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42. China's Social Unrest: The Story Behind the Stories
- Author:
- Albert Kiedel
- Publication Date:
- 09-2006
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- Abstract:
- China is confronting widespread violent and even deadly social unrest, raising Communist Party alarms about national security. Some observers speculate that unrest could undermine China's national leadership, as it did in the Ukraine and the Philippines. Some U.S. policy makers might welcome unrest in China as a path to democracy and “freedom.” But rather than an opportunity to transform China's political order, China's social unrest should be understood as the unavoidable side effects—worsened by local corruption—of successful market reforms and expanded economic and social choice. Managing this unrest humanely requires accelerated reform of legal and social institutions with special attention to corruption. More violence would generate more suffering, potentially destabilizing East Asia and harming U.S. interests. The United States should encourage China to strengthen its social reconciliation capabilities, without making electoral political reform a prerequisite for intensifying engagement across the board.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Development, and Economics
- Political Geography:
- United States, China, Ukraine, East Asia, and Asia
43. Roaring tiger or lumbering elephant?
- Author:
- Mark P Thirlwell
- Publication Date:
- 09-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Lowy Institute for International Policy
- Abstract:
- In the past, there has been plenty of scepticism about India's economic prospects: for many, Charles De Gaulle's aphorism regarding Brazil, that it was a country with enormous potential, and always would be, seemed to apply equally well to the South Asian economy. While the 'tiger' economies of East Asia were enjoying economic take-off on the back of investment- and export-led growth, the lumbering Indian elephant seemed set to be a perpetual also-ran in the growth stakes. Yet following a series of reform efforts, first tentatively in the 1980s, and then with much more conviction in the 1990s, the Indian economic model has been transformed, and so too India's growth prospects. High profile successes in the new economy sectors of information technology (IT) and business process outsourcing (BPO), along with faster economic growth, triggered a widespread rethink regarding India's economic prospects, and a wave of foreign portfolio investment flowed into Indian markets. Perhaps India was set to be a tiger after all.
- Topic:
- Economics, Emerging Markets, and International Trade and Finance
- Political Geography:
- South Asia, India, East Asia, Asia, and Brazil
44. Taiwan In Search of a Strategic Consensus
- Author:
- Banning Garrett, Franklin Kramer, and Jonathan M. Adams
- Publication Date:
- 03-2006
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Atlantic Council
- Abstract:
- At the beginning of 2006, Taiwan is confronted with difficult choices that it currently seems unprepared to face. Cross-Strait tensions have diminished in the last year and Taiwan's economy has grown at an annualized rate of about 3.6 percent, which is respectable if not robust by East Asian standards. Taiwan, however, also faces an East Asian future which likely includes an increasingly important role for its relations with the Mainland as China becomes an ever more important economic and political factor regionally and globally.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Economics, and International Trade and Finance
- Political Geography:
- China, Taiwan, East Asia, and Asia
45. Regional Monetary Integration among Developing Countries: New Opportunities for Macroeconomic Stability beyond the Theory of Optimum Currency Areas?
- Author:
- Laurissa Muhlich and Barbara Fritz
- Publication Date:
- 12-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- German Institute of Global and Area Studies
- Abstract:
- Optimum Currency Area (OCA) approaches turn to be inadequate in the analysis of the new regional monetary integration schemes that have sprung up among developing and emerging market economies. Instead, in accordance with the concept of 'original sin' (Eichengreen et al.) we argue that regional monetary South-South integration schemes that, unlike North-South arrangements, involve none of the international reserve currencies, have specific monetary constraints and implications which need to be duly considered. A first comparative analysis of three cases of monetary South-South cooperation in South Africa (CMA), East Asia (ASEAN) and Latin America (Mercosur) shows that these can indeed provide macroeconomic stability gains but that this strongly depends on the existence of economic hierarchies within these integration schemes.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Foreign Exchange, and Third World
- Political Geography:
