Showing papers in "Asian Survey in 2000"

Small-Time Political Fixers in India's States: Towel over Armpit

Abstract: You are waiting at a bus stand in a very small town in South India to travel to the nearby district headquarters town. You overhear fragments of furtive conversation from within a group of women standing next to you. "Look, here he comes. Towel over armpit ... trying to look important . . . traveling again." As they turn to look at a man striding toward them, stifled laughter breaks out among them. But one of the women dissents. "He helped us," she says. "Sometimes he is important." Her comment and the arrival of the man quell their laughter. He and they politely greet one another with the shy decorum that is customary in this socially conservative region. Then the bus pulls in and niceties dissolve in the crush to board it. The only people who do not join in the scrum are you and the man who has just arrived, but there is room for everyone and you all get on. As the bus pulls away, he briefly converses with you in incomprehensible English. The women notice, as they are meant to do, and then the jolting of the bus kills all communication.

Governance, Patronage Politics, and Democratic Transition in Bangladesh

Abstract: Bangladesh is a poverty stricken, densely populated, aiddependent country that has become a major test case for the World Bank's new global emphasis on good governance as a prerequisite for rapid growth and sustained economic development. Despite large amounts of aid, the World Bank and Western donors argue that poor governance and weak institutions in Bangladesh have acted as significant constraints on development. The donors have, therefore, embarked upon a set of major programs designed to strengthen political institutions in Bangladesh and ensure good governance based on transparency, accountability, and responsibility. These programs include, among other things, improving the performance and effectiveness of the bureaucracy, the judiciary, and the legislature; strengthening local government; developing public awareness and civil society advocacy; and enhancing the research and policy development capabilities of political parties. The fundamental dilemma faced by the donors, however, is whether foreignfunded institutional and technical fixes can genuinely address problems of governance that are deeply rooted in the country's historical experience and the behavior and values of the Bangladeshi elite. In principle, most Bangladeshis are deeply committed to and have repeatedly fought for the ideal of a British style parliamentary system of government based on the principle of mass franchise. For most of its history, however, this ideal has never been given a fair chance to work due to the country' s repeated periods of authoritarian, military-bureaucratic rule.1 Even

Multilateralism in Chinese Foreign Policy: The Limits of Socialization

Abstract: The remarkable economic growth of China in the past two decades has generated a great deal of attention and concern in the world. Pessimists worry that with its increasing power, China will become a threat to other countries, just as Germany, Japan, and Russia did earlier this century. To reduce this danger, they argue, the rest of the world should stand firm against China and contain its expansionist tendencies. Optimists, on the other hand, are hopeful that a stronger China would not be a more aggressive China. To encourage cooperative behavior on the part of the Chinese, it is important to engage China and integrate it into the international system. Many of the latter persuasion place their hope on "socializing" China into the norms of international cooperation. The concept of socialization has recently gained currency among Western international relations (IR) scholars and policy analysts. They argue that "states are embedded in dense networks of transnational and international social relations that shape their perceptions of the world and their role in the world. States are socialized to want certain things by the international society in which they and the people in them live."1

Xiagang, the Chinese Style of Laying Off Workers

Abstract: Adopting the widely held assumption that the state's active role is indispensable for creating and regularizing market mechanisms, this paper examines how the Chinese state has been handling the problem of excess workers in its state-owned enterprises (SOEs), an issue over which the economic logic of reform squarely conflicts with the state's social responsibilities. This article will demonstrate the extent to which the regime's concern with social obligations-crucial to its continued legitimacy has conditioned a distinctively Chinese approach to economic reform in general and the employment issue in the SOEs in particular. The present layoff policy appears to be a temporary measure for the period of transition from a stateplanning to a market-based system and represents neither total rejection nor complete reliance on market mechanisms. An analysis of Beijing's strategy for handling the explosive issue of laying off workers offers clues to the kinds of employment relations being established. It also opens the door to a broader exploration of what the state's role in economic management will be in the coming years. This article argues that the future Chinese employment system likely will be based on a hybrid of the Japanese and German systems. For "layoff," China uses the term, xiagang (step down from the post), which implies that those not working are still retained by their original units with partial or no pay. Xiagang differs fromfenliu (workers separating and reassigning), another frequently used term that refers to workers who have been transferred from their original unit or jobs to new jobs or a newly created accounting unit. Thus, fenliu implies continuing work unlike xiagang, which indicates workers whose status is more like the temporarily unemployed.

