Resilient States from a Comparative Regional Perspective

The following sections are included:

• CONTENTS

• ABOUT THE AUTHOR

• INTRODUCTION

One of the central theses of this book postulates that the fate shared by almost all the states considered in the CEE region and in Southeast Asia is that they were all destroyed several times in the course of their history. As a result of this, they have fallen behind in political, economic and social terms. They fell behind politically because of the failure of national elites to emerge and because power was concentrated in the hands of the occupying powers…

The following sections are included:

• Lack of Territorial Continuity and Borders: Lack of Sovereign States

• Territorial Imbalances: Inter- and Intra-regional Disparities
  • Disparities between member states and within both regions
  • Capital cities versus surrounding regions
  • Poverty

• Social Structures: Intermediaries and Minorities
  • Active minorities
  • Roms: The combination of territorialization, poverty and political extremism

• Conclusion

The following sections are included:

• Bureaucracies and Political Economies

• Economic Dependency

• Regionalism and Regionalization

• Conclusion

Rather than using the general terms, it would be more correct to say that this book focuses neither on the EU27 nor on the ASEAN as a whole, but more precisely on a sub-region within each regional ensemble: The CEE region concentrating on the 10 new members that joined the EU in 2004 and 2007 and the continental ASEAN area often referred to as the Greater Mekong sub-region (and not the whole of ASEAN). With the exception of Thailand in Southeast Asia, these new members from each region were Communist until recently or indeed continue to be so. Whatever the nature of their current political regimes, all of them have nonetheless launched the same policies of privatization, regionalization, and integration into regional ensembles. Moreover, this particular focus does not prevent reference being made to other "older" members especially when the politics of enlargement is addressed. Lastly, by using the terms "CEE" and "Southeast Asia", it is clear that the notion of unity is fallacious since CEE is actually a very uncertain category which includes very different states or groups of states, and the same is true of Southeast Asia.

The following sections are included:

• Introduction

The following sections are included:

• The Theoretical Framework
  • Political and economic dimensions of corruption
  • Infant, father, client and boss: Patronage and neo-patrimonalism

• The European Transition Period
  • “Red privatization”
  • Domestic transformation in CEE: Privatization policy
  • The role of the EU in extending corruption

• Southeast Asian Political Economies, Liberalized Economies and Open Regionalism
  • A theory of change
  • “Nomenklatura capitalism”
  • Singapore, the exceptional case: Rule by law and nomenklatura capitalism

• Comparing CEE with Southeast Asia: From the Corruption to the Rule
  • Rule of law, rule by law

• Conclusion

The following sections are included:

• Regionalization from a Comparative Perspective: Conditions for Reform and a Comparison of CEE and Southeast Asia
  • Varieties of EU regionalization
  • Southeast Asia

• Cultural, Political and Economic Regionalism: Further Comparison of EU and Asian Peculiarities
  • The minorities: A delicate balance
  • The “administrative reform”: The Asian and Balkan examples
  • Cambodia
  • The “decentralization reform”: A rare EU reform
  • Poland

• Conclusion: Comparing Both Areas

The following sections are included:

• Globalization and Flexibility
  • Management through flexibility
  • Gender issues

• International Rules and Legal Obstacles

• Conclusion: Comparing Both Areas

In Europe, in the 1980s, and even more so during the following decade, the generalization of exchanges led to a huge decentralization of decision-making (see Table 1). The reasons for this were not only because the former centralized states were known to have failed. It was also because the local level was seen to be the only place where the worldwide dynamic of exchanges was likely to be embedded. The same was true for Southeast Asia…

Having analyzed in previous chapters the various transforming processes under state control, the final three chapters will consider how states manage their relationships with the supranational (regional) entity within which they are embedded…

The following sections are included:

• The EU Cohesion Policy
  • A vision of development: Efficiency and equity
  • A hard public debate
  • Strategy, objectives and tools of development

• ASEAN: Cooperation, No Binding Rules and Step-by-Step Construction
  • ASEAN: A loose regional ensemble
  • Political changes and world-wide economic evolution
  • World-wide evolution and progressive construction: Economic exchanges and arenas
  • Step-by-step regional integration?

• Comparing Both Regional Areas
  • Regional policy and pro-poor program: The Initiative for Asian Integration (IAI)

• Conclusion

The following sections are included:

• EU Cross and Trans-Border Cooperation
  • The initial model: La Grande region
  • The Euro-region

• Beyond Enlargement Policy: Stabilizing Unsecured Borders with the ENP
  • “No institutions”

• The Macro-Regions
  • “3 nos”: No new institutions, no new rules, no new funds

• Obstacles and Limits Provisional Conclusion

• Southeast Asia, from Coastal Regions to the Interior
  • Growth poles and special economic zones
  • The case of SIJORI: Reinforcement of the central states
  • History and geography matter
  • Asymmetric exchanges and reciprocal dependency
  • The case of GMS: States and a non-state actor
  • The 3 “Cs”
  • The special economic zones

• Developing Dependencies

• Comparison between European and Southeastern Asian Schemes
  • Strategies
  • State aids and regional policies
  • Obstacles
  • Core and periphery: the “grey zones” at the local borders

• Conclusion

The following sections are included:

• Political Reasons for Enlargement

• Beyond Economic Challenges

• Political Challenges: Large versus Small States

• Lack of Hegemony

• The End of a Dynamic?
  • The limits of western deepening
  • Agricultural policy

• Comparing CEE and Southeast Asia
  • Beyond enlargement

• Conclusion

Let us now review the conclusions reached in the previous chapters, in which Southeast Asia and Central Europe were compared. Both entail state capacities I questioned by using the terms “strong” or “weak” to describe states and the political economies supporting them…

The following sections are included:

• GENERAL CONCLUSIONS: TYPES OF CAPITALISM IN CENTRAL EUROPE AND IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

• BIBLIOGRAPHY

• INDEX