Introductory description

East Asia is home to two of the world’s three largest economies, a third of the world’s population, and contributes a share of more than 40 percent to global economic growth. The past 70 years have transformed East Asia into one of the most vibrant, exciting, and rapidly developing regions of the globe. It is also increasingly where the future of global economic growth and political stability will be determined, as nation-states become increasingly interdependent within a global capitalist system. Yet East Asia is a geographically, culturally, and politically diverse region that shares but also defies many of the patterns and principles of international politics and economic development witnessed in the West. And how well do we really understand the dynamics that are driving East Asia’s transformation?

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

1. Introduction
2. The developmental state: An East Asian path to high growth?
3. Cold War and development
4. The end of the developmental state?
5. Crony capitalism and corruption
6. Reading Week
7. The democratization that did and did not happen
8. Shared history, shared loyalties and shared enemies
9. Regionalism: Theoretical frameworks and evolution of regional institutions
10. The China factor in East Asian regionalism

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• (1) to develop students’ ability independently to analyse the development strategies of individual countries, to compare them and to draw out generalisations which could have significance for other states;
• (2) to enable students to link theoretical and empirical analysis of political and economic material;
• (3) to develop research skills, particularly strategies for searching for material, including on the Internet; (4) to develop students’ ability to make presentations.

Indicative reading list

Reading lists can be found in Talis

Specific reading list for the module

Research element

This module introduces student to a wide range of specialist source materials to research into East Asia. This module requires student to conduct independent and collaborative research.

Interdisciplinary

This module lies at the intersection of political science, economics, history, international relations and area studies.

International

This module introduces students to individual East Asian countries and East Asia as a region.

Subject specific skills

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

1. Demonstrate advanced empirical knowledge of the various debates concerning the political economy of development in East Asia,
2. Develop rigorous and coherent arguments in response to opinions raised by other students in seminars and through written essays
3. Undertake critical analysis of the various understandings of the developmental state and its regional variations in East Asia
4. Effectively present, communicate and debate arguments about the nature of political economic transformation in East Asia.

Transferable skills

Transferable skills
The objectives of the module follow from this. They are:

1. To develop students’ ability independently to analyse the development strategies of individual countries, to compare them and to draw out generalisations which could have significance for other states;
2. To enable students to link theoretical and empirical analysis of political and economic material;
3. To develop research skills, particularly strategies for searching for material, including on the Internet;
4. To develop students’ ability to make effective presentations.