Can the Asian economic development model survive, or dominate?
Asian societies have been the only ones to close the income gap with Western societies. Also economic growth has been dominated globally by East Asia for several years <274>, and there has been a presumption that this would continue leading to a dominance by the East Asian model. The latter is generally held to have involved a constructive economic role for government, based largely on the Japanese approach <10>. • A World Bank study in 1993 showed that there were many basics right in the Asian miracle (stable economic framework and legal system) but that government intervention had helped with low interest rates, and organising investment. <17> • All Asian economies followed Japan’s model in varying ways – with a mix of pro-market mechanisms and intervention. Using imported equipment the aim was to catch up to the West. This worked for a time, but: intervention is only useful in catch up and can lead to problems (in financial systems and over-capacity). Japan’s problem is compounded b
