ABSTRACT
Most commentators have denounced the Asian financial crisis as the end of authoritarian state-directed capitalism. The crisis emerged with the devaluation of the Thai baht in July 1997 and quickly escalated to encompass most of the economies in East and Southeast Asia. There has been a profileration of explanations about the origins of the financial crisis, of which the four most common were the neoliberal view, an international conspiracy, financial panic, and changes in political and social power at both the domestic and international levels.1 The most important explanation in terms of its direct policy implications is the neoliberal view, associated with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, which argues that corruption and nepotism were the central factors that contributed to the crisis.
