ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by elaborating a typology of national political economies designed to grasp empirical variations as they can be seen to exist in the contemporary period. Japan, China and other East Asian countries are located within the typology so as to allow us to draw, more effectively, the comparisons and contrasts between them and other political economies. As part of this process, the chapter argues that it is these societies that now need to be grasped as the best examples of plan rational political economies. It turns to a justification of why these societies should be understood primarily as examples of state-orchestrated economic transformation. The chapter involves a critical assessment of other claims to the determination of East Asian transformation, and those advanced by economists working from within the neoclassical paradigm. Finally, it presents some hypotheses as to why the East Asian route to the modern world should have involved such a decisive role for state policy and influence.
