ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the strategic choice resulted from the interplay between state and market and explores the significance of the sequencing of political and economic transitions and the interplay between politics and economy in determining variations in transition outcome. Through comparison, it attempts to draw some real lessons about how the sequencing of political and economic transitions influences the prospects for democracy and economic restructuring, though the choice of the sequencing model varies across these Asian countries. To Asian communist leaders, the fall of the Soviet Union and Eastern European communism confirmed the fundamental need of political control to maintain political stability and the necessity of economic reform to improve economic performance. In socialist reforms, the primary actors initiating reforms are the party-state elite and the direction of those changes is determined by their perceptions and visions on reform, which are expressed in different interpretations of Marxism-Leninism.
