ABSTRACT
The past 20 years in East Asia have been turbulent, beginning with the rise of the East Asian economies documented in World Bank (1993) as a Miracle, through the crises of 1997–1998, and various recoveries. During the Miracle days, a combination of some neoliberal policies and strong government–business cooperation led to what was termed the Asian Development Model (Asian Development shared mental model – related to the Developmental State mental model of Chalmers Johnson of UC-San Diego). This shared mental model, espoused most publicly by PM Mahathir bin Mohamad of Malaysia, presented close government– business cooperation and communal values as the path to rapid economic growth. The economic collapses in the 1997–1998 Asian crises led this approach to be renamed “crony capitalism.” These have been contending shared mental models for understanding economic development.
