Ohnesorge, John --- "The regulatory state in East Asia" [2016] ELECD 1086; in Bignami, Francesca; Zaring, David (eds), "Comparative Law and Regulation" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016) 92

Book Title: Comparative Law and Regulation

Editor(s): Bignami, Francesca; Zaring, David

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781782545606

Section: Chapter 3

Section Title: The regulatory state in East Asia

Author(s): Ohnesorge, John

Number of pages: 15

Abstract/Description:

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. Studying the East Asian case in comparative perspective demonstrates the importance of interactions, over time, between imported institutions and local social and political forces.