Review: Third World: Democracy and Development in East Asia
| Published date | 01 June 1992 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070209204700219 |
| Author | Charles Burton |
| Date | 01 June 1992 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
REVIEWS/THIRD
WORLD
457
recommendations,
particularly
in
the
absence of
practical
alternatives.
Thus
Loxley's
account
of
the devaluation
debate
in
Tanzania,
for
example,
argues
quite
persuasively
that
for
many
developing
countries,
the
question
is
not
whether
to
devalue
but
when
and
by
how
much.
The
contributors
are
virtually
unanimous
in
their
pessimism
about
the
ability of
orthodox programmes
to
address
the African
crisis.
A
note
of
optimism,
however,
is
injected
by
Hutchful
in
his
analysis
of
Ghana.
He
explores
the
class
basis
of
strategies
of
adjustment
and
sug-
gests
that
adjustment
programmes
supported
by
the Fund
and
the
Bank may
provide
the
basis
for
the
emergence
of
a
dominant
class
rooted
in
a
new
form
of
'politics
of
production'
rather
than
of
distri-
bution.
Although
Hutchful
is
not
very
convincing
in
his
explanation
of
how
this would
occur,
he
does
provide
an
interesting
twist
to
a
very
important
aspect
of
Africa's economic
crisis
-
the
issue
of
governance
-
which
unfortunately
is
not
given
adequate treatment
in
this
volume.
The major
contribution
of
this
book,
then,
lies
not
in
extensive
coverage
of
the
broader
theoretical
and
practical
issues
arising
from
the
debate
over
structural
adjustment
in
Africa,
but
in
its
treatment
of
specific
policy
issues.
Its
accessibility
makes
it
informative
for both
specialists
and
non-specialists.
James
Busumtwi-Sam/University
of
Toronto
DEMOCRACY
AND
DEVELOPMENT
IN
EAST
ASIA
Taiwan,
South
Korea,
and
the Philippines
Edited
by
Thomas
W.
Robinson
Lanham
MD:
AEI
Press,
1991,
xii,
321pp,
US$
32.5o
'Democracy
and
development' are
acknowledged
by
political
leaders
everywhere
as
the
raison
d'6tre
for
their
regimes.
In
general,
societies
that
have
been
relatively
successful
in
economic
development
have
also
been
characterized
by
increasing
levels
of
democratization.
But
as
the
degree
of
'democracy'
inherent
in
a
political
system
is
much
less
ame-
nable
to
quantification
than
levels
of
'development,'
attempts
to
relate
the
two
are
inevitably
less
than
satisfactory.
Nevertheless,
this
book
does
provide
interesting
insights
into the
political
and
economic
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