ABSTRACT
The elite pursuit of distinct projects involved several aspects; thus, reading and reacting to enfolding structural circumstances, determining upon a line of advance and thereafter disciplining their population, that is, turning their collective efforts towards that elite-specified goal. In the sometime Japanese sphere of Northeast Asia, the successor states came to be tagged the Asian Tiger economies. American elite reactions to the defeat of the Nationalist forces in China and the establishment of the People's Republic of China were negative. The elite of the Republic of Korea under the leadership of Syngman Rhee did not pursue any very coherent development policy. In the sometime Dutch sphere of Indonesia, the incoming elite faced more intractable problems with a widely scattered territory, multiple language divisions and an economy based mainly on primary products. The strategy of elite-led export-oriented development was repeated amongst America's allies in Northeast Asia: thus, in time, South Korea and Taiwan.