The Dilemmas of Empowered Labor in Korea: Korean Workers in the Face of Global Capitalism

Abstract: In January 1997, one decade after the eruption of a huge wave of worker protests in the summer of 1987, Korean workers caught the world's attention again by staging a massive nationwide strike in protest against newly passed labor laws. The controversial new laws were designed to give employers more power to lay off employees, make it easier to hire temporary workers or strike replacements, and put off allowing multiple unions to be formed at a given enterprise for another few years. The strike mobilized some three million workers and shut down production in the automobile, ship building, and other major industries. It also disrupted services in many hospital wards as well as subway operations and television news broadcasting. Despite the unfavorable seasonal factors involving the New Year holidays and cold weather, the three-week long action received consistently high levels of worker participation and also a surprisingly high level of public support. The strike ended in late January, when the government reluctantly agreed to revise the controversial laws.

India, Consociational Theory, and Ethnic Violence

Abstract: This article uses evidence from India to reassess the value of consociational power sharing as a method of reducing ethnic violence. I present evidence to disprove Arend Lijphart's recent claim that India was, under Jawaharlal Nehru, a de facto consociational state and that India's consociational character during the 1950s and 1960s explains the country's relatively low level of ethnic violence during these years. I argue that, especially as far as India's important Muslim minority was concerned, India was a non-consociational ranked state in the two decades after Independence. Since the mid-1960s, however, India has become more consociational, while the country's level of ethnic violence has risen. For reasons identified by Myron Weiner in Sons of the Soil-for example the tendency of so-called Backward segments within ethnic groups to agitate for recognition as separate ethnic groups, deserving of their own political and economic rights-it seems likely that the post-Nehru rise in ethnic violence has been intensified by India's increasingly consociational character.

Citizen Participation and Policy Making in Singapore: Conditions and Predicaments

Abstract: The citizenry, whether in democratic or authoritarian regimes, is a powerful resource for governance. Paying attention to expressions of public will and sentiment is one of the most important principles of governance in any regime. "It is essential for a prince to be on a friendly footing with his people, since, otherwise, he will have no resources in adversity," so says one of the most insightful theorists of political power, Machiavelli, in The Prince. What Machiavelli did not say, however, is that this "friendly footing" can come in various forms and disguises, from a genuine respect for the infallibility of the common man to direct manipulation of the citizenry. On one hand, citizens may be genuinely involved through direct involvement or representation and feel a real sense of belonging and control. On the other hand, they can be led into believing that they are participating in the political process when actually they are just being manipulated. This can be likened to a placebo-controlled surgical trial, a medical procedure where the patient is operated on but in fact nothing is removed or put in. In any case, the governing elite in such circumstances would spare no effort to declare that their policies are "for the people, by the people, and of the people." The perpetual tensions between state interests and citizen participation can be extremely difficult to resolve. It must be pointed out, at the outset, that the effectiveness of citizen participation in affecting policy changes has long been questioned.' There are re-

Why Have Poor Democracies Not Eliminated Poverty? A Suggestion

Abstract: This article presents an argument on the issue why poor democracies have not eliminated poverty The argument relies heavily on the distinction between direct and indirect methods of poverty alleviation a distinction that is customary in the economic literature The article also states reasons why an analysis of poverty should be taken seriously and pursued critically

Border Cooperation between China and Vietnam in the 1990s

Abstract: In spring 1989, several thousand Vietnamese living in the northern border region waded across the Beilun River and entered China. This wave of people came carrying such goods as rice, pieces of copper, scrap iron, and the like, which they traded on the streets of their destination, the frontier town of Dongxing located in China's Guangxi Province. These traders were followed soon thereafter by many thousands of more Vietnamese who chose to celebrate the Tet holidays then underway by shopping in Dongxing for a variety of consumer commodities. The Vietnamese at Dongxing were not alone, for many of their compatriots also had taken the holiday occasion to make similar trips across the border and enter Guangxi. These spring developments were representative of the overall trend in the resumption of economic and trading activities along the border between China and Vietnam that unfolded slowly at the end of 1988 and start of 1989. Such activities had come to a halt 10 years earlier, a casualty of the SinoVietnam War. The 1990s would see expanding contact and cooperation along the frontier that culminated in the December 30, 1999, signing of a treaty by the foreign ministers of China and Vietnam that demarcated the land border between the two countries. This was an important symbolic step signifying the attempt by both sides to place the normalization of relations on a stable and permanent footing and the logical outcome of a decade marked by cordial relations in the border regions. The purpose of this article is to describe the process of normalization on the border during the 1990s. It first outlines the general geography of the

