PS 410/510: Political Economy of Asia: Politics and Policies

Fall 2009

Classroom: 475 McKenzie Hall

Instructor: Tuong Vu, PhD

Office hours: Wed 9:45-10:45; Fri 9:45-10:45; 1-2

Office location: 918 PLC

Email: thvu@uoregon.edu

Course website: through https://blackboard.uoregon.edu

 

 

Course description: This course offers an historical overview of Asian economies while attempting to explain the origins and consequences of rapid industrialization and economic growth of East Asia in the 20th century. In so doing, we shall explore the differences between development in East Asia and the West, but especially the differences among the East Asian countries and draw some “lessons” of such development. Among the debates to be examined in this course will be (1) the reasons for the relative late development of East Asia compared with West Europe, (2) the origins of Asia’s developmental states and the role of social, economic, and political institutions in economic development, (3) the human and social consequences of modernization and development, and (4) the crisis of the Asian developmental model and its future. Geographically, about half the course will be devoted to Southeast Asia and half to Northeast Asia.

 

Prerequisites: Students without background in political science and Asian politics should not take this course.

 

Evaluation: The class will be organized as a seminar. Students are expected to attend all sessions, read the course materials carefully before class, and participate actively in class discussion. Grades will be based on class participation (20%); five short précis (written assignments) and two presentations (40%); and a 12-page take-home final exam (40%). Guidelines for writing précis are attached on a separate sheet. Graduate students have the option of writing a 20-page research paper instead of taking the final exam.

 

Readings: Except the required books below, other required or recommended readings are available from Blackboard if you are enrolled in the course. Graduate students are expected to read not only required readings but also at least one recommended reading.

 

·         Chris Dixon, Southeast Asia in the World Economy (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991)

·         Jonathan Rigg, Southeast Asia: The Human Landscape of Modernization and Development, 2nd edition (New York: Routledge, 2003)

·         Yongnian Zheng, Globalization and State Transformation in China (Cambridge University Press, 2004)

 

Course schedule:

 

WEEK 1

Sept. 29: Overview of class.

 

Oct. 1:   Why China fell behind Europe?

 

REQUIRED READING:

 

Joel Mokyr, “China and Europe” in The Lever of Riches, Technological Creativity and Economic Progress (Oxford University Press, 1990), pp.209-238.

 

Jack Goldstone, “The Rise of the West -- Or Not? A Revision to Socio-Economic History.” Sociological Theory 18: 2 (July 2000), pp. 175-194.

 

RECOMMENDED READING:

 

Justin Yifu Lin, “The Needham Puzzle: Why the Industrial Revolution Did Not Originate in China.” Economic Development and Cultural Change, Vol. 43, No. 2 (Jan., 1995), pp. 269-292.

 

Kenneth Pomeranz, “Is There an East Asian Development Path? Long-Term Comparisons, Constraints, and Continuities,” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 44: 3 (2001), pp. 322-362.

 

WEEK 2

Oct. 6: The modernization of China and Japan

 

REQUIRED READING:

 

Peter Duus, The Rise of Modern Japan (Houghton Mifflin Co. 1976) Chapter 9, pp. 136-153.

 

Kozo Yamamura, "Bridled Capitalism and Economic Development in Japan, 1880-1980" in Ramon Myers, ed., The Wealth of Nations in the Twentieth Century: The Policies and Institutional Determinants of Economic Development (Hoover Institution Press, 1996), pp. 54-79.

 

Lloyd Eastman, 1988. Families, Fields and Ancestors (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), chapter 8.

 

RECOMMENDED READING:

 

Nagahara Keiji and Kozo Yamamura, “Shaping the Process of Unification: Technological Progress in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Japan” Journal of Japanese Studies, Vol. 14,

No. 1 (Winter 1988), pp. 77-109

 

Peter Duus, “Japan’s Informal Empire in China, 1895-1937” in The Japanese Informal Empire in China, 1895-1937, eds. Peter Duus, Ramon H. Myers, and Mark R. Peattie (Princeton University Press, 1989), pp. xi-xxix.

