THE EMERGENCE AND POLITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS IN SINGAPORE

Singapore is an example showing that economic development, the affluence it creates, the emergence of a large middle class do not inevitably lead to liberal democracy. This study examines the present situation and problem of Singapore's middle class. It first describes the emergence and the characteristics of this class. It then examines the political control of the People's Action Party government, which has crushed democratic movements in the bud, and the government's discriminatory policies, such as in education and housing, which favor the growing middle class. Lastly, it discusses new problems that are arising from the middle class's mammonism and resultant political passivity In conclusion, this study foresees that to keep the supply of material goods flowing to the middle class, the government will have to push for even greater economic development, which means that the role of the state in Singapore is likely to become even greater than before.     

THE MIDDLE CLASSES IN THAILAND: THE RISE OF THE URBAN INTELLECTUAL ELITE AND THEIR SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS

This paper, based on an analysis of quantitative survey data, reexamines the stereotype of the Thai “middle class” as a homogeneous elite class at loggerheads with the lower strata. Our results support the contention that the Thai middle classes are, in fact, of mixed social origins, and suggest that their process of emergence is characterized by the fact that a large number have risen from the lower urban strata We argue that because of these characteristics, the social consciousness of the Thai middle classes is more complex than the stereotyped explanation, and contains elements that cannot be fully explained by a perspective based on class theory     

CUBA'S SOCIAL POLICY AFTER THE DISINTEGRATION OF THE SOVIET UNION: SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT AS LEGITIMACY OF THE REGIME AND ITS ECONOMIC EFFECTIVENESS

Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Cuba has experienced a severe economic crisis, and the country's social policy has played an important role in showing the people a raison‐d'ětre for the revolution. This role has become even stronger in recent years, as internal and external actors demand political reforms and economic liberalization. This article first examines the Cuban government's use of social development to counter the demands for changes. It then looks at the extent that government social policy contributes economically to improving the Cuban living standard. The article demonstrates empirically how the leadership emphasizes their social accomplishments whenever demands for change come, and then shows that after the suspension of Soviet aid, Cuban social policy has been able to provide services mainly by relying on human capital and reducing quality materially because of the shortage of foreign reserves. This has limited the economic effectiveness of the services.     

EXPLORING THE SPECTRUM OF EXPORT DESTINATION: THE GEOGRAPHIC SPREAD OF KOREAN EXPORTS,ITS DETERMINANTS,AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS

Recent research in international trade has explored the stylized facts and causes and effects of export diversification. A simple model in this paper drawing on the work of Melitz suggests that there is an order in which a country spreads its goods to foreign countries. We estimate the order by using a methodology which takes account of the fact that most goods are not exported to several countries in our sample (unbalanced panel). We find that Korea exports its new goods first to the United States, followed by Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, and most recently to Bosnia-Herzegovina. Finally we find that the countries that Korea has exported to first are those with large GDP, low tariff rates, geographic proximity, language familiarity, in-country Korean export promotion offices, and high-quality institutions.     

MANAGERIAL STRUCTURE OF BUSINESS GROUPS IN TAIWAN: THE INNER CIRCLE SYSTEM AND ITS SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

This paper examined the management structure of Taiwan's business groups. The objective was to determine how independent group firms coordinate their business. Employing longitudinal data of the top 100 groups, I investigated the “inner circle” system and its evolution. I found that group leaders occupied overlapped positions at the director rather than at the manager level, which implied a separation of strategic planning and routine administration. Secondly, the dynamics of inner circle management did not hinge upon the group president as in the Korean chaebol, nor on the norm of corporate community as in the Japanese keiretsu, but on the social ties in the inner circle. Analyzing the background of the leaders indicated that family never dominated the scene even in the early years, and their significance decreased along with environmental changes. The transition in Taiwan in the late 1980s motivated business groups to introduce more “outside” talent into decision‐making.     

THE EMERGENCE OF THE ASIAN MIDDLE CLASSES AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS

The middle classes in Asian countries, which emerged rapidly in environments that were significantly different from those in the West, share some common features, but differ from one another on a number of other counts. Important among the similarities is that their nation‐building efforts after independence were perforce ambivalent in that, while pursuing economic growth in condensed ways, they tried to maintain the integrity of the state by emphasizing traditional values. On the other hand, they differ from one another in terms of the peculiarities of the preconditions they faced when launching development, the social structure specific to each, and the time at which and the strategy under which they began to pursue economic growth. These factors have brought diversity into the Asian middle classes' development processes and characteristics This paper examines the diversity of the middle classes that are now in a process of emergence in Asia.     

THE EMERGENCE OF THE MIDDLE CLASSES AND POLITICAL CHANGE IN THE PHILIPPINES

This article provides a study of the middle classes in the Philippines. First, the process of their emergence was examined in relation to that of Philippine industrialization, which started in the 1930s but from the 1960s progressed slowly and was accompanied by the expansion of the tertiary industries and informal sector. Then, the composition and characteristics of the middle classes, including their relatively small population size, distinctness from the lower classes, and internal diversity were analyzed. Finally, based on the data of the middle‐class‐centered organizations formed during the anti‐Marcos struggle, their political aspects were discussed, with emphasis placed on the new pattern of political participation which appeared after the Aquino assassination.     

JOSÉ RIZAL: THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATIONAL VIEW OF HISTORY AND NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE PHILIPPINES

The rewriting of the history of the Philippines from the standpoint of the Filipinos is today one of the major subjects of research in the history of that country. A perspective on Philippine history from the standpoint of the Filipino people themselves and free from the bias of the colonialists, was first attempted in the era of the Propaganda Movement, 1882–1896. In this paper, I should like to probe into the process of the formation of the historical view of the Filipino people taken by the greatest thinker of the Propaganda Movement era, José Rizal, and into the notion of the national solidarity of the people of the Philippines (i. e., their national consciousness), which that historical view heightened.     

THE KOREAN WAR AS AN EPOCH OF CONTEMPORARY HISTORY

The Korean War marks an epoch in the development of modern history after World War II, For Japan in particular the war had a great significance. Not only did the Korean War play a great role in the process which set out from the destruction accompanying Japan's defeat and led up to the present state of economic development, hut the fact that Japan today possesses military forces, after having renounced rearmament under Article 9 of her Constitution, is also due to the occurrence of the Korean War. Establishing the significance of the Korean War provides a key for the evaluation of post-war Japanese history.