Southeast Asian Journal of Economics 2(2), December 2014: 117-120
Book Review
Asian Economic Systems
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Review by May Li
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with westernization—and now, it is the time to upgrade this idea, for this
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importance of contextualization in development, and denies the impact of
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a refreshed understanding of the driving forces behind economic development
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visions of the good society shaped by their notions of community, religion and
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118 ‡ Southeast Asian Journal of Economics 2(2), December 2014
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intervention.
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command economy that criminalized private property, business and entrepreneurship, forced collective agriculture, pressed industrialization and
employed punitive disciplinary measures. The state, which is reminiscent of
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and arbiter of economic planning. Though the model has survived for half
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example of the danger of authoritarian political control.
The author then discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the other
four systems, and successfully demonstrates the importance of their respective
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is a balance between political authoritarianism and economic pragmatism, as
shown by the dominance of the government-controlled public sector and the
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Japanese communalism, shaped by its shame culture, similarly represses
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economic agenda in lieu of the Japanese shame culture and Chinese centralplanning.
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in varying degrees including Confucian-style family-based networking,
privilege-granting and privilege seeking.
May Li, Asian Economic Systems ‡ 119
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government, religion, cultural code and other non-market factors, and place
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possibility that freedom is an idea intrinsically different—not necessarily
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one that is still facing culture-based limits to market competition, culture
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globalization, and applying extreme democracy as well as rushing to
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to recognize the impracticality of complete market freedom in the short run is
not to deny the optimality of market freedom. Market communism, Japanese
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economic behaviors in each system are different, it is not hard to see the
positive correlation between economic performances and freedom. The
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incompatible ones.
120 ‡ Southeast Asian Journal of Economics 2(2), December 2014
Asian Economic System provides abundant insights, instructive
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international students, who want to understand the impending power shifts
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outlook, the book deserves high honors for its clarity in answering not only
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culture, Asian Economic System is a masterful overview.