Reviews for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises in East Asia: Sectoral and Regional Dimensions

The average rating for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises in East Asia: Sectoral and Regional Dimensions based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-06-14 00:00:00 James Bonnell Understanding Development is a short, succinct, effective look at the history of developmental economics throughout the 20th century. Because it was written in 1996, some of the important changes in the international economy since then are missing, but John Rapley does an excellent job of covering the predominant theories in question. First, he looks at ISI and its roots in Dependency Theory, presenting the case for state-led growth, and why the Third World placed such emphasis on their newly independent governments to yield economic growth. He points out all of the critiques of ISI as if he were a mid-80s IMF employee with space in a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed. He then explains how Neoliberalism was introduced to the scene to fix those problems created by ISI and why/how it can be an effective theory to follow through on - trusting the market over the state. Neoliberalism, however, created significant problems in those countries it was foisted upon, and so Rapley once again switches sides in the debate to present a rebuke of the system along the lines of that argued by leftists the world-over. While I felt almost hurt reading his criticism of state-led growth (I'm not a fan of Neoliberalism), I realized that there was no noticeable bias at all while reading his criticism of neoliberal reforms (privatization, deregulation, austerity). He then presents the re-introduction of leftist development theory in the form of the New Political Economy. He discusses how Africa, in particular, faces challenges largely unforeseen by either side of the development debate, and in his conclusion, he offers a projection of how the future might be affected by a potential return of left-leaning dominance, given that state socialism is largely a thing of the past. Entertainment: 1 Star Education: 1 Star Thesis: 1 Star Readability: 1 Star Inspiration: 1 Star

Review # 2 was written on 2015-10-01 00:00:00 Pierce Dugan Rapley brilliantly summarizes the history of thought in development. The book suffers from a compulsion of "balance" by trying to find something wrong with each ideology. There's also a scarcity of evidence in the coverage. But overall it's a good introduction to the subject but a bit too dense for the uninitiated.