The East Asian Miracle

This paper treats the upswing of HPAE's and the resulting socio-economic effects. Crisis and new order of Asian economies are described, all according to the socio-political approach of N.Fligstein.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction1

1.1 Problem statement1

1.2 Outline1

2. The field of world economic relations2

2.1 Defining the field2

2.2 Political culture of the field2

3. The emergence of Asia: challengers or invaders?4

3.1 Japan's economic miracle4

3.2 Overthrowing technologies4

3.3 Status of Japan in the field of the world economy5

3.4 Flying geese approach to the East-Asian miracle5

4. The Asian crisis and after9

4.1 Asian crisis9

4.2 Impact of the Asian crisis on world economic relations9

4.3 After the crisis: more cooperation10

4.4 China and the future10

5. Conclusion12

References13

1. Introduction

1.1 Problem statement

The economic surge of Japan and several other Asian countries after the Second World War was a surprise to many, but once "awake", these countries seemed ready to take over the world. The countries in focus, named High-Performance Asian Economies (HPAEs), are Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. HPAEs indeed tried to join the incumbents in the field of world economic order, and western economies felt threatened ever since Japanese growth rates first surpassed theirs. According to the theory of fields, the challengers test the incumbents by imitation. One can wonder if this was indeed the case with the Asian miracle. Did these countries attempt to adopt the western model of capitalism? Furthermore, it is interesting to ask why they were not able to cling to their economic success and why they were not able to reproduce their newly acquired position in the field and could continue to increase their newfound economic power. Finally, future prospects concerning this topic might be interesting to examine.

1.2 Outline

First,