ABSTRACT
Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore have been classified by the World Bank as ‘high-income’ economies, and South Korea is at the top of the list, after Portugal, of the ‘upper-middle-income’ economies. Taiwan, which is not part of the World Bank system, has an estimated GNP per capita about 50 per cent higher than that of South Korea and a third lower than that of Hong Kong (Asia Yearbook, 1995). All these areas are intensely urbanized, with Japan and South Korea being classified as having 77 and 78 per cent respectively of their populations living in the urban sector in 1993, while Taiwan has 94.3 per cent of its population living in localities of 20,000 people or more (ROC 1990). Hong Kong and Singapore are essentially city states. The populations of all these areas have very low levels of fertility, amongst the lowest in the world and hence, like Europe, will age quickly. The governments in all these areas are in effective control of their territories and all can be classified as ‘strong’ states. They may not have the long tradition of popular participation of western democratic systems, but most can be considered democracies of a sort, or at least have energetically emerging movements for popular participation. Even where the state may appear more authoritarian, there are evolving systems for the rule of law to guarantee individual rights and freedoms and to prevent abuse in high office.
