ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines and evaluates three approaches to the analysis of Asian values ideology: culturalist, instrumentalist, and structuralist. The Asian values ideology has three distinct leitmotifs. First, the argument that the liberal West is permeated by the ethos of individualism and a ‘rights culture’ which is contrasted with the communitarian ethos of the East where familial duties and community obligation play a central role in social life. Second, the constant refrain of the Asian values chorus is discipline: discipline in politics, in the family and in the workplace. Prime Minister Mahathir of Malaysia has argued that Malaysia needs to develop a ‘culture of discipline’ which is immanent in its Islamic cultural traditions. Finally, reinforcing the aforementioned principle of duty and discipline is an organic notion of state and society, which is intimately associated with the common ‘good’ of economic development.