Anatomy of Hartal Politics in Bangladesh

Abstract: Political instability remains the key impediment to economic development in Bangladesh. With the passing of time, the hope for political stability is becoming more illusory and people from all walks of life are losing confidence in the ability of the present political leadership to establish a stable democratic political system. It is not that the people have been denied their democratic rights in selecting leaders. ' General elections of one kind or another have been held on a fairly regular basis since the country's independence in 1971, but they have not solved its fundamental political problem, that is, the prevalence of both authoritarian and agitational politics (also known as hartal politics). It was widely expected that the return of the parliamentary form of democracy in 1991, after the overthrow of General Ershad's quasi-military rule in December 1990, would bring political stability and end authoritarianism in all affairs of state. The reality has been quite different. The facade of democratic experiments over the past decade has pushed the nation toward what Fareed Zakaria calls an "illiberal democracy."2 For ordinary people, this experiment has been akin to a jump from the frying pan into the fire. The danger is that the explosive political situa-

Sanskritization vs. Ethnicization in India: Changing Indentities and Caste Politics before Mandal

Abstract: In the 1970s, the Janata Party-led state governments of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in India launched new reservation policies for lower castes. The controversy surrounding these policies came to a fore when upper castes resisted the implementation of the Mandal Commission Report in 1990. While reservation policies played a role in the crystallization of the low caste movements in South and West India, their momentum was sustained by the ideology of "pre-Aryanism" or Buddhism in these regions. In the North, however, the state policies were more or less the starting point of the whole process. This article will discuss the crystallization of lower caste movements in India, arguing that the mobilization of the lower castes was delayed and did not imply any significant change in caste identities: the emancipatory and empowerment agenda in India materialized without any prior ethnicization.

The Security Dimension of Sino-Japanese Relations: Warily Watching One Another

Abstract: Since the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, Sino-Japanese relations have gone through several different periods. In the 1950s and 1960s, Beijing and Tokyo relied upon economic diplomacy, with trade serving as a bridge in place of formal diplomatic relations. From normalization in 1972 to Japanese Emperor Akihito's visit to the PRC in 1992, the relationship may be characterized as having been one of good-neighborly friendship marked by expanding economic links and frequent exchanges of visits by political leaders. However, as a result of changes in both the international environment and Japan's domestic political structure since 1992, Sino-Japanese relations have entered a period of competitive coexistence. Although each state wishes to maintain stable and strong links, the two governments have reached the limit of the present relationship. In particular, both are becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the security aspects of their bilateral ties. This article explores the state of the Sino-Japan relationship from a security perspective. It first considers the security concerns that China has with respect to Japan, then reverses perspective to show Japan's concerns over China. It concludes with some observations regarding why each country has the views it does of the other and what factors may help ameliorate concerns and maintain stability in the relationship.

China, Pakistan, and the Taliban Syndrome

Abstract: The "Taliban syndrome"-the movement to create an Islamic order in Afghanistan-is likely to threaten Pakistan's strategic interests and domestic stability. Ideologically, this syndrome is a blend of strict observance of Islam based on Saudi Arabia's salafiyya (puritanical) tradition. Social practices observed by highly conservative elements of the Afghan tribes and lower middle classes of the Subcontinent allow virtually no room for interpretation or deviation. Islamic forces of Pakistan have created and nurtured this syndrome in the madrasahs (religious schools) of Pakistan, where the Taliban ("students" in Farsi) from Afghanistan received their education. Since the chief thrust of this education is on Islam and the need for jihad (holy war) to establish an Islamic government, the Taliban members become firm believers and fervent practitioners of this training. During the formative years of their exposure to power politics of Afghanistan, the Taliban had to fight a number of military battles to reunify that country. This fact validated the emphasis on militancy in these madrasahs. The "Taliban syndrome" also refers to the ever-escalating role of radical Islamists in the domestic and foreign policy of Pakistan and other contiguous states. Since this syndrome recognizes no borders, it zealously seeks to establish an Islamic form of government anywhere in the region. For instance, if the Taliban remains in power in Afghanistan and their allies in the sporadic civil war in Tajikistan gain an upper hand, then Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan would have ample reasons to worry about political instability within their own borders. Uzbekistan, despite all its fervor against Islamist forces of change, also remains vulnerable. It is worth noting

