Using the developmental history of Taiwan as a starting point, Flexibility, Foresight and Fortuna critically examines several prevalent formulations of domestic development and international economy.The authors examine Taiwan''s policy performance from, in turn, the developmental, the dependency, the statist, and the trade-off perspectives on political economy. They reject these approaches in favour of the key ideas of flexibility, foresight and fortuna as an explanation of Taiwan''s relatively unusual success in achieving domestic development and upward mobility in the international system.

Using the developmental history of Taiwan as a starting point, Flexibility, Foresight and Fortuna critically examines several prevalent formulations of domestic development and international economy.The authors examine Taiwan''s policy performance from, in turn, the developmental, the dependency, the statist, and the trade-off perspectives on political economy. They reject these approaches in favour of the key ideas of flexibility, foresight and fortuna as an explanation of Taiwan''s relatively unusual success in achieving domestic development and upward mobility in the international system.

Before embarking on analyses of different aspects of economic growth and development of these countries, the authors present a thought-provoking analysis of how institutional factors such as geography, history of religion, culture and political governance have been deeply interwoven with development dynamics to shape the growth and development trajectory that each country has subsequently followed. Each country’s development path consequently appeared almost be pre-determined. Japan’s role as the lead-country in technology transfer under the flying-geese pattern of development is discussed, however the emphasis has shifted of late to China, India, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore. The authors also propose that instead of discussing the failure of India to catch up with China in growth and development outcomes, economists should be commenting on whether China, bestowed with India’s highly decentralized democratic governance structure and institutional rigidities, would have been able to achieve the same results as that of India. Only then will a true understanding and appreciation of India’s achievements in economic growth and development emerge.

Economic Development in China, India and East Asia will be warmly welcomed and appreciated by academics and researchers of international and development economics as well as Asian development and economics. Policy makers and those involved in NGOs in the development and aid arenas will also find this of great interest.

Using the developmental history of Taiwan as a starting point, Flexibility, Foresight and Fortuna critically examines several prevalent formulations of domestic development and international economy.The authors examine Taiwan''s policy performance from, in turn, the developmental, the dependency, the statist, and the trade-off perspectives on political economy. They reject these approaches in favour of the key ideas of flexibility, foresight and fortuna as an explanation of Taiwan''s relatively unusual success in achieving domestic development and upward mobility in the international system.

Using the developmental history of Taiwan as a starting point, Flexibility, Foresight and Fortuna critically examines several prevalent formulations of domestic development and international economy.The authors examine Taiwan''s policy performance from, in turn, the developmental, the dependency, the statist, and the trade-off perspectives on political economy. They reject these approaches in favour of the key ideas of flexibility, foresight and fortuna as an explanation of Taiwan''s relatively unusual success in achieving domestic development and upward mobility in the international system.

Before embarking on analyses of different aspects of economic growth and development of these countries, the authors present a thought-provoking analysis of how institutional factors such as geography, history of religion, culture and political governance have been deeply interwoven with development dynamics to shape the growth and development trajectory that each country has subsequently followed. Each country’s development path consequently appeared almost be pre-determined. Japan’s role as the lead-country in technology transfer under the flying-geese pattern of development is discussed, however the emphasis has shifted of late to China, India, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore. The authors also propose that instead of discussing the failure of India to catch up with China in growth and development outcomes, economists should be commenting on whether China, bestowed with India’s highly decentralized democratic governance structure and institutional rigidities, would have been able to achieve the same results as that of India. Only then will a true understanding and appreciation of India’s achievements in economic growth and development emerge.

Economic Development in China, India and East Asia will be warmly welcomed and appreciated by academics and researchers of international and development economics as well as Asian development and economics. Policy makers and those involved in NGOs in the development and aid arenas will also find this of great interest.