POL 387: POLITICAL ECONOMY OF EAST ASIA

The University of Mississippi
Fall 2010, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 13:00 - 14:15, 202 Croft Institute
Instructor: Dr. Gang Guo * Office: 128 Deupree Hall * Telephone: (662) 915-5419 * e-mail: gg at olemiss dot edu
Office hours: by appointment

Course Overview

Course Schedule

On-line Resources

Map of Asia

BlackBoard

COURSE OVERVIEW

This course is an introduction to the political economy of East Asia. In the past decades the economies of East Asia (broadly defined to include all the Asian countries east of Myanmar) have generally performed well compared with the rest of the world. Political scientists and economists, among others, have offered various and often opposing explanations for East Asia's high growth, as well as for the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 - 1998. A large part of the debates center on the role of the state in the economic development of East Asia. Therefore, starting with an overview of the performance of East Asian economies, this course shall examine the development strategies and policies of the major economies in the region. Conflicting arguments shall be discussed and analyzed and by the end of the semester students are expected to have developed sufficiently sophisticated skills and understanding for their further study of the political economy of East Asia.

This course has a heavy reading load and links to the readings will be posted and updated on this web page throughout the semester, so students should visit the course web site regularly. It is essential for students to read (often critically) the required materials before class and attend all class sessions. Class attendance accounts for 10% of the course grade.

Each student is also required to make a brief (about 10 minutes) in-class presentation of a most recent news on East Asia. The presentation accounts for 10% of the course grade. In reporting the news, the presenter should synthesize news stories from at least two major mass media outlets. If necessary the presenter should also provide some background information to help the class understand the story better. After each presentation there will be a short period in which the presenter responds to questions or comments from the audience. For the preparation of the presentation, there are many English-language websites that cover news on East Asia. Some of those are linked from the online resources section on this web page.

There will be two essay assignments, one scheduled mid-term exam, and one final exam for the course. The essay assignments will be posted on BlackBoard and account for 20% of the grade. The mid-term exam in class on Thursday, October 7 accounts for 25% of the course grade. The final exam will start at noon on Thursday, December 9. It accounts for 35% of the course grade.

Note

Beginning in Fall 2006, grades lower than C in political science courses will not be counted toward the political science major.
If you can not open the PDF files you may need to download and install the free Adobe Acrobat Reader.
If you can not open the PowerPoint files you may need to download and install the free PowerPoint Viewer.

