Pathways from the Periphery: Power and Love in the Japanese Business Family

by Stephan Haggard

Book Overview

Pathways from the Periphery is an innovative interpretation of the development of the newly industrializing countries (NICs) which now dominate Third World industry and manufacturing trade. While such countries as Brazil and Mexico have achieved industrialization through strategies intended to foster self-reliance, the East Asian NICs--South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore--have grown rapidly through an aggressive policy promoting the export of manufactured goods. Stephan Haggard provides the first comprehensive comparison of the politics of industrialization in these East Asian and Latin American countries and offers new evidence on current issues in comparative political economy, including the implications of different growth paths for dependency, equity, and democracy. Recognizing the influence on development strategies of external shocks--such as depression, war, and reduced access to foreign capital--Haggard emphasizes the importance of domestic political institutions for economic decision-making. The East Asian NICs are characterized by close but regulated business-government alliances, weak labor movements, and politically insulated and administratively capable states: factors, Haggard shows, that have facilitated flexible and coherent industrial policies. He argues that "domestic" policy choices can shape the external constraints states face. The author considers in detail why Latin America's long-standing efforts to achieve self-reliance have ironically resulted in a dependence on international capital greater than that of the East Asian countries. Addressing a long-standing debate on the relationship between industrialization strategy and regime type, Haggard carefully assesses the connection between growth and democratic politics. Despite their authoritarian growth models the Asian NICs have, he observes, achieved greater equity than their Latin American counterparts. Although the "success" of export-led growth has in the past been associated with authoritarian rule, Haggard argues that no compelling theoretical reasons preclude democratic governments from achieving strong economic performance. Breaking new ground in theoretical inquiry and empirical research, Pathways from the Periphery will be welcomed by political economists, scholars and students of comparative politics, historians of Asian and Latin American public policy, and others concerned with the challenge of economic development.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0801497507
• ISBN13: 9780801497506
• Release Date: August 1990
• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Length: 294 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.2"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A New Model of Economic Development

Haggard writes in opposition to the neoclassical and dependency perspectives regarding economic development. The neoclassical perspective argues in favor of market-regulated export-led growth development strategies. They argue that the state intervention which accompanies import-substitution industrialization strategies leads to inefficiency. However, Haggard argues that export-led industrialization is "accompanied by economic, legal, and institutional reforms that the neoclassical interpretation has generally ignored" (p. 15). Dependency theorists argue that the international economic system plays a strong role in shaping national policy in NICs. Haggard offers a number of critiques of the dependency perspective: (1) the problems attributed to the international economic system are actually the result of various other national policies; (2) they fail to examine the politicization of the international trading system; (3) dependency theorists are apolitical; (4) domestic politics and state responses vary between NICs. Dependency theorists tend to lump them all together. Haggard argues that we need a theory which looks at the political incentives facing political actors in order to understand economic development in NICs. Haggard examines the economic development of East Asian and Latin American NICs through extensive comparative analysis. He finds that both groups originally undertook similar development strategies (ISI), but around 1960 the East Asian NICs moved towards export-leg growth strategies while Latin America remained using ISI. Haggard seeks to explain these policy choices/changes using four causal variables: international factors, domestic coalitions, political institutions, and ideas. The author argues that international factors (composed of market pressures, i.e. price shocks, conflicts between trading partners and political pressures, i.e. control of market access, military or colonial occupation, etc) are the most powerful causal variables in regards to policy change. In the case of Korea, declining aid and increasing US pressure forced the hand of the Korean elites to pursue more liberal policies (export-led growth). In the case of Brazil, major balance of payment problems forced the nation to look inward, thus subscribing to ISI policies. Also, domestic coalitions (agriculture, labor, and capital) "can constrain or widen the feasible set of policy reforms" (p. 28): (1) industrialization is often accompanied by weak agricultural interests; (2) in regards to industrial labor, the timing of mobilization and its relation with politics shape policy choice. In Latin America, labor was mobilized early, along with the emergence of leftist governments. The coalition support ISI. The longer ISI is pursued, the more engrained labor becomes in politics. This makes it more difficult for economic policy to change. However, when labor is weak, we may find export-led growth. This is because: (a) it grants freedom to busine