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The Politics of Financial Reform in Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand: When, Why, and How Democracy Matters?*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2016

Byung-Kook Kim
Byung-Kook Kim*
Affiliation:
Korea University
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Abstract

This article analyzes the impact of political regime and state bureaucracy on policy responses to the 1997 financial crisis in Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand. The political regime type — classified broadly into democracy and authoritarianism — is found to shape the direction of policy responses by influencing the political elites' understanding on causes, processes, and consequences of the crisis, whereas the state bureaucracy — classified into hybrid and Weberian types — decides the implementation of reform plans by determining the power of big business to resist policy change, as well as the state's organizational capacity to counter that resistance. The article argues that only when the political regime is democratic and the state Weberian will comprehensive — as opposed to partial — reform succeed.

Type
Regional Report
Information
Journal of East Asian Studies , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , February 2002 , pp. 185 - 240
Copyright
Copyright © East Asia Institute 

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