To take another example: semi- or fully autocratic regimes were the norm throughout South East Asia in the 1980s and 90s. Singapore's Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew, has argued this is because what he calls "Asian values" prevail in the region. That this is a distinctly unfashionable analysis is not likely to trouble MM Lee in the least. However, there are some Western observers who agree that there may be something in it. In Joe Studwell's 2007 book Asian Godfathers: Money and power in Hong Kong and south-east Asia, he wrote that the countries he covered (he did not include Indochina or Burma) were experiencing a "developmental honeymoon", and so weren't so bothered about their lack of Western-style liberal democracy. Full story
OPINION: Approving of autocracy - Sholto Byrnes
New Statesman, 5 Dec 2010
To take another example: semi- or fully autocratic regimes were the norm throughout South East Asia in the 1980s and 90s. Singapore's Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew, has argued this is because what he calls "Asian values" prevail in the region. That this is a distinctly unfashionable analysis is not likely to trouble MM Lee in the least. However, there are some Western observers who agree that there may be something in it. In Joe Studwell's 2007 book Asian Godfathers: Money and power in Hong Kong and south-east Asia, he wrote that the countries he covered (he did not include Indochina or Burma) were experiencing a "developmental honeymoon", and so weren't so bothered about their lack of Western-style liberal democracy. Full story
To take another example: semi- or fully autocratic regimes were the norm throughout South East Asia in the 1980s and 90s. Singapore's Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew, has argued this is because what he calls "Asian values" prevail in the region. That this is a distinctly unfashionable analysis is not likely to trouble MM Lee in the least. However, there are some Western observers who agree that there may be something in it. In Joe Studwell's 2007 book Asian Godfathers: Money and power in Hong Kong and south-east Asia, he wrote that the countries he covered (he did not include Indochina or Burma) were experiencing a "developmental honeymoon", and so weren't so bothered about their lack of Western-style liberal democracy. Full story