 

Oct. 8: Japan’s developmental state

 

REQUIRED READING:

 

Chalmers Johnson, MITI and the Japanese Miracle (Stanford University Press, 1982), pp. 3-34, skim 35-82.

 

Ikuo Kume, “Institutionalizing Post-war Japanese Political Economy: Industrial Policy Revisited” in Kjeld Brodsgaard and Susan Young, eds. State Capacity in East Asia: Japan, Taiwan, China and Vietnam (Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 61-83.

 

RECOMMENDED READING:

 

Laura Tyson and John Zysman, “Developmental Strategy and Production Innovation in Japan,” inChalmers Johnson, Laura Tyson and John Zysman, eds. Politics and Productivity: The Real Story of Why Japan Works (HarperBusiness, 1989), 59-107.

 

James H. Raphael and Thomas P. Rohlen, “How many models of Japanese growth do we want or need?” in Henry S. Rowen, ed. Behind East Asian Growth (Routledge, 1998), pp. 265-296.

 

WEEK 3

Oct. 13: Western colonization of Southeast Asia

 

REQUIRED READING:

 

Chris Dixon, Southeast Asia in the World Economy, chapters 3-4, pp. 57-138.

 

RECOMMENDED READING:

 

Anthony Reid, Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce 1450-1680, v. 2 (Yale University Press, 1993), chapter 5 “The Origins of Southeast Asian Poverty,” pp. 267-325.

 

Carl Trocki, Opium and Empire: Chinese Society in Colonial Singapore 1800-1910 (Routledge, 1999), chapters 3 and 4.

 

Oct. 15: South Korea’s developmental state in domestic and international political contexts

 

REQUIRED READING:

 

Stephan Haggard, Byung-Kook Kim and Chung-In Moon, “The Transition to Export-Led Growth in South Korea 1954-1966,” Journal of Asian Studies, 50: 4 (November 1991), pp. 850-873

 

Robert Wade, “Industrial Policy in East Asia: Does It Lead or Follow the Market?” in Gary Gereffi and Donald Wyman, eds. Manufacturing Miracles: Paths of Industrialization in Latin America and East Asia (Princeton University Press, 1991).

 

RECOMMENDED READING:

 

Bruce Cummings, “The Origins and Development of the Northeast Asian Political Economy: Industrial Sector, Product Cycles, and Political Consequences,” International Organization 38 (1984), pp. 1-40.

 

WEEK 4

Oct. 20: Japanese colonialism and the Korean developmental state

 

Atul Kohli, “Where Do High-Growth Political Economies Come from? The Japanese Lineage of Korea’s “Developmental State,” World Development 22: 9 (1997), pp. 1269-1293

 

Stephan Haggard et al., “Japanese Colonialism and Korean Development: A Critique,” World Development 25: 6 (1997), pp. 867-881.

 

Atul Kohli, “Japanese Colonialism and Korean Development: A Reply,” World Development 25: 6 (1997), pp. 883-888.

 

RECOMMENDED READING:

 

Yang Jonghoe, “Colonial Legacy and Modern Economic Growth in Korea: A Critical Examination of Their Relationship,” Development and Society 33: 1 (June 2004), pp. 1-24.

 

Oct. 22: Taiwan

 

REQUIRED READING:

 

Thomas Gold, “The Waning of the KMT State on Taiwan,” in Kjeld Brodsgaard and Susan Young, eds. State Capacity in East Asia (Oxford University Press, 2000), 85-99 [not the entire chapter].

 

Yongping Wu, A Political Explanation of Economic Growth, chapter 1 (Harvard University Press, 2005).

 

RECOMMENDED READING:

 

Susan Greenhalgh, “Supranational Process of Income Distribution,” in Edwin Winkler and Susan Greenhalgh, eds. Contending Approaches to the Political Economy of Taiwan (M.E. Sharpe, 1988).

