TCW Week 7 Asian Regionalism Script PDF

TOPIC 7 - ASIAN REGIONALISM Intended Learning Outcomes: At the end of the lesson, the learners are expected to demonstrate the following: Differentiate regionalization and globalization Identify the factors leading to a great...

TOPIC 7 - ASIAN REGIONALISM Intended Learning Outcomes: At the end of the lesson, the learners are expected to demonstrate the following: Differentiate regionalization and globalization Identify the factors leading to a greater integration of Asian region Analyze how different Asian states confront the challenges of globalization and regionalization REGIONALIZATION VS. GLOBALIZATION Both refer to integration Globalization – integration of social relations and consciousness across world-space Regionalization – societal integration within a region, and often undirected process of social and economic integration In terms of scope globalization is borderless. Regionalization happens in a specific geographical portion of the world. e.g. Asia is undirected because of diversity. - development - politics - economics - religion Regionalization refers to regional concentration of economic flows as opposed to Regionalism refers to a political process by economic policy of cooperation and coordination among countries. FACTORS OF GREATER ASIAN INTEGRATION 1. Driven by the market 2. Establishment of formal institutions 3. Economic grants and overseas development assistance programs 4. Production networks 5. The Asian bond 6. ASEAN 1. Driven by the market Asia facilitates interactions of a variety of systems, institutions, social relations and infrastructures. East Asia economies get labor from some southeast Asian nation like the Philippines and Indonesia. Thailand exports its grocery products to different 24-hour convenience stores, while Indonesia and Vietnam sell their bags and clothing to the other parts of the region. 2. Establishment of formal institutions Asian Development Bank 3. Economic grants and overseas development assistance programs Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)  4. Production networks “One country specialized production” PH – electronics and copper INDONESIA – palm oil, rubber, and natural gas SOUTH KOREA – machinery products and motor vehicles 5. The Asian bond ASEAN + 3 Financial Ministers’ Process established two economic structures 1. Chang Mai Initiative 2. Asian Bond Market 6. ASEAN Experience If European Union is rules-based, ASEAN decides based on consensus or general agreement. Unity in Diversity Asian Response to Globalization and Regionalization They responded as a group and individual member. As a group, 1. they establish the Asian Development Bank 2. they work on different forms of loans and grants 3. they share information esp. on security like terror groups 4. they work for the achievement of ASEAN Declaration Individually, 1. Countries make bilateral and multilateral agreements 2. China, India, and Japan start dialogue in formulating visions, shared goals and roadmap for regional cooperation. 3. Indonesia, The Philippines and Malaysia made use of their available resources to combat the effects of civilian-victims like displacements. 4. Santi Suk in Thailand created into own currency “bia” that regulated by a central bank in a village 5. Some countries preferred traditional herbal medicine, community- own rice and cooperative shops, etc. The Third Wave: Southeast Asia and middle-class formation in the making of a region I – Discusses the issues concerning the role of mutually overlapping and reacting spheres of states, markets, and societies in the region-making process II – locate the rise of Southeast Asian middle classes in a longer historical and larger regional perspective. Argues that middle classes represent the third wave of class formation following that in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. III – Political and social structures in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines. States, Markets, Societies Examined the ways of how japan engages with East Asia in three mutually overlapping and reacting spheres; states, markets and societies. Japan’s security policy can best be understood in terms of continuity. Its Security stance is that of a state committed to the broad protection of a society accustomed to domestic safety and order. In political stasis, changes now are taking places, including corporate restructurings, financial big bang, generational change in political class, social changes that undermine the foundation of the family, and the breaking of the social contract, may eventually lead a substantial overhaul of an extensive and deeply entrenched set of policies, procedures, and institutions. In the realm of markets, Japanese corporate capital in the electronics industry is attempting to restructure, expand and upgrade its Asian production networks- accelerating manufacturing FDI in China, while maintaining operation in Southeast Asia and rationalizing their overlapping networks – and thus it continues to affect Asian regionalization patterns. In the realms of societies, identify neuralgic points in the Japanese social body in which social and institution reorganization is taking place. Japanese government has attempted to capitalize the success as evidence of Japan’s “soft power,” it has been underscored the fact that the