Asian Governance

Alice D. Ba

Asian governance is an ambiguous and often-contested term used to describe or distinguish governance arrangements in East Asia (defined as Northeast plus Southeast Asia). In general, Asian governance refers to political systems and economic development defined by an interventionist state and corporatist political arrangements involving close coordination between public and private (especially government-business) actors. Governance in East Asia is distinguished by a personalistic and particularistic style of governance and capitalism that contrasts with the legalism, impersonalism, and universalism of Western liberalism and capitalism. Often associated with Asian authoritarianism because of the number of nonliberal democracies in East Asia, Asian governance is characterized as state-led and top-down, rather than grassroots and bottom-up in structure. Asian governance is part of larger debates about development and in particular the emergence of East Asia's “miracle economies” (Singapore, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong) and later the newly exporting economies of Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The term ...

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