Implications"
BY: RICHARD HIGGOTT
University of Warwick
Centre for the Study of Globalisation and
Regionalisation
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Paper ID: CSGR Working Paper No. 02/98
Date: March 1998
Contact: RICHARD HIGGOTT
Email: Mailto:richard.higgott at warwick.ac.uk
Postal: University of Warwick
Centre for the Study of Globalisation and
Regionalisation
Coventry CV4 7AL, UK
ABSTRACT:
The currency and market turmoils in East Asia since summer of
1997 are every bit as much political crises as they are economic
ones. Indeed, the political manifestations of these events may
linger long after the necessary economic reforms have been
introduced to return at least a semblance of economic normalcy
to the region. This paper assess some of the longer term
political implications. It does so through "Asian tinted lenses"
rather than Anglo American ones and offers an alternative
reading of the East Asian economic crisis to that which exists
in the mainstream of western policy analysis. While accepting
that particularist explanations apply on a country by country
basis, the paper outlines: (i) those aspects of the crisis that
appear common to those countries affected to-date; (ii) the
importance of the silent but fundamental role of Japan as a
factor in the crisis; and (iii) notwithstanding the
real/material explanations of the crisis, it argues that the
crisis is in large part an ideological one reflecting a western
conceptual inability to deal with the Asian model of
development's reluctance to converge to an Anglo-American form
of capitalism. While the policy remedies proffered by the IMF
are accepted in Asia in the short run, they may well not be
appreciated in the long run, and a major implication of this
interaction may well be an enhancement of the prospect of the
continued development of an "East Asian" as opposed to "Asia
Pacific" understanding of region. Some evidence of regional
social learning from the crisis that may well consolidate the
trend towards enhanced economic policy coordination that already
exists. This could exacerbate tensions between global and
regional interests and severely test the "APEC consensus" on a
commitment to neo-liberalism in the early stages of the
twenty-first century.
JEL Classification: F36, F42