Current Issue
Editor's Introduction
This issue of the Center for Society & Economy’s Policy Newsletter
presents four expert views of the recent economic crisis in Asia. A principal
theme of these articles is the need to look beyond such easy categorizations
as “Asian economies.” John Lie’s article pointedly asks,
“The Asian Economic Crisis; Or, What Crisis?”
Emphasizing the remarkable recovery of several economies from the 1997
financial crisis, Lie insists that we view Asian economies in historical
context and with due respect for their diversity and relative autonomy.
The theme of diversity is also sounded by Nicole W. Biggart and Mauro
F. Guillén in “Why Difference Pays in
the Global Economy.” Taking a sociological view of the crisis,
Biggart and Guillén argue that much economic analysis–and
prescription–rests on an idealized model of how economies work that
obscures critical social and cultural differences among real-world economies.
In reality, they maintain, economies are as diverse as nations and national
cultures. Moreover, diversity pays–not just in economies, but in
modes of analysis as well.
Hiroyuki Hasegawa likewise emphasizes the cultural and social setting
of economies in “Economic Crisis, Modernization,
and the New Roles of Government in East Asia.” Hasegawa argues
that deep structural factors underlie the immediate causes of the Asian
crisis and focuses on the changes required in the traditional role of
government in Asian societies if Asian economies are to become fully modernized.
Finally, Lisa A. Keister’s “Firm Borrowing
and China’s Financial Market” focuses on the need for significant
change in the way firms are financed in China as that country makes the
transition from socialism. Like the other articles in this issue, Keister’s
work blends historical, cultural, and economic analysis to provide a more
complete picture of the causes and cures of economic distress.
My thanks to the authors of this fine series of articles on the Asian
economic crisis..
Wayne E. Baker
Editor
wayneb@umich.edu
Link to Article Index
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