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Alternative Perspectives on Late Industrialization in East Asia: A Critical Survey
Abstract
This paper evaluates the five most popular analytical approaches to the East Asian “miracle” economies: neoliberal, structural-institutional, “flying geese,” Greater China, and dependency perspectives. Distinguishing between national and regional development visions, we specify the key forces that each approach sees driving industrialization and growth, as well as the most likely barriers each sees to continued growth and development in East Asia. In pointing out the main analytical shortcomings of the five perspectives in light of the East Asian crisis, we sketch some key elements of a Marxist framework capable of overcoming these difficulties in a politically useful way.
... A grandes rasgos, desde la segunda mitad del siglo XX, la trayectoria de la región ha mostrado una secuencia en la cual los países que tempranamente se configuraron como exportadores de mercancías industriales simples luego escalaron hacia producciones más complejas,y alcanzaron a participar en actividades de investigación aplicada y diseño de procesos y productos. Al mismo tiempo,el alza del salario en estos países fomentó la migración del capital de las industrias livianas hacia otros con mayor abundancia de reserva de fuerza de trabajo y salarios más bajos (Burkett y Hart-Landsberg, 2000;Kojima, 2000). Esta dinámica dio lugar a una red jerárquica de relaciones industriales en la región, donde unos pocos países concentran los procesos de trabajo más complejos y un conjunto mayor de países los procesos relativamente más simples (Starosta y Caligaris, 2017). ...
... En ese contexto, Corea del Sur aparece como una nueva fuente de superpoblación en condiciones de realizar las actividades simples que comienzan a encarecerse en Japón (Grinberg, 2014). En las décadas de 1950 y 1960 los niveles de explotación de la fuerza de trabajo en Corea del Sur se encontraban por encima de aquellos observados en los países del «tercer mundo», en el marco de un Estado militarizado y represivo (Burkett y Hart-Landsberg, 2000).No obstante, desde la década de 1980 en Corea del Sur comienza a observarse un rápido crecimiento de los salarios reales y un avance de la organización política de los trabajadores, que se condice también con un escalamiento hacia actividades productivas más complejas (Grinberg, 2014). ...
... Efectivamente, aún bajo las formas técnicas previas a la revolución microelectrónica, las tecnologías de transporte y comunicación hicieron viable la relocalización internacional de las producciones de alta carga de trabajo manual para aprovechar la baratura y disciplina de la fuerza de trabajo de este país, que a su vez se encontraba diezmada por los efectos de la guerra. Sobre esta base, para fines de la década de 1950, Japón ya se manifestaba como un polo de producción de manufacturas como la indumentaria y el calzado para el mercado mundial(Chibber, 1999;Burkett y Hart-Landsberg, 2000).Estas tendencias se combinan con la aparición de una nueva actividad que sería central para la revolución tecnológica de la década de 1970. Como prerrequisito para avanzar en la robotización con control computarizado de los procesos productivos, se expande previamente una nueva tarea de suma fineza manual como el armado de plaquetas y el ensamblado de los distintos microcomponentes(Íñigo, 2013). ...
The article takes up critically the New International Division of Labor thesis as a framework for understanding China's development process within the general development trajectory of the East Asian region. Based on technological complexity of exports data, I study the particularity of the Chinese case, contrasting its trends mainly with those of other countries in the region. Among the main results, it is highlighted that China's development process is not only unique in terms of its scale, but also in terms of the type of activities that the country manages to develop competitively. China continues to be the leading exporter of many simple products, but in recent decades it has strengthened its predominance in productions of greater technological complexity. Finally, some hypotheses are put forward about the factors that drove China´s path.
... process as homogenization, ignoring diverse development trajectories. Especially, the Japanese developmentalism approach, i ts most influential version, tends to consider the sequential development of the regional economies as a process of emulating a Japanese style catching-up process. The typical example is the well-known 'flying geese model' 1 . [Burkett and Hart-Landsberg, 2000; Kojima, 1997; Suehiro, 2000]. However, in contrast to the prediction of the model, there is li t t le evidence of a Japanese style catching-up process cascading through the various economies of the region. Indeed, although the shift from ISI to EOI has been often taken as a single East Asian model, in Korea and Taiwan at least in the la ...
