Abstract
In his latest book, Governance in Pacific Asia, Peter Ferdinand takes up a subject that is both important and timely: important because the far-reaching transformations of this rapidly developing region are rarely presented in comprehensive and systematic ways; and timely because democratic rollbacks and territorial disputes (such as the conflicts surrounding the South and East China Seas) have brought the issue of governance in Asia into the spotlight of international political affairs. To be sure, a number of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries – such as Thailand, Indonesia and Myanmar – have arrived at a crossroads where power structures are reshuffled, policy directions renegotiated and economic pathways redefined. Against this backdrop, Ferdinand’s inquiry into the region’s socio-political and economic change is of great interest for scholars and professionals alike. What are the key lessons from the Asian Miracle thus far? What explains that a group of highly diverse nations has achieved long periods of extensive and equitable growth? To what extent does Asia’s experience usher in new debate about the success of the ‘developmental state’, the role of technocratic oversight and the sequencing of economic and political liberalisation? It is questions like these that frame Ferdinand’s cross-cutting effort and help to contextualise the political economy of Asian governance.
The book comprises 14 chapters that lucidly traverse a broad range of thematic areas. It starts with a brief historical account of the region’s economic and political development, including colonial influences, state-building efforts and modernisation strategies. The author highlights salient differences to Western trajectories, but also accurately stresses the continuing diversity that lies at the centre of Pacific Asia’s experience. The book then addresses the ‘elephant in the room’ – the role of government intervention and state guidance, or, as it is often referred to, the ‘developmental state’ model. Here, the discussion provides a well-balanced introduction, as well as two sectoral case studies that provide comparative snapshots of the region’s industrial and agricultural policies. This paves the ground for a closer look into the region’s governance structures in business and finance. The author acknowledges a gradual shift from administrative control to liberal reform, while, at the same time, stressing the tenacity of network capitalism and corporatist modes of governance. The latter chapters of the book then focus on a subject that has raised much international concern in recent years: the prospects and obstacles for further democratic consolidation and regional integration.
One of the book’s greatest strengths is its systematic and empirically grounded effort to discuss different pathways of development and socio-political change in Asia. Undoubtedly, it is a daunting challenge to keep track of a potpourri of 17 countries and distil the essence of a diverse set of social, economic and political experiences. The author tackles a remarkable breadth of governance-defining issues in this 380-page monograph. Above all, he succeeds in providing a thoughtful and nuanced assessment of the ways in which state bureaucracies and policymaking mechanisms are intertwined with economic and societal domains, and how these intricate linkages facilitate and constrain the policy choices at hand.
The ambitious task, however, of covering a vast diversity of economic and political experiences imposes certain trade-offs. One drawback is the fairly unbalanced coverage of country cases. In several parts of the book, the discussion is notably skewed towards Northeast Asia. The author’s choice of analytical narratives and empirical snapshots – which draw heavily on experiences in China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan and less on those in Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Brunei and Papua New Guinea – may be motivated by two things. First, the Northern realm’s advanced level of development (Japan, South Korea and Taiwan) and double-digit growth rates (China) offer valuable vantage points from which the author derives key insights into Asia’s success story. Second, the geographical preference is fairly consistent with the author’s academic and professional background, which evinces a clear leaning towards Northeast Asian affairs. This inclination might also explain that some propositions concerning Southeast Asia are less convincing. For instance, the claim that Indonesia and Malaysia have pursued ‘distinctively Muslim paths for development’ (p. 90) over the past three decades is problematic in two respects. First, it obfuscates important differences in colonial and socio-political experiences and fails to acknowledge how these distinctions affected respective development trajectories. Second, it appears to be a misleading characterisation of key actors, interests and ideas. Arguably, the path to modernity in Indonesia and Malaysia (as in many other parts of Southeast Asia) has been shaped by the strong influence of foreign-educated technocrats and Overseas Chinese, while traditional Islamic actors and norms (such as Zakat or Riba) have, by and large, been relegated to local communities and non-commercialised domains.
These qualifications notwithstanding, Ferdinand’s Governance in Pacific Asia offers a well-structured and very accessible overview of a variety of topics that elucidate the workings of a diverse set of Asian polities. As such, it offers valuable insights to students and practitioners whose interests lie at the interface of Asian affairs, political reform and economic development. Given its wide-ranging thematic and geographical scope, the book will prove to be a useful reference work for years to come.