The Political Economy Of The New Asian Industrialism

The newly industrializing countries (NICs) of East Asia have undergone rapid economic expansion over the past twenty vears. Unlike NICs elsewhere in the Third World, those in the Pacific basin-South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong-have managed to achieve almost full employment, a relatively egalitarian distribution of income, and the virtual elimination or poverty. In this collection of essays, nine development specialists explore the Asian NICs' exceptional ability to capitalize on the favorable economic environment of the 1960s and then to adapt flexibly to worsening conditions in the 1970s and 1980s.

This important study examines the dynamics of the remarkable economic transformation of South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, which has been based in large measure on the production of manufactured goods for export. The competitive edge of these countries has in turn been rooted in the mobilization of a low-cost, disciplined, and productive workforce. This study seeks therefore to explain how East Asian governments and employers have attempted to manage this workforce. It also explores the extent to which workers are able to challenge management decisions and insert working-class agendas into public policy. Beneath the Miracle moves beyond current explanations for the weakness of East Asian labor movements which emphasize Confucianist culture, material welfare gains, and political repression. It shows that the organizational capacity of workers has been more fundamentally undercut first by the nature of emergent East Asian employment systems, and second by the sequencing of developmental change, with political controls preceding rapid industrialization and preempting political and union organization of the growing industrial workforce. Deyo undertakes an incisive cross-national comparison of employment systems and explores anomalous situations, such as that in Hong Kong, where labor is politically weak even under minimal state controls, and that in South Korea, where labor is in a stronger position despite far stricter regulation. Beneath the Miracle offers a fresh and compelling comparative analysis of Asian labor movements which could lead to a reassessment of many other developmental issues in East Asia. In his probing examination, Deyo provides an important and exciting contribution to the literature in this field. This important study examines the dynamics of the remarkable economic transformation of South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, which has been based in large measure on the production of manufactured goods for export. The competitive edge of these countries has in turn been rooted in the mobilization of a low-cost, disciplined, and productive workforce. This study seeks therefore to explain how East Asian governments and employers have attempted to manage this workforce. It also explores the extent to which workers are able to challenge management decisions and insert working-class agendas into public policy. Beneath the Miracle moves beyond current explanations for the weakness of East Asian labor movements which emphasize Confucianist culture, material welfare gains, and political repression. It shows that the organizational capacity of workers has been more fundamentally undercut first by the nature of emergent East Asian employment systems, and second by the sequencing of developmental change, with political controls preceding rapid industrialization and preempting political and union organization of the growing industrial workforce. Deyo undertakes an incisive cross-national comparison of employment systems and explores anomalous situations, such as that in Hong Kong, where labor is politically weak even under minimal state controls, and that in South Korea, where labor is in a stronger position despite far stricter regulation. Beneath the Miracle offers a fresh and compelling comparative analysis of Asian labor movements which could lead to a reassessment of many other developmental issues in East Asia. In his probing examination, Deyo provides an important and exciting contribution to the literature in this field.

A study which challenges the dominant understanding of Singapore as a case where "correct" policies have made rapid industrialization possible and which raises questions about the possibility and appropriateness of its emulation.

This well-researched book examines the dramatic transformation of Southeast Asian countries from agricultural and mining economies to industrial nations. In doing so, it explores the effects of development policy on a number of interdisciplinary issues, and the emergence of new social and political pressures created by industrialization. These include their heightened vulnerability to complex economic crises, their use of sophisticated instruments in the labour process and increased awareness of environmental issues. The distinguished authors present a regional and cross-border focus on transnational actors and institutions, and the policy issues and problems which have a wider impact on spatial configurations in the region. This insightful study will appeal to researchers, academics and policymakers working on the economics and development of Southeast Asia.

In Reforming Asian Labor Systems, Frederic C. Deyo examines the implications of post-1980s market-oriented economic reform for labor systems in China, South Korea, the Philippines, and Thailand. Adopting a critical institutionalist perspective, he explores the impact of elite economic interests and strategies, labor politics, institutional path dependencies, and changing economic circumstances on regimes of labor and social regulation in these four countries. Of particular importance are reform-driven socioeconomic and political tensions that, especially following the regional financial crisis of the late 1990s, have encouraged increased efforts to integrate social and developmental agendas with those of market reform. Through his analysis of the social economy of East and Southeast Asia, Deyo suggests that several Asian countries may now be positioned to repeat what they achieved in earlier decades: a prominent role in defining new international models of development and market reform that adapt to the pressures and constraints of the evolving world economy.

Published originally in 1990 to critical acclaim, Robert Wade's Governing the Market quickly established itself as a standard in contemporary political economy. In it, Wade challenged claims both of those who saw the East Asian story as a vindication of free market principles and of those who attributed the success of Taiwan and other countries to government intervention. Instead, Wade turned attention to the way allocation decisions were divided between markets and public administration and the synergy between them. Now, in a new introduction to this paperback edition, Wade reviews the debate about industrial policy in East and Southeast Asia and chronicles the changing fortunes of these economies over the 1990s. He extends the original argument to explain the boom of the first half of the decade and the crash of the second, stressing the links between corporations, banks, governments, international capital markets, and the International Monetary Fund. From this, Wade goes on to outline a new agenda for national and international development policy.