealand); ★Peter A. Mattsson (Swedish Defense College, Sweden);
★Constanze Bauer (Western Institute of Technology of ★Peter Simon Sapaty (National Academy of Sciences of
Taranaki, New Zealand); Ukraine, Ukraine);
★Christian Henrich-Franke (Universität Siegen, Germany); ★Raymond LAU (The University of Queensland,
★Christos Kourtelis (King’s College London, UK); Australia);
★David J. Plazek (Johnson State College, USA); ★Raphael Cohen Almagor (The University of Hull, UK);
★Dimitris Tsarouhas (Bilkent University, Turkey); ★Satoru Nagao (Gakushuin University, Japan);
★Fatima Sadiqi (International Institute for Languages and ★Sanjay Singh (Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law
Cultures, Morocco); University, India);
★Ghadah AlMurshidi (Michigan State University, USA); ★Shkumbin Misini (Public University, Kosovo);
★Giuseppe Caforio (Torino University, Italy); ★Sotiris Serbos (Democritus University of Thrace,Greece);
★Guseletov Boris (Just World Institute, Russia); ★Stéphanie A. H. Bélanger (Royal Military College of
★Hanako Koyama (The University of Morioka, Japan); Canada, Canada);
★Kyeonghi Baek (State University of New York, USA); ★Timothy J. White (Xavier University, Ireland);
★John Opute (London South Bank University, UK); ★Tumanyan David (Yerevan State University, Armenia);
★Léonie Maes (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium); ★Zahid Latif (University of Peshawar, Pakistan);
★Lomarsh Roopnarine (Jackson State University, USA); ★Valentina Vardabasso (Pantheon-Sorbonne University,
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The Editors wish to express their warm thanks to the people who have generously contributed to the
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International Relations
and Diplomacy
Volume 6, Number 5, May 2018 (Serial Number 56)
Contents
Human Security Issues
The Threat to Indonesia From the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (IS/ISIS):
A Human Security Perspective 269
Sukawarsini Djelantik
Chinese Impressions on Turkey
Haiguo Tuzhi and Chinese Impressions on Turkey in the Late Qing Dynasty 279
JIANG Xinyu
Globalization and Family Care
Globalization and Transformation of Family Care 288

Sunita Raut
Tourism Development in Vietnam
The Making of Water-Floating Seasonal Cuisine and Its Association to Tourism

Development in An Giang Province 298
Le Thi Ngoc Diep
Democracy
Can Evidence-based Policy Contribute to Correcting Overreaction?—Considering

Democracy and Rationalized Policy Making 306
Kazuya Sugitani
International Relations and Diplomacy, May 2018, Vol. 6, No. 5, 269-278
doi: 10.17265/2328-2134/2018.05.001
D DAVID PUBLISHING
The Threat to Indonesia From the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria
(IS/ISIS): A Human Security Perspective
Sukawarsini Djelantik
Parahyangan Catholic University, Bandung, Indonesia
The democratization process in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), better known as the Arab Spring, led to
increased instability in the region. The civil war in Syria coupled with the attacks by the Islamic State of Iraq and
Syria (ISIS) or later known as the Islamic State (IS) has resulted in one of the largest humanitarian crises since
World War II. This security threat has spread to other regions, including Southeast Asia. Indonesia, with the biggest
Moslems population in Southeast Asia, has been affected most significantly in comparison to other ASEAN
member countries. ISIS has acknowledged its terrorist actions which involved suicide bomb attacks, and also
claimed membership all over the archipelago. The continuing violence and resulting threats or feeling of insecurity
negatively affect the lives, freedom, dignity, and development of the people. Not only related to political and military,
the threat also affected human security, including economic, environmental, social, and other forms of harm done
by the overall livelihood and wellbeing of individuals. Other threats related to the recruitment process of new ISIS
member made use of conventional and social media. This article aims to answer the question: “How has ISIS
threatened human security in Indonesia?” Another question is: How has the Indonesian government reacted to
securitize the above issues? It concluded that the government has not comprehensively solved the issues to reduce
human security threats in Indonesia.
Keywords: cooperation, regionalism, securitization, Southeast-Asia, terrorism
Background: About ISIS/IS

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) was declared on 9 April 2013 by Abu Bakar Al Baghdadi in
Syria. ISIS has become one of the most important jihadist groups against the government of Syria and has
established a military base in Iraq. 1 By the end of July 2014, ISIS changed its name into Islamic State (IS) to
widen the scope of Islamic caliphates in the world. 2 Roughly 80% of Western combatants in Syria are
predicted to have joined this organization. 3
ISIS has turned into the most dangerous terrorist group in the world. It had successfully developed military
Sukawarsini Djelantik, Ph.D., International Relations Department, Parahyangan Catholic University, Bandung, Indonesia.
1
NU Online, http://www.nu.or.id/a.public-m,dinamic-s,detail-ids,45-id,53669-lang,id-c,internasional-t,Bagaimana+Sejarah+
Terbentuknya+ISIS+-phpx, accessed on July 28th, 2015.
2
Euronews, http://www.euronews.com/2014/06/30/isil-renames-itself-islamic-state-and-declares-caliphate-in-captured-territory/,
accessed on August 19th, 2015.
3
The Washington Freebeacon,
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/new-al-qaeda-group-produces-recruitment-material-for-americans-westerners/, accessed
on August 19th, 2015.
270 THE THREAT TO INDONESIA FROM THE ISLAMIC STATE OF IRAQ AND SYRIA
forces, and took control of Raqqa in 2013 and Mosul in Syria in 2014. The group has been infamous for its
terrorist actions, atrocities, and various violations of human rights, especially those against its ideology. ISIS
violence has been demonstrated in its various forms of social media propaganda. In Indonesia, ISIS has claimed
responsibility to several terrorism activities, such as the 2016 Jakarta bomb attack, in addition to several bomb
attacks targeted all over the country from Sabang in Northern Sumatra, to Merauke in Papua. ISIS declared
responsibility after its troops (or the Khalifah) conducted the action.
The emergence of ISIS has led to insecurity and instability in the Middle East, and has spread to other
regions. The continuing instability in Iraq and Syria had led one of the largest humanitarian crises since World
War II. During ISIS controls the region, the escalated military approaches have inflamed the violence, with the
consequence of increasing the number of victims among civilians. The insecurity has affected the lives,
freedom, and dignity of the Syrian, who fled mostly to European countries. To establish the new utopian state
of ISIS which fully implemented Islamic Law, several forms of propaganda have been applied to attract people
from all over the globe. In Southeast Asia, ISIS members predominantly originated from Indonesia, Malaysia,
and the Southern Philippines. Indonesia with its majority population of Moslems is the biggest supplier of
people to the ISIS region. They believe that to fight on the side of ISIS as Jundallah or soldiers of God, they
conduct Jihad, fighting for the glory of Islam.
With the recent development in 2016, and the loss that ISIS suffered after several air strikes by the USA
led coalition, ISIS fighters asked to continue their struggle elsewhere, avoiding ISIS-controlled regions. In
Indonesia, ISIS and supporters had even established a Katibah Nusantara (KN), or Daulah Islamiyah, covering
Malay speaking individuals mostly from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Southern Philippines. The
KN initiated terrorist attacks that led to instability and insecurity in Indonesia.
For the above reasons, this paper aims to explore human security aspects of the crisis in Indonesia. It will
firstly discuss the background of the emergence of ISIS in Indonesia. The human security analysis will be using
the seven points of human security as introduced by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in
1994. Special attention will be paid to individuals and community threats, followed by a focus on political and
economic aspects. Further analysis would zoom in on securitization program of the Indonesian government,
and its effectiveness to reduce threats and regain security. The state of security will be achieved after the
government’s ability to restore peace, minimize violence, mitigating the effects and protecting the people.
Further analysis will be made of the efforts of securitization actors to conduct anti-terrorism measures.
Literature Review
Several articles related to human security issues have been useful by way of reference to this paper. The
first is T. S. Hataley and Kim Richard Nossal’s article: “The Limits of the Human Security Agenda: The Case
of Canada’s Response to the Timor Crisis”. 4 The article analyzed the Canadian’s government actions under the
presidency of Prime Minister Chretien and Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy to respond to the 1999 East
Timor crisis. The article argued that, to respond to the humanitarian issue, the state’s political interest was more
significant, while ignoring the human security aspects. The issue was approached using the freedom from fear
4
Hataley, T. S., and K. R. Nossal, “The Limits of the Human Security Agenda: The Case of Canada’s Response to the Timor
Crisis”, The Journal of Global Change, Peace and Security,
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1478115042000176148?scroll=top&needAccess=true, accessed on May 17th,
2018.
THE THREAT TO INDONESIA FROM THE ISLAMIC STATE OF IRAQ AND SYRIA 271
concept to adapt to human security. The second article was written by Isaac Kfir, entitled: “Social Identity
Group and Human (In)Security: The Case of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)”. 5 It explores the
continued allure of Al-Qaeda’s ideology, focusing on the three key aspects of grievance, insecurity, and
religion. The article further explores on how ISIS has exploited these factors to become the most dangerous
branch of Al-Qaedism. Kfir argued that it is not religion that lies at Al-Qaeda’s ideological base, but grievance
and insecurity, with religion employed or even exploited to justify violence. The article suggested that the way
to engage with ISIS is by adopting policies that undermine the reasons why people turn to the groups for
security. Even though there are several other articles related to human security and terrorism, none has
discussed ISIS as a specific terrorist group, its operation in Indonesia, and how the group affected insecurity.
For this reason, this paper would be useful to provide a better understanding of how ISIS affected human
insecurity in Indonesia.
Human Security Issues

The Human Development Report of the UNDP first introduced the human security concept in 1994. 6 The
concept proposed a more comprehensive approach to security, which did not only focus on state security. The
concept of human security primarily focuses on protecting the integral worth of people against insecurity rather
than protecting the state. People are placed at the center of this response and it focuses on the circumstances
that threaten the well-being and survival of the people. As a result, the promotion of human security does not
lead to a military response or defend, instead it promotes and develops aspects such as human rights and
economic conditions. Focusing on the security of people entails that human rights be of primary concern and
therefore take precedence over state sovereignty. As human security aims to promote equity, solidarity,
freedom, and dignity, the people are seen as “equal actors to the state in international relations” (1994/2018). 7
The human security concept is the result of globalization and our interconnected world, viewing human
security as a freedom from fear and freedom from want. The concept covers security from physical threat and
the integrity of human psychology. 8 Another form of human security is related to freedom from want in the
broadest sense, which includes the threat to socio-economic conditions. The issue of terrorism by ISIS has
surely threatened all human security aspects, but this paper will only focus on economic, individual, community,
and political insecurity.
ISIS as Security Threat to Indonesia

ISIS Indonesia was proclaimed by Bachrumsyah alias Abu Muhammad Al Indonesi in 2014. Most of the
ISIS supporters and sympathizers are drawn from existing jihadist groups. The most prominent militant leaders
are Bahrun Naim, Abu Jandal, or Chep Hernawan, the self-proclaimed “president” of “ISIS Indonesia”. Aman
Abdurrahman from Jamaah Anshorut Tauhid (JAT) is the most prominent ideologist responsible for
introducing ISIS in Indonesia. He is currently detained at Nusakambangan (a prison for severe punishment), in
5
Isaac Kfir, “Social Identity Group and Human (In)Security: The Case of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)”, Studies in
Conflict and Terrorism, Vol. 38, 2015, Issue No. 4, see: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1057610X.2014.997510,
accessed on May 17th, 2018.
6
UNDP Team, http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/255/hdr_1994_en_complete_nostats.pdf, “Human Development
Report 1994”, Oxford University Press, 1994, accessed on May 15th, 2018.
7
Ibid.
8
Ibid.
Central Java. The exact number of ISIS members remains unknown, however, according to the Indonesian
intelligence unit (BIN), approximately 514 originate from all over the archipelago.
The government and other related institution are overwhelmed by the task of having to reduce the number
of Indonesian ISIS combatants that departed to Syria. The national anti-terrorism agency (BNPT) has worked
alongside its Foreign Terrorist Fighter (FTF) to prevent the entry of Indonesian citizen to Syria. The amount of
ISIS members from Indonesia has risen three times in a few months; June 2014 (86 persons) and October 2014
(264 persons), most of them were Indonesian citizen that have lived in a neighboring country as a student or
immigrant before the establishment of ISIS. Indonesia become the first IS member contributor (514 persons),
followed by Malaysia (40 persons), Philippines (200 persons), and Australia (60 persons). Compared to the
Mujahidin that fought in Afghanistan from 1985 to 1994, the total amount does not even reach 300 people.
When they came back, they were equipped with the ability and experience in battle fields, tactics, and
weaponry, beside showing deeper commitment towards the ideology, and forming a stronger international
network. Although the number is small, it is sufficient to make them leaders of a small number of Indonesian
extremists.
In Malaysia and Singapore, ISIS supporters could be arrested once they had left the country and were
suspected to join an illegal group. The Indonesian security apparatuses, however, are not supported by a legal
basis to arrest suspected members, unless supported by strong evidence. The security officer in charge should
implement lawful conduct or otherwise be condemned as violating human rights. Unless ISIS members are
caught while carrying guns or are planning an attack, they should be released. The dilemma between preventing
a terrorist attack from the early stage of operation and providing adequate evidence has also been
acknowledged by the National Intelligence Unit (BIN). In addition, most of terrorist action plans were managed
through social media communication, especially the one called a Telegram as favorite application. 9 During the
recent May 2018 waves of terrorist attacks, the usage of telegram was replaced by game communications
online. The terrorist involved used an end-to end-encryption (E2EE) games application to avoid the
government’s surveillance system. 10 Social media are used massively to campaign jihad and to attract new
members that the government considered as common enemy. Joining the group could have created solidarity
among them.
Individual and Societal Threat

ISIS has conducted several terrorist attacks since its establishment in 2013. All attacks have increased
insecurity and the threat of loss of life to those finding themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. The
deadliest attack after the 2002 Bali Bomb took place in May 2018 in Surabaya, the capital city of East Java.
The near simultaneous bomb blasts attacking three churches killed 14 people and left many injured. Since the
beginning of May 2018, at least 49 Indonesians (consisting of 12 civilians, seven police officers, and 30
terrorists) died in back-to-back attacks by ISIS supporters or government antiterrorism operations. The May
2018 waves of terrorist actions also happened in Sidoarjo, Bekasi, in Medan and in Pekanbaru in Sumatra
Island.
9
British Broadcasting Communication (BBC), Kapolri: “Telegram Saluran Komunikasi Favorit Teroris”,
http://www.bbc.com/indonesia/indonesia-40622484, accessed on May 31st, 2018.
10
Okezone, https://techno.okezone.com/read/2018/05/14/326/1898228/melalui-aplikasi-games-teroris-bisa-saling-berkomunikasi,
accessed on May 31st, 2018.
The increasing threat of ISIS to individuals is demonstrated by the use of women and children as suicide
bombers. The May 2018 attacks demonstrated the ISIS shift of tactics with the participation of women and
children. Beside religious minorities, law enforcement remains the target of ISIS. Previously there was an
ISIS-linked jail riot at the Police Station in Depok, in South Jakarta. Most of the inmates in the section have
been linked to the Islamic State, and the terrorist group’s media arm claimed responsibility for the uprising. 11
The attacks in May 8th, 2018 happened only two days before the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan.
This month is typically a time of renewed militancy among extremists.
Individual and societal threats are also indicated by the growing number of Foreign Terrorist Fighters
(FTF) returnees from the ISIS region. The family returnees have not all been living in the ISIS region. Some of
them had attempted to join ISIS but were deported before crossing the border. After their arrival in Indonesia,
the deportees are generally put through a rudimentary rehabilitation program, but the government lacks the
capacity to monitor them after the completion of these short courses. The Indonesian government has made
efforts to securitize the issue through its de-radicalization program under the anti-terrorism National Agency
(BNPT). The program was not very effective, as it is conducted for only a few days. Afterwards, there was a
failure in monitoring returnee activities. Several bomb attacks conducted by ISIS family deportees
demonstrated the ineffectiveness of the program.
Another securitization program was conducted by the government through the establishment of an
anti-terror unit under the Indonesian National Police, the Special Detachment (Densus 88). The special unit and
the BNPT, have implemented a mechanism and strategy that can ensure the protection of personal security and
human rights. The two units assisted in realizing human security by “shifting operations of warfare to that of
law enforcement. Moreover, the units have been minimizing the amount of force used in order to protect people
against casualties”. Human rights, freedoms, and dignity are secured by focusing on empowering and
protecting the people who are affected by these forms of insecurity.
Even though the Densus 88 and BNPT have effectively combated terrorism, ISIS threats remain by the
massive use of social media for membership recruitment. ISIS has been using these social media for
propaganda by way of various platform and methods. In the era of information technology, the ability of social
media management differentiates ISIS from other terrorist groups. ISIS has maintained at least 46 thousand
Twitter accounts 12 mostly controlled from Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.
The ability of ISIS to recruit more and more foreigners has demonstrated the effectiveness of
communication through social media. The Indonesian government, through the Minister of Communications
and Information Technology, had closed down several webpages of radical groups. 13 The close-down was
aimed at preventing the widespread phenomena of radicalism through cyberspace. Radical messages are posted
online to facilitate the proliferation of deviant doctrines. An example of an ISIS communication was found after
the May 2018 prison attack in Jakarta. One telegram message read: “Support in your own cities the mujahedeen
11
Kompas, https://nasional.kompas.com/read/2018/05/09/01231621/kerusuhan-di-mako-brimob-kelapa-dua-dipicu-cekcok-
tahanan-dengan-petugas, accessed on May 31st, 2018.
12
J. M. Berger and Jonathan Morgan, “The ISIS Twitter Census: Defining and Describing the Population of ISIS Supporters on
Twitter”:
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2015/03/isis-twitter-census-berger-morgan/isis_twitter_census_berger_m
organ.pdf, accessed on September 15th, 2015.
13
https://seminyaktimes.com/cyberwars-indonesian-government-threatens-closure-social-media-platforms/, accessed on May
23rd, 2018.
(Islamic guerilla fighters) who caused the riot! Burn the assets of nonbelievers, idolaters, apostates, and
hypocrites! Burn their malls! Destroy the economy of the nonbelievers by withdrawing your money from their
banks! The momentum only comes once; don’t fail to use it” (2018). 14
ISIS Indonesia has used all different types of social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube for
propaganda, recruitment, and spread of ideology purposes. In this informative era, ISIS has become more and
more dependent on the social media in its operation. Even though Twitter has tried to tackle ISIS’s threats,
propaganda, and recruitment by freezing those-particular accounts, sympathy still flows and thousands of other
accounts are still active. Even though ISIS’s social media accounts were being closed regularly, they keep
making new accounts and maintaining their strong online presence. 15 ISIS has tried to expand its reach into
other alternative social media, such as Quitter, Friendica, and Diaspora. 16
ISIS was declared to be an illegal organization by the Indonesian government in August 2014. Previously,
ISIS propaganda had been conducted through T-shirt sales with written slogans like “Mujahidin All Across the
World Unite”, “Fight for Freedom to Death”, and “We Support ISIS”. These online sales took place through
websites owned by Indonesian online entrepreneurs. 17 After the government declared ISIS to be an illegal
organization, the promotion website and advertisements became unavailable to public view. All social media
companies applied the same rule of banning any direct message that promotes violence and threats. 18
Considering the significant role of social media, the government used the social media to monitor, analyze, and
combat terrorism. ISIS has changed its strategy that is to say from violence to ideological approach to build a
civilization based on Islamic Law. ISIS propaganda has successfully attracted new members to practice the best
aspects of living in areas controlled by ISIS. This strategy has successfully moved people to hijrah and refers to
the members as muhajir or muhjirah. 19
Economic Threats
The biggest motivation to join ISIS was ideological, or a desire to live in a country which fully
implements the Islamic Sharia. The second motivation is economical, related to the promise of a salary up to
USD 2000/month. In addition, children and family members are promised USD 200/month plus other
allowances such as education and health. The salary of soldiers is between USD 400-1,200 per month. For
soldiers’ wives, the allowance is USD 50/person, and USD 35 for each child. Slaves received USD 50 and their
children USD 35. Parents of militants receive allowances of USD 50. However, the amount has been decreased,
especially to those living in Raqqa, and in 2016 they only obtained USD 50/month. 20 With the income, the
members also hope to make the pilgrimage to Mecca as the fifth obligation for being Moslems. The offer is
14
Sydney Jones, 2018, “How ISIS Has Changed Terrorism in Indonesia”, see:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/22/opinion/isis-terrorism-indonesia-women.html, assessed on May 23rd, 2018.
15
ISIS Faces Resistance From Social Media Companies,
http://blog.adl.org/extremism/isis-faces-resistance-from-social-media-companies, accessed on August 19th, 2015.
16
Ibid.
17
Fox News, http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/06/23/facebook-pulls-jihadi-sites-hawking-isis-gear-after-foxnewscom-
query.html, accessed on September 19th, 2015.
18
Syria World, http://www.vocativ.com/world/syria-world/isis-tries-outwit-social-networks/, accessed on September 19th, 2015.
19
The Hijrah, is the migration or journey of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina, in the year
622. In ISIS term, the term has been used to describe a foreign fighter’s journey from his/her country of origin to terrorist-held
territories abroad. See: Counter Extremism, https://www.counterextremism.com/content/hijrah, accessed on May 23rd, 2018.
20
Data of the Congressional Research Service, http://bisnis.liputan6.com/read/2416333/intip-besaran-gaji-tentara-isis, accessed
on September 28th, 2016.
quite attractive especially to middle-lower income groups who are unemployed, and desperate. The situation is
closely related to the Indonesian economy, which has not fully recovered since the global economic crisis in
2000. Even though the period of 2010-2016 demonstrated that the Indonesian economy has seen impressive
growth 21, the condition at grass-root level remains an issue. During the period of 2010-2016, the unemployment
rate was high, with the number of people living below the poverty line amounting to 10.86% of the total
population (equivalent to 28.01 million). 22 The data further demonstrate that the poverty level is higher in rural
areas in comparison to urban areas. This fact explains why the ISIS recruitment was successful and more
appealing to people living in rural areas.
The success of ISIS to attract membership is supported by the fact that this is more than an ordinary
terrorist group. ISIS was supported by wealth to run its organization as well as attract membership by
promising economic advantages. ISIS received its wealth from the Syrian oil fields seized from the legal
government. ISIS funds were obtained from the control of at least 11 oil fields in Iraq and Syria with revenue of
around two million pound sterling per day. 23 As ISIS controls most of Syria’s oil fields and crude oil, this is
the militant group’s biggest single source of revenue. Since 2012, ISIS had been snatching and controlling
several important facilities that formerly belonged to the Iraqi and Syrian governments. Some of the oil fields
controlled by ISIS were Sasan, Ajeel, and Sadid in Iraq, as well as huge oil fields in Baiji, Fallujah, Aksas, and
Tikrit. ISIS also controlled the Qayyara field near Mosul in Northern Iraq. A US-led coalition air strike on ISIS
oil effectively disrupted its crude extraction. Before the coalition strikes, ISIS was estimated to earn
approximately USD 1.5 million per day. Other ISIS sources of income consist of taxation, extortion, and tithe
(zakat). 24 ISIS also obtained wealth from looting, taking foreign national hostage, ransom demands from the
families of victims and those facing death sentences. Following the decreasing economy of ISIS after the
US-led coalition’s air strikes, the soldiers’ salary was also cut. 25 The decreased funds also affected the
numbers of overseas member recruitment.
To overcome the economic problems mentioned, the Indonesian government has conducted several
poverty alleviation programs. World Bank has introduced an integrated social assistance reform to reduce
poverty more rapidly. The program helps Indonesia to reduce poverty and inequality, and to ensure the poorest
families can receive more comprehensive coverage. 26 This program was in line with President Joko Widodo’s
infrastructure development to support economic development, especially outside Java Island. When the
previous governments only focused on economic development on Java itself, President Joko Widodo’s massive
infrastructure program aimed to balance development in Indonesia. 27 The reduced unemployment rate would
21
Stephen Elias and Clare Noone, “The Growth and Development of the Indonesian Economy”, see:
https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2011/dec/pdf/bu-1211-4.pdf, accessed on May 23rd, 2018.
22
Serikat Petani Indonesia,
https://www.spi.or.id/profil-kemiskinan-di-indonesia-2016-dalam-angka-berkurang-namun-di-desa-makin-dalam-dan-parah/,
accessed on February 13th, 2017.
23
Info-Spesial, http://www.infospesial.net/41194/lowongan-manajer-isis-gaji-rp-2-7-miliar//infospesialcom@infospesial,
accessed on 28th September 2016.
24
We Forum, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/12/how-isis-runs-its-economy/, accessed on September 28th, 2016.
25
Sindonews, http://international.sindonews.com/read/1104083/42/gaji-militan-isis-dan-bonus-budak-seks-kini-rp660-ribu-
bulan-1461643627, accessed on September 28th, 2016.
26
World Bank: http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2017/11/13/social-assistance-reforms-can-help-reduce-
poverty-faster, assessed on May 31st, 2018.
27
Detik News, https://finance.detik.com/infrastruktur/d-3872627/jokowi-kejar-pemerataan-lewat-pembangunan-infrastruktur,
assessed on May 31st, 2018.
reduce migration, both for economic and ideological purposes. According to the Indonesian Head of National
Police, Tito Karnavian, poverty alleviation is a soft approach to the anti-terrorism program. According to
Karnavian, the terrorists are mostly driven by three motives, namely ideology, emotion, and economy. 28 To
prevent the spread of terrorism, poverty would need to be alleviated to narrow the wide economic gap.
Terrorism is a revenge type of the poor and economically weak groups on the existing condition which made
them marginalized during the development process.
Political Threats
One aspect of political security is the protection of people’s basic human rights. Through political power
provided by the people, the government wields a central power to assure freedom from fear. The emergence of
ISIS, along with its atrocities through terrorist actions, has demonstrated the government’s failure to provide
human rights protection. For example, the May 2018 bomb explosions in several churches led to fear among
Christians and other minority religious groups to worship and practice their religion in peace. The Indonesian
government had to respond to the challenge to create a community where the religious minorities enjoy the
freedom to worship.
To securitize the issue, the government has exercised control on the flow of information, especially related
to hate speech against the minorities. Following the Surabaya bomb series, the ministry of Communication and
Information had blocked 1285 radical and terrorists’ related accounts. 29 The publications were spread in
several forms, including articles, websites, and videos. Special attention was paid to Al-Fatihin (AF), an ISIS
backed medium. The media featured a weekly newspaper in Indonesian, published by Daulah Islam (another
name of ISIS in Indonesia). The 10th edition reported: “Junud Khilafah in Indonesia has released their own
hostages and killed 6 Densus 88 personnel. Others AF articles were mostly related to promotion to conduct
violence with God’s reward” (2018). 30
The success of the securitization program also depended on the current Indonesian government’s ability to
prevent political tension from an early stage. Indonesia as a major democratic country in Southeast Asia also
has the most dynamic and largest number of political parties, compared to its Southeast Asian neighbors. The
current Indonesian government is led by the Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP), a nationalist party under
Megawati Soekarnoputri. Joko Widodo, who is also a member of this leading party, was appointed as the
Indonesian President after winning the 2014 general election. Four of Indonesian Islamic parties (the Unitary
Development Party/PPP, the Prosperous Justice Party/PKS, the National Mandate Party/PAN, and the National
Awakening Party (PKB)) had lost votes against nationalist parties in the previous election. The condition led to
dissatisfaction of some elements of Islamic party supporters, who formed ways to pursue a goal to establish an
Islamic state. With the combination of the historical background of radical movements in Indonesia since the
Daulah Islam/Tentara Islam Indonesia (DI/TII) or Islamic State/Indonesian Islamic Forces, desired to establish
an Islamic State in 1953, to join ISIS seemed to be bringing them closer to this destination. In addition, ISIS
28
Detik News, Kapolri Buka Strategi Lawan Teroris dalam Orasi Ilmiahnya,
https://news.detik.com/berita/d-3701854/kapolri-buka-strategi-lawan-teroris-dalam-orasi-ilmiahnya?_ga=2.141088754.19794184
09.1527761178-852699379.1525661140, assessed on May 31st, 2018.
29
Detik News, Kominfo Blokir 1285 Konten Radikal Termasuk Buletin Al-Fatihhin, see:
https://news.detik.com/berita/d-4026431/kominfo-blokir-1285-konten-radikal-termasuk-buletin-al-fatihhin, accessed on May 25th,
2018.
30
Detik News, https://news.detik.com/berita/4025468/polisi-selidiki-buletin-radikal-berbahasa-indonesia-terbitan-isis, accessed
on May 25th, 2018.
also provided military training to protect the country from outside threats. It was hoped that after being returned
to Indonesia, they could spread the ideology, recruit new members, and conduct terrorist actions for propaganda
purposes.
ISIS has shown the potential to spread its influence in Indonesia through education and media. The
Malay-speaking media, Daulah Islamiyah (DI), have played a significant role in spreading the ISIS ideology. A
DI journalist believed if jihad is not always accomplished by fighting on the battlefield, but also by writing, like
the Al-Mustaqbal. Another media is Azzam Media, which publishes videos of Indonesian children practicing
war in the ISIS region. 31 The Indonesian government’s de-radicalized program aims break down the ISIS
network, to prevent the spread of ideology through extreme religious study groups. Membership recruitment
through university mosques has mostly been operated at the government’s higher institutions across the nation.
Another way to securitize the issue is by conducting a preemptive measure through empowering citizens.
This empowerment program includes spreading as much information regarding the existence, organization
system, source of funding, and anything related to the effort to gain public sympathy from society. The most
important thing is to increase the ability of social media usage, so that it could filter any information that could
lead to the desire to join terrorist organizations like IS.
Conclusion
The above discussion demonstrates that ISIS is indeed a threat in Indonesia. The protection of human
security, including human rights and human dignity, has become one of the most fundamental objectives of the
Indonesian government. Terrorist actions in almost all parts of Indonesia have caused the absence of freedom
from fear. The state as the most responsible actor to provide security to the people has conducted several
anti-terrorism programs. De-radicalization programs have been applied to previous radical groups, especially
the ISIS returnees that previously fought in the name of ISIS, military-trained soldiers, or families that for some
reason were unable to cross the ISIS borders. In general, the program was not completely successful, as
indicated by the waves of terrorist attacks by ISIS returnees in Surabaya and other places in May 2018.
To prevent the spread of terrorism at an individual level, the government has also kept tabs on and
contained the spread of information through the social media. Moreover, the police and other security
apparatuses have been developing equipment, devices, and human resources to prevent terrorist actions
organized through the social media. Since the recruitment process is conducted on an individual basis, or using
social media closed groups, the anti-terrorism police has been challenged by the inability to apply a
surveillance mechanism. Therefore, cooperation with every element of society has become a significant
requirement.
The role of Special Forces 88 within the Indonesian police is another mechanism to provide security and
securitize the issue. In addition to BNPT, the two units were examples of the government’s effort to
institutionalize the de-radicalization program. However, the Indonesian government needs to improve the
processes and mechanisms to provide better protection and security. De-radicalization program should also
include the prevention of hate speech of radical Moslems directed against religious minorities groups. The
biggest enemy to ISIS’s development is cultural Muslim groups that desire to practice their religion peacefully.
31
CNN Indonesia: http://www.cnnindonesia.com/internasional/20150319160810-112-40369/isis-di-indonesia-juga-pakai-media-
sosial/, accessed on August 9th, 2015.
This majority of traditional Muslims should be able to practice a peaceful Islam and should not be tempted by
ISIS propaganda with radical beliefs. In addition, the government needs to be proactive in promoting and
inculcate tolerance in religious practice from an early age. Last but not least, Indonesia also needs a strong legal
basis that sets clear standards for hate statements that are widely spread by the ISIS and other radical groups in
vulgar ways.
References
Berger, J. M., & Morgan, J. (September 15th, 2015). The ISIS Twitter census: Defining and describing the population of ISIS
supporters on Twitter. The Brookings Project on US Relations With the Islamic World, Analysis Paper. Retrieved from
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2015/03/isis-twitter-census-berger-morgan/isis_twitter_census_berg
er_morgan.pdf
Hataley, T. S., & Nossal, K. R. (May 17th, 2018). The limits of the human security agenda: The case of Canada’s response to the
Timor crisis. The Journal of Global Change, Peace and Security. Retrieved from
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1478115042000176148?scroll=top&needAccess=true
Kfir, I. (2015). Social identity group and human (in)security: The case of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Studies in
Conflict and Terrorism, 38(4), 233-252. Retrieved from
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1057610X.2014.997510
doi: 10.17265/2328-2134/2018.05.002
D DAVID PUBLISHING
Haiguo Tuzhi and Chinese Impressions on Turkey in the Late

Qing Dynasty
JIANG Xinyu
Northwest University, Xi’an, China
Haiguo Tuzhi (Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms) is one of the earliest gazetteers in early modern
China. In order to change the Chinese view of the outside world, scholar-official Wei Yuan (1794-1857) and his
contemporaries compiled this gazetteer in the middle of the 19th century. Haiguo Tuzhi contains numerous
geographical, historical, and political details covering both the western and eastern hemispheres, which derived
from the known information on Western researches and Chinese ancient texts from the Tang Dynasty (618-907) to
Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Haiguo Tuzhi is a significant work in China, which affected the modernization
movement around East Asia, such as Meiji Restoration in Japan. There are two juan, or scrolls concerning Turkey
(the Ottoman Empire), called southern Duluji (Turkey) and northern Tuluji (Turkey), in Haiguo Tuzhi’s “Southwest
Ocean” part and “Great West Ocean” part covering the origin of Turkish state, the geographical location and
circumstance of Turkey, the distribution of ethnic groups throughout this country, the relationship between Turkey
and European countries, the religious situation, and the policies carried out by Turkish monarchs. Although Haguo
Tuzhi is a panoramic opus which focuses on the whole outline of countries, it also documents plenty details about
Turkish clothing, dietary habits, and characters of people. Haguo Tuzhi provides a chance to learn the Chinese
impressions on Turkish state and people in 19th century.
Keywords: Haiguo Tuzhi, Wei Yuan, Turkey
China and Turkey (the Ottoman Empire) had contacts during the Ming dynasty. In 1544, Suleiman the
Magnificent sent a mission to China. According to the History of Ming, Turkish (called Lumi in this book)
diplomatic missions have visited China for five times. In addition, a large number of Turkish merchants came
to China along the Silk Road for trade. At that time, most Chinese people know little about the situation in
Turkey, and they are not interested in understanding the outside world. For a long time, most Chinese thought
that China was located in the center of the world, and they focus solely on the situation in their country and
neighboring countries. Because, at the time, Chinese believe that China can develop without the foreign
resources, and in history, most invasions of China came from the surrounding ethnic groups. In the Qing period,
government has implemented the policy of Self-isolation for long terms. This policy limited the Chinese
understanding of the outside world. Before the First Opium War (the First Anglo-Chinese War, 1840-1842),
Chinese thought people from the outside world are all the barbarians, and various strange creatures live in there.
In 1840, Britain invaded China; however, the Daoguang Emperor didn’t even know the distance between the
United Kingdom and China, and how many countries between the UK and his empire. When analyzing the
JIANG Xinyu, postgraduate student , Institute of Middle Eastern Studies, Northwest University, Xi’an, China.
280 HAIGUO TUZHI AND CHINESE IMPRESSIONS ON TURKEY IN LATE QING DYNASTY
important reasons for the failure of the Opium War, many Chinese officials realized that the lack of
understanding of the world, including Britain, is a fatal weakness for the empire. Therefore, Wei Yuan and
other intellectuals began to explore the situation in various countries of the world, of which Turkey is one of the
focuses of their attention.
Wei Yuan and Haiguo Tuzhi

Wei Yuan was born in Shaoyang, Hunan Province in 1794. He is the son of the local landowner. When he
was young, he attended the imperial examinations and became an official of the Qing Dynasty. Wei Yuan is a
typical Chinese scholar-official in that time. He was very familiar with Chinese traditional books and histories,
such as the Classic of Poetry 1, the Book of History 2. Different from most Chinese scholar-officials, however,
Wei Yuan especially accepted a theory of Confucian classics that advocates change (Liu, 2015, p. 23). This
ideology asserted that “the destiny” is not static, and the old dynasty was replaced by a new one with the
change of “the destiny”. Wei Yuan was deeply influenced by this thought. He said that “before several
generations, the heaven, earth, people, and other things were different from contemporary ones”. He proposed
that “Has the flow direction of the ‘Chi’ 3 changed during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)? Has it flowed along
the earth from west to east?” In addition, Wei Yuan likes reading the Buddhist scriptures. According to some
Buddhist scriptures (such as Agama), there are four continents in the world and China is located in one of them.
Therefore, China is not at the center of the world. In a manner of speaking, the ancient Chinese classics and
sutras make Wei Yuan have different views of the world from other people in the same time, and help him
understand the world.
The direct cause of Wei Yuan’s creation of the Haiguo Tuzhi was the First Opium War (the First
Sino-British War) which took place in 1840. In this war, British used modern weapons and tactics, defeating
the numerous Qing Dynasty’s troops by a small and professional army in the mainland of China, repeatedly
bombard China’s major cities and the United Kingdom coerced Chinese government to sign the “Treaty of
Nanking”. At the time, many Chinese officials considered China was the strongest country in the world, feeling
shame of the fact that this great empire was defeated by an army from a small island. During the First Opium
War, Wei Yuan had a further understanding of the world by interrogating the British prisoners, writing an essay
called Record to England. In June 1841, Wei Yuan met with Lin Zexu who was the chief commander of the
Qing Dynasty’s army during the war and was banished to Ili region in Xinjiang because of the failure. In order
to enable the Qing government to understand the situation of world and help the government formulate policies
to protect China from foreign countries invasion (Liu, 2015, p. 28), Lin Zexu passed his draft manuscript, a
gazetteer called Sizhou Zhi, to Wei Yuan, and hoped that Wei Yuan could create a comprehensive gazetteer
based on this. On the basis of reference to foreign records and ancient Chinese books, a few months later, Wei
Yuan and his contemporaries completed the task given to him by Lin Zexu. They compiled a gazetteer called
Haiguo Tuzhi (Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms) in 18424.
1
A book contains the oldest chronologically authenticated Chinese poems.
2
It is a collection of rhetorical prose attributed to figures of ancient China.
3
Chi in Chinese medicine and other fields refers to the formation of the human body and the basic energy of life-sustaining
activities.
4
Reorganized in 1847-1848, and 1852.
HAIGUO TUZHI AND CHINESE IMPRESSIONS ON TURKEY IN LATE QING DYNASTY 281
Turkey in the Haiguo Tuzhi

In spite of obtaining modern geographical information from foreign countries and some complete maps of
the world drew in the 19th century by Western, but Wei Yuan was still skeptical about Western geographical
view. He believed in the correctness of the Buddhist scriptures and Chinese ancient books; he argued that
“Buddhist classics divide the earth into four continents, the continents recorded in the Western Map are just two
of them, and they forcefully divide the two continents into five or four...” (Wei, 2010, p. 1847). He said, “[In
fact,] Asia, Europe, and Libya [refer to Africa] are Jambudvipa continent; North and South America are
Aparagodaniya continent” (Wei, 2010, p. 1849). Therefore, according to the location relative to China, Wei
Yuan divided the world by his own standards, rather than by the Western standards (not by continent, but by
ocean), into six parts, respectively, Southeast Ocean (including Southeast Asia, Korea, Japan, and Oceania),
Southwest Ocean (including South Asia, Arabia, and Asia Minor), Great West Ocean (Europe), Small West
Ocean (Africa), North Ocean (including states around Arctic ocean coast), and Outer Great West Ocean
(including South and North America) (Wei, 2010, p. 1). Because of Turkish (Ottoman Empire’s), a country
spread-eagles Southwest Ocean and on Great West Ocean. Wei Yuan recorded Turkey in two volumes, called
South Duluji (South Turkey) and North Tuluji (North Turkey) in this book.
In Haiguo Tuzhi, there are no officially-unified name for this country, so the terms Duluji (都鲁机)
(mainly used in Southwest Ocean scrolls), Tuluji (土鲁机) (mainly used in Great West Ocean scrolls), Tuerqi
(土尔其), and Tuerqi (土耳其) (used today) were mainly used by Wei Yuan and his companions, to refer
broadly to Turkey. He described the scope of North and South Turkey and subdivided the specific areas of two
region. Wei Yuan said, “South Turkey is at the westernmost region of Asia, also known as Asia Minor, Persia
is in its east, bounded by the Tigris, Mediterranean Sea in the west, and Arabia in the south, … the Black Sea in
the north” (Wei, 2010, pp. 887-888). “North Turkey borders Greece and the Aegean Sea to the south, Russia
and Austria to the north, the Black Sea and Marmara Sea to the east… Austria to the northwest” (Wei, 2010, p.
1371).
He believed that South Turkey includes Anatolia, Caramania, Adana, Maras, Sivas, Trabzon, Armenia,
Kurdistan, Mesopotamia (include present-day Iraq and Kuwait), and Syria (includes present-day Syria,
Lebanon, Palestine, and Israel). The southern border of this country is on the coast of the Dead Sea (see details
in Figure 1 and 2). Wei Yuan didn’t record that Ottoman Empire have territories in Arabian Peninsula and
Africa. In Haiguo Tuzhi, Egypt was considered as an independent country. On the other hand, North Turkey
includes the Balkan countries, and today’s European part of Turkey, specifically including Croatia, Albania,
Serbia, Bulgaria, Rumelia, Moloda, Vara Valahia (see details in Figure 3). Wei Yuan learned that Greece and
other places have been independent from Ottoman, “Greece... was once occupied by Turkey, but is now
independent and has become a state itself” (Wei, 2010, p. 1383). But at the same time, he also believes that
Hungary is a part of Turkey, he said “Hungary, now is incorporated into North Turkey” (Wei, 2010, p. 1370).
Figure 1. South Turkey.

Figure 2. South Turkey.

Figure 3. North Turkey.

History
Haiguo Tuzhi introduced Turkish history from four perspectives at least. First, the book shows the history
of various countries that have appeared on this land, such as the history of Greece, Rome Empire, Jewish, and
Babylonian countries. He advocated that “The Asian part of this country is called South Turkey. This land is
vast and very fertile. In ancient times, countries such as Babylonia, Armenia, Lydia, and Judea were built in this
land” (Wei, 2010, p. 883). And then, he began to describe the history of these countries. Second, he described the
rise and expansion of Islam. He had known that the rise of the Ottoman state is part of the history of Islam. Third,
he learned that the Turks originated in Central Asia (Wei, 2010, p. 1361). Wei Yuan wrote that “South Turkish
people originally belonged to the Tatars. They were nomadic in ancient time, and live in the Pamirs and Ili. And
later, they migrated westward to Asia Minor...” (Wei, 2010, p. 892). And then he recorded the history from Seljuk
to Ottoman (Wei, 2010, p. 1361). Fourth, Wei Yuan hopes to explore the history of the “West Women’s Kingdom”
which was recorded in ancient Chinese books. In the New Book of Tang, there was a record of this state: “In the
west of Fu-lin 5, there is a West Women’s Kingdom, and all people in this country are women. This country has
many wonderful treasures...” (Wei, 2010, p. 890). Tongkao 6 said,
West Women’s Kingdom lies to the west of Pamirs Plateau. The country’s customs are the same as those of the East
Women’s Kingdom (East Women’s Kingdom was in the southeast of the Pamirs, near the Tibetan Empire and destroyed
by later). The West Women’s Kingdom is attached to the Fu-lin and began tribute to China in the Eighth Year of Zhen
Guan period (635) in Tang Dynasty. (Wei, 2010, p. 890)
And Kunyu Tushuo 7 said, “a women country called Amazon lied to the west of many Tatars’ countries,
[people in this country are] brave and battlewise... now it was occupied by other country”. Wei Yuan cited the
above materials in Haiguo Tuzhi and he made specific mention of the country occupied the West Women’s
Kingdom which is Turkey (Wei, 2010, p. 890). In other words, he believed that West Women’s Kingdom was
existed from at least the Tang Dynasty to the rise of Turkey.
Politics
Wei Yuan used materials about the Turkish monarch and bureaucracy. First of all, he thought in Turkey,
the monarch has autocratic power. He said,
Turkey’s political system is different from other countries in Europe. Political power is concentrated in the hands of
the monarch. People should obey his orders and cannot raise objections. The king is called the shadow of God… and the
king is considered to rule the country by the will of God. (Wei, 2010, p. 1363)
In addition, the monarch is a religious leader. “In this country, people remember the virtues of Osman I.
Therefore, … the descendants of Osman I are still selected as Islamic leaders of this country” (Wei, 2010, p.
1363). For the bureaucratic system, Haiguo Tuzhi said,
Grand Vizier, who is responsible for checking the quality of goods in cities… Reıs Effendi, managing the internal
affairs and diplomacy, Tefterdar Effendi managing the treasury, Tehelebi Effendi, managing the navy, Pasha, managing
the army, Mollahs, managing Islamic affairs and education; Mufti, managing laws, … and Ulema, managing documents.
(Wei, 2010, pp. 1363-1364)
Besides, Wei Yuan has learned about the relatively new situations in Turkey, for example, the country has
5
“Fu-lin” is adopted to refer to Byzantium since Tang Dynasty.
6
Literally: “Comprehensive Examination of Literature”. The book written by Ma Duanlin in 1317.
7
The book written by a Ferdinand Verbiest, a priest of the Society of Jesus, in 1674.
had a hard time in controlling its own local officials,

It is very difficult to [Turkish monarch] to abolish betrayal Pasha. This work was completed around 1810, Eighth
Year of Jia Qing, however, the newly appointed Pasha was rebelled again after a few years. ... Egypt as its vassal state.
Pasha was originally appointed to rule this land. Now [Egypt Pasha] not only does not obey the monarch’s order, but it has
occupied Turkey’s Syrian region. (Wei, 2010, p. 885)
In addition, Wei Yuan learned that Turkey is facing an extremely serious environment. In diplomacy, although
it was protected by the United Kingdom and France, these two countries are only for the purpose of against
Russia. He quoted Xu Jiyu as saying that
Europeans do not like Islam and hate the tyranny of the Turkish King. British and French do not like Turkey. They
help Turkish just because they were worried about Tsarist Russia will annex Turkey. Because of geography, the Tsarist
Russian army is not good at fighting on the oceans. If Turkey is occupied, Russia will have the opportunity to develop the
Navy and may challenge the hegemony of British and French. (Wei, 2010, p. 1382)
Customs
On the research of Turkey, Wei Yuan mostly pay attention to the customs, such as dress, dietary habit,
filial piety, and marriage. He said,
[Turkish] Clothes and decorations are very similar to the Oriental countries. The clothes and sleeves are loose and
different from European styles. People take off their shoes before entering the house. They sat on the ground and eat with
their hand. The woman should practice purdah and cannot meet other males... The country prohibits alcohol. People are
willing to build hotels for travelers and give in charity to others. They smoke opium. ... They respect their parents and
unity brothers. Legacy can only be inherited by their children and brothers, and others cannot profit from it. Before
marriage, [they] discuss the issue of bride price, and then discuss the date of marriage, and the number of wives and
concubines. The children of concubines are equal to those of his wife. If the wife is infertile, the law allows her husband to
abandon her... (Wei, 2010, p. 1365)
Ethnic Groups and Religions