success story is less about self-evident soft power that about the manifold ways in which Asian consumers appropriate these products as part of their middle-class aspirations. The Making of Middle-Class East Asia Middle classes in East Asia are a product of regional economic development in the postwar era. The GDP shares of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, and China in the world GDP increased, while U.S share decline and West European share. Regional Economic development took place within the context of the American informal empire in Free Asia, with US-led regional security system and the triangular trade system as its two major pillar Two Salient points of East Asian middle class I – Middle class formation in southeast Asia was driven by global and regional transnational capitalism working in alliance with national states. II – New urban middle classes in East Asia, whether in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, or Southeast Asia, with their middle class jobs, education, and in middle-class income status. The middle class cultures in East Asia are best understood by reference to the different historical experiences and trajectories of nation-building projects in the US and Japan. New Nationalists in South Korea and Taiwan For the Koreans, the combination of economic development, social transformation, political change, and the emergence of young affluent consumers led to the formation of 386 generation. This generation is the first to have no direct experience of Japanese colonial rule and the Korean Ware. Suspicious of the authoritarianism and developmentalism espoused by older generations. Taiwan’s middle classes manifests itself in a politics of ethnicity that pits the economic and, more recently, growing cultural and political power of the Taiwanese-against the formerly dominant mainlander Taiwanese and against mainland China. Both South Korea and Taiwan have seen the rise of new nationalism with the new middle classes a privileged subjects of history. But whereas south Koreans’ new nationalism is defined generationally with younger Koreans favoring more autonomous position in international politic referring to US. Taiwan’s new nationalism is defined politico-ethnically with Taiwanese advocating an independent and democratic Taiwan against both mainlander Taiwanese and communist China. Thailand’s Ascendant Middle Classes The crisis that hit Bangkok middle classes led to many financial and banking institutions to close and with multinational corporations shutting down their operations, more than one million workers lost their jobs. This provided a rare opportunity for business tycoon and political entrepreneur to bridge the rural and urban division. It was the Thai rak thai political party performance in the nation’s economy that will decided for the status quo Thai middle-class cultural hegemony. Malaysia and Indonesia’s divided and dependent Middle Classes Malaysian and Indonesian counterparts which have also emerged in generations, remain divided ethnically, dependent on the state and unable to reshape Malaysian and Indonesian politics in any fundamental way. Democratic politics has worked to the advantage of the middle classes, even though they are divided among themselves along religious and ethnic lines. Those divisions have led to the peaceful distribution of government positions in accordance with ethnic and religious affiliations in some places and to violent ethnic and religious confrontations in other places. The Philippines’ Dispersed Middle Classes Filipino middle classes have been around for at least two generations, this is because Philippine industrialization started earlier, though it has remained stunted ever since. The Philippine middle classes are thus less divided that their counterparts, less dependent on the status. Politics in the post Marcos, democratic Philippines shows an interesting contrast with Thailand. Devoid cultural hegemony and unable to capture the parliament and the government. NGO proliferation worked out in the arena of decentralization and participatory development. Regional Implications of Middle-Class Formation in East Asia New urban middle classes in East Asia have been shaped by complex historical forces. They are a product of regional and economic development, which has taken place in waves under the US informal empire. We have japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Philippines and now in China. They are produce as well of developmental states, whether democratic or authoritarian, and their politics of productivity. The political consequences varies, though created in one generation, they have evolve along different historical trajectories, nationally occupy different social, political, and cultural positions, and exercise varying levels of political influence. Interactions among states, markets, and societies are now laying the social foundations for an east Asian regional integration that is rooted in specific national formations and, possibly as well, regional identification across national borders. Regional integration and growing regional identification are changing the parameters of state initiatives toward region-making while redefining nations, nationalism, and national projects. That’s it for this session. Thank you everyone and see you in the next video lecture