Download This PaperReconciling Economic Restructuring and Democratic Politics: Challenge to Asian Emerging Economies
37 Pages Posted: 14 May 2020 Last revised: 20 Mar 2023
Date Written: January 2021
Abstract
Asian emerging economies are faced with reconciling the requirements of economic reform, meaning the long-term structural transformation of their economies, with effective political governance. They are embarking on essential economic change as growth prospects of the world economy are clouded by shifting global demand and disruptive technology. This has contributed to increasing social instability in a variety of settings, growing crisis of faith in political governance in general, and including a loss of confidence in democracy as a governance system, for delivering continued economic progress.
Stable societies are underpinned by some kind of social contract that enables social cohesion. This is anchored in institutional arrangements relating to the economy and politics. Political governance is then part of the social contract between the state and its citizens, embodied in particular political institutions and processes, such as the different forms of representative democracy.
A key challenge to political governance is to provide policy stability, anchored in societal consensus, for essential economic reforms. This is of special relevance to Asian emerging economies that have been experiencing stalled growth, increasing inequality, and middle-income trap; coupled with political uncertainty. Thailand provides an example of the nature of the issue, as well as suggestions for practical if modest steps toward addressing the challenge.
Keywords: Asia, Asian emerging economies, Thailand, economic restructuring, economic reform, democracy, political economy
JEL Classification: O10, O20, O53, P41, P48
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation