The East Asian Developmental Model: Economic Growth, Institutional Failure and the Aftermath of the Crisis
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Book Reviews The East Asian Developmental Model: Economic Growth, Institutional Failure and the Aftermath of the Crisis Frank-Ju¨rgen Richter (ed.) Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2000, xii, 350pp. ISBN: 0-333-92063-5. The Social Impact of the Asia Crisis Tran Van Hoa (ed.) Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2000, xii, 164pp. ISBN: 0-333-79249-1. Asian Business & Management (2003) 2, 417–420. doi:10.1057/palgrave.abm.9200056
Remember the East Asian economic crisis? It was the event that ‘brought about untold economic and social damages and political instability to the countries in trouble’ (Van Hoa, p. ix). Although occurring only 6 years ago, after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the shift in attention that they demanded, the meltdown in the economies of East Asia appears to be almost a distant event. However, the impact of the crisis is still tangible: ‘[t]he Asian crisis is now history.y Nonetheless, unfinished skyscrapers in cities across Asia stand as silent monuments to an era gone wrong, and the reputations of many of the architects of Asia’s boom lie in the dust’ (Richter, p. 1). Although written and published before 9/11, both these edited volumes provide an opportunity to revisit and re-assess the impact of the crisis with the benefit of a sobering distance from events. At first glance, the volume edited by Van Hoa is an attractive and welcome contribution. The social impact of the crisis is an important topic but has more often than not been ‘side-stepped’ (p. 1). This collection of essays represents the third in a series of edited volumes published by Macmillan/Palgrave that investigate the crisis. The contributions to this volume are predominantly by economists, most of whom are from the region, and they all aim at furnishing a better understanding of the social impact of the crisis, so that governments and international organizations are aware of the more pertinent symptoms, how to address their causes, and in the future may be able to formulate measures for stimulating sustainable growth. The book is structured on a country-by-country basis and, to this end, attention is given to Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, South Korea, Vietnam, China and Australia. The chapters catalogue the impact of the crisis on these countries in a range of areas, such as migration, education, unemployment, income, consumption and social security. Across these
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countries and areas, the impact of the crisis varied greatly, as did the countries’ abilities to weather the storm, although the tone is far from pessimistic and in the case of Thailand, ‘the crisis should be used as a golden opportunity by the government to initiate economic, political and social reform’ (p. 3). Each chapter introduces abundant empirical evidence in the form of tables and graphs to illustrate the impact. In addition, the boxes utilized in Chapter 3 to introduce anecdotal and supplementary (but not any the less important) evidence are a welcome idea that could have been applied throughout to thereby make other chapters more a
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