Japan, Korea and China: development authoritarianism and democracy
A Perry
12 points * 2 hours per week * First semester * Clayton
Focusing on several major east Asian states, this subject seeks to explore some diverse kinds and degrees of political and economic change and development. Strong emphasis is given to studying the relationship between socio-economic changes and trends towards `democratic' or `authoritarian' politics and to a particular concern with ideas, `ideologies' and practices in the roles of the modern state. The subject examines developments in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and mainland China, looking at `traditional' political, social and economic structures, and their modification or disruption through political, economic and social changes and through contacts with `the West'. It also examines a variety of political, economic and social responses to, and consequences of, such pressures for change. Comparisons among these countries are made in an effort to test the ideas and theories of writers such as Barrington Moore Jr, Chalmers Johnson, Alice Amsden, Stephen Haggard, Peter Berger, Frederick Deyo, Robert Wade and Gordon White. Subjects explored may include political cooperation and conflict among bureaucrats, business corporations, politicians, trade unions and the military; the significance of gender and class.
Assessment
Written (6000 words): 50% * Examinations (3 hours): 50%
Recommended texts
Amsden A Asia's next giant: South Korea and late industrialisation OUP, 1992
Deyo F C (ed.) The political economy of the new Asian industrialism Cornell UP, 1987
Dreyer J T China's political system: Modernization and tradition Macmillan, 1993
Moore B Jr Social origins of dictatorship and democracy Pelican, 1969
Sheridan K Governing the Japanese economy Polity Press, 1993
Wade R Governing the market: Economic theory and the role of government in East Asian industrialization Princeton UP, 1990
White G Riding the tiger: The politics of economic reform in China Macmillan, 1993