INTS 263 Comparative Political Economy of East Asia

A comparative study of the interactions between politics and economics in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. Topics covered include developmental states, state-society interactions, state-business relations, labor politics, economic and political development, and welfare politics. The key questions we will address for this course are as follows. How to understand the growth patterns and the so-called “economic miracles” of these three countries? What is the role played by the state in their political and economic development? What are the characteristics of the state-society relations in general and the relationship between the state, business, and labor in particular in these three countries? What is the relationship between economic development and political development? What are the political, economic, and social impacts of democratization and globalization on these three countries?