East Asian Industrialization and the Third World
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East Asian Industrialization and the Third World by Kassian Polin
Stellar growth, rising living standards, and escalating international competitiveness in the economies of East Asia have captured the attention of policymakers and researchers in other Third World countries. Much has been made in recent years of the differences between the patterns of development in East Asia and those in Latin America, Africa, and the Caribbean. The remarkable success of the East Asian �miracle countries� has left a deep imprint on scholars and policymakers. Latin America achieved independence more than a century before many East Asian countries, although the latter had a much briefer colonial experience. By the time East Asian trailblazers such as South Korea and Taiwan gained independence after World War II, many Latin American countries had had far higher standards of living and levels of industrialization, urbanization, education, and health. By the 1980s, however, East Asia had overtaken even the more developed countries of Latin America such as Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile, and those in Africa and the Caribbean. This article will analyze the patterns of economic development in these regions, and attempt to draw conclusions about this disparity in the pace of industrialization.
In the 1930s, decades of economic malaise in Latin America prompted many local intellectuals to question the soundness of the Western theory of comparative advantage, and by extension, the neo-classical development model. Raul Prebisch, the renowned Argentinean economist, complained that industrialized countries such as the U.S. and those in Europe depressed prices in the region by buying substitutable goods elsewhere and producing surplus materials for export themselves. Third World countries, including those in Latin America, began to call for growing Keynesian state intervention to stabilize local industries and provide jobs. Prebisch, who was the
East Asian Industrialization and the Third World by Kassian Polin
Stellar growth, rising living standards, and escalating international competitiveness in the economies of East Asia have captured the attention of policymakers and researchers in other Third World countries. Much has been made in recent years of the differences between the patterns of development in East Asia and those in Latin America, Africa, and the Caribbean. The remarkable success of the East Asian �miracle countries� has left a deep imprint on scholars and policymakers. Latin America achieved independence more than a century before many East Asian countries, although the latter had a much briefer colonial experience. By the time East Asian trailblazers such as South Korea and Taiwan gained independence after World War II, many Latin American countries had had far higher standards of living and levels of industrialization, urbanization, education, and health. By the 1980s, however, East Asia had overtaken even the more developed countries of Latin America such as Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile, and those in Africa and the Caribbean. This article will analyze the patterns of economic development in these regions, and attempt to draw conclusions about this disparity in the pace of industrialization.
In the 1930s, decades of economic malaise in Latin America prompted many local intellectuals to question the soundness of the Western theory of comparative advantage, and by extension, the neo-classical development model. Raul Prebisch, the renowned Argentinean economist, complained that industrialized countries such as the U.S. and those in Europe depressed prices in the region by buying substitutable goods elsewhere and producing surplus materials for export themselves. Third World countries, including those in Latin America, began to call for growing Keynesian state intervention to stabilize local industries and provide jobs. Prebisch, who was the