Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Comparisons of East Asian and Latin American development frequently attribute the success of the former and the failure of the latter to differences in policies and institutions. Political Conflict and Development in East Asia and Latin America takes issue with such a view by subjecting the conventional policy and institutional attributes to vigorous case-to-case comparison across the two regions.
The analysis in this book rests upon a chain of reasoning which starts with policy, argues back to the institutions that shape policy, and then to the forces that fashion the institutions. This last link in the chain is conspicuously absent in the literature but is critical to our understanding. The book shows how the range of institutions associated with development in East Asia and Latin America are deeply rooted in particular economic political and social settings that govern how they work.
The book directly challenges the dominant view that development can be reduced to a formula or a set of institutions that can be copied by other countries to guarantee successful development. Its emphasis upon institutional fashioning will be a distinctive contribution to development studies.
Synopsis
Long run processes of socio-economic change generate prodigious problems of social conflict and social control, and governments responsible for these processes must therefore manage the resultant conflict. Consequently, the success or failure of a government's management of such conflicts is a crucial factor in development outcomes.
This volume investigates the political struggle for development specifically in two vital regions - East Asia and Latin America. This analysis calls into question the dominant emphasis on institutional and cultural bases for stable growth. A careful historical account of the two regions is presented, which permits the rigorous testing of conventional wisdoms regarding development. Of importance to a broad range of academics in the spheres of development studies, politics, political economy and sociology, this book will also make an interesting read for those with a general interest in these areas.