Coping with globalization: Asian versus Latin American strategies of development, 1980-2010

• Main Author: Atul kohli
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Editora 34 2012-12-01
• Series: Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
• Subjects: capitalist development; Washington consensus; economic performance
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0101-31572012000400001

When compared to Latin America, Asian economies since 1980 have grown faster and have done so with relatively modest inequalities. Why? A comparison of Asia and Latin America underlines the superiority of the nationalist capitalist model of development, which has often been pursued more explicitly in Asia, over that of a dependent capitalist model, which has often been pursued in Latin America. In comparison to Latin America, the Asian model has facilitated higher and less volatile rates of economic growth and a greater political room to pursue social democratic policies. The "tap root" of these alternate pathways is relative autonomy from global constraints: states and economies in Asia have been more nationalist and autonomous than in Latin America.