On Sat, 8 Apr 2000, Brad De Long wrote:
> Good answers. But they should be addressed to Dennis. He's the person
> who thinks that pressure (from the Soviet Union or Maoist China)
> induced *moderation* on the part of elites and an interest in strong
> economic development--hence the post-WWII western European miracle and
> the subsequent post-1960 East Asian miracle.
>
> I'm more agnostic--for the reasons that you lay out.
> Sometimes--usually--the reaction to pressure is radicalization to the
> right: death squads and such.
Isn't the difference simply how big the opponent is? China and Russia were huge and nuclear. In both cases we ended up with a dividing line marking a war we decided we couldn't win. So countries on their doorstep (Europe and East Asia) got the fostering treatment. Everywhere else we thought we could win if we fostered enough murderers. And so we did.
But Brad, do you accept as the answer to your original question "Why did developmental states work in East Asian and Europe and nowhere else?" that the US supported them there and nowhere else? And therefore that they could work elsewhere if we supported them?
Michael __________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com