The authors of Informal Politics in East Asia argue that political interaction within the informal dimension (behind-the-scenes politics) is at least as common and influential, though not always as transparent or coherent, as formal politics. This book is a pioneering effort to delineate the various forms of informal politics within different East Asian political cultures and to develop some common theoretical principles for understanding how they work. Featured here are contributions by political scientists specializing in the regions of China, Taiwan, Japan, the Korean peninsula, and...

The book begins with an editors' introduction that provides a conceptual setting for a comparative study of the role of policy in the development of the postwar Japanese and West German economies. It then offers detailed comparative analyses of developments in the two countries on seven substantive topics: an overview of macroeconomic change; economic advisory and planning; monetary control; inflation control; labour markets and wage determination; agriculture and social security and welfare. It ends with an editor's summary and conclusion.