Variation in Access to Safe Drinking Water across Different Countries: An Explanatory Framework

Building upon extensive field interviews with past and current public officials from domestic agencies and international organizations who are involved in safe drinking water policy in Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, and South Korea, the research identifies and clarifies the causal mechanisms behind the different rates of expansion in access to safe drinking water among these five countries. It then examines how well theories in public administration, particularly with emphasis on theoretical frameworks in implementation scholarship, help capture and explain these mechanisms. Both strengths and weaknesses of public administration theory are examined where efforts to improve existing frameworks are suggested with their merger with theories from comparative politics. This opens the discussion on how public administration scholars should be involved in addressing and offering insights and advice to tackle the outstanding global challenge of 663 million people still living without access to safe drinking water.