Wei Yuan learned that Turkey is an Islamic country, but not all citizens are Muslims, and importantly,
Muslim is not one race. He said, “Turkey is the only Islamic country in Europe” (Wei, 2010, p. 1361). “Every
Turkish believes in Islam, and the king is their religious leader…” (Wei, 2010, p. 1365), “There are other ethnic
live in Turkey with about two million population... The Greeks live near the harbor... about a million people,
they believe in Christianity, or religion preached by Rome Pope”, “The Arabs live in the eastern part of the
country and there are more than one million people. Some of them are nomadic and believe in Islam” (Wei,
2010, p. 896). In addition, Haiguo Tuzhi also records the culture and customs of the some ethnic groups in
Turkey.
There are three ethnic groups in this country, Greeks, Jews, and people whose hats are triangular (tricorne), of which
the Greeks account for half of them. Jews suffer from discrimination and engage in pasta manufacturing. The people
wearing triangle hat are clever and thrifty. They do business in the country, rarely trade with foreigners. The Greeks are
clever, eloquent and good at business ... their ate simply, only vegetable, olives and candy. (Wei, 2010, pp. 1365-1366)
Rivers, Mountains, and Properties

In Haiguo Tuzhi, at least the names of the 38 rivers in Turkey were recorded, mainly located in the North
Turkey. The descriptions to the mountains were presented in the introductions of each specific areas. The
Haiguo Tuzhi also contains an overall introduction of the production of Turkey.
Turkish produces cotton, cotton grown in Europe can earn 3.5 million tael of silver every year... also produces
tobacco, and some places can produce 200,000 packs of cigarettes. People smoke. Turkey sells grape juice… and ships
100,000 dan 8 per year. About 4,000 boxes of opium are sold from Turkey to China. Turkey also produces medicinal herbs,
wax, silk and fine wool. Turkish horses are tall and good at running. Few manufactured goods are produced in domestic,
buying products from abroad. This country has many harbor. (Wei, 2010, pp. 896-897)
In addition, when introducing the situation of each place, the product status of each area was also recorded.
Legends and Stories
In Haiguo Tuzhi, many myths are recorded. For example, the tales of the reborn phoenix and a magical
river, when a sheep drank the water of this river, the color of the wool on it will change from black to white.
These legends may come from ancient Chinese books and rumors of foreigners. Different from other people in
his contemporaries, Wei Yuan believes in the authenticity of the records of ancient books, such as his historical
records of the West Women’s Kingdom, while, Xu Jiyu, an equally famous enlightened scholar in that time,
argued that the tales of the West Women’s Kingdom is ridiculous (Xu, 2001, p. 168).
Conclusion
Chinese ancient books rarely documenting the situation in Turkey and most of content are myths and
legends, such as the phoenix and the West Women’s Kingdom. Wei Yuan also adopted these legends in his
writings, but these stories just have a bit space in this book. In general, he showed a real Turkey for Chinese,
most of the book Haiguo Tuzhi is about the objective situation in Turkey. Although Wei Yuan’s introduction of
the Ottoman Empire was sketchy, Haiguo Tuzhi is indeed a comprehensive gazetteer. The descriptions of
Turkey’s overall history, politics, ethnic groups, and the natural environment are relatively detailed, and most
of them are accurate.
In Haiguo Tuzhi, the scene of the decline of the Ottoman Empire was displayed to the Chinese. Wei Yuan
also analyzed the reasons for the decline of the country because the Turkish monarch was a tyrant and the
people only studied old knowledge and didn’t learn from the West, “They only read the scriptures and didn’t
study science. They ridiculed foreign-made telescopes, microscopes, measuring instruments, and watches,
saying these were clever tricks and wicked craft. They did not accept the European calendar…” Most of the
content mentioned by Wei Yuan also existed in China at that time, so he may wish to warn Chinese with the
case of Ottomans.
However, Wei Yuan hasn’t get information about Ottoman was undergoing reforms, the Tanzimat. He
received new messages from the West, most of which were negative news about Turkey and Islam. Until the
end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, some Chinese scholars began to visit Turkey and
knew the more real facts of Turkey and the Middle East. Despite all this, the Haiguo Tuzhi played an
enlightening role. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many Chinese (including some scholars in other East
Asia countries, such as Korea and Japan) learned about the world through this book. In general, Haiguo Tuzhi
takes the crucial step for Chinese to understand Turkey.
References
Liu, Y. (2015). A study of Haiguo Tuzhi (Ph. D. diss., University of Yangzhou).
Wei, Y. (2010). Haiguo Tuzhi. Changsha: Yuelu Shushe Press.
Xu, J. Y. (2001). A short account of the maritime circuit. Shanghai: Shanghai Bookstore Publishing House.
8
1 dan almost equal to 50kg.
doi: 10.17265/2328-2134/2018.05.003
D DAVID PUBLISHING
Globalization and Transformation of Family Care
Sunita Raut
Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal
The effect of globalization on family care traditions has emerged as a significant issue of academic debate in recent
years. Globalization and the growth of liberal market economy in local areas has rapidly transformed the traditional
pattern of family structure, livelihood strategies of the family members, and care giving practices to the elderly in
Nepal. Traditionally, the older people used to live in joint family comprised of their married son and their children.
The reciprocal exchange of care between the parents and children was associated with the religious conception of
virtue and vice. If the off-springs would not take care for their parents, it was considered as a great sin. This
tradition has been gradually eroding with the migration of youths to different destination in search of opportunities
for their education and employment. This migratory process has weakened the traditional role of families as care
giving institutions to old parents and disable member in the family. The old parents are now increasingly shelter to
care homes for their caring. The children maintain their ties with their parents mainly by economic support for their
maintenance. The old people have been unable to receive any moral care and support from other members of their
family. This article examines the changes on the traditional responsibility of family as a care giving unit for the old
people. It discusses the issues based on data gathered through in-depth interviews and case study of 37 senior
citizens living in Siddhi Shaligram Senior Citizens Home (SSSCH) at Bhaktapur district. The secondary sources of
information have also been used to sharpen the conceptual issues related to this field.
Keywords: globalization, migration, elderly care, transformation, senior citizen, Nepal
Introduction
The author begins with a story of global settlement of a family. Mr. Khanal’s family was well up in
Kathmandu. After school education, his two sons and a daughter were interested to go Australia and America for
further education. They went and did not return rather they got married and settled there. They have been sending
sufficient amount of money but Mr. Khanal missed personal care, love, and proximity with them. He said, “Sons
and daughter could not serve hot water food and bed tea which are essential for me at the age of 70 years. We
expect love and care of our family members from the old care center”. Sons, daughter, and grand children became
American and Australian citizen. They have very good job. They did not like to settle in Nepal whereas Mr.
Khanal did not like to stay America and Australia. Mr. Khanal said that if his sons were in Nepal, he would not
stay care home. Khanal opinioned that care centers could provide all technical necessary of the elderly people but
they could not fulfill psychological and social loss of the elderly living in the care centers. Mr. Khanal said that
they have regular audio-visual communication with sons and they have been remitting foreign currency to buy
care for their parents in Nepal. He again said that it was global society and there was not fixity of family and
Sunita Raut, M.Phil in Sociology, Faculty of Sociology Department, Tri-Chandra Multiple Campus, Tribhuvan University,
Kathmandu, Nepal.
GLOBALIZATION AND TRANSFORMATION OF FAMILY CARE 289
moral values. His sons and daughter were out of Nepal not because they were poor but because of global
education and profession. Khanal’s story clearly shows that the elderly people who are not living with their
siblings face loneliness and social isolation.
Globalization is open system extended from individual household to beyond the national boundaries.
Globalization, in this more comprehensive, social sense of the term, is everywhere. In this paper, the author
follows the lines of Giddens’ argument (2000, p. 30) that “Globalization is not only about what is ‘out there’,
remote and far away from the individual. It is an ‘in here’ phenomenon too, influencing intimate and personal
aspects of our lives”. Giddens stressed that globalization reshaped our intimate and personal moral values,
relations and larger world views. Globalization has changed traditional moral and cultural values in Nepal.
Global economic penetration placed mathematical quality on social life and encouraged formerly autonomous
states to regress into penal states that value production, competition, and profit above all else, including social
issues (Bourdieu, 1999). This brought changes on livelihood strategies of people and traditional homely
services and family care transformed into commodity of liberal market (Kreager, 2006). In many lower income
countries, a large numbers of youths are out of country and urban families are highly individualistic (Yoon,
2000). Therefore, large numbers of the elderly from village to city are either abandoned in their own home or
dropped at elderly care homes in city.
In Nepal, family has sole authority, responsibility, and morality of caring elderly people until recently. In
the past, the most senior members were looked on as persons to be respected, emulated, listened to, and obeyed,
and they were provided with whatever care they needed, primarily by the family or relatives. Caring of old
parents is considered as essential “Dharma” (Marriott, 1990; Dumont, 1980). The most of older people felt
culturally comfortable to live with their families and usually with a married son. One of the untold stories of
son preference among the Hindu people embedded with old age care and religious value and virtue. The
reciprocity of caring between parents and children has been transcended vice and virtue earning religious
interpretation of heaven and hell after this life. If parents were not cared by own offspring that was great sin
and vice versa. It is believed that the offender of the family duties will have suffered beyond this life. In
contrast, recently in Nepal, it is breaking up this type of family morality and loyalty. Joint family system is
breaking in to nuclear family, compelling older persons to live alone without any family member to look after
them. Furthermore, old parents are abandoned at care home, discarded from own home, and neglected by the
own offspring.
The circumstances of the aged, and individual aging itself, have dramatically changed because of
international labor migration and changes on family structures in Nepal (Gautam, 2005). Witnessing a
substantial number of abandoned elderly people at “Pashupati Bridhasharm” and mushrooming old care homes
in urban areas are testimony to interrogate the functional status of traditional value, family integrity, and
interpretation of morality of family. In name of advancement towards 21st century, it has made Nepalese sons
more and more self-centered without any morality, obligation, and responsibilities towards their parents. There
has been long debate recently about whether the function of the family has been declined since the development
of labor migration and modernization (Gautam, 2008).
Some researchers (Popenoe, 1993; Swartz, 2009) stated that the function of the family has declined since
more and more people are inclined to invest less time, money, and energy in the family matters than in pursuing
a more individualistic self-fulfilled life. It has been thought that in response to the fluctuations characteristics in
290 GLOBALIZATION AND TRANSFORMATION OF FAMILY CARE
the recent society such as labor market, instability of relationships, intergenerational families acting as adaptive
support systems are contributive.
One of the principal themes in socio-cultural studies of South Asia over the past several decades has been
the notions of person and family (Marriott, 1990). Studies claimed that south Asian persons are not thought to
be bound and self contained individuals but rather connected substantially with family, kinship relations, places,
and social network. By means of substantial transactions of childbirth, feeding, caring-living together, touching,
exchanging pain, pleasure, and socialization, people are thought to absorb parts of themselves. In spite of this
self as incomplete personhood cultural orientation, many elderly are compelled to live either alone in their own
family or end up to old care centers. The traditional responsibility and morality of the family to care old parents
are also in crisis because of migration and rapid changing pattern of family and livelihood strategies (Asato &
Kusaka, 2010).
In this study, the author focuses on that the abandoned parents who had fulfilled their duties of caring their
offspring are out of family, place, and social network now. Besides demographic changes and biological
problems of old age, they have been suffering economic and social problems of out of kin, out of family and
social relations. Though, there is provision of nominal cash support to elderly people in the name of social
security, the number of elderly homes is increasing in urban areas. There is some gap between social security
fund of the state and luring care management of internationally funded elderly homes. State policy of social
security demands some improvement and research for proper direction and management. Desertion, social
isolation and exclusion are a particular problem for elders in Nepal, and whilst recognized by a number of
agencies, it is not widely acknowledged as a societal problem. Some literatures have found just about the
concept of ageing and demographic status of elders in Nepal (Singh, 2003; Yadav, 2012). While, there is no
sufficient research in the field of ageing and related problem in Nepal.
This generation of elderly peoples are the most unfortunate because they cared their children and when
they became young either they went out of the family or parents were abandoned in old care centers. Another
interesting factor is witnessing increase in life expectancy in the most of the country because of biomedicine
and technology. Care is required for longer time in comparison to earlier generations. Therefore, caring for the
elderly becomes an important issue in current age. On the basis of this introductory remark, this study tries to
examine changes on traditional morality and responsibility of family through the stories of deserted elders at
care home.
Methodology
This article is based on the author’s M.Phil. Dissertation in Sociology, from Tribhuvan University, Nepal.
This is a qualitative study. A total of 37 elderly in a care home were purposely selected and interviewed for the
study. Out of them, 26 were female and 11 were male. Besides demographic findings, individual stories of
arrival in care home, care home life, and their world views were collected two month long field work in
May-July 2016 in Bhaktapur.
Siddhi Shaligram Sinior Citizen’s Home
Siddhi Shaligram Senior Citizen’s Home (SSSCH) was established in 2005 with major contributions from
Nepal highlife Beilngries Germany to give proper care for the elderly people who have been either abandoned
at urban or abandoned in their own home. The care home is adjoining with hospital. There are three categories
of care room available. The first category is paid room and service. The middleclass elderly whose family
member abandoned him/her came to there for proper homely and nursing care. They paid good amount of
money to the care home. The second category of the elderly was poor.
SSSCH offers support to senior citizen in need, regardless of their status, wealth, caste, religion, gender,
ethnicity, and relationship. The services at SSSCH are available to those aged 60 and above who meet any of
listed criteria such as: lack of family support, neglected by family, lack of local support, physical limitation,
inadequate housing, or limited access to information about available social agencies for emergency assistance.
SSSCH provides care and services of basic medical attention by trained healthcare staff, daytime activities
promoting socialization, space for communal “pooja” (prayer and offering), “bhajan” (singing), “satsang”
(religious discourse), and “yoga” (exercise). Members of the home also get the opportunity to develop skill
while enjoying activities such as gardening and small handicrafts. SSSCH’s residents are provided meals
prepared under health norms and served with love and care. Accommodations include basic clean living
facilities, a reading room/library, lounges, recreation areas, and a garden.
Socio-economic Features of Elders

Home District
Home district is another significant component of socio-economic study, which derives the various
information of respondent about origin place and home places. The senior citizens who have been currently
living and getting shelter, food, and care, also are migrated and shifted from various places, which is presented
by following table
Table 1
Distribution of the Elderly by District
District Frequency Percent (%)
Kathmandu 16 43.25
Bhaktapur 14 37.84
Lalitpur 2 5.40
Kavre 1 2.70
Dhading 1 2.70
Lamjung 1 2.70
Others 2 5.40
Total 37 100.0
Source: Field Survey, 2016.
Since SSSCH is located in Bhaktapur district, the most of the respondents were from Kathmandu,
Bhaktapur, and the neighboring districts. The other category respondents were from Delhi and Kalinpong,
India.
On the basis of the table, it can be argued that urban elderly have more pitiable condition than rural elders.
The central argument of the thesis is that urban livelihood strategy has been completely changed with the
neo-liberal economic policies. With this circumstances, elderly people experienced different scenario which
they never expected in the family. The supporting stories in next section match this argument.
Family Status
Family status is as being in a parent and child relationship. This can also mean a parent and child type of
relationship that may not be based on blood or adoption ties, but that is based on care, responsibility, and
commitment. Examples include parents caring for children, people caring for aging parents or relatives with
disabilities etc. In this regard, the elderly who are landed up in care home were with the relationship and caring
with someone (see Table 2).
Table 2
Living With Family Member in the Past
Living the past with Number Percent (%)
Son and daughter-in-law 8 21.62
Daughter and son-in-law 3 8.11
Husband/wife 4 10.81
Alone 12 32.43
Other kin 7 18.91
Others 3 8.10
Total 37 100.0
Table 2 clearly shows that before coming to the care home, most of the respondent lived alone (32.43%)
followed by with their son and daughter in-law (21.62%). It shows that those elderly who are alone are most
vulnerable.
Ownership Over Property
The property and ownership of aged people also plays great role in determining presents status. Therefore,
it is important factor in studying socio-economic condition of elderly people. Having ownership on official
record is not only vital role in determine the status of the aged people who and how they are used and
manipulated having important values. Table 3 shows the condition of elder’s ownership over property.
Table 3
Property of Respondents
Property Frequency Percent (%)
Yes 27 72.98
No 10 27.02
Total 37 100.0
Table 3 shows that most of the respondents have own property in their name. Among 27 respondents
having ownership on property, 10 have bank balance, five have home, five have ornament, three have land, and
only four have all type property. And remaining 10 elders have not any property in their name past and present.
Furthermore, the sources of income of the elderly people are also home rent, land lease, bank balance
including ornaments, and old age allowances. This indicate that, though having sufficient own property, elders
coerce to desert in care home instead of live own home.
Distribution of Respondents by Marital Status
Marriage is not biological event as birth and death rather it is a social event that is determined by society
within the norms and cultural values. Broadly, speaking marriage is social obligation in Nepal. In Nepal,
marriage signifies the beginning of socially sanctioned sexual relation and taken as the way of family bond.
It is expected that married people have children and their responsibility is supposed to take care their
parents at old age. So, the marital status of elderly people living in the care home is presented in Table 4.
Table 4
Respondent by Sex and Marital Status
Sex of respondent
Total
Marital Status Male Female
Number Percent (%) Number Percent (%) Number Percent (%)
Married 2 5.40 2 5.40 4 10.82
Unmarried 1 2.70 5 13.51 6 16.21
Divorce 2 5.40 0 0 2 5.40
Widow/widower 4 10.81 17 45.94 21 56.75
Separated 2 5.40 2 5.40 4 10.82
Total 11 29.74 26 70.26 37 100.0
Source: Field survey, 2016.
The Table 4 clearly shows that never married and widow are more vulnerable to be abandoned. There is an
equal chance of desertion of currently married and separated male and female elderly. In comparison to
currently married, never married and widow/widower are more vulnerable to be abandoned. Therefore, elderly
abandonment is directly related to socio-cultural processes like marriage, divorce, separation, and widowhood
of the society.
Number of Children
It is taken as having many children will secure the life of old age in the Hindu religion. Moreover, having
boy child is taken as best care taker, bread winner at time of economic crisis in family at the time of alive and
after death of parents. Not only have that, the majority of elders people lived with their married son. By
tradition, the reciprocity of caring each other has been transcended vice virtue earning religious interpretation
heaven and hell after this life. If parents were not cared by their offspring, that was taken as the great sin.
Therefore, number of children holds the meaning of parent’s abandonment or not in care home in this
modern time (Table 5).
Table 5
Number of Children of Respondents
Number of children Frequency Percent (%)
Having only-one children 8 21.62
Having two children 10 27.03
Having more two children 8 21.62
Having no children 11 29.73
Total 37 100.0
The Table 5 shows that the parents without children are abandoned in care home.
Transformation of Traditional Care Responsibility