 

WEEK 5

Oct. 27: War, State Formation and Developmental States

 

REQUIRED READING:

 

*Richard Stubbs, “War and Economic Development: Export-Oriented Industrialization in East and Southeast Asia,” Comparative Politics 31: 3 (April 1999), pp. 337-355

 

Tuong Vu, “State Formation and the Origins of Developmental States in South Korea and Indonesia,” Studies in Comparative International Development 41: 4 (2007).

 

RECOMMENDED READING:

 

Meredith Woo-Cumings, “National Security and the Rise of Developmental States in South Korea and Taiwan,” in Henry Rowen, ed., Behind East Asian Growth (Routledge, 1998).

 

Oct. 29: Socialist developmental states in Asia

 

REQUIRED READING:

 

Justin Lin et al., The China Miracle (Chinese University Press, 1996), chapter 2.

 

Benedict Kerkvliet and Mark Selden, “Agrarian Transformations in China and Vietnam,” The China Journal 40 (July 1998), pp. 37-58.

 

Nicholas Eberstadt, “Material Progress in Korea since Partition” in Ramon Myers, ed., The Wealth of Nations in the Twentieth Century (Hoover Institution Press, 1996), pp. 131-163.

 

RECOMMENDED READING:

 

Justin Lin et al., The China Miracle (Chinese University Press, 1996), chapter 3.

 

Christine White, “Recent Debates in Vietnamese Development Policy,” in Gordon White et al, eds., Revolutionary Socialist Development in the Third World (University of Kentucky Press, 1983), pp. 234-270

 

WEEK 6

Nov. 3: Transition to market economy in China and Vietnam I

 

REQUIRED READING:

 

Yongnian Zheng, Globalization and State Transformation in China, chapters 4-5.

 

James Riedel and William Turley, “The Politics and Economics of Transition to an Open Market Economy in Vietnam.” OECD Development Center Working Paper no. 152 (1999)

 

RECOMMENDED READING:

 

Adam Fforde, “From Plan to Market: The Economic Transition in Vietnam and China Compared,” in Anita Chan et al, eds. Transforming Asian Socialism: China and Vietnam Compared (Rowman & Littlefield, 1999), pp. 43-72.

 

Ari Kokko and Fredrik Sjoholm, “Some Alternative Scenarios for the Role of the State in Vietnam,” The Pacific Review 13: 2 (2000), 257-277

 

 

Melanie Beresford, “Doi Moi in Review: The Challenges of Building Market Socialism in Vietnam,” Journal of Contemporary Asia 38: 2 (May 2008), pp. 221-243.

 

Nov 5: Transition to market economy in China and Vietnam II

 

REQUIRED READING;

 

Yongnian Zheng, Globalization and State Transformation in China, chapters 7-8.

 

*Hy Van Luong and Jonathan Unger, “Wealth, Power and Poverty in the Transition to Market Economy: The Process of Socio-Economic Differentiation in Rural China and North Vietnam,” The China Journal 40 (July 1998), pp. 61-93

 

RECOMMENDED READING:

 

Ching Kwan Lee, “From the Specter of Mao to the Spirit of the Law: Labor Insurgency in China,” Theory and Society 31 (2002), pp. 189-228.

 

Christopher Heurling, “Ruling the Chinese Countryside: Rights Consciousness, Collective Action and Property Rights,” unpublished paper (2008).

 

WEEK 7

Nov. 10: States and development in Southeast Asia

 

REQUIRED READING:

 

Richard Doner, Bryan Ritchie and Daniel Slater, “Systemic Vulnerability and the Origins of Developmental States.” International Organization 59: 2 (2005), pp. 327-361.

 

Kevin Grice and David Drakakis-Smith, “The Role of the State in Shaping Development: Two Decades of Growth in Singapore,” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series, 10: 3 (1985), 347-359.

 

RECOMMENDED READING:

 

Chris Dixon, Southeast Asia in the World Economy, chapter 5, pp. 149-216.

 

Nov. 12: Development Viewed from Below and Its Consequences

 

REQUIRED READING:

 

Jonathan Rigg, Southeast Asia, chapters 3-4

 

RECOMMENDED READING:

 

*Shamsul, A. B., “The Politics of Poverty Eradication: The Implementation of Development Projects in a Malaysian District.” Pacific Affairs 56: 3 (Autumn 1983), 455-476.