Economic Integration in Central Asia: The Russian and Chinese Relationship

Abstract: Central Asia as a region poses serious headaches for any policy makers because it seems to contain all the ingredients for a volatile mix: vast energy reserves, ethnic and interstate strife, great power rivalries, and encroaching religious extremism. Central Asia comprises five former Soviet republics-Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan-while the broader Central Asian region can be defined as stretching from Xinjiang all the way to Azerbaijan. Russia and China cannot escape the geopolitical reality of being Central Asia's two largest neighbors; as such, they must come to terms with their proximity to this strategically important region.' Whether they can manage their interactions here wisely and reach a constructive modus vivendi will have a significant impact on both their bilateral "cooperative strategic partnership" and the region itself. On the surface, this professed partnership should enable Russia and China to manage their interactions in Central Asia well. Yet, the two countries' interests in the region do not exactly coincide. The rupture of the relationship over a conflict of interest in Central Asia is a real possibility that would spell disaster for the region and beyond. But rather than passively waiting for events to unfold, there are measures the two states can undertake to build a framework for useful interaction in Central Asia.

Taiwan's Restriction of Investment in China in the 1990s: A Relative Gains Approach

Abstract: After a decade of intense debate between neorealists and neoliberals, the relative gains problem has been widely accepted as a serious inhibition to international economic cooperation. Relative gains essentially refer to gaps in payoffs favoring partners engaged in an otherwise mutually beneficial cooperative relationship. The prospects for cooperation can be substantially affected because of a state's concern for relative gains.' But such concern does not unconditionally prevent states from being engaged in economic cooperative endeavors. Many scholars have theoretically argued or modeled various conditions under which the impact of these concerns on cooperation is significant and most of the propositions have been empirically validated.2

The Nature and Future of Civil-Military Relations in Indonesia

Abstract: Since Suharto's fall from grace in May 1998, there has been mounting pressure for the Indonesian armed forces (TNI, Tentara Nasional Indonesia) to end their role in politics. Events and developments over the past few years, such as the handling of the May 1998 riots and reports of its abuses, have cast doubt on the armed forces' claims to fulfilling their selfassigned dual function (dwifungsi) role in the country. Indeed, the armed forces' reputation is at the lowest point that it's been in more than 30 years. In a survey the Indonesian Center for the Study of Development and Democracy conducted some three months after Suharto' s downfall and just when the extent of the military's abuses was becoming apparent, more than half of the respondents did not believe or were uncertain about whether the armed forces were commited to the people.1 The topic of civil-military relations in Indonesia has generated a fair amount of scholarship over the years. Of the works that have appeared over the past three decades explaining the Indonesian armed forces' involvement in politics, two in particular have stood out. The first, propounded by Harold Crouch, suggests that the Indonesian military's participation in politics can be attributed to two factors. First, the military's orientation has been political from the very beginning. Most officers did not join the armed forces because they were interested in pursuing a professional military career; rather, they

The Philippines in the Asian Financial Crisis: How the Sick Man Avoided Pneumonia

Abstract: The Philippines has long been regarded as the weak sister of Asia, but in the Asian financial crisis it performed relatively well This is not simply a matter of not being able to fall out of the basement, either—in mid-1997 the Philippines economy was forecasted to grow at more than six percent in 1998, and both the post-crisis forecasts revisions, and the degree of the eventual contraction were less in the Philippines than elsewhere in Asia Rather, the Philippines crisis experience offers valuable lessons for the Philippines, the rest of Asia, and indeed, emerging markets around the world The lesson is that policies matter: economic reform, particularly of the financial system, can have a demonstrable impact on a country's ability to weather a crisis, even if the crisis originates elsewhere and is spread by contagion

Chinese Perspectives on Theater Missile Defense: Policy Implications for Japan

Abstract: After several years of discussion, on August 16, 1999, the U.S. and Japan formalized an agreement to conduct joint technology research on theater missile defense (TMD). TMD systems are intended to intercept and destroy ballistic missiles; the systems come in upperand lowertier configurations and can be based on land or at sea. The U.S.-Japan agreement, which came in the form of a memorandum of understanding (MOU), calls for the U.S. Department of Defense and Japan's Defence Agency to formally begin studies on an upper-tier Navy Theater Wide (NTW) system, a mobile, sea-based configuration capable of being carried on Aegis-equipped ships.1 In response to the signing of the U.S.-Japan agreement, the Chinese government has begun to heighten its anti-TMD campaign. It is evident that China's opposition is changing from mere political rhetoric to a carefully calculated discussion founded on more realistic concerns. Accordingly, Ja-

