The "Four Tigers" as "NIC"s: South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore

Question 1

What did Taiwan, South Korea, HK, and Singapore all have in common?

Answer 1

All devastated by WWII

Question 2

What happened to South Korea shortly afterwards?

Answer 2

Faced further destruction during the Korean War.

Question 3

Why did East Asian NCIS become a Model for the World

Answer 3

EA seemed to be a world model of RAPID, SUSTAINED, and EQUITABLE growth

Question 4

Who provided the initial model?

Answer 4

The Japanese miracle

Question 5

Can a successful model of growth be applied to EA?

Answer 5

Taiwan
Singapore
HK
South Korea

Question 6

Factors:

Answer 6

City States: Singapore and HK
High levels of EDU
Colonial Legacy
British Colonies: HK and Singapore
Japanese colonies: Taiwan and Korea

Question 7

Institutions

Answer 7

All had Authoritarian governments

Land Reform

State Development Policies

Question 8

Why authoritarian?

Answer 8

Theoretically autonomous from society so could institute policies for the good of the nation and not specific interest groups

Relatively quiescent populations attained through police intimidation, mass arrests of political prisoners, and surveillance, especially in SK and Taiwan

Question 9

Land Reform

Answer 9

Contributed to relatively even distribution of wealth in period of rapid industrialization

Korea:
in 1985, the highest 10% of South Korean households earned 27.5% of national income while in brazil and mexico it was 40% and 50%

Taiwan:
Land purchased in part with shares in poorly managed state-run companies confiscated from the Japanese after the war.

Question 10

State Development Policies

Answer 10

Targeting of particular industries for state finance

    korea: heavy industry

Focus on export-led growth with some level of import substitution

Cooperation between government and industry

Question 11

World Systems;

Answer 11

important position in the cold war

result, in part, of the cold war
 SK and T received aid from US`

Question 12

Culture

Answer 12

A variety of cultural explanations were advanced to explain the success of the four tigers

Japanese belief in hierarchy created a substitute for trust

Question 13

Might explain Japan but what about the Tigers?

Answer 13

Chinese family structure substituted for impersonal trust and allowed for pooling of capital
—-applicable to taiwan, hk, and perhaps singapore but what about south korea

Question 14

What elements did the Confucian culture provide that were important to economic performance?

Answer 14

• importance of education
  - acceptance of hierarchy
  - industriousness

Question 15

Industriousness

Answer 15

Why did confucian culture work after 1960? but not before with the exception Japan?

why did confucian culture stop working in Japan in 1990?

for decades, westerners said confucianism was east asia’s problem