About the topic
The work of the research nucleus “East Asian and Latin American Developments Compared” was driven by the sense that there is a substantial political and sociological element in the explanation of the different economic performances of the two regions. We were persuaded that this element is not reducible to development policies, the politics of policy choice, nor to institutional factors which sustain policy or which are thought to have a direct impact upon developmental outcomes. The research has borne this out and has demonstrated how far the form of social conflicts, together with the success or failure of efforts to resolve them and, not least, the modalities of their resolution shapes development directly by virtue of their impact upon the factors of production and indirectly by their impact upon a wide range of institutions and behaviours, (capital flight, savings rates, policy implementation and trust).
