The Clash of Capitalism and Democracy (Part 1 of 5)
nation is Japan, which had "zaibatsu" (the corporate groupings of which three have survived to become today's keiretsu) in the late 1800s. Other than that, most of East Asia started from scratch after the destruction of the war. South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore have only been capitalists for a few decades, so they may still be learning. Then again, a few decades may be long enough to have developed their own style, which is not about to morph into an Anglo-American economic model any time soon.
In East Asia, we have a muddle of different models of democracy, different models of capitalism, and different combinations of the two. The influences of big business, international organizations, and corruption will naturally have different impacts on different models. A nation with a weak business sector but strong popular democracy, such as the Philippines, is less likely to be pushed around by its domestic companies. A nation with strong domestic companies, such as Japan, is less likely to be pushed around by foreign companies. A nation with high penalties for getting caught at corruption, such as Singapore, is less likely to have it. And a nation with a weak democracy but strong market economy, such as Indonesia, is more likely to have high-level corruption.
The next part of this series will discuss the influence of big business on a market economy and democracy, and look at how different capitalist-democracy models in East Asia are affected by the influences of non-democratic corporations.
** John C. Campbell, "Democracy and Bureaucracy in Japan." In Ishida, Takeshi and Ellis S. Krauss, eds. Democracy in Japan. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1989, p. 113.
Part 2: Big Business and Democracy
Part 3: International Institutions and Democracy
Part 4: Corruption and Democracy
Part 5: Blending Capitalism and Democracy
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