1995 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Economic Growth and Democratic Power in Developing Countries
| Project/Area Number |
06044245
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for international Scientific Research
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | Joint Research |
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| Research Institution | The Institute of Statistical Research |
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Principal Investigator |
MITANI Katsumi Chief Economist, Institute of Statistical Research Honorary Professor, Tohoku Fukushi University, 参与・主任研究員, 名誉教授 (50142055)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
SUVINAI Pornavalai Associate Professor, Faculty of Economics, Thammasat University, 政治学部, 準教授
PRASERT Chit タマサート大学, 政治学部, 準教授
USUI Tutomu Professor, Takasaki College of Commerce, 教授 (90223536)
TAMURA Toshiyuki Professor of Economics, Tokyo Metropolitan University, 経済学部, 教授 (10086978)
IKEMOTO Yukio Assistant Professor, Kyoto Univeristy Center for South-East Asian Studies, 東南アジア研究センター, 助教授 (20222911)
SHIMOMURA Yasutami Professor, Graduate School of Policy Science, Saitama University, 大学院・政策科学研究科, 教授 (60241923)
PRASERT Chittiwatanapong Associate Professor, Faculty of Political Science, Thammasat University
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| Project Period (FY) |
1994 – 1995
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| Keywords | Democratic regime / Authoritarian regime / Developmentalist regime / Economic development and democratization / Social transformation / Income distribution / New middle class / Diversity / Country conditions |
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| Research Abstract |
Our purpose is to make an empirical study of the relations between economic development and democratization in East Asia, synthesizing the social, political and economic aspects.
In Korea and Thailand, economic development under the "developmentalist regimes" led to social pluralism and accerelated the processess of political liberalization and democratization.
During the rapid economic development, both Korea and Thailand experienced the evolution of so-called "new middle class".The military regimes in these two countries had to step down when the broad based coalition were built up between the new middle classes and students/intellectuals.
In Taiwan too, remarkable economic development finally made an end of single party dominance, through the introduction of multi party election.
In contrast, the de facto single party dominance in Singapore does not show any sign of fundamental changes, Indonesia also provides an interesting case, which is quite different from the experiences of Thailand.The new middle class do not show strong political interest.Instead they are oriented towards cultural and religious activities.
The Phillippines shows fundamental differences from East Asian neighbors.Neither democratic regimes and the authoritarian regime of Ferdinand Marcos, which in our opinion did not meet the conditions of developmentalist regime, failed economic development.The most important element explaining this failure is the land ownership structure.
When we focus the attention on the effect of democratization on economic development, a notable case is found in the post-war-era Japan.In other parts of East Asia, while recent democratization coexists with remarkable economic development, it is not easy to find enough evidence of logical relationship between them.
A central message of our study is the diversity in the mutual relations between economic development and democratization, which depends on the country conditions.
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