- East Asia, South Africa, and Latin America
46. Economic Growth and India's Future?
- Author:
- Joydeep Mukherji
- Publication Date:
- 03-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for the Advanced Study of India
- Abstract:
- Recent optimism about India is based on the view that the country may finally be on a higher growth trajectory after more than a decade of halting economic reform. Spurred by a balance of payments crisis a decade ago that pushed the government of India to nearly defaulting on its foreign debt, a series of coalition governments have slowly deregulated the once most-regulated economy outside the communist world. Over the years, the government has enlarged the role of market forces, given more freedom to the private sector, and cut barriers to domestic and foreign competition. At the same time, India's state governments have gained considerable autonomy from the central government, making India into the federal state envisaged in its constitution.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and International Trade and Finance
- Political Geography:
- India, East Asia, and Asia
47. India's New Entrepreneurial Classes: The High Growth Economy and Why it is Sustainable?
- Author:
- Sunil Bharti Mittal
- Publication Date:
- 02-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for the Advanced Study of India
- Abstract:
- I am Francine Frankel, director of the Center for the Advanced Study of India, and it is my great pleasure this evening to introduce our speaker for CASI's Annual Lecture, Sunil Bharti Mittal, the founder, chairman, and group managing director, Bharti Enterprises. I hardly need tell this audience that Bharti Tele-Ventures is India's leading telecom conglomerate and its largest mobile service operator.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and International Trade and Finance
- Political Geography:
- India, East Asia, and Asia
48. Scorecard on Corporate Governance in East Asia
- Author:
- Stephen Y.L. Cheung and Hasung Jang
- Publication Date:
- 12-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI)
- Abstract:
- The far reaching economic effects of the 1997 Asian financial crisis underscore the importance of structural reforms in the governance of the East Asian business sector. This paper measures the progress of corporate governance reforms in nine East Asian economies towards the guidelines established by the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC), as revealed empirically through two surveys. The first survey is a stock-taking exercise to take note of on-going reforms in corporate governance rules and regulations, while the second covers perceptions of the implementation and enforcement of corporate governance rules as seen by fund managers and analysts. This study indicates a divergence between the regulatory environment and market perceptions of corporate governance practices in the countries sampled. The survey results also show that, although the nine economies do not differ significantly in the corporate governance rules and regulations they have put in place, there is a significant difference in terms of market perceptions of their corporate governance practices. More than an academic exercise, this study is meant to share the experiences of corporate governance reform among East Asian economies.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, and Industrial Policy
- Political Geography:
- Israel, East Asia, and Asia
49. Central Asia Between Competition and Cooperation
- Author:
- Yu Bin
- Publication Date:
- 12-2006
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Foreign Policy In Focus
- Abstract:
- Great power competition in Central Asia ebbs and flows in a timeless and tireless fashion. Unlike in Europe and East Asia during the Cold War and after, the fault line for the current jockeying for position in Central Asia between Washington and Beijing is not easily discernible. Instead, fluidity, uncertainty, and even outright reversal of fortunes among the major players have been the norm.
- Topic:
- Cold War, Diplomacy, Economics, and International Cooperation
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Washington, Central Asia, and East Asia
50. Asia's Labour-Driven Economic Development, Flying-Geese Style: An Unprecedented Opportunity for the Poor to Rise?
- Author:
- Terutomo Ozawa
- Publication Date:
- 06-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- The notion of 'shared growth' was introduced by the World Bank in recognition of East Asia's rapid growth accompanied by poverty reduction. It emphasizes the criticality of pro-poor policies and institutional setups in the fast-developing East Asian economies. The efforts of these individual countries are, however, a necessary but not sufficient condition (explanation). There is a more essential, underlying region-wide mechanism that simultaneously promotes regionalized growth and specifically favours Asia's working mass of unskilled labour. Such an efficacious mechanism is posited in the 'flying-geese paradigm of comparative advantage recycling in labour-intensive goods'. The paper argues that a number of favourable factors have fortuitously coalesced to engender a considerably favourable condition for Asia's rapid catch-up growth in which unskilled labour (the poor) can participate as their countries' most vital input in labour-driven development.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and Poverty
- Political Geography:
- East Asia and Asia