The political economy of East Asian regions is very important because of its characteristics through time. The East Asian region is one that is characterized by having one of the biggest economies in the world as well as one with the largest populations. The sophistications in terms of politics and economics have shaped the nature of the global political as well as economic characteristics. Having a large geographical area coupled the large population makes the region well-endowed with capital and human resources that raise the regions potential as a global economic giant. However, these factors have also been shaped by history and this has influenced the nature of the region’s politics and economics. The region has not always been successful as far as economics is concerned. Its economic success is just a factor of recent times. Much has happened over the years with ups and downs that have shaped the region and made it to what it is currently. The region has had lot of failures in the past. One of the region’s main states is China, which forms the biggest section of the region and has the biggest influence on the region’s economic and political well-being. China has not only influenced politics and economics but also the region’s culture and religion. Of great importance is the region’s traditional background that has influenced its politics and economics (Compton, 2002). This essay is therefore very important because it will try and evaluate the region’s traditional political and economic characteristics and how they converge with the contemporary aspects. It will also evaluate the traditional aspects assess their influence on the success or failure of the region’s political and economic characteristics.
One major aspect that is significant in the East Asian region is the adoption of Confucianism across the region. The use of its values as well as its practices has been widely used for a very long time in the region. Confucianism has been around for almost two thousand years and has been constantly altered in order to become more favourable for governance in the regions. Confucianism simply refers to ideas, practices and values aimed at good governance. Its effectiveness is gauged by the level of adoption in the region meaning that that they were favourable for the regions political systems as a form of reference (Bell and Hahm, 2003).
However, the world has been changing rapidly with high levels of advancement in technology. This has facilitated the development of new ideas, practices and values that meet the need for the modern world. Modernity has changed aspects of culture, religion and politics in a very major way. However, most of the East Asian region’s states failed to embrace the new and modern way of life. Capitalism is one of the major aspects of the new modern world and is a characteristic of developed nations. East Asian states opted to stick to the Confucian way of life. This factor is more traditional and is not flexible enough to meet the needs of the modern world for the region in terms of economic growth, politics as well as religion. One major factor is democracy that these states failed to embrace early enough and as a result led to poor governance that hindered public development in terms of trade and industrialization. This factor shows a divergence between the traditional Confucian way of life and the modern way of life (Bell and Hahm, 2003).
The convergence greatly affected the region in some of its states. For example China failed to embrace capitalism early enough and instead opted for communism. This factor greatly affected its development economically and most of all politically. However, once it embraced capitalism in the recent past, the country’s economy has evolved to become one of the largest in the world and has had great influence on the other states in the region as well. Modernity has greatly challenged the Confucian way of life and has made it loose its vigour the way it had. Considerations of changing times is a very important factor for are region. This is because it comes with new ideas and opportunities that people need to take advantage of. The industrial revolution is a period in the world history that saw a lot of economic development in countries mainly in Europe which have a lot of political and economic success (Compton, 2002). However, political constraints associated with the use of traditional forms of governance made the East Asian region lag behind in this crucial opportunity. However, the traditional faced challenge as a result of the need for change and so most of the states in the region adopted change by the use of force. For example in China, The May Fourth movement was a very crucial point in the state that represents the country’s need for change in order to adopt the modern way of life. The traditional forms of government were threatening the country’s sovereignty and so there was a great need for change. It was characterized by violence and riots across the whole country (Bell and Hahm, 2003).
Traditional East Asian ways of politics and economics have been very successful in the past and have led to the development of empires and dynasties. Their success attributed to the traditional ideas and values important during those times. The slow pace in development and modernisation resulted to influence of the western imperialism on the region that had most states in the hands of the Europeans and this became the last draw on Confucianism because most people blamed it for the mis-happenings in the region. The rift between modernity and Confucianism widened but more supported was towards modernity and it became a fight against Confucianism.
The May Fourth movement was the pivotal point of change for the economic and political system that was firstly embraced by learned university students from all over china, who had seen the backwardness associated with traditional forms of governance. Modernism was a positive way forward, in fact there was no resistance from Confucianism towards it, meaning that that the effects were very clear to see and hence the need for change was mandatory. The main aspects of modernism are democracy that influence governance and also industrialization that influences economic growth. Both these factors lacked in the region and hence the reason for negative political and economic development in the region. However, adoption of modernism saw a rapid increase in economic development in most states. One example is Japan. Japan rose to become the second largest economy in the world and this influenced the other states such as South Korea, Hong Kong, China. However, entry of China into this group of economic giants put the region on the map as the largest economic region on the globe and the most important region to the modern world’s economy. The change has been rapid and influential (Bell and Hahm, 2003).
The Confucian way of life was mainly rejected by the people of the region and saw it as the reason for lack of success. However, one important aspect that is contrary is that outsiders, mainly those from the west mainly scholars saw that the influence of Confucianism was the main reason for the region’s political and economic success. This aspect expresses a more or less convergence between traditional and contemporary systems that together have led to great developments in the region. The main reason for this support is based on the fact that some part of governance in the region has required the use of Confucianism to mend the politics and reduce corruption. An example is in China by the communist part. The party used aspects of Confucianism to reduce widespread corruption. Good governance is key to positive development of a particular nation (Compton, 2002). It creates stability and a conducive environment for development and trade. Therefore, the use of Confucianism to reduce corruption in a country is a step towards modernity.
The change in political systems attributed to the use of the traditional ways is a clear example of convergence between the traditional political and economic systems and the contemporary system. This convergence is important because it incorporates aspects of both sides together. This convergence also shows similarities between the two sides both of which are advocating for good governance as a step towards development. However, support for this traditional ways is very minimum and this is because obsoleteness and lack of relevance to the modern world (Compton, 2002).
The major aspect of the traditional ways that makes it so undesirable is the fact that it leads to authoritative governance characterized by elitism. This aspect differs greatly with the nature of the modern world in the aspect of democracy rule of law and most of all capitalism. The three aspects define modernism. It is for this reason that Confucianism; the main component of the traditional system has been considered as dead. Traditional aspects are mainly based on values and norms and lacks practical aspects that are important for development. This factor makes it appear more ideal and speculative rather than practical and abstract. It lacks concrete institutional backgrounds. This is yet another example of divergence between the traditional systems and the contemporary aspects.
Modernism is more concrete because it easily manifests itself through the use of well-defined institutions that facilitate for positive development (Compton, 2002). The intuitions developed to increase the effectiveness and the pace of development because they facilitate for the easy manifestation of the system, making it easy to influence people towards modern ideologies, values as well as practices.
The East Asian region embraced industrialization in the eighties and the nineties. This period was quite late as compare to the Europeans who had already attained economic and political successes. The first step towards this form of development was the letting go of the traditional ways. According to scholars, this process of letting go involved the process of reduction of inefficiency in production through the adoption of new and better forms of technology and the reduction in corruption that increased good governance that resulted to political stability (Compton, 2002).
Another form of convergence would be through the incorporation of certain traditional aspects of democracy in governance attributed to morals and ethics. Not all parts of the traditional system was bad, some of it could still be used. However, this aspect was limited to the fact that prior forms of governance in the East Asian region lacked democracy before the twentieth century. Democracy means power to the people, where they have a saw on how they should be governed. Some say that it is the most effective from of governance in particular country (Schafferer, 2005).
People did not have the chance to take participation in the fair election of their leaders. This means that leaders of these states were not representative of the people and put them at risk of having authoritarian leaders that would cause harm to the nations. However, this does not mean that it is a guarantee that leaders chosen were authoritative. In fact the Confucian system required leaders to constantly regulate their behaviours and conduct. They achieved this by surrounding themselves with officials and scholars that helped in monitoring their conducts as far as leadership and discipline is concerned. Aspects such as these still find themselves in the modern systems of governance in the East Asian region. This means that aspects of the traditional systems are still good and can be incorporated into the modern system. This incorporation is important because it increases the sustainability of governance and also helps in the preservation of the countries culture.
Convergence is therefore important and should be acknowledged, however caution is necessary in order to prevent the aspects to be incorporated as well as its significance (Schafferer, 2005).
Certain aspects of the traditional governance still persist in the modern world. For example the need to monitor leaders and disciplining them is an aspect that has existed in the East Asian region in the past and is still a part of the modern world. Monitoring and surveillance is critical because of its influence on the behaviours of political leaders. It shows a form of convergence between the two systems where they have something in common. It relates to the modern world through the use of performance analyses for political leaders as a means to assess and evaluate their performance. It is good for motivation to work harder and at the same time prevent misuse of power. It makes politics become more efficient which then has a positive impact the economic characteristics of the country and region at large. The need to leaders kept in check is very important and should be adopted as way to protect the nation from misuse of power (Schafferer, 2005).
The reason for this is that the East Asian region has been greatly influenced over a long period of time by tradition. Traditional forms of governance have been very significant in the region. The most important is the adoption of Confucianism. Confucianism has been adopted in the region for very many years. It is a system used in governance that incorporates ideas, values and practices to be used by rulers of nations. It has been used by emperors in the past and has been successful. However, as a result of changing times, the ideologies and values have become obsolete and irrelevant. These changes have led to the development of the contemporary way of life. Comparison between the two forms of governance establishes great differences that have facilitated the adoption of one and the need to eradicate the other.
The Confucian aspect is associated with elitism in governance and the lack of control to the people. On the other hand the modern way is characterized by democracy and capitalism. The comparison of the two systems has led to convergence as well as divergence of the two systems. Confucianism is considered obsolete and irrelevant. Most of the states in the East Asian region failed to do away with it when the rest of the world, mostly Europe and America embraced modernism. It therefore hindered industrialization in the region. Politics was also influenced by the fact that it used traditional values that prevented equal representation of citizens through voting. As a result the states were filled with corruption and political instabilities. It was until they embraced modernism when things changed. Economies of most of the countries in the region grew at very fats rate to become the biggest economies in the world. It is therefore clear that the traditional systems became hindrance to development in the region.
Works Cited
Bell, Daniel A., and Hahm CHAIBONG. "The Contemporary Relevance of Confucianism." Confucianism for the Modern World. Cambridge UP, 2003. 1-28. Print.
Compton, Robert W. Transforming East Asian Domestic and International Politics: The Impact of Economy and Globalization. Aldershot, Hants, England: Ashgate, 2002. Print.
Schafferer, Christian. Understanding Modern East Asian Politics. New York: Nova Science, 2005. Print.
