Democracy, governance and economic performance

In evaluating democratic development, this study focuses particularly on the condition of parties and party systems. In relation to economic governance, the idea of a developmental state provides a template against which the practices of individual states are evaluated.

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East and Southeast Asia is a fertile setting for exploring the links between political and economic development, Economic performance has been a primary source of political legitimacy in all the states in the study, despite moves to democracy in the early 1990s, yet the levels of developments vary markedly. Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore have turned to technological innovation, while the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia have focused on regional/global production systems. Outcomes after the financial crisis of the late 1990s will be determined by the capacity of political systems to sustain popular support, and by the capacity of institutions to rework dysfunctional economic arrangements.