Sowing Dragons

[Brad De Long]

>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

No. The answer's too pat and too simple--and U.S. influence/aid was 
not strong enough to make *that* big a difference...