Sino-Vietnamese Relations and the Economy of Vietnam's Border Region

Abstract: In 1991, China and Vietnam reestablished diplomatic ties 12 years after China's brief but extremely bloody "punitive" attack on its former comrade-in-arms. Prior to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam's (DRV) victory over the South in 1975, China had been Vietnam's largest benefactor, contributing $20 million of military and development aid to Hanoi. With the end of Vietnam's domestic conflict, China withdrew its economic aid, outraged that Hanoi appeared to be heading toward an alliance with the Soviet Union. Sino-Vietnamese relations rapidly deteriorated, culminating in the 1979 war. For the next decade, relations between the two countries remained icy, with China refusing to consider normalizing relations until Vietnam withdrew its military from Cambodia. By 1989, however, tensions were easing enough to allow unofficial border trade, and in 1991, with the Cambodian issue largely resolved, Vietnam and China, then two of the last few remaining socialist countries, again officially recognized each other's governments. Given the huge disparity in size between the two countries, one would expect Vietnam to be much more sensitive to changes in its relations with its northern neighbor than vice versa. This sensitivity should be evident in Vietnam' s economy. Conventional wisdom, based on classical and neoclassical trade theory, suggests that trade benefits the economies of all parties involved. The law of comparative advantage, upon which classical and neoclassical trade theories rest, claims that all parties gain absolutely from trade, even if one country holds only a comparative advantage in the production of

Pakistan in 1999: Back to Square One

Abstract: Pakistan enters the new millennium with the military in command of the polity at a time when military rule has gone out of fashion and is no longer viewed as a harbinger of change. However, the elected government displaced by the military was devoid of a democratic spirit. The October 1999 coup may have averted the imminent collapse of the state but it is difficult to predict whether the military regime can develop enduring solutions to Pakistan's acute socioeconomic and political problems. Uncertainty about Pakistan's political future will persist well into the 21st century.

Elite incorporation in multiethnic societies

Abstract: Under what conditions are political parties in multiethnic societies able to incorporate elites from rising ethnic categories and retain their allegiance? General theories of party politics in multiethnic societies offer a sociological explanation in response to this question. The composition of political parties in ethnically divided societies, according to these theories, is a straightforward reflection of the pattern of conflict in society. Where ethnic categories are in conflict in society, elites belonging to these categories will not be able to coexist in the same political party. Multiethnic parties that attempt to bring these elites together under the same umbrella, according to these theories, are therefore "inherently unstable."' Conversely, elites from the same ethnic category, or from categories in social harmony, are posited to be more capable of co-existing in the same political party. Ethnic parties, therefore, which bring together elites from a single ethnic category, or from several ethnic categories which are not in conflict, are likely to enjoy a more stable existence. This article proposes an institutionalist model of elite incorporation that is explicitly at odds with the sociological explanation proposed above.

The 2000 Parliamentary Election in South Korea

Abstract: The parliamentary election held in South Korea on April 13, 2000, was of great importance to both the government and opposition parties. For the ruling Millennium Democratic Party (MDP), winning a majority in the election was imperative if the Kim Dae-Jung government was to push ahead with its political and economic reform programs. A defeat in the April election would not only weaken the government's ability to control the legislative agenda but also turn the reformist regime into a lame duck one. For its part, the leading opposition party, the Grand National Party (GNP), defined the election as a de facto referendum on the Kim government; the GNP thus saw achieving a favorable result as a means of repudiating the government's misdeeds and ineptitude in dealing with a number of political and economic issues. Furthermore, the GNP regarded winning a majority in the National Assembly as essential in order to check what it saw as the government's abuse of power. Finally, for both the government and the opposition, the 2000 election had added significance in that it was regarded as a major precursor to the next presidential election, scheduled for December 2002. Thus, the stakes were high. In the end, the election produced what has been termed a yoso yadae (small government party and large opposition) situation. This article will examine South Korea's 2000 parliamentary election with an emphasis on analyzing the factors that contributed to bringing about the yoso yadae result. In addition, the article will explore the implications that the election results may have for the future of South Korean politics in general and party politics in particular.