The Library

The politics of economic crisis in East Asia: some longer term implications

Tools

Higgott, Richard A. (1998) The politics of economic crisis in East Asia: some longer term implications. Working Paper. Coventry: University of Warwick. Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation. Working papers (University of Warwick. Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation) (No.02/).

Preview

PDF
WRAP_Higgott_wp0298.pdf - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader
Download (444Kb)

Official URL: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/csgr/research/wo...

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 with 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 exaccerbate 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.

Item Type:

Working or Discussion Paper (Working Paper)

Subjects:

H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions
D History General and Old World > DS Asia
H Social Sciences > HJ Public Finance

Divisions:

Faculty of Social Sciences > Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation

Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):

International Monetary Fund, Financial crises -- East Asia, Financial crises -- Political aspects -- East Asia, East Asia -- Economic conditions, East Asia -- Politics and government

Series Name:

Working papers (University of Warwick. Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation)

Publisher:

University of Warwick. Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation

Place of Publication:

Coventry

Official Date:

29 March 1998

Dates:

Date	Event
29 March 1998	Published

Number:

No.02/

Number of Pages:

Status:

Not Peer Reviewed

Access rights to Published version:

Open Access

References:

Amitav Acharya, (1997) 'Ideas, Identity and Institution Building: from ASEAN Way to Asia Pacific Way',
The Pacific Review, 10 (3): 319-46.
Emmanuel Adler and Beth Crawford, (19910 (eds) Progress in Post War International Relations, New
York: Columbia University Press.
Susan Berger and Ronald Dore (1996) (eds) National Diversity and Global Capitalism, Ithaca: Cornell
University Press.
Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya, (1996) 'Regionalism versus Multilateralism: The Theory of
Preferential Trade Arrangements: Historical Evolution and Current Trends', American Economic Review,
86 (2): PPs to follow
Hedley Bull (1977) The Anarchical Society, London: Macmillan.
Vincent Cable (1995) 'The Diminshed Nation State?' in What Future for the State? Daedalus, 124 (2): 23-
53.
-------and David Henderson, (1994) Trade Blocs? The Future of Regional Integration., London: Royal
Institute of International Affairs.David Camroux and Christian Lechervy (1996) 'Encounter of a Third
Kind: The Inaugural Asia Europe Meeting', The Pacific Review, 9 (3): 442-53
M. G. Cowles, (1995) 'Setting the Agenda for the New Europe: The European Round Table and EC 1992',
Journal of Common Market Studies, 33 (4):
Peter Haas, (1992) (ed) 'Knowledge, Power and International Policy Coordination, Special Issue',
International Organisation, 46 (1): 1-31.
Ian R. Douglas, (1996) 'The Fatality of Globalisation', Durham, British International Studies Association,
16-18 Dec: 1-35.
Heribert Dieter, (1997) 'APEC and the WTO: Cooperation or Collision?' The Pacific Review, 10 (1): PPS
Ariff Dirlik, (1993) 'Introducing the Pacific' in Arif Dirlik (ed) What is in a Rim? Critical Perspectives on
the Pacific Region Idea. Boulder: Westview Press,
Ross Garnaut, (1997) Open Regionalism in the Pacific, London: Routledge.
Walter Hatch and Kuzo Yamamura, (1996) Asia in Japan's Embrace: Building a Regional Production
Alliance, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Paul Hirst and Grahame Thompson, (1995) Globalisation in Question, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Richard Higgott, (1997a) 'De facto and De jure Regionalism: The Double Discourse of Region in the Asia
Pacific, Global Society, 11 (2): 165-183.
------(1997b) 'Ideas and Identity in the International Political Economy of Regionalism: The Asia Pacific
and Europe Compared, Kokusai Seiji, 114: 14-48.
------(1998) 'ASEM: Towards the Institutionalisation of the East Asia-Europe Relationship? in Donald
Barry and Ronald Keith (eds) Europe, North America and the Asia Pacific: Cooperation or Conflict?
Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1998
-------and Kim Richard Nossal, (1997) 'The International Politics of Liminality: Relocating Australia in the
Asia Pacific?' Australian Journal of Political Science, 32 (2): 169-86.
-------and Richard Stubbs, (1995) 'Competing Conceptions of Economic Regionalism: APEC versus
EAEC', The Review of International Political Economy, 2(3): 549-68
W. Lee Howell, (1998) 'The Asian Contagion: Will it Get to Tokyo?' Hawaii: Pacific Forum/CSIS, 1-9.
Robert O. Keohane and Helen Milner (1996) (eds) Internationalisation and Domestic Politics, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Martin Khor, (1998) 'A Poor Grade for the IMF', The Far Eastern Economic Review, January 15.
Jack Levy, (1994) 'Learning in Foreign Policy: Sweeping a Conceptual Minefield', International
Organisation, 48 (2):
Andrew Mack and John Ravenhill (1994) (eds) Pacific Cooperation: Building Economic and Security
Regimes in the Asia Pacific Region, Sydney: Allen and Unwin.
Richard O'Brien, (1992) Global Financial Integration: The End of Geography, London: Frances Pinter.
Kenichi Ohmae, (1990) The Borderless World, New York, Fontana.
-------(1995) The End of the Nation State: The Rise of Regional Economies, New York: The Free Press,
Ben Rosamond, (1996) 'European Regional Identity & International Political Economy of European
Integration' Utrecht: Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas, August.
John G. Ruggie, (1982) 'International Regimes, Transactions and Changes: Embedded Liberalism in the
Post War Economic Order', International Organisation, 36(4): 379-415.
------(1995) 'At home abroad: international liberalisation and domestic stability in the new world economy',
Millennium, 24, 1995: PPS
Gerry Segal, (1997) 'Thinking Strategically about ASEM: The Subsidiarity Question', The Pacific Review,
10 (1): PPS
Susan Strange, (1996) The Retreat of the State, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Robert Wade and Frank Veneroso (1998) The Asian Financial crisis: The Unrecognised Risk of the IMF's
Asia Package', New York, Russell Sage Foundation, mimeo
Alex Wendt, (1992) 'Anarchy is What States Make of it.', International Organisation, 46 (2): 391-425
------ (1994) 'Collective Identity Formation and the International State', American Political Science Review,
88 (2): 384-97.
Michael Wensley, (1997) 'The Politics of Exclusion: Australia, Turkey and the Definition of Regionalism',
The Pacific Review, 10 (4): PPS.