The East Asian Developmental State Model
How did East Asian economies benefit from the "advantages of economic backwardness?"
They learned the ways of economic advancement not from scratch but by importing knowledge, technology, and economic know-how from abroad
How did the East Asian developmental state become susceptible to the pressure of economic globalization?
They became integrated into the world economy, therefore feeling pressure for international convergence on economic policy and having less room to "get the prices wrong."
Is the East Asian developmental state obsolete?
No, it has simply been reconfigured and adapted. It still plays an important role in East Asia's economic, social, and political development.
What is one of the three forms of migration in East Asia discussed in the reading?
Labor migration, family migration, and co-ethnic return migration
What was economic policy in the East Asian developmental state geared toward?
Maximizing national productivity
How do strategies for catch-up development and the benefits of being "economically backward" relate to modern-day East Asian states?
East Asian states are largely caught up, so they no longer benefit much from being "economically backward."
How does Wong see China in terms of following the developmental state model?
Wong says that in China, the developmentally oriented state continues to focus on infrastructural and catch-up development, exemplifying the classical developmental state model.
What are the four sides of the revised migration governance four-sided game?
Security, social stability, social contract, markets
Were East Asian economies built on unfettered markets? If not, what were they built on instead?
No, the governments did not completely disregard the markets, but they intervened in market prices to stimulate economic growth. The developmental states in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan used public policy instruments to allocate productive resources rather than relying solely on the market.
How have demographics in East Asia shifted?
People are living longer due to better overall health conditions, and the population replacement rates in many countries have declined. This has led to larger "unproductive" proportions of the population.
How have states addressed their autonomy following the 1997 financial crisis?
The state's autonomy and its capacities to exercise power and authority have been reined in through the institutionalization of new mechanisms of accountability.
What is meant by the developmental migration state?
The state correlates migrants’ access to rights and permanent settlement with their utility toward national developmental goals
Who were the bureaucratic apparatuses in East Asian developmental states comprised of?
Highly trained technocratic elites, among each nation's best and brightest.
What have the experiences of East Asian developmental states during the late 1990s demonstrated about relations between the state and business?
They have demonstrated the ease with which cooperative relations between the state and business can ultimately degenerate into relationships based on unproductive rent-seeking.
How has the state's role in social development changed?
The state's role in social development has become more interventionist, and the state has become institutionally strengthened in important ways.
What is the co-ethnic return migration policy in Japan and Korea?
Special visa categories for migrants documented to have descended from former emigrants or exiles
What did the autonomy of East Asian developmental states mean for social classes in the states?
This meant that they avoided being captured by any dominant social class, specifically by the landed class held over from the premodernization period.
What did the end of the Cold War mean in terms of countries such as Taiwain and Korea?
It meant they could no longer "cheat" and distort prices in order to gain better terms of trade.
What will shape the future of the developmental state model in East Asia?
How the developmentally oriented state adapts to the politics of democracy, as most of the region is democratizing.
What do family unification rights look like in East Asian countries?
Family reunification rights are limited largely to high-skilled professionals and, in Japan’s case, permanent residents. No East Asian country grants family reunification rights to migrant workers.