COURSE SCHEDULE

Date	Day	Lecture Notes	Required Readings
Part I: Introduction and Overview
August 24	Tuesday	Introduction
August 26	Thursday	Issues and Concepts	World Development Report 1997, Chapter 1: The Evolving Role of the State , pages 19-28. World Development Report 2002, Chapter 5: Political Institutions and Governance, pages 97-116.
August 31	Tuesday	Asian Century: An East Asia Perspective	Lingle, Christopher. 1998. Chapter 3: Imaging the "Asian Century", in The Rise and Decline of the Asian Century: False Starts on the Path to the Global Millennium, Pages 49-70. Campos, Jose Edgardo & Hilton L. Root. 1996. Chapter 1: East Asia's Road to High Growth, in The Key to the Asian Miracle: Making Shared Growth Credible, Pages 1-27.
September 2	Thursday	East Asian Development Strategies	Chung-in Moon & Rashemi Prasad. 1998. Chapter 2: Networks, Politics, and Institutions, in Beyond the Developmental State: East Asia's political economies reconsidered, edited by Steve Chan, Cal Clark, and Danny Lam. Pages 9-24. Clark, Cal & Steve Chan. 1998. Chapter 3: Market, State, and Society in Asian Development, in Beyond the Developmental State: East Asia's political economies reconsidered, Pages 25-37. Islam, Iyanatul & Anis Chowdhury. 2000. Chapter 1: The Evolution of East Asian Political Economy: An Analytical History, in The Political Economy of East Asia: Post-Crisis Debates, pages 1-21.
September 7	Tuesday	Asian Financial Crisis: The End of the Asian Miracle	Robins, Fred. 2000. Asia's 1997 Crash: its Character, Causes and Consequences, in The East Asian Development Model: Economic Growth, Institutional Failure and the Aftermath of the Crisis, Pages, 17-52.
September 9	Thursday	East Asian Development Model Recosidered	Feng, Yi. 2000. Political Foundations of Economic Management: an Interpretation of Economic Development and Economic Crisis in East Asia, in The East Asian Development Model: Economic Growth, Institutional Failure and the Aftermath of the Crisis, Pages, 71-96.
September 14	Tuesday	Video: "Asian Values Devalued"	Lingle, Christopher. 2000. The Institutional Basis of Asia's Economic Crisis, in The East Asian Development Model: Economic Growth, Institutional Failure and the Aftermath of the Crisis, Pages, 53-70.
Part II: Political Economy of East Asia Countries
September 16	Thursday	Japan in the 1960s	Pempel, T.J..1998. Chapter 2: Japan in the 1960s: Conservative Politics and Economic Growth, in Regime Shift: Comparative Dynamics of the Japanese Political Economy, Pages 42-80.
September 21	Tuesday	Japan in the 1990s	Pempel, T.J..1998. Chapter 5: Japan in the 1990s: Fragmented Politics and Economic Turmoil, in Regime Shift: Comparative Dynamics of the Japanese Political Economy, Pages 136-168.
September 23	Thursday	Political and Economic Transformation	Pempel, T.J. 2005. Chapter 2: Revisiting the Japanese Economic Model, in Japan and China in the World Political Economy, Pages 29-44.
September 28	Tuesday	South Korean Economic Development	Choo, Myung-Gun. 2000. Chapter 4: South Korea: the Tragedy of Partition and the Response, in The New Asia in Global Perspective, Pages 73-94.
September 30	Thursday	Sources of the South Korean Economic Crisis	Shin, dongyoub. 2000. Dual Sources of the South Korean Economic Crisis: Institutional and Organisational Failures and the Structural Transformation of the Economy, in The East Asian Development Model: Economic Growth, Institutional Failure and the Aftermath of the Crisis, Pages 169-202.
October 5	Tuesday	Assignment on BlackBoard	"Guide to Country Comparisons" in the CIA World Factbook.
October 7	Thursday	Mid-term Exam	All of the above.
October 12	Tuesday	China's Economic Reform - an Overview	Naughton, Barry. 2007. Introduction, in The Chinese Economy: Transitions and Growth, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
October 14	Thursday	Movie: "China in the Red" (1998 and 1999)	Naughton, Barry. 1995. Introduction: China's Economic Reform in Comparative Perspective, in Growing Out of the Plan: Chinese Economic Reform, 1978-1993, Pages 1 - 20.
October 19	Tuesday	Movie: "China in the Red" (2000 and 2001)	Naughton, Barry. 1999. ``China's Transition in Economic Perspective", in The Paradox of China's Post-Mao Reforms, edited by Merle Goldman and Roderick MacFarquhar, pages 30 - 44. Download assignment in PDF format
October 21	Thursday	Current Political Economy Regime in China's Mainland	Wu, Guoguang. 2010. "China in 2009: Muddling through Crises, in Asian Survey, Volume 50, Issue 1, pages 25 - 39.
October 26	Tuesday	Comparing Mainland China and Taiwan	Bass, Hans H.. 2000. Export Dynamics in Taiwan and Mainland China 1950 - 2000, in Asia Pacific Dynamism 1550 - 2000, edited by A.J.H. Latham and Heita Kawakatsu, pages 117 - 148.
October 28	Thursday	China and Asian Economic Crisis	Naughton, Barry. 1999. China: Domestic Restructuring and a New Role in Asia, in The Political Economy of Asian Economic Crisis, edited by T.L. Pempel, Pages 203-223.
November 2	Tuesday	Comparing Taiwan and South Korea	Park, Phillip Hookon. 2000. A Reflection on the East Asian Development Model: Comparison of the South Korean and Taiwanese Experiences, in The East Asian Development Model, edited by Frank-Jurgen Richter, pages 141 - 168.
November 4	Thursday	Comparing Hong Kong and Singapore	Lam, Newman M.K.. 2000. ``Government Intervention in the Economy: A Comparative Analysis of Singapore and Hong Kong", in Public Administration and Development, volume 20, pages 397 - 421.
Part III: East Asia and Globalization
November 9	Tuesday	The Debate about Globalization	Bhagwati, Jagdish N. "Anti-Globalization: Why?" Chapter 1 in In Defense of Globalization, Oxford University Press, March 2004.
November 11	Thursday	US-China Trade	Burdekin, Richard C.K. "China and the Depreciating U.S. Dollar." Asia-Pacific Issues, No. 79. Honolulu, HI: East-West Center, January 2006.
November 16	Tuesday	PRC-Japan-ASEAN relations	Ba, Alice D. "China and ASEAN: Renavigating Relations for a 21st-Century Asia", in Asian Survey, Volume 43, Number 4, July/August 2003, pages 622-647. Stubbs, Richard. ``ASEAN Plus Three: Emerging East Asian Regionalism?", in Asian Survey, Volume 42, Number 3, May/June 2002, pages 440 - 455.
November 18	Thursday	Assignment on BlackBoard	"Guide to Country Comparisons" in the CIA World Factbook.
November 30	Tuesday	economic cooperation and integration	Lambert, Bruce Henry. ``Northeast Asian Dynamism: Ten Top Impediments and Countermeasures", in The European Institute of Japanese Studies Working Paper Series, Number 145, May 2002. Amyx, Jennifer. "What Motivates Regional Financial Cooperation in East Asia Today?" Asia-Pacific Issues, No. 76. Honolulu, HI: East-West Center, February 2005.
December 2	Thursday	APEC	APEC Secretariat. APEC at a Glance 2010/2011. McKay, John. "APEC: Successes, Weaknesses, and Future Prospects", in Southeast Asian Affairs, 2002, pages 42-53.
December 4	Tuesday	Final Exam	All of the above since the mid-term exam

ONLINE RESOURCES

Google News
The Wall Street Journal
Financial Times - Asia
The Economist
CNN Asia
BBC Asia-Pacific
Asia Society
South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong newspaper.
New York Times - Asia Pacific
Asahi Shinbun
Korean Government Homepage
Embassy of the People's Republic of China, in Washington D.C.
Embassy of Japan, in Washington D.C.
Embassy of the Republic of Korea, in Washington D.C.
Embassy of India, in Washington D.C.
Embassy of the United States of America, in Beijing.
Embassy of the United States of America, in Tokyo.
Embassy of the United States of America, in Seoul.
Embassy of the United States of America, in New Delhi.
Development, Democracy, and Welfare States: Latin America, East Asia, and Eastern Europe, by Stephan Haggard and Robert R. Kaufman.
Analyzing the Global Political Economy, by Andrew Walter and Gautam Sen.