 

Tuong Vu, Indonesia’s Agrarian Movement: Anti-Capitalism at a Crossroads,” in Dominique Caouette and Sarah Turner, eds., Agrarian Angst and Rural Resistance in Southeast Asia (Routledge, 2009).

 

WEEK 8

Nov. 17: The Rural economy and the rural-urban connection

 

REQUIRED READING:

 

Jonathan Rigg, Southeast Asia, chapters 5 and 7.

 

RECOMMENDED READING:

 

*Rodolph de Koninck, “The Integration of the Peasantry: Examples from Malaysia and Indonesia.” Pacific Affairs 52: 2 (Summer 1979), pp. 265-293.

 

Nov. 19: Labor under stress

 

REQUIRED READING:

 

Jonathan Rigg, Southeast Asia, chapter 6.

 

Frederic Deyo, “State and Labor: Modes of Political Exclusion in East Asia,” in Frederic Deyo, ed. The Political Economy of the New Asian Industrialism (Cornell University Press, 1987), pp. 182-202.

 

RECOMMENDED READING:

 

Hagen Koo, “The State, Minjung, and the Working Class in South Korea,” in Hagen Koo, ed. State and Society in Contemporary Korea (Cornell University Press, 1993), pp. 131-162.

 

WEEK 9

Nov. 24: From Miracle to Meltdown

 

REQUIRED READING:

 

Paul Krugman, The Myth of Asia’s Miracle,” Foreign Affairs 73: 6 (Nov/Dec 1994), pp. 62-78

 

Norman Flynt, Miracle to Meltdown in Asia (Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 1-31.

 

Stephan Haggard, The Political Economy of the Asian Financial Crisis (Washington: Institute for International Economics, 2000), chapter 2, pp. 15-45.

 

RECOMMENDED READING:

 

Gregory Noble and John Ravenhill, eds. The Asian Financial Crisis and the Architecture of Global Finance (Cambridge University Press, 2000) Chapter 1 “Causes and Consequences”,   pp. 1-35.

 

Nov. 26: Thanksgiving holiday. No class.

 

WEEK 10

Dec 1: Future of Asia’s developmental states

 

REQUIRED READING:

 

Richard Katz, Japan: The System that Soured (East Gate Book, 1998), chapters 1 and 2.

 

Steven Vogel, “Can Japan Disengage? Winners and Losers in Japan’s Political Economy, and the Ties that Bind Them,” Social Science Japan Journal 2: 1 (1999), pp. 3-21.

 

RECOMMENDED READING:

 

Thomas Gold, “The Waning of the KMT State on Taiwan,” in Kjeld Brodsgaard and Susan Young, eds. State Capacity in East Asia (Oxford University Press, 2000), 99-113.

 

CJL Wee, 2001. “The end of disciplinary modernization? The Asian financial crisis and the ongoing reinvention of Singapore,” Third World Quarterly 22: 6, pp. 987-1002.

 

 

Dec 3: Regional and International Integration

 

REQUIRED READING:

 

Zheng Yongnian, 2004. Globalization and State Transformation in China (Cambridge University Press), chapters 1 and 8.

 

Richard Robison et al. “Transplanting the neoliberal state in Southeast Asia,” in Richard Boyd and Tak-wing Ngo, eds. Asian States: Beyond the Developmental Perspective (Routledge Curzon, 2000).

 

RECOMMENDED READING:

 

Christopher McNally and Yin-Wah Chu, “Exploring Capitalist Development in Greater China: A Synthesis,” Asian Perspective 30: 2 (2006), 31-64.

 

Edmund Malesky, “Push, Pull, and Reinforcing: The Channels of FDI Influence on Provincial Governance in Vietnam,” in Benedict Kerkvliet and David Marr, eds. Beyond Hanoi: Local Government in Vietnam (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2004), pp. 285-333.

 

 

Take-home Exam due December 8 (no late exams accepted)