This article aims at reevaluating the state role in economic development, referring to East Asian experience. Late industrialisation in the region is a product of interactions between international production networks (IPNs) and state policies, and the process has created diversified development paths in the region. From this perspective, first, this article will begin with confirming briefly differences of development in East Asia, and show the need for IPNs perspective to explain them. Second, focusing on the two kinds of IPNs from Japan and the US, it will explore how they have brought about such diversification. And third, the article will associate it with the state policy or capacity.
... We argue that a world-systems analysis focusing on the key generative sectors provides a more complete understanding of Korea's rapid economic ascent. Neoliberal economists' interpretation of the rapid rise of South Korea and the other Asian Tigers as the result of market friendly policies, best exemplified in the World Bank's (1993) report, was debunked both by the events of the Asian financial crisis and by a host of analysts from a variety of perspectives (e.g.Burkett and Hart-Landsberg 2000;Amsden 1989Amsden , 1994Wade 1990bWade , 1996Kohli 2004;Ozawa 2001). Alternative explanations offered by these and other analysts of the rapid rise of South Korea focused on institutional patterns of the South Korean state and the chaebol (large industrial groups) (Amsden 1989;Woo 1991;Kohli 2004), the broader rise of Asia (Arrighi 1996;Arrighi, Hamashita and Selden 2003;Frank 1998;Peng 2002), and participation in the flying geese model of development led by Japan (Ozawa 2001Ozawa , 2003Ozawa , 2005Hayter and Edgington 2004;Kojima 2000;Korhonen 1994;Romm 1992;Cutler and Ozawa 2007). ...
In this paper, we focus on the roles of the steel and shipbuilding industries as generative sectors in Korea's rapid economic ascent. We argue that a world-systems analysis focusing on these generative sectors provides a more complete understanding of Korea's rapid economic ascent than do other theoretical models. We outline the similarities between this case and those analyzed by Bunker and Ciccantell (2005, 2007) both in terms of the central role of generative sectors in raw materials and transport industries and how the creation and growth of these two industrial sectors shaped institutional patterns and the broader economic ascent of South Korea and East Asia. Even though South Korea has not and may never become a challenger for global hegemony, its rapid ascent has helped reshape East Asia and the capitalist world-economy. We use the model of generative sectors to analyze the critical industries that underlay and shaped South Korea's ascent from a low wage, light industry base to a world leader in electronics, automobiles, and other advanced industries.
This article discusses the use of film as pedagogical material to teach Everyday International Political Economy (EIPE). Film is an effective tool to bridge IPE research and teaching, and to fully integrate the everyday an as object of IPE scholarship and pedagogy. Film allows students to develop an understanding of IPE that considers often forgotten actors of the global economy, and to see how the global economy shapes and is shaped by what takes places in schools, workplaces, and households. The article discusses one practical experience of using film to teach EIPE: a ‘Political Economy of East Asia’ course developed by the author. It offers a concrete demonstration of how three movies can be integrated into the curriculum to discuss themes such as regional outsourcing, financial crises, East Asian developmentalism, the global division of labour, cultural globalization, and China’s economic rise; how active learning through film is encouraged; and how students’ work on these movies is assessed. The article concludes by addressing methodological difficulties, students’ evaluations of the course, and future research.
The experience of catching-up development of ASEAN countries becomes valuable in the conditions of the Russian of import substitution policy and “turn to the East” in geopolitics. The objective of the paper is revealing the prospects of native catching-up development based on the analysis of theoretical aspects of the model of “flying geese” and their practical application in the ASEAN countries and Russia. The paper presents the theoretical foundations of catching-up development in the framework of the Flying Geese paradigm in the works of K. Akamatsu, R. Vernon, K. Kojima and indicates its main stages. The author reviews the measures of industrial, trade and investment policy of the ASEAN countries on the initial stages of the model and the modern aspects of their economic development. The materials of statistical reports of IMF, UNCTAD, ASEAN, the statistical data of Federal state statistics department of Russia, Federal customs department of Russia, the programs of the Russian Government in the field of import substitution are studied. The achievements and problems of implementing the programs of import substitution in agriculture, industry, IT-technologies in Russia were analyzed. The study showed the factors, hindering the domestic development in the framework of the Flying Geese paradigm. The recommendations for solving existing problems include the stimulation of aggregate demand and the development of high-tech exports. Special attention was drawn to the possibilities of applying selected elements of the model in terms of territorial heterogeneity of Russia.
In this 'critique and rejoinder' Martin Hart-Landsberg and Paul Burkett argue that Constance Lever-Tracy and Noel Tracy (authors of 'Mismatch at the Interface,' Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 31, no. 3 [1999]) have fallen into the trap of searching for an 'optimal' form of capitalism rather than moving beyond contemporary capitalism's 'end-of-history' ideology and envisioning and struggling for a more sustainable and human-developmental system. Lever-Tracy and Tracy reply that however much one might hope for a revival in the fortunes of workers in China and Southeast Asia the reality is that 'in the kind of short-term perspective relevant to a temporary, frictional crisis, there really is no realistic prospect for solving [the current crisis] by constructing an alternative society.'.
This article explores the dynamics of capitalist develop- ment in the three political economies of Greater China. We have two purposes in mind. First, we hope to produce a fresh understanding of Mainland China's economic rise, interpreting it as associated with the process of late capitalist development. Second, we use a comparison with Taiwan and Hong Kong to examine whether China has converged with or diverged from four salient aspects of late capitalist development: the character of state ruler incentives, or the "will to develop"; the nature and structure of state-society relations; the role of business enterprises and business networks in supporting initial capital- ist accumulation; and the transition of state-business interac- tions over time from mutual distrust to engagement and coop- eration. In so doing, we hope to use comparative analysis to integrate the crucial case of China into broader inquiries on the nature and logic of capitalist development.
The Asian crisis has rekindled the debate between advocates of neoliberalism, left-wing neoliberalism, and developmental-statism over the best institutions and policies for achieving economic development. However, this debate continues to generate far more heat than light. One reason is that, despite their alleged differences, all three mainstream theories share a common conception of development as “catch-up.” A second and even more important reason is that this shared conception is seriously flawed because of its technological determinism and uncritical stance towards capitalist relations of wage-labor and competition. A Marxist perspective on development dynamics is superior because it recognizes the contradictions of capitalist development and can therefore inform (and be informed by) the ongoing struggles of workers and communities for new development alternatives on national, regional, and global levels.
In the 1980s the ASEAN region has become one of the most attractive investment locations in the developing world and attracted a disproportionately large amount of foreign direct investment (FDI) particularly in the 1987-1991 period. This article first examines the investment climate in ASEAN countries and the role of foreign investment policies. It then analyzes the trends and the sectoral pattern and country sourcing of FDI and highlights the experience of Singapore. Finally, it examines the prospects for FDI in ASEAN, highlighting the international and regional competition for FDI and the attractions of the ASEAN Free Trade Area and the Singapore-Johor-Riau (SIJORI) Growth Triangle. -from Author
In February 1979, China launched a full scale attack on Vietnam bringing to the surface the deep tension between the two socialist neighbours. The importance of the resultant war is often overlooked. Millions of people throughout the region were affected, and the frictions that remain in the wake of the war threaten the prospects for peace not only in Southeast Asia, but also the whole Asia-Pacific region as well. This is a full scale examination of the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War - the events that led to it, the Cold War aftermath, and the implications for the region and beyond.
Asian efficiency must seem like rate breaking to workers in the rest of the world who work long hours under intense conditions to stay in a race that most are losing. Globally competitive capital is mobile and the regional integration of the Asian Pacific currently offers an attractive venue for production. While the cultures of the region are ancient, the forms of Confucian capitalism which now challenge the world and the working peoples of Asia are young. This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.
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The abstract for this document is available on CSA Illumina.To view the Abstract, click the Abstract button above the document title.
Fast-track capitalism has brought huge growth rates for the newly-industrialized countries of East and South-East Asia. But the assertion that such rapid growth is due to free trade and free market policies is a myth. The explanation lies in a combination of protection, state intervention and a massive infusion of Japanese capital following the relocation of Japanese companies to South-East Asia in their search for cheap labour. As a result, the region 's economies are now subordinate to, and dependent on, Japan.