Crisis as Catalyst

The financial crisis that swept across East Asia during 1997-1998 was devastating not only in its economic impact but also in its social and political effects. The explosive growth and sociopolitical modernization that had powered the region for much of the preceding decade suddenly were dramatically interrupted. East Asia is economically outperforming the rest of the developing world once again and has become a leading force in the global economy. In the wake of the crisis, East Asia changed in important ways. Crisis as Catalyst contains assessments of these changes-both ephemeral and permanent- by a wide range of specialists in Asian economics and politics.The crisis, as the contributors to this volume show, catalyzed changes across political, corporate, and social arenas both in the countries hit hard by the crisis and in others throughout the region. The authors of Crisis as Catalyst examine what has changed (as well as what has not changed) in East Asia since the crisis, explain these variations, and reflect on the long-term significance of these developments.

Andrew MacIntyre is Professor of Political Science and director of the Crawford School of Economics and Government at the Australian National University. He is the author of The Power of Institutions, also from Cornell. T. J. Pempel is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of Regime Shift and The Politics of the Asian Economic Crisis and editor of Remapping East Asia, all from Cornell. John Ravenhill is Professor of International Relations at the Australian National University. He is the author of APEC and the Construction of Pacific Rim Regionalism and editor of The Asian Financial Crisis and the Architecture of Global Finance.