The Myth of Asia s Miracle.pdf

Once upon a time,Western opinion leaders found themselves both impressed and frightened by theextraordinary growth rates achieved by a set of Eastern economies.Although those economies werestill substantially poorer and smaller than those of the West,the speed with which they hadtransformed themselves from peasant societies into industrial powerhouses,their continuing ability toachieve growth rates several times higher than the advanced nations,and their increasing ability tochallenge or even surpass American and European techno logy in certain areas seemed to call intoquestion the dominance not only of Western power but of Western ideology.The leaders of thosenations did not share our faith in free markets or unlimited civil liberties.They asserted withincreasing self-confidence that their system was superior:societies that accepted strong,evenauthoritarian governments and were willing to limit individual liberties in the interest of the commongood,take charge of their economies,and sacrifice short-run consumer interests for the sake oflong-run growth would eventually outperform the increasingly chaotic societies of the West.And agrowing minority of Western intellectuals agreed.