Legalistic Confucianism and Economic Development in East Asia

In: Journal of east Asian studies, Band 3, Heft 3, S. 461-491

Abstract

One of the fascinating theoretical questions
posed by the spread of industrialization and
today's nation-state-building process is how these
originally Western and quintessentially modern
institutions come to take root in other
civilizations. The question becomes even more
intriguing when the process of adaptation is
unusually swift and successful as in East