The Regulatory State in East Asia
Comparative Law and Regulation: Understanding the Global Regulatory Process, Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing (2016)
33 Pages Posted: 15 Jan 2020
Date Written: 2016
Abstract
The societies of East Asia, which here refers to Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and the People’s Republic of China (China), have followed a broadly similar path in adopting structures and methods of the regulatory state or regulatory capitalism,' a path which continues to influence the scope and functioning of regulatory government in the region. This chapter will outline that path, which, to generalize, preferred civil servants to judges and emphasized informal collaboration more than it did formal process, or, for that matter, conflict resolution. It highlights commonalities as well as differences among the countries within the region, and discusses historical, political, and economic underpinnings for that path. The chapter will also explore areas where that path differs most significantly from the trajectories of the United States and of Germany, the Western systems that have had the most influence in the region. Although all elements of the regulatory state model will be discussed in the East Asian context, focus will be on legal-institutional attributes such as independent regulatory agencies and rule-based governance rather than substantive policy choices such as privatization and deregulation, though this approach treats legal institutions and substantive policies as intimately related.
Note: The version included here is a pre-publication version.
Keywords: comparative law, regulatory institutions, legal institutions
JEL Classification: K10, K33
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation