State Structure, Policy Formation, and Economic Development in Southeast Asia

1	Introduction Institutional settings of state power and the policy process

Why do some developing countries industrialize and others don't? What explains differences in economic performance among states that are vulnerable to external shocks, crony capitalism, and political instability? These questions have acquired heightened urgency over the past decade, a decade bracketed by financial meltdowns, exacerbating the existing weaknesses of dependent economies and troubled polities across the world. This book seeks to answer these questions by studying Thailand and the Philippines, two emerging economies in East Asia – a region that has rebounded with remarkable speed from recent global and domestic crises.¹ Ten years after the bruising 1997–98 ...