Cristobal Kay (2002): Why East Asia Overtook Latin America: Agrarian Reform, Industrialisation, and Development https://delong.typepad.com/asia-latin.pdf: "Scholars and policy makers have long debated the causes of the spectacular economic success achieved by the East Asian newly industrialising countries (NICs) as well as the lessons that other developing countries can learn from this development experience...
...Latin America started to industrialise many decades before the East Asian NICs and yet was quickly overtaken by them in the last few decades. This article explores the agrarian roots that may explain the different development trajectory and performance of the East Asian NICs, particularly South Korea and Taiwan, and Latin America. The analysis focuses mainly on three interconnected factors in seeking to understand why the East Asian NICs outperformed Latin America: 1) state capacity and policy performance or 'state-craft'; 2) character of agrarian reform and its impact on equity and growth; 3) interactions between agriculture and industry in development strategies...
- The World Bank and neoliberal economists... argued... the main lesson... from the East Asian NICs [is]... thatf ree markets, free trade and an export-orientated development strategy are the key to economic success (Krueger, 1985; Balassa, 1988; Harberger,1988). Thus countries which had pursued protectionism and import substitution industrialisation (ISI) policies came in for heavy criticisms by the World Bank and advocates of neoliberal economic policies (Krueger, 1978; Balassa, 1982; Lal, 1983; Corbo et al, 1985)...
- The success of the NICs was largely a result of the crucial role played by the state, which also at times involved selective protectionist policies (Wade,1988; Gore,1996).... The state was heavily involved in the NICs' development process...
- It still argues against a developmentalist state and for a minimalist role of the state in economic affairs. Many developing countries influenced by the experience of the NICS have attempted to emulate their dramatic industrial export performance with varying degrees of success...
- I first explore to what extent South Korea's and Taiwan's comprehensive agrarian reform... was a significant factor... compared with Latin America, where agrarian reforms were implemented, if at all, only after its industrialisation was well underway. I then discuss South Korea's andTaiwan's agrarian transformation.... I compare South Korea's and Taiwan's development strategy and experience with that of Latin America... on three key issues: state capacity and policies, agrarian structure and class relations, and the significance of certain forms of intersectoral resource flows in development...
- Agriculture should not be squeezed to such an extent that farmers no longer have the resources or the incentives to invest.... The advantage of peasant farming, as shown in South Korea and Taiwan, is that it has a great capacity for self-exploitation...
- In Taiwan and South Korea, government policy left sufficient economic incentives for peasant farmers significantly to raise agricultural productivity and output...
- South Korea's and Taiwan's superior state capacity and policy performance.... Latin America's failure to create an agrarian structure more conducive to growth with equity.... South Korea's andTaiwan's greater ability to design an appropriate industrial policy as well as to bring about a more positive interaction between agriculture and industry...
#noted #2019-10-06
