Course schedule and required readings:

Sep 5

Introduction to the course

Sep 12                       

Olson, Mancur. 1993. “Dictatorship, Democracy and  Development.” American Political Science Review 87 (3): 567-576.

Sep 19

Olson, Mancur. 1996.  “Big Bills Left on the Sidewalk: Why Some Nations are Rich and Others Poor.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 10 (2): 3-24.

Harford, Tim. 2006. The Undercover Economist. New York: Oxford University Press. (Chapters 8, 10)

Sep 26/Oct 3 (all students will write a summary)

Bates, Robert. 2001. Prosperity and Violence: The Political Economy of Development. New York: Free Press.

Oct 10 No class—holiday

Oct 17/Oct 24

White, T. Lynn. 2009. Political Booms: Local Money and Power in Taiwan, East China, Thailand and the Philippines. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing. (Chapters 1, 4, 5)

Nooruddin, Irfan. 2012.  Coalition Politics and Economic Development. New York: Oxford University Press. (Chapters 1, 2, 3)  

Oct 31

Haggard, Stefan. 1990.  Pathways from the Periphery. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. (Chapters 1, 2, 6) 

Video: “Inside Japan Inc.”

Nov 7

Clark, Cal and Alexander C. Tan. 2012. Taiwan’s Political Economy: Meeting Challenges, Pursuing Progress. Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishing. (Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5)    

Video: “The Fight for Democracy” 

Nov 14/Nov 21

Fields, Karl J. 1995. Enterprise and the State in Korea and Taiwan. Ithaca: NY: Cornell University Press. (Chapters 1, 2, 3)

Wade, Robert. 1990.  Governing the Market: Economic Theory and the Role of Government in East Asian Industrialization.  Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. (Chapters 1, 2, 3)

Video: “Big Business and the Ghost of Confucius”

Nov 28/ Dec 5

Heo, U. and Tan, AC. 2003. ‘Political Choices and Economic Outcomes: A Perspective on the Differential Impact of the Financial Crisis on South Korea and Taiwan’, Comparative Political Studies, 36(6), pp. 679–698. doi: 10.1177/0010414003254192.

Tan, AC., 2001. “Taiwan: Sustained state autonomy and a step back from liberalization,” in Shale Horowitz and Uk Heo (eds.) The political economy of international financial crises: Interest groups, ideologies, and institutions, pp.165-176. New York: Rowman and Littlefield.

Tan AC. 2009. “The Politics of Financial Reform in Taiwan: Actors, Institutions, and the Changing State. Asian Affairs: An American Review 36(4): 201-212.

Magcamit MI. and Tan AC. 2015. “Crouching tiger, lurking dragon: understanding Taiwan's sovereignty and trade linkages in the twenty-first century.” International Relations of the Asia-Pacific 15(1): 81-112

Clark C., Tan AC. and Ho K. 2018. “Confronting the Costs of its Past Success: Revisiting Taiwan’s Post-authoritarian Political and Economic Development.” Asian Politics & Policy 10(3): 460-484.

Video: “Industrial Policy”

Dec 12               

He, Tian. 2020. Transforming the East Asian developmental state: Democratic mobilisation and the role of the middle class. Asian Journal of Comparative Politics 6 (2): 109-126.

Manacsa RC. and Tan AC. 2012. "Strong republic" sidetracked: Oligarchic dynamics, democratization, and economic development in the Philippines. Korea Observer 43(1): 47-88. 

He, Tian. 2020. “Towards a theory of the transformation of the developmental state: Political elites, social actors and state policy constraints in South Korea and Taiwan.” Japanese Journal of Political Science, 21(2), 47-67. doi:10.1017/S1468109919000197 

Thurbon, Elizabeth. 2020.  “The Future of Financial Activism in Taiwan? The Utility of a Mindset-centred Analysis of Developmental States and Their Evolution.” New Political Economy, 25:3, 320-336, DOI: 10.1080/13563467.2018.1562436

Video: “Will Robots Disrupt East Asia’s Development Model? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_-3K0lPDL0)

Dec 19                Final exam

Course requirements:

1) Summaries (15%).  Students will be assigned to summarize three (3) readings for the whole semester.  The summary must contain the main arguments of the readings – theory, hypotheses, findings, and conclusions.  In writing the summary, students are also required to submit three (3) questions from or about the reading that can be used for class discussion.  The summary will have a word count of 900-1000 words (not including the discussion questions).  This summary will be submitted to the instructor and the teaching assistant 24 hours before class time.

2) Reading presentation (15%).  Each student will be assigned to do two (2) presentations of the readings in class – one presentation in each half of the semester – of the reading that they have been assigned to summarize.  Each presentation should be 15 minutes in length.  To do the reading presentations, students are required to prepare five (5) presentation slides (PowerPoint) that contain the main points of the arguments presented in the reading.  The presentation slides will be submitted to the instructor and the teaching assistant 24 hours before class time.

3) Class attendance and participation (10%). As this class is a postgraduate-level paper, students are expected to have read the materials/readings prior to each class.  The seminar format of the class requires students to meaningfully participate in the discussion of the readings assigned for the class day. 

4) Final exam (60%).  This in-class closed-book three (3) hour final exam is scheduled on the last lecture day (December 19, 2025) of our semester.  The final exam is an assessment of the student’s mastery and knowledge of all the materials (lectures, readings, films, etc.) covered in the course this semester.