Editor's Note

 

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Introduction

Myanmar is moving towards democracy. Starting with the adoption of a new Constitution in 2008 that allowed a transition from military to civilian rule, a long-awaited general election was held in 2015, resulting in the National League for Democracy (NLD), the pro-democratic party, coming to power. Throughout this transition, Myanmar has witnessed the rise of new civil society organizations. Democratization efforts are supported by independent think tanks with researchers who are committed to providing innovative policies to address various social problems.

With the support of the East Asia Institute (EAI), the Myanmar Democracy Research Network (MDRN) was launched to conduct joint research related to democratic governance and public policy. The network consists of seven civil society organizations in Myanmar, including Sandhi Governance Institute, the Yangon School of Political Science, the Open Myanmar Initiative, Yone Kyi Yar Knowledge Propagation Society, the Naushawng Development Institute, the Salween Institute for Public Policy, and Another Development. As the first joint research project, in April 2019, the MDRN conducted a joint public opinion survey of Yangon citizens to ask how they perceive the Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC)’s public services. Among the fourteen duties and responsibilities of YCDC, MDRN chose to focus on seven topics: taxes, the waste management system, the water distribution system and water usage, stray dogs, access to public parks, streets and street lights, and markets. Through this research, the MDRN assessed the satisfaction of Yangon’s citizens with the services provided by the YCDC and provided policy suggestions based on the results of their survey. This introduction explains the background of this research and how it was designed.

 

Table of Contents

This paper is organized in five parts as follows:

1. Introduction

2. The Importance of the role of Local Governance and Quality of Public Services

3. YCDC and Public Opinion Surveys

4. The Duties and Responsibilities of the YCDC

5. The 2019 MDRN Survey and its Research Design

 

Author

Hanwool Jeong is a Senior Research Fellow and Research Designer at Hankook Research in South Korea. He received his Ph.D in political science from Korea University, and was the executive director at the Center for Public Opinion Research at EAI. His recent publications include “The Corruption Scandal and Vote Switching in South Korea’s 19th Presidential Election” (2019) and “Generation as Group Identity and its Political Effect” (2018).

Chun Seok Kim worked for 20 years in the Public Opinion Research Department at Hankook Research Company in South Korea. He has particularly focused his studies on Deliberative Polling (DP) in Korea. Currently, he is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Central Public Opinion Review Committee and Director of the Korean Research Association. He completed B.A. and M.A. in Journalism at Korea University and Public Administration at Sungkyunkwan University.

Younghyun Lee is a research associate and project manager at EAI. She is currently managing the program “Strengthening Civil Society Organizations in Myanmar.” She received her B.A. in French Literature and International Studies and M.A. in Political Science from Korea University.