Emerging Capitalism in Central Europe and Southeast Asia A Comparison of Political Economies

by Bafoil, François

• ISBN13: 9781137383051
• ISBN10: 1137383054
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-09-18
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

This book examines the emergence of different forms of capitalism in Central-Eastern states in Europe and Mekong states within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). All of them (but Thailand) have historically disappeared from the regional maps for long periods of time due to colonial or imperial rule. Most of them were previously members of a soviet-type economy, and they all joined ASEAN or the European Union in the 1990s or in the 2000s. These states are characterized by a strong urge toward feelings of national sovereignty due to their experiences with colonialism and imperialism. But, due to the regional economic pressures and the globalization dynamic, these states cannot articulate protectionist policies. They are forced to open their economies in order to attract Foreign Direct Investments. This results in less regulated and more political forms of capitalism than in some more developed capitalist countries. This book analyzes forms of capitalism as the arising from a combination of three conditions: the legacy of the foreign occupations, the national construction process of the sovereign state, and lastly, the dynamics of regional integration. These states' claims to national sovereignty and the manner in which they developed suggests a causative link between the forms of political domination that have presided over these transformations and the forms of capitalism that have resulted.

Author Biography

François Bafoil is a full time CNRS academic at CERI/Sciences Po, Paris, France. A renowned specialist of Regional development and energy policies in Central Europe and Southeast Asia, Bafoil has served as a research fellow at Lodz University, Poland (1984), Humboldt Foundation Fellow at the FU and invited Professor at WZB Berlin, Germany (1988-1994). He was an EU expert at the ministry of Economy in Warsaw (2002-2003) and a Special Advisor at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2008. From 2006 to 2010 he organized training sessions for the Greater Mekong Sub-region people at the Asian Development Bank, Bangkok, China. He is the author of Central and Eastern Europe: Europeanization and Social Change (2009).

Table of Contents

Introduction: National sovereignty: Economic Markets and Legal Systems
The Objects of Comparison
1. What is an 'Under-Developed' State in Historical Terms?
Groups of Countries in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia
The Historical Consequences of Underdevelopment
2. Political Capitalism and Market Economies
Are the Different Systems of Legal Rule Complementary or Incompatible?
Personal Rule, Rule by Law, and Rule of Law
Two Categories of Capitalism: Political versus Market
Conclusion
3. Patterns of Development in Southeast Asia
The Transformation of the Japanese Evolutionist Model
The Developmental State
The Developmental Regionalism
The Under-Developed Status of Mekong Delta Countries
The Geopolitics of Foreign Investment
Conclusion
4. State Liberalism and Market Socialism: A Comparison between Singapore and Vietnam
Nomenklatura Capitalism
Singapore
Vietnam
Conclusion
5. Cambodia: Political Capitalism and the Prebendal State
The 'Hun Sen System' - The Power of Prebends
Special Economic Zones
Conclusion: The End of Developmentalism
6. The Improbable German Model: Lessons from German Social and Economic Reunification
The Violence of Money: Full Conversion to the Deutschmark, July 1, 1990
The Impossible Transfer
East German Dependency
Conclusion
7. Industrial Companies and Territories: The Reform Process in Central and Eastern Europe
A Non-political Vision of Economic Policy
Weak Collective Action
Industrial Policy
Conclusion
8. Growing Capitalism: The Waves of Expansion in the EU and ASEAN
Why Did the EU and ASEAN Expand?
Deepening Divides
The EU and Central and Eastern European countries: Top-down Deregulatory Pressures
Strengthening the Political Personality of 'Smaller' States: The Limitations of Hegemony.
Conclusion: Hybrid Forms of Dependent Capitalism