The traditional notion of the family has been changing because of global economic penetration. In
traditional family, parents have to live with preferably their sons. If they did not have son, they compromise
with daughter and other close relatives. Because of livelihood change and economic liberalization, close
relatives did not show interest to care close elderly relatives. Own sons and daughter also started to analysis of
economic profit of caring own parents. So, it can be said that because of excessive penetration of global
economic policy and open access of new economic and livelihood opportunity, new generations want to live
standard of life.
They want to consume modernity as much as they can. The elderly also understood selfish nature of new
generation. One day, daughter of “Bhakta Laxmi”, asked all property in her name but mother denied to give all
property to daughter’s name. Then the conflict aroused between mother and daughter. Because of over
greediness of daughter, the mother sold her own property and went to care home. She did not trust her only one
daughter. The daughter also did not care her mother. The stories are as follows: “When my daughter got
married, she and her husband lived with me for a while. At that time her husband wanted my house and land.
Daughter and her husband said me, ‘you should give this house and land to us’. I knew that they really needed
more money. I think that, if I gave them this house and land I would not have a house to live in. So, I did not
listen to them. Also she said, ‘I don’t want to live with you. Why don’t you die?’ I did not know why she said
that. I already gave her sufficient money and ornaments, goods, as a dowry. She never called me to have meal
from that day. She listened to her husband much more than me. Day by day she shouted at me in the name of
money, house, and land. Then, one day I decided to separate from them. Like this, I separated from my
daughter by shifting care home. I did not sign house and land to her; instead I sold this house and land. This
was the last property I had. Then I saved all the cash in bank. Now, I am sustaining from the bank balance and
monthly interest”. By analyzing the story, it can be argued that traditional values and morality has been
changed. New generation youths have global opportunity of livelihood. Parents are also ready to face
unintended problems of global society.
Changing Traditional Family Values and Morality

“Motimaya” and her husband have been living in the care home since two years. They have two sons and
two daughters. All of them were married and busy on their job. When Motimaya suffered from many health
problems including Parkinson, their sons and daughter-in-laws proposed to keep them in care home. Though
they pay fee for the stay but elderly parents missed their family live, home, and lovely grandchildren. They
desired to die in the home but they were compelled to live care home as they compared hell. This story makes
more alive of this concept; “our sons and daughter-in-laws said that they could not do no more care of mother
and father because they have jobs and own family member to care. Because of my wife and I, they felt disturbed.
They said that they have to go outside for entertainment, visits, tours, enjoyments; therefore they suggested us
to live care home. We thought sons and daughters were insurance of old age. Look! Our sons and daughter
in-law prioritized to job, entertainment, and comfort than care of us. Whenever we were able to look their
children and household chores, they loved and cared but when we unable to care their children and work, they
dropped us at the care home. We (old people) still believed that parents are god and goddess but in these days
(Kali Yug) parents are regarded as machine and family value and morality is lost. We were compelled to buy
care, love, and support which were considered essential family morality in traditional society. The roles and
responsibility of the sons and daughter-in-laws is transferred to nurse and care providers (Third party)”.
This story indicated the effect of globalization which makes people more individualistic and global
competitive human. Then the traditional roles and responsibilities of the family have been shifted into the
commercial care home where the elderly missed flavors of family attachment, love, and care. This also
articulated that because of commercialization of livelihood, the family prioritized job and comfort rather than
care of elderly people. Parents are thought like producing machine these days. When parents become old, they are
taken as family burden and some of the families dropped their parents in commercial care home, whereas the
elders thought that their offspring are the insurance for old age.
Some of them were dropped at care home by their relatives. Their stories articulate either force abandoned
or strategically abandoned by their family and close relatives. Therefore, they were called abandoned senior
citizen. “Pradip Limbu” has similar story of abandonment at care home. The political economy of his
abandonment is also link with foreign labor migration and weakens kinship relations with his brother’s family
with his gradual weakening of body. He was dropped at road side and came to the care home with the support
of other lady. He said that, “When my wife went Thailand after marriage and she did not return Nepal, I became
alone. I waited her so long time but she did not contact me. When I felt loneliness then I started to drink and
smoking. I would not like to stay at home. I sold land and animal property for the purpose manages money for
drink and expense for relax. Then I became property less and reached to my big uncle house to stay at
Kathmandu. My big uncle was popular and very rich man with many housemaid and workers at home and office.
Though, I have to work at their hostel’s kitchen sometimes. I spent about 20 years at my uncle’s house of being as
a labor. Suddenly I caught up by sugar disease then I could not do more labor as I did at past. When I could not
work they started to misbehave me. One day my cousin took me on his car. After driving about an hour, we
arrived at one house, then he stopped the car near a house and tea shop and asked me to step out to buy cigarette.
Then he started the vehicle, and before I could call out to him, he drove off. Then one lady of near the house
arrived and said, let’s go for treatment, we will cure your disease and we can prevent this, you have live here with
us for long time to cure the sugar she says. Initially, I thought he’d gone to fill petrol or buy something but he did
not returned then, the truth dawned me that I’d been abandoned by my own cousin brother”. On the basis of this
story, it can be argued that elderly people were deserted at care home either because of lack of close kin close
to them or degrading traditional family values and religious morality. Pardip Limbu has live stories of effect of
globalization and transformed care morality. Pradip’s wife went to Thailand for labor but she did not returned
to him. His wife did not stay with him in spite that they have sufficient land property to sustain. She went
Thailand to get more facility and made more money to enjoy individual life. She forgot to return home and
never ever thought that she is married and has to think and care her husband also. While, in Nepalese context,
husband and wife are taken as strong bond at this life and next life also.
Changed Perception of Care

Mr. and Mrs. Khanal were indirectly deserted in their own home and they chose better care center. They
willingly came to stay in the care home. They denied that they were deserted but their sons, daughters were in
foreign countries and rarely visited them. Deserted does not mean that family members children didn’t give
money and care for their parents. If family members left, only the elderly in own home are also called
abandoned in home.
They claimed that modern senior citizens preferred care home. We were habituated with modern culture
therefore we did not miss family care. Because of absence of caring relatives, Mr. Khanal’s couple
compromised to stay in care home. The following lines of stories makes more clears: “We let them our children
to go abroad because, we would like to see them to go more income and opportunities. They would get
advanced study and develop their career. If they lived with us, they would have no scope to advanced study
even they would have not get suitable job also. We have enough parental property too. We understood that, it’s
the modern age and time of globalization. Movement of younger generations is natural to go and live around the
world. This migration will be better to our children. For the brighter future of the children, we sacrificed our life.
We did not confine them at home and around us. They have not deserted us, we ourselves shifted here to get better
care. We are living satisfied life in this care home. All caring facility has provided. We are living free and secured
life here. So, at last we want to say that, we are not deserted by our children but we shifted here to get best care
facility and hopes of long age”.
They argued that only traditional family expected to be cared by own close relatives. The societies have
changed because of globalization and neo-liberal market. Classical expectations of the elderly also changed and
they were prepared to stay at care home. Some orthodox religious elderly denied to going at care home
otherwise many of elderly felt happy to stay at care home. They compared care home culture with western
countries.
Conclusion
Empirical studies show that this generation of elderly people is the most unfortunate because they expect
similar type of family care in their home as they have cared their children and the elderly. They felt family
morality crisis and transformation of familial responsibilities. Globalization, as well as other spirit of social
changes for instance, educational status and gender roles are major agents of breaking tradition forms of family
morality and family roles and responsibilities. Women were specially considered as care taker of children and
the elderly in the family. Women educational campaigns and global labor (skill and unskilled) migration
changed traditional livelihood strategies of urban as well as rural people. Youths either migrated foreign
countries or shifted at urban areas within the country and separated from their parents. Then, parents are
abandoned either their own home or they are compelled to go commercial care home. Another interesting fact
is that because of biomedicine and technology, life expectancy of peoples has been increasing and number of
the elderly also increased in the country. Care is required for longer time in comparison to earlier generations.
Therefore, traditional function of family has been transforming from home to commercial old care centers.
Elderly people are taken as economic problem and burden of family now. But, until recently, in some decades,
ageing was considered as socially and culturally high upgraded status in society. Eldest male member of the
family or the community automatically took the role of head-ship in family and community. Almost all social,
cultural, and economic activities and decision were guided by him/her. His/ her views and words were taken as
the rules and regulation to follow for family and community. Individual who cross the aged 75 believed as
those who have attained the God-hood. This shows the high respects shown by Nepalese culture towards their
aged person.
In contrast in recently joint family system has been breaking in to nuclear family, compelling older
persons to live alone without any family member to look after them. Furthermore, old parents are abandoned at
care home, discarded from own home, and neglected by the own offspring. Mentioned stories and evidences
make clear that traditional family value and morality have been eroded and changed by the time passes.
Moreover, globalization and capitalist market economy have supported for individualistic life and living which
has badly affected the life of elderly people.
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doi: 10.17265/2328-2134/2018.05.004
D DAVID PUBLISHING
The Making of Water-Floating Seasonal Cuisine and Its

Association to Tourism Development in An Giang Province
Le Thi Ngoc Diep

University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Floods have been popularly understood as the nightmares of human beings for their devastation causes. Floods in
traditional Vietnamese minds are of the same type since ancient Vietnamese used a metaphor to address the floods
in Red River Delta (Hanoi area) as un-auspicious marine spirit Thủy Tinh being defeated by the inland spirit Sơn
Tinh in the legendary battle of life. Therefore, as being expressed in many cultures, floods are symbol of death and
loss, and human beings have always attempted to get rich of or overcome the floods. However, the floods, under the
awareness and pragmatic life of the people of An Giang Province as well as the whole Mekong River Delta (in
Southern Vietnam), the floods are considered as the sign of wealth and happiness. What makes the floods to be so
auspiciously acknowledged, and how do people manage to “exploit” the floods to enrich their life? This paper is to
investigate and generalize the approaches of utilizing the floods’ resources to diversify their life, especially in
cuisine culture. The research learns that the regularly stable floods in the Mekong River system strongly and
positively affects the life of the local residents, and the community is further wise to exploit and transform the
natural resources into their cultural world, mentally and materially, among which, ecotourism is a potentially
prospective field.
Keywords: An Giang, water-floating season, cuisine, transformation, ecotourism
Introduction
An Giang is one of the 13 provinces of the Mekong Delta, a recently developed region in Southern
Vietnam. It is located in the headwater area of the Mekong River where Tien and Hau tributaries flow into
Vietnamese territory from Cambodia. From July to October of lunar year annually, flood waters from upstream
flow down, make An Giang get flooded earlier than the rest of the delta. The water-floating season does not
only bring sediment to enrich the rice-fields but also create favorable conditions for the birth and development
of aquatic species and plants during the season. In addition, An Giang is home of four main ethnic groups
Vietnamese, Chinese, Cham, and Khmer with their rich and diverse cultures. Taking inherited from the early
Oc Eo civilization (1st to 6th century AD), An Giang enjoys its rich legacies of ancient civilization which could
be wisely used as historic and cultural resources for modern development. However, these both natural and
man-made sources of values are basically in their primary potentials, making An Giang a promising destination
for the tourists in the future.
Le Thi Ngoc Diep, Ph.D., Faculty of Cultural Studies, University of Social Sciences and Humanities; Vietnam National
University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
THE MAKING OF WATER-FLOATING SEASONAL CUISINE 299
Thanks to its easy geographical features, natural conditions, and demographic diversity, Lower Mekong
River Delta has dramatically formed a unique cuisine culture during the water-floating season. In comparison to
all provinces sharing such a culture, An Giang, with its special features, is identified as the most typical case.
The culinary style strongly expresses the imprints of the long-lasting process of reclamation, settlement,
village-formation, and market-building by all four ethnic groups in this fertile land.
Foods are made primarily as a naturalistic response to the pragmatic demands of life. Especially, in the
agriculture-based culture of Vietnam, foods play an important role in people’s daily, concerns as our
grandfathers once said, “Có thực mới vực được đạo (All virtues come after the eating)”. Foods are not only
made to provide nutrition for survival but also to fulfill the needs of spirit-worshipping, for building social
communication and for molding behavioral system. Nguyen Nha (2009, p. 59) had remarked, “Dining reflects
the philosophy of life, the living notation and art of living, cuisine is undoubtedly the climax of national
culture”. By following this approach, one can see through the foods, the cultural mark of a nation-state, the
cultural diversity of domestic regions as well as the principles of cultural formation and social transformation.
This article, under the geo-cultural perspective, studies the water-floating seasonal cuisine in An Giang
province in relation to the impacts of natural environments in order to generalize the idea that natural
conditions are the primarily important factors in forming the uniqueness of local cuisine culture. The research is
also to pay a contribution to the developmental planning of An Giang tourism by investigating and validating
the available natural resources as a precondition for the local economic development as well as to help build the
typical tourism category in the province.
Applying Geo-cultural Perspective in Doing Researches in Cuisine Culture

Eating and drinking are the daily natural practices of all human beings. From the very beginning period,
people looked for foods to survive from the natural environment under the basic forms of hunting and/or
collecting. At this time, dinings were basically the biological activities. During the evolution of mankind, the
discovery of fire and the transformation from raw into cooked food marked a turning point in human life. This
invention made life changed in all aspects, including psyche, cognition, and perception.
The higher level of civilization do the human beings evolve, the higher the demands for food do they
acquire. People do not only need to fulfill their biological needs in eating but also accelerate into more
sophisticated norms: eating delicious and beautiful foods for healing and gaining beauty. In order to meet these
criteria, cooking has been elevated to a form of art with a higher status of aesthetics, each people have created
their own set of values and identical characteristics in cuisine culture.
Culinary art is undoubtedly a reflective picture of the nature, of the nation-state as well as their people’s
spirit, psyche, and emotions. Furthermore, food culture is also identified as the expression of both universal
nature and national identity of each country. At a certain point, cuisine shows the imprints of locally
geographical conditions, historical context as well as cognitive concepts and cultural characteristics of a nation
or a people. The formation of cuisine style of a region or a nation is thus a contextualized absorption of living
experience and lifestyle building of the residents.
As a matter of fact, culinary culture has absorbed the creativity of the people and accumulated values from
different communities and localities through the eating behavior and during the in interaction with both natural
and social environments. Culinary culture is also the most honest reflection of the economic, cultural, and
social life of a community.
300 THE MAKING OF WATER-FLOATING SEASONAL CUISINE
Studying the relationship between geography and culture has been on the rise since the pre-modern
periods. The viewpoint of geographic determinism from the ancient times to 19th century alluded to the fact
that nature was an important factor which dominated all aspects of human life. By the 20th century, with the
development of science and technology, especially in the field of cultural studies, the doctrine of “Neo
geo-culture” has been born in replacement of the old-fashioned “environmental determinism”; it emphasizes
the interactions between natural landscapes and the people through which the cultural landscapes are created.
The new viewpoint emphasizes the role of human beings; the nature is no longer the uniquely decisive and
one-way dominant factor. People are able to pay back the impacts to the environment or to choose the best
environment for their own adaptation.
In Vietnam, the well-known researcher Dao Duy Anh (2000, p. 14) once commented that “The way of
living of people, meaning the culture, has a very close relation to natural conditions … we have to study the
natural background of that country first”. According to the author Tran Ngoc Them (2006, p. 29), “People live
in close relationship with nature ... In dealing with the natural environment, there will be two possibilities: the
useful resources are always being taken advantage, while the harmful matters are being wisely confronted with”.
Tran Quoc Vuong (2005, p. 150) said that
The nature is the starting point of Vietnamese culture. Culture is the adaptation and transformation of nature. Nature
sets before the people the challenges. Culture is the product of the man, the reflection, the response of the man to the
challenges of nature.
It is the impact of nature that makes the men always look for the ways to adapt and cope with, especially
in cuisine. In consideration to the relationship between the natural environment and culinary culture, many
researchers have long concerned and discussed for a long time. Most scholars focused on geo-cultural factors in
these studies, thus building a distinct cultural identity of Vietnamese cuisine.
The Floods as Special “Gift” From the Nature in An Giang

An Giang has got a special topography of both river-delta plain and mountainous hills. The plain, in turn,
consists of two sub-types: alluvial and low mountainous plains. An Giang has silt of two big river tributaries,
the Tien and Hau rivers, where the alluvial comes from, as well as a number of ponds, lakes, river-ways,
streams and the canals, etc., all creating a special ecosystem. In addition to the primary function of
transportation and irrigation, these river-based landscapes also provide people with various kinds of aquatic
products.
There is a group islet along the Tien River, Hau River, and part of Vam Nao River that links both rivers
together are well-known for growing crops and short-term industrial plants useful for making handicrafts and
daily goods for use. In the past, the villagers, especially in Tan Chau, Phu Tan and Cho Moi districts, planted
mulberry for silk-making. This tradition has been narrowed these days, however, the remains are currently
considered as the precious legacies under the newly-born tourism promotion policy. Regarding forest resources,
An Giang has got over 583 ha of natural forest, mainly located around the Seven Mountains. These beautiful
mountainous sceneries, in combination with the locally cultural and historical relics, make An Giang the
province of most diversity and prospect in the region.
An Giang enjoys the monsoon tropical climate with two distinct rainy and sunny seasons, year-round
temperatures are slightly changed and are favorable for agricultural development and handicraft production. To
compare with the provinces located at most downstream of the Mekong River where sea water often penetrates
the fields during the monsoon season causing damages in agriculture, An Giang has never confronted this sea
water attack so far. However, the province is heavily dependent on the water supply by the Mekong River.
Every year, the water flows from the uplands into the delta, making the surrounding fields flooded, and thus
forming the water-floating season. In the season, nearly 70% of natural land area of An Giang gets flooded up
to four or five months (usually from lunar May/June to October/November annually). Surprisingly, local
residents are not only accustomed to “living with the flood”; furthermore, the water-floating season is also
considered to be the positive livelihood season. Previously, people based on collecting the natural resources
during the season, nowadays do they learn to cultivate and produce flood-based products, such as vegetable and
fish by making use of canals, ponds, and fields. Due to the location and the geographical conditions of the land,
the floating season is “a gift” from Mother Nature. Floating season cuisine has drifted deep into the mind of the
people as we see in this saying: “Fields filled with birds and lakes densely occupied by fishes”.
Water-Floating Seasonal Cuisine as the Empowered Imprints of the Interaction Between

Men and Their Land
Many of the transformations are implemented on the basis of context-based interaction. Robert P. Weller
(1987, pp. 5-7) argued that “Much culture […] is neither strongly institutionalized nor strongly ideologized. It
exists instead as a process of pragmatic interpretation and re-interpretation”. After three centuries of getting
familiar with the stability and regularity of the annual water-floating season, the local residents have composed a
special cuisine system reflecting both two basic procedures in human life: exploiting and transforming the nature.
Firstly, the water-floating seasonal cuisine is seen as the outcome of the basic exploitation in the new land.
An Giang is affected by tropical monsoons, so the ecosystem of plants and animals in the province during the
floating season follows this principle. As An Giang is the sub-region of diverse topography and ecology, the
floating season has further given preference to this land with extremely rich and various products. With such
favorable conditions, local residents have made full use of the aquatic environment for meals more abundant.
During the floating season, many natural vegetables grow in rich and various conditions. Due to the hot sunny
climate, local residents love eating raw vegetables, thanks to the abundant resources. From the inland
vegetables in the water season, such as flowers of common sesban, sprouts of polypody plant, sprouts of wild
maracuja, river-leaf creeper, leaves of neem, leaves of creek premna, leaves of piper lolot, blumea lacera,
sprouts of gourd, and sprouts of squash, as well as underwater vegetables, such as water-lily, water chestnut,
water hyacinth, sprouts of luffa cylindrical, variegated boat lily, typha orientalis, uygun neticeler, Chinese
chives, water mimosa … and a lot of other vegetables are always available. Wild vegetables have become
familiar materials for food as an indispensable ingredient in meal structure in An Giang and the whole region.
These vegetables used as foods in the season lively prove a unique feature of local cuisine in An Giang
province. Among them, flowers of common sesban have become a typical image for the water-floating season;
most of the dishes use the flowers as main ingredients. Nowadays, due to high consumption demand, many
families cultivate common sesbans in the abandoned areas for commercial purposes.
Thanks to the water from the upper reaches of the Mekong River, numerous aquatic species from the
Tonle Sap lake (Cambodia) flow into the plain, with extremely rich species, such as ca linh fish, dory,
kryptopterus, featherback, wallago attu, monkfish, catlocarpio siamensis, catfish, snakeskin gourami mystus,
loach, etc., various shrimps and other sea-aqua foods, such as ocypodidae, crabs, sesarmidae, frogs, eels,
oysters, clams, snails, etc. find their ways to the region. As for reptiles, diversity of species, such as snakes,
salamanders, litchis, lizards, etc. fulfill An Giang’s natural ecosystem in mass quantity, thus facilitating the
growth of bird species. Birds is not in large quantity but in quite diverse types: bats, storks, herons, cormorant,
blackbird, anatidae, gallirallus striatus, rallidae, gallicrex cinerea, etc.
Among the aquatic products during the floating season, ca linh has become a specialty, the main ingredient
of many dishes in An Giang. From the upper reaches of Mekong River system, ca linh moves according to the
tide, grow up with the abundant floating foods in the water. When they come to the territory of An Giang, they
are of the most delicious period, especially at the early season. In order to catch the little ca linh fish, people
have to put the nets down to the bottom in the river at the headwaters’ areas. Following the tide, ca linh
widespread throughout the region, and grow very fast. Once they grow old, they are not a favorable cooking
ingredient anymore because their hard bones may challenge any diners. Undoubtedly, the floating season has
become an important livelihood season for the local residents in An Giang and Mekong River Delta.
With diverse and rich aquatic products, the local residents have exploited fish, reptiles, and plants from
floating waters to enrich their cuisine tradition. The water-floating season has created abundance and
diversification on the raw materials for cooking, marking the deep imprint of natural ecological environment in
human society and culture.
Secondly, the water-floating seasonal cuisine deeply absorbs the early history of land reclamation. Since
the arrival of Vietnamese newcomers to the new land of the Mekong River Delta, there have been so many
incentives and challenges waiting ahead. The nature was still wild, so people had to take advantage of all
resources available in the local nature to survive. Such eating and drinking conditions gradually formed the
habit and became a part of the culinary culture of the local residents, molding the characteristics and features in
way of life, behavior, daily activities especially during the water-floating season.
For the people of An Giang, as mentioned above, the water-floating season is considered as a gift from the
Mother Nature. The available cooking materials during the floating season partially present the legacies and
imprints of the early period of land acquisition: wild-based and simple in materials, naturalistic in flavor, and
instantly cooked. The food decoration was not sophisticated, people took advantage of the available stuffs from
home garden, such as young lotus leaves, banana leaves laid down as a wild food trays on the ground. There
were no tables and chairs needed, all what people needed was a place under the tree shadow with the cool wind,
normally just on the soil dunes next to the fields, the canal, or on the sampan floating in the water. Such a wild
but poetic manner has shaped a part of personality of the local residents.
At the beginning of the acquisition of this land region, the land exploitation was considered the most
important part of people’s life. Therefore, the local people did not care much about how to eat but what to eat
so that they were full of energy for the next heavy works. Local people described such a harsh living condition
in their folk songs, here comes a part: “Mosquitoes resound like flute blowing, leeches swim like rice-made
spaghetti rolls; crocodiles occupy the river while the tigers’ feet are found wide on land”. On order to survive,
the people were always uniting, mutually protected and covered each other. They had to adjust themselves to be
flexible and tolerant to be well-adapted to such a living environment. Since then, there have been a number of
simple and unique cooking methods formed with the region. They are the dishes made from raw materials
found directly in the living place, where snakehead fish or snake can be grilled wild, dry cooked goby, fried
shrimps with salted chili, raw vegetable as well as simple soup cooked with vegetables around the garden can
make a nutritive meal daily. Being identified as the absorption of the nature into cuisine culture, vegetables are
actually indispensable component in the meal since the early period of land acquisition.
An Giang with rich natural resources and diverse aquatic products during the water-floating season is early
well-known for other culinary ingredients: the drying fish and salty fish sauce. The most famous fish sauce is
found in Chau Doc city of An Giang Province. The floating water brings ca linh fish to Chau Doc; fish sauce
made from ca linh is thus popularly delicious. The flowers of common sesban are found yellowed the surface of
the water, so people do not miss cooking soup of flowers of common sesban with little ca linh fish (or shrimp
in replacement) for meals. Images of good homemade foods with the produces given from the nature will
always be filled in mind, in the memory of those who are away from home.
Creating New Imprint for the Seasonal Cuisine: The Potential Ecotourism Commodities
In the context of integration and globalization nowadays, along with the development of socio-economy,
tourism has become an essential need in human life. There are many types of tourism that are of interest in the
development of tourism in contemporary Vietnam. One of them, strongly growing nowadays, is the conflating
tourism between ecosystem and cultural tradition which inspires the post-modernist tourists in searching
cultural identity and tradition of local community in their connection with the land and the history.
An Giang is an inland region with great potentiality for the development of ecological and cultural tourism,
strongly meeting the conditions of natural resources, such as forest-based, river- and lake- based, and garden
ecological tourisms, etc. Ecotourism development in An Giang is important not only for promoting economic
development, creating employment opportunities, increasing incomes, and raising people’s knowledge and
sense of responsibility for local communities, but also producing special significances for the sustainable
development of the tourism industry from the point of view of combining biodiversity and community culture
in which environmental protection is an essential factor.
During a journey, dining activities are seen as important products which largely contribute to the success
and the effectiveness of tourist activity. Floating season cuisine can bring visitors the real experience and
opportunity for participation in the processing of dishes before enjoying them in a water-based fields’ space. In
such a plan, the An Giang is actually in fond of water-floating seasonal cuisine. The following part specially
demonstrates the typical foods embedded the imprints of water-floating season that attract the most tourists
these days.
Ca linh Fish-Made Foods
Ca linh fish offers rich nutrients, can be cooked easily into many attractive and delicious dishes. There are
two types of ca linh are identified according to their age: young fish with soft bone, and older fat fish with
harder bones. The first famous dish is the sour hotpot made of young and fresh ca linh soup and common
sesban flowers. The soup is enriched by adding pork bones or fresh coconut juice. When eating, people deep ca
linh and the common sesban flowers (or bean sprouts, sesbania, lady’s finger, limnocharis flava, water-lily, etc.)
in the hotpot before serving. Ca linh hotpot must be deliciously served with pure fish sauce mixed with chili.
The second dish is made by salty steaming ca linh with pepper, serving with sour salad made by water-lily,
banana flower, flowers of common sesban, limnocharis flava, polypody plant sprouts, etc. When cooking ca
linh, one may add sugar cane for making it sweeter. Similarly, ca linh can be grilled as a favorite and attractive
dish during the season.
Snakehead Fish-Made Foods

Snakehead fish contains sweet taste with healthy, rich in minerals and vitamins, non-toxic, low-fat, and
low-cholesterol meat. They are identified as one of the most nutritious foods that can cure some light diseases,
or be used for increase digestive effect and anti-aging capacity.
Soup made by snakehead fish and endive is a folk-flavored dish of the local residents during the floating
season. For snakehead fish, they prefer choosing the big ones, after making clean, they marinate with spices to
make the fish fragrant. In some places, people fry the fish in deep oil for shrinking and absorbing spices before
cooking in the rice soup. In the other places, people cut the fish into thin fillets, absorb them with spices. They
put some slices of fish at the bottom of the big bowl then ladle the hot, well-cooked rice soup in for serving. By
doing this way, the fish fillet is medium-cooked; people can eat it deliciously with endive growing around the
home garden, in the field, or on higher mounds. In addition, snakehead fish can be also made into many other
special, nutritious and attractive dishes, such as grilled snakehead fish, snakehead fish steamed with fish sauce,
sweet and sour steamed snakehead fish, fish broth, etc.
Common Sesban Flowers-Made Foods
Common sesban flowers are often referred as “floating yellow apricot” in the Mekong River Delta. In the
upstream districts of An Giang Province, during the annual floating season, the common sesbans are in mass
blooming as to welcome the water. Common sesban is described as a simple, rustic flower species just like the
personality of the Mekong River Delta residents. Taking it for food has been marked as bringing the nature
closer to the people and bringing the people closer to their homeland. All common sesban parts can be used to
prepare food: The leaves can be eaten like vegetables, or cooked with white tiny shrimp, anabas as soup; the
nuts are used to make sprouts; the flowers, of course, are almost popular in most dishes locally. The common
sesban flowers can be also fried with tiny shrimp as salad, to make Vietnamese pancake, to cook broth with ca
linh, or to fry with eggs, beef or pork, etc. The flowers of common sesban have been identified as herbal food
with cooling effect, detoxification, useful for people with depression, little eating, and sleeping.
Practically, the seasonal cuisine is identified as an advantage for tourism development in An Giang,
meeting the needs of being harmonious in the nature of modern tourists, In addition, it is combined with other
values, such as traditional culture, religious values, ethnic history, etc., and all are mutually interactive to enrich
the tourism of An Giang.
Nowadays, tourism is no longer understood simply and purely as enjoying and experiencing, however, it is
necessary to see the roles of the man and their wisdoms to harmonize both nature and human society together
as one through the tourist activities. The main purpose of human activities, including tourism, determines the
existence and sustainable development of the “natural-human-society” triangle system.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the natural environment has had a great impact on the culinary culture of the Mekong River
Delta in general and in An Giang in particular, especially during the water-floating season. The water-floating
seasonal cuisine in An Giang clearly reflects the close relationship between the people and the nature. In the
process of matching to the South, conquering the harshness and challenges to survive in this land, the local
residents clearly show their attitude towards the nature as well as their relationship with the nature. People have
made use of the abundant produces given from the nature (the rivers, lakes, and floating water), wisely selected
and created many dishes suitable to the living conditions of the new living place. This adaptation process has
also shown the creativity and flexibility of the people, creating An Giang special and unique characteristics in
culinary culture―the culture of the people in the new land full of both incentives and challenges.
Putting cuisine in association with tourism is a positive direction which have already had orientated plan
and vision. Therefore, the provincial leaders need to invest to build the culinary festival during the floating
season into a brand name that is popularized among the tourists. Hopefully, in the future, the water-floating
seasonal cuisine tourism in An Giang can pay positive contribution to the improvement of life of both the
tourists and local residents.
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doi: 10.17265/2328-2134/2018.05.005
D DAVID PUBLISHING
Can Evidence-based Policy Contribute to Correcting

Overreaction?—Considering Democracy and Rationalized
Policy Making*
Kazuya Sugitani
Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
This paper focuses on evidence-based policy-making and democracy, along with political overreaction. In many
countries, evidence-based policy-making is a prominent aspect of administration and aims to rationalize the
policy-making process. Moreover, democracy is subject to many critiques nowadays because it cannot guarantee
good public policy-making. Under such circumstances, some researchers have suggested that democracy should be
limited, especially in public policy-making processes. There are many critiques of such arguments because they
ignore the participation that is necessary for democracy. There is some hope that evidence-based policy-making can
teach laypersons using evidence. However, evidence is too difficult to understand for many laypersons. In this
paper, the author suggests limited participatory analysis to support evidence-based policy. In this system, only
knowledge holders would be allowed to participate. If evidence-based policy meant that the formulation of policy
relied only on narrower experts, it would not make a positive contribution. However, if evidence-based policy were
to adopt a participatory policy-creation process, it would offer greater potential.
Keywords: evidence-based policy, democracy, participatory policy analysis
Prefaces
Evidence-based policy making is strong stream in many developed democratic states. It aims to rationalize
policy processes and improve policy programs. According to the theories of evidence-based policy, political
processes are not preferable because they distort the policy programs. Thus, promoting evidence-based policy-
making means that it strengthens the experts and scientific knowledge in politics.
Evidence-based policy concentrates on rationalizing policy process and public policy making. Therefore, it
is said that evidence-based policy can contribute to correcting political overreaction because rationalization can
deal with overreaction and irrationality. However, some researchers argue that evidence-based policy
disregards the value of democracy and it harms participation by citizens. Indeed, theorists of evidence-based
policy argue that politicians or administrations neglect the importance of evidence. According to such a
perspective, participation is not preferable for good policy making. On the contrary, some researchers argue
that in public policy making, we need to consider democracy and social value. These conflicts have a long
*Acknowledgement: The author would like to thank Enago (www.enago.jp) for the English language review. And this paper is
based on a full thesis which submitted to IWPP1 (International Workshops on Public Policy).
Kazuya Sugitani, Graduate, School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
CAN EVIDENCE-BASED POLICY CONTRIBUTE TO CORRECTING OVERREACTION? 307
history in public policy studies and analysis.

However, these discussions are often carried out without “accountability”. The concept of accountability is
complex, but it is clear that accountability has a strong relation with citizens who are not bureaucrats. This
concept suggests that public policy must maintain clarity regarding why a policy is upheld or ended. Despite
this, practices and theories of evidence-based policy emphasize “what works”, which relates to specific policy
programs. They concentrate on improving policy programs. Thus, accountability to citizens has not been
afforded due importance. Some researchers supporting evidence-based policy argue that evidence can correct
the irrationalities of public policy and contribute to accountabilities. However, these sorts of evidence are too
difficult to understand by laypersons, and in many cases, these evidence only serve to generate consensus
among other policy elites, or other administrations in opposition.
Considering these aspects, it seems that evidence-based policy cannot contribute to correcting political
overreaction because it does not aim to develop good relations with citizens. In presentation, the author
explores some previous researches of evidence-based policy and considers the relation between evidence and
accountability.
The author will also examine an example of evidence-based policy in Japan, specifically scientific
technology policy. Japanese scientific technology policy insists on a basis on evidence. However, Japanese
scientific technology has many problems, amongst them, accountability. In this policy, the papers and reports
are publicly available to be read by anyone, but such information is too complex, and thus difficult to
understand. Thus, it does sufficiently satisfy accountability.
To correct overreaction in politics, not only policy elites but also laypersons must learn from evidence,
particularly because the democratic process is prone to radicalization. Nevertheless, evidence-based policy has
been ignoring the importance of accountability, and therefore, is unable to address overreaction in politics.
In the presentation and paper, the author will suggest a new form of evidence-based policy which can deal
with overreaction, one that will contribute to improving democratic process.
What is the Need for Evidence-Based Policy?

Democracy and the Making of Public Policy
Policy-making is generally not rationalized in democratic countries, and democracy is unable to guarantee
efficient policy-making. For example, in 2009, a change of government took place in Japan when the
Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) took power after being in opposition for many years. For its campaign, the
DPJ created and promoted a manifesto, which had broad popular support. However, the DPJ failed to achieve
the goals outlined in its manifesto, and it lost power in 2012.
It has been noted that the DPJ manifesto did not take feasibility and budgetary means into account
(Funabashi & Nakano, 2017).
During the 2009 election, DPJ attracted support for the appealing qualities of its manifesto. However, this
document ignored feasibility, which led to widespread criticism of the DPJ among voters and in the mass media,
resulting in another changeover of power.
Overreaction goes hand in hand with this issue. A few politicians had an outsize influence on the DPJ
manifesto, and their policies attracted greater support from voters. Furthermore, a significant proportion of the
public concluded that the manifesto would be faultlessly enacted; however, politics and the development of
public policy bring uncertainties. It is not rare for electoral promises to remain unachieved. What lessons can be
308 CAN EVIDENCE-BASED POLICY CONTRIBUTE TO CORRECTING OVERREACTION?
learned here? Many voters were unable to judge policies realistically, and many supported the DPJ manifesto
without determining whether the policies were feasible.
Additionally, political ignorance leads to political overreaction. They may appear to be opposites; however,
in a democracy, excessive expectation and disappointment are two sides of the same coin. The author focuses
on this relationship in this paper.
Theories of Evidence-Based Policy-Making
Evidence-based policy is one possible solution for political irrationality. If the DPJ had based their policy
on evidence, it could have created a more feasible manifesto and could have improved public policy. The
promotion of evidence-based policy is a reliable strategy for dealing with political overreaction.
The definition of evidence-based policy remains unclear. Some researchers have used RCTs (randomized
controlled trials) to explore this question, while others have argued that big data and statistical analysis are
more relevant. In any case, the core goal of evidence-based policy is rationalizing policy making. As Munro
concluded, evidence-based policy making reduces the role of ideology and prejudice, because they can hinder
the creation of effective policy (Munro, 2014). Evidence-based policy can form part of a process of
depoliticization (Durose & Richardson, 2016).
Many researchers recognize that scientific evidence alone cannot support successful policy creation. Head
(2008) argued that evidence-based policy requires three types of knowledge: the “three lenses”, namely,
political knowledge, scientific knowledge, and practical implementation knowledge. According to Head,
through the lens of politics, policy-making cannot be seen as a rationalized process.
However, the political process includes not only irrationality but also debates (Dryzek, 2016). Within
politics, value and ideology play important roles. To realize evidence-based policies, we cannot ignore them.
Naturally, politicians and bureaucrats can use evidence to bolster their own positions or standing: cherry
picking evidence. Researchers should study politics and its role in policy-making processes to improve the
progress of evidence-based policy making (Cairney, 2016).
In contrast to this, other researchers have concluded that politics will prevent public policy from being
made efficiently. Thus, policy-making should be isolated from politics.
Scientific knowledge is the core of evidence-based policy. Expert and scientific opinions have been a
prime concern in policy science since its history began.
This is well known to policy researchers; in that case, what is new in evidence-based policy?
First, evidence-based policy has a close relationship with research in medicine (Saltelli & Giampietro,
2017). RCTs and experiments are important for evidence-based policy-making; these conceptions originate in
the medical sciences (John, 2016). Evidence-based policy does not depend on these methods alone. It also
incorporates the methods and results of various social sciences. 1 Nevertheless, the use of rigorous scientific
methods forms the core of evidence-based policy. In evidence-based medicine, whether evidence is obtained
through RCT, meta-analysis, systemic review, or other means, has bearing on its importance as evidence
(Hantrias, L., Thomas, A., & MacGregor, S., 2015; Pawson, 2006). This natural-science-based thinking is a
strong feature of evidence-based policy.
Second, evidence-based policy is pragmatic. The search for what works is the pragmatism of
evidence-based policy in a nutshell (Davies, Nutley, & Smith, 2000). This concept was popularized under the
1
Stoker and Evans (2016) proposed the potential role of various social sciences in evidence-based policy making.
New Labor government in the UK, which focused on having a solid grounding in scientific knowledge
(Sanderson, 2002b). Evidence-based policy draws the implications of knowledge to create its policy program.
According to Nutley, Walter, and Davies (2009), evidence-based policy initiatives created within this
broader view can assign a role in the policy process to research and other evidence that is greater than a
simplistic rational and consensus-based one: a role in which it also questions and challenges policy conclusions.
This is not to deny that the promotion of a rational ideal for evidence-policy interface may bring some value;
rather, the author suggests that a better balance remains to be struck between such initiatives and others that
allow for more open and interactive processes of the use of evidence in policy.
In evidence-based policy, it is important to use not only scientifically rigorous evidence by useful evidence
as well (Bristow, Carter, & Martin, 2015). Evidence-based policy should seek to create useful evidence and an
environment in which research is easy to apply. 2 The goal of evidence-based policy is to strike an appropriate
balance between the application of created evidence and the rigorous creation of evidence.
Third, practical implementation knowledge relates to context and practical knowledge.
Context is best understood as the environment or circumstances that influence public policy (Bobrow &
Dryzek, 1987). In the implementation of policy, context plays an important role. For example, RCTs can only
guarantee that something may work somewhere; however, it cannot guarantee that it will work in the policy
environment (Cartwright & Hardie, 2012). RCTs only guarantee efficient policy for the groups that they study.
This is referred to as the problem of external validity. Additionally, as noted above, RCTs are constructed to
obtain evidence that, then, would have some generality; thus, it cannot account for all contexts, which have
influence on the potential efficiency of a given policy.
Coletti (2013) recognized the problems of evidence-based policy. She cautioned that,
The assumption of the Evidence Based Policy stands on what kind of strategy should be adopted by policy makers,
using evidence gathered from other contexts. This approach, however, seems to lose its connection with the policy process
itself as well as with the actors playing in it… it may bring to miss some of the reasons of the policy success or failure; on
the other side, transferring to a different context or evaluating the outcomes produced in a different context may not be
something easy to figure out. (p. 12)
This perspective has an extensive background. It draws on Pawson’s (2006) realist perspective, according
to which “the success of social programs is… limited by contextual constraints. Interventions, by definition, are
always inserted into pre-existing conditions” (p. 24). These discussions focus on context for the obvious reason
that public policy is not implemented in a laboratory but in society, which has a complex structure. Hence, as
Pawson (2006) argued, “the goal is to facilitate the transfer of the “sticky knowledge” that makes for success in
complex organizational innovations by bringing policy-makers and practitioners together in informal space” (p.
181). Discussions that take context seriously incorporate a dimension of policy implementation, namely,
discretion, and evidence from RCTs cannot account for the effects of context (Sugitani, 2017).
These three lenses are necessary to improve evidence-based policy. However, it is necessary to note
studies to guide evidence-based policy have a tendency to ignore the role of democracy. Evidence-based policy
has the secondary aim of depoliticizing or rationalizing policy creation. According to this point of view, it is
necessary to acknowledge political considerations; however, they are not preferred as motivators. This is not
true everywhere: some policy researchers emphasize politics and democratic politics in particular.
2
For example, study of policy advisory systems forms one sphere where such environments are being attempted to be created.
Critiques of Evidence-Based Policy and Difficulties With Democracy

Postpositivist Approaches
The relationship that politics bears to public policy is a thorny question for many researchers. As noted
above, discussions of evidence-based policy have concluded that the contribution of expertise to public policy
would include the correction of political irrationality.
However, there have been many critiques of evidence-based policy.
First, let us examine the perspective of postpositivism. Fischer is a representative exponent of
postpositivism, and he argued that public policy should take account of values or ethics; thus, science is not the
only foundation of public policy; public deliberation and narrative also play a role (Fishcer, 2003).
In this line of thought, the aim of evidence-based policy, the depoliticization and rationalization of the
policy-making process are problematic. In his recent book dealing with the climate crisis, Fischer (2017)
recognized the importance of evidence and scientific knowledge for dealing with policy problems. However,
too great a dependence on scientific evidence and positivist approaches can transform the climate crisis into a
purely scientific problem, devoid of ethics and values. Fischer observed the possible development of
technocracy closely, which evidence-based policy can easily fall into.
On this view, evidence-based policy also ignores citizen participation, which is the core of democracy. In
a democratic society, the creation of public policy has democracy as its basis; however, expertise is also
necessary. To deal with this conflict, certain researchers have suggested new types of policy analysis, such as
participatory policy analysis. DeLeon (1997) found that ordinary citizens, chosen randomly, should carry out
participatory policy analysis. This vision supports deliberation and relates to citizen juries. It is connected to a
strong view of democracy (Barber, 2004).
The Difficulties of Democracy
Theories of postpositivism and their practice are foundational for the concepts of policy sciences for
democracy. The policy sciences show the tendency to rest too much on expertise, excluding democracy, since
postpositivists argued that researchers should be involved in a political process to improve citizens’ knowledge
(Fischer, 2003). As noted above, a participatory policy analysis would be one tool to achieve this goal.
However, numerous difficulties confront today’s democracies, including overreaction. Recent studies have
suggested that democracy has nothing to contribute to effective policy making. For example, Brennan (2016)
suggested that there be an epistocracy in place of democracy. He divided voters into three categories: hobbits,
Vulcans, and hooligans.
Hobbits have no political opinions and no interest in politics. Most of the electorates are hobbits. They are
defined by their political apathy. Most do not have political knowledge and are influenced easily by radicalism.
According to Somin (2013), this kind of political ignorance is fundamentally rational behavior. Generally
speaking, it costs more to obtain political information than not to. Many voters have little political information.
Nevertheless, they vote for specific political parties or candidates. Recent research in Japan has suggested that
the amount of political information available to someone has nothing to do with his or her voting behavior
(Yamada, 2016). Thus, many hobbits vote for particular political parties or candidates without knowing about
their politics or about public policy.
Vulcans are idealistic. They gather and use evidence, and they vote correctly, according to their
interpretation. The democracy that policy science imagines is a society of such citizens. Many studies have
attempted to accomplish this mission (Schneider & Ingram, 1997). However, these efforts have not borne fruit
yet. Brennan observed that there are only few Vulcans relative to the numbers of hobbits, and they have little
influence: hooligans have too much power in the political arena today. In fact, the prevalence of hooligans is a
main reason for overreaction.
What, then are hooligans? They “are the rabid sports fans of politics. They have strong and largely fixed
worldviews. They can present arguments for their beliefs; however, they cannot explain alternative points of
view in a way that people with other views would find satisfactory” (Brennnan, 2016, p. 5). Hooligans show a
strong tendency to come to conclusions based on their ideology alone, and they ignore evidence and rational
political discussion. They have political interests; however, even when confronted with evidence that they are
wrong, they do not change their thinking or beliefs.
All this, taken together forms the rationale of evidence-based policy-making. Contrary to the arguments of
the postpositivists, contemporary democracy does not work well. In response to this adverse circumstance,
postpositivists argue that democracy can be repaired through the promotion of participatory practices, such as
public deliberation. However, Brennnan (2016) concluded that not only are even such practices meaningless
but they are also counterproductive. In this argument, political participation and deliberative democracy are
stressful. Most do not follow Harbermas’s rule; therefore, they are not able to have calm discussions.
Additionally, the collection of political information is stressful, and it requires hard work. Even if, once the
information on a specific party or candidate is collected, it is no guarantee that they will win. These truths bring
hopelessness, especially to Vulcans and Hobbits. 3 Of course, this type of thinking is not altogether rational.
Deliberation involves complex thought and practices. Creating appropriate circumstances for deliberation is
necessary; however, deliberative public policy analysis can only be implemented on a small scale. Thus,
although these efforts are not greatly effective, they are not meaningless.
Epistocracy and Its Critiques
As an alternative to contemporary democratic systems, Brennnan suggested a new type of political regime,
namely, epistocracy.
An epistocracy bears some resemblance to democracy. According to Brennan (2016),
Epistocracies might have parliament, contested elections, free political speech open to all, many of the contestatory
and deliberative fora that neorepublicans and deliberative democrats favor, and so on. (p. 208)
However, epistocracy has no requirement for political equality; just the opposite is true. “The major
difference between epistocracy and democracy is that people do not, by default, have an equal right to vote or
run for office” (Brennan, 2016, p. 208). In short, it requires a limited election. Then, the question arises as to
how to limit voters’ right to run for office. In epistocracy, only those citizens with more knowledge would be
able to acquire power; in this way, such a system would be like the judicial systems, which everywhere co-exist
with democratic political systems. In this way, in Brennan’s (2016) proposal, the identity of those who have
power is determined democratically, but its foundation is knowledge: “there is good reason to hold democracy
3
In Japan, recent studies have found an efficiency and utility in deliberation and consideration on political issues (Tanaka, 2018).
According to this work, discursive deliberation cannot help citizens gain factual political knowledge. However, it can make bring
a citizen to realize that he or she had incorrect knowledge or a false belief. Furthermore, public consideration (bringing correct
information to citizens and promoting them to think deeply) can contribute to increases in tolerance of different opinions. Given
these results, we must combine deliberation and consideration appropriately. However, as Brennan suggested, overconfidence is
harmful to deliberation.
is incompetent to decide certain economic and political policies, and yet could be competent to decide what
counts as competence” (p. 226).
Of course, it is clear that such a political system would require the betrayal of the idea of political equality
that forms the core of democracy. However, it matches a trend: Today, the process of making public policy is
becoming less and less democratic (Brown, 2015; Crouch, 2004). Epistocracy may undermine the basis for
democracy, turning it into a threat to society. If this were to come to pass, no public policy that was the
brainchild of experts or elites would fare well.
What, then, should be done? In the next section, the author will integrate the theories mentioned above:
evidence-based policy, participatory policy analysis, and epistocracy.
Participatory Policy Analysis and Accountability

Sketch of Participatory Policy Analysis
As mentioned above, the postpositivists suggested that policy analysis becomes participatory, in the place
of the current technocratic public policy.
However, participatory policy analysis can come in many different forms. Most often, it is discussed as
deliberation. In this section, the author will suggest ways in which deliberation can be classified.
Wider Expertise
Ⅰ Ⅱ
Wider Participation Limited Participation
Ⅲ Ⅳ
Narrower Expertise
Figure 1. Expertise and participation.
Figure 1 gives a trial classification for deliberative or participatory policy analysis (Fishkin, 2009; Ishii,
2011; Tadatomo, 2018). This classification coordinates participation range and expertise range. Here, narrower
expertise includes the requirement that theoretical knowledge be present. Limited participation refers to the
exclusion of ordinary citizens who are not in government. By contrast, wider participation, by contrast, includes
a greater range of citizens; however, there can still be wider or narrower criteria for expertise. This perspective
comes from Brennan’s critiques of deliberative democracy. He suggested limiting the right to vote; however, he
neglected to treat the process of crafting public policy or its analysis. Here, the author challenges political
systems to take up the new direction of evidence-based policy, which can be undertaken in collaboration with a
limited participatory policy analysis.
Quadrant I represents the participation by citizens with wider expertise. The range of participation
signified is relatively large. Wider expertise here signifies local or practical knowledge. Furthermore, here
wider participation signifies the inclusion of not officials or bureaucrats only but also of ordinary citizens. The
system of policy creation type represented by Quadrant I includes deliberation among citizens with local
knowledge together with public officials engaged in the actual implementation of public policy. Thus, there
will be the input of knowledge of practical implementation in public policy analysis. As Head suggested, for
evidence-based policy to be created, it falls on researchers and policy-makers to be the repositories of such
knowledge. The citizens included in wider participation are those who have local knowledge and participation
in the process of making or analyzing public policy. Scholars who emphasize the importance of participatory
policy analysis have recognized that local knowledge is a fruitful source of contributions to the creation of good
policy (Fischer, 2000).
Quadrant II shows a greater focus on practical implementation knowledge than I does. Here, only public
officials who engage in public policy implementation participate in deliberative analysis of policy. Knowledge
of the context and implementation of public policy would make efficient policy. For evidence-based policy, the
lack of knowledge of practical implementation knowledge is potentially a fatal problem (Hammersley, 2013).
However, evidence-based policy can address it by providing a correction of such information.
Quadrant III falls under wider participation and narrower expertise. This represents that deliberation or
participatory policy analysis conducted by opposition researchers. For example, the development of Japanese
nuclear policy had the support of many researchers; however, it was conducted in secret, and its means of
selection of those involved in its creation was not fair (Shindou, 2017). Evidence-based policy must look
widely for evidence for corrections to avoid similar failings; not doing so is justly labeled cherry picking
(Cairney, 2016).
Quadrant IV represents a typical governmental council. Thaa (2012) warned that deliberation among
experts alone is a crisis for democracy. Within this classification, in IV means encompasses the cases where
few experts discuss policy, only bringing forth evidence from their own perspectives. A typical example of this
kind of policy making is found in the scientific technology innovation plans of Japan that emphasize
evidence-based policy.
Through this examination, the author is attempting to promote an appropriate depoliticization of public
policy making and analysis. Of course, democratic ideals are very important for public policy-making; however,
as Brennan suggested, contemporary democracy is in the midst of a malfunction. Evidence-based policy can
contribute to correcting this; however, wider expertise must be incorporated into evidence.
In the next section, the author suggests a conception of accountability that will allow this problem to be
considered more deeply.
Problems of Accountability
Accountability is an especially difficult concept in Japan. For example, Yamaya (2006), a pioneer in
public policy evaluation in Japan, concluded that the term is interpreted to mean solely responsibility for
explanation. Thus, the Japanese government merely bears information on public policy. However, in a
democratic society, accountability must mean a revelation not only of procedural validity but also of the
effectiveness of programs (Hashimoto, 2017).
Democracy alone cannot bring about accountability. To achieve accountability through the ballot box,
certain conditions are necessary that have not yet been met (Achen & Bartels, 2016) and must be met.
For example, Japanese policies on science and technology appeared to be important because they were
expected to lead to innovation and economic growth. However, most citizens have no interest in science and
technology policy and do not understand the evidence for and against different science and technology plans.
This means that elections cannot bring accountability to officials. To understand public policy requires
extensive knowledge; however, many citizens are politically ignorant. How can this be ameliorated? To begin
with, we need to set limitations to accountability.
Japanese science and technology policy, especially The Fifth Science and Technology Basic Plan, has met
with critiques by active researchers (Ikeuchi, 2017).These critiques cover a wide range; however, the author
wants to particularly emphasize that the plan, as it stands, ignores the needs and requirements of the policy
implementer, especially universities and professors. It has been argued that results-oriented science policy can
drive innovation, but instead, Japanese science is now shrinking and weakening: This orientation exhausts
universities instead of strengthening them. The plan was presented with the claim that it would improve
Japanese science policy. Science policy in Japan should be examined through participatory policy analysis to
correct the current miserable state of affairs. However, to avoid political overreaction, participation should be
limited.
How might political overreaction occur for Japanese science policy? As noted above, currently, most
Japanese citizens have very little interest in science policy. However, ignorance and indifference could easily
become political overreaction. As the example of the short-lived sojourn in power of the DPJ suggests,
excessive expectations of public policy or politicians can lead to deep disappointment. The given science and
technology plan was presented with an optimistic vision of the future; however, this vision never arrived. If the
plan is conceived to be a failure, and many citizens become concerned about it, political overreaction would be
a natural result.
Political overreaction occurs due to political ignorance. Evidence-based policy cannot accommodate it
because its evidence is beyond laypersons. Evidence-based policy confronts the problem; it pursues what works,
using pragmatism but ignoring accountability. It does not focus on improvements in democratic decision
making; thus, it cannot deal with political overreaction.
How can this be avoided in the future? In the following section, the author discusses the necessity of
limited participatory policy analysis for improving evidence-based policy.
New Directions in Evidence-Based Policy

Merits of Limited Participatory Policy Analysis
The Fifth Science and Technology Basic Plan, along with many other policies as well, was created and
formulated by a small group of experts. Such policy creation cannot take into account the implementers of the
policy or the actual implementation. Consequently, these policies are ineffective and ignore reality.
However, opening access to a wider field of participants also does not guarantee effective policy. As the
author noted above, too great of a dependency on laypersons is dangerous. In place of this, the author presented
Figure 1, which shows different types of policy making, in terms of degree of expertise and degree of
participation.
Figure 2 shows a desirable distinction in policy analysis in policy making. Here, it is represented that
making public policy should involve wider participation from the public. If this is done, two merits will accrue
from evidence-based policy.
Wider Expertise
Wider Participation Limited Participation
Narrower Expertise
Figure 2. Desirable direction of policy participant.
First, this can aid policy-makers to incorporate practical implementation knowledge into their policy
making. Head and also other critics of evidence-based policy have argued that evidence-based policy has a
tendency to ignore implementation (Hammersley, 2013). Evidence-based policy should adopt a wider definition
of evidence to address this.
Second, wider participation can contribute to accountability. In participatory policy analysis theory and the
evaluation of policy, the wider the range of participants involved in the policy process, the larger the number of
those committed to its improvement (Minamoto, 2016). If more experts become involved in policy-making or
evaluation, more experts can take accountability for more laypersons. Of course, since many citizens cannot
understand the difficult evidence and complex reasoning required, this scenario is far from rosy. However, the
participation of only a few experts makes this situation worse. The participation of a wider range of experts can
strengthen experts’ influence. These efforts can weaken political overreaction because information alone cannot
correct prevalent bias. Evidence-based policy is needed to bridge researchers and laypersons as well as
researchers and policy-makers. The participation of a wider range of experts would contribute to this.
This line of thought tends toward epistocracy in some of its dimensions. Nevertheless, this perspective
develops a new perspective for evidence-based policy, unlike Brennan, who did not focus on the process of
crafting policy. The point is as follows: current critiques of democracy focus on elections; however, these alone
are not enough to improve the state of public policy. An election is only one (albeit an important) element
relating to public policy. Additionally, epistocracy has the serious shortcoming that it remains unclear about
who should have power; however, in this essay, the answer to this question is clear.
Democracy, Political Overreaction, and Evidence-Based Policy
Democracy is facing a serious problem at the present time. Some have criticized democracy for its
inability to solve problems because few citizens have the knowledge to adequately judge policy.
Consequently, it can be expected that political overreaction would occur. Democracy’s limitations are
easily seen in the creation of public policy. Evidence-based policy appears in the background of this
environment. It was intended to rationalize policy making based on rationality and exclude anecdotes, which
are nearly indistinguishable from rumors but have great influence over laypersons (Breuning, 2018). This
irrationality could easily lead to overreaction.
Second, evidence-based policy has been exposed to much criticism. The postpositivists claim that
evidence-based policy is an invitation to technocracy, which is an anti-democratic political regime. The
postpositivists suggested the creation of a participatory policy analysis to overcome technocracy. Furthermore,
some argued that scientific evidence alone is not enough to improve public policy (Hammersley, 2013; Nelson,
2011). Some researchers have recognized the limitations of evidence; they have argued that a wider definition
of evidence should be considered (Cariney, 2016; Colletti, 2013; Head, 2008).
In this paper, the author suggested limited participatory analysis to support evidence-based policy. In this
system, only knowledge holders would be allowed to participate.
Is this orientation anti-democratic? The answer is both “Yes” and “No”.
Advocates supporting participatory policy analysis as carried out by laypersons would argue that this
tendency has its technocratic aspects (DeLeon, 1997; Fischer, 2003). However, limited participatory policy
analysis or policy formulation can still improve accountability. Japanese science policy, which was created by
too narrow a field of experts, has resulted in the antipathy of many researchers. If more researchers had been
consulted in the original creation of the policy, this might have been avoided. Since most citizens are not
familiar with science policy and its rules of evidence, elections are not an adequate remedy. Accountability
must come from other sources, as well as elections. This would strengthen democracy and make it better.
Conclusion
Let us return to the first question: Can evidence-based policy help correct overreaction? If evidence-based
policy means that the formulation of policy relied only on narrower experts, it would not have a positive
contribution. However, if evidence-based policy were to take adopt a participatory policy-creation process, the
question could be answered positively.
Unfortunately, recent studies of democracy, and especially studies of elections, have found that that it does
not contribute to making good public policy. The implementation of evidence-based policy should correct this.
However, it is dangerous to assume that if only correct evidence could be input into the policy-making process,
public policy would experience a desirable change. Many times, evidence is difficult and complex to
understand: Thus, most citizens cannot deal with evidence. This has a great deal to do with the danger of
political overreaction.
To correct this, evidence-based policy should adopt participatory policy analysis that excludes laypersons.
However, keeping the band of experts considered for participation to narrow would end in failure. The
important point is that democracy or technocracy alone cannot make good policy. For Japan, the range of
experts involved in policy creation is too narrow, stimulating antipathy in other experts’ antipathy to instituted
policies, keeping a full accountability from citizens.
The author suggested in this paper that we should alter the concept of participatory policy analysis. Not
only could this contribute to making a more democratic society but could also contribute to the creation of good
evidence and a fulfillment of accountability because evidence could be translated into ordinary words. This
should be done by incorporating a wider range of researchers or policy implementers. By this means,
evidence-based policy can contribute to the prevention of overreaction.
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International Relations and Diplomacy (ISSN 2328-2134) Volume 6, Number 5,2018

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International Relations and Diplomacy (ISSN 2328-2134) Volume 6, Number 5,2018

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International Relations

David Publishing Company

Aims and Scope:

David Publishing Company

David Publishing Company

Editorial Board Members of International Relations and Diplomacy:

Chinese Impressions on Turkey

Globalization and Family Care

Globalization and Transformation of Family Care 288

Tourism Development in Vietnam

The Making of Water-Floating Seasonal Cuisine and Its Association to Tourism

Can Evidence-based Policy Contribute to Correcting Overreaction?—Considering

Keywords: cooperation, regionalism, securitization, Southeast-Asia, terrorism

Background: About ISIS/IS

Human Security Issues

ISIS as Security Threat to Indonesia

Individual and Societal Threat

Haiguo Tuzhi and Chinese Impressions on Turkey in the Late

Keywords: Haiguo Tuzhi, Wei Yuan, Turkey

Wei Yuan and Haiguo Tuzhi

Turkey in the Haiguo Tuzhi

Figure 1. South Turkey.

Figure 2. South Turkey.

Figure 3. North Turkey.

had a hard time in controlling its own local officials,

Ethnic Groups and Religions

Rivers, Mountains, and Properties

Globalization and Transformation of Family Care

Keywords: globalization, migration, elderly care, transformation, senior citizen, Nepal

Socio-economic Features of Elders

Transformation of Traditional Care Responsibility

Changing Traditional Family Values and Morality

Changed Perception of Care

The Making of Water-Floating Seasonal Cuisine and Its

Le Thi Ngoc Diep

Keywords: An Giang, water-floating season, cuisine, transformation, ecotourism

Applying Geo-cultural Perspective in Doing Researches in Cuisine Culture

The Floods as Special “Gift” From the Nature in An Giang

Water-Floating Seasonal Cuisine as the Empowered Imprints of the Interaction Between

Snakehead Fish-Made Foods

Can Evidence-based Policy Contribute to Correcting

Keywords: evidence-based policy, democracy, participatory policy analysis

history in public policy studies and analysis.

What is the Need for Evidence-Based Policy?

Critiques of Evidence-Based Policy and Difficulties With Democracy

Participatory Policy Analysis and Accountability

Wider Participation Limited Participation

New Directions in Evidence-Based Policy

Wider Participation Limited Participation

introduction (pp. 48-67). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

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