State Making in Asia.

STATE MAKING IN ASIA. Edited by Richard Boyd and Tak-Wing Ngo. New York: Routledge. 2006. xiii, 203 pp. (Tables, figures.) US$116.00, cloth. ISBN 0-415-3461 1-8.

What are the characteristics of the "Asian state," and how do they differ from the "Western state"? The authors of the nine essays in this collection ask this question from the perspective of several disciplines, and examine several modern examples from Asia for answers. The editors note the great divide between approaches of historians and political scientists, and attempt to narrow the gap by engaging in cross-disciplinary comparative analysis.

The authors use a common set of concepts--including nation, state, citizenship, sovereignty and territory--to bring the Asian state into a discourse more familiar to Western writers and thinkers. Each essay begins with the author's clarification of his or her usage of key concepts, and then proceeds to dissect a particular state or latent state. The notion of "developmental state" is criticized as too narrowly focused on the state as promoter of economic development.

The Asian state challenges some key concepts of state theory, including territoriality and legitimacy. Mark Ravina examines Japanese state making, as an interweaving of nativist tradition and adaptation to global pressures. A second chapter on Japan (Richard Boyd) views the activist and interventionist bureaucracy as a key actor and power in the state. He identifies administrative transcendence and sectionalism as distinguishing Japanese state making from its Western counterpart. Although the bureaucracy has lost its close identification with the emperor since 1945, its success in economic development has bestowed legitimacy to maintain near-transcendence above the public.

Three chapters address state making in China, with two discussing outliers Taiwan and Tibet. R. Bin Wong explains how dynasties' control over culture was crucial in creating a modern Chinese identity that underlies the notion of citizenship today. How Communists and Nationalists linked national identity to citizenship has been critical in the emergence of nationhood. He concludes by noting the emergence of economic interests as weakening Communist doctrine and leading to a possible better future.

Jenn-hwan Wang reviews the establishment and evolution of Taiwan from security to developmental state, and the democratization challenges to the authoritarian regime. The liberalization of politics has been accompanied by a push for permanent political autonomy, which has generated threats from the Mainland and a return to a crisis of survival for Taiwan.

Refugees in Nepalese resettlement camps are constructing key elements of a Tibetan state, according to Ann Frechette, and even engaging in a form of foreign relations. Along with several other authors in the volume, she emphasizes the importance of external relations in state making. Swiss NGOs have been particularly active in building the framework of a political economy. She examines the key "national myth" of the Tibetans--returning to their homeland.

Shamsul A.B. and Sity Daud dissect the emergence of nation and state in Malaysia. Taking Mahathir's 1991 vision for 2020, they compare existing conditions of ethnic pluralism with the future, and see a "nation of intent."

A final chapter by Latin Americanist Laurence Whitehead provides a global and conceptual review of the Asian state-making project, and summarizes the conclusions of the volume.

The essays advance a discourse which bridges empirical study and key political concepts. Contributors criticize the parochial tendency of Western scholars, who often assume that the European nation-state is the exclusive model for explaining politics in the rest of the world. The volume should be a springboard for developing a new research agenda on Asia--one that goes beyond the specifics of particular societies and their history, and incorporates language and concepts of political analysis. Participants in this agenda must resist the temptation to use these concepts as a mere checklist, and should reflect on the accepted meanings of Western terms in terms of the Asian experiences. Fortunately, several of the contributors to this volume have already begun this process.

ROBERT BEDESKI

University of Victoria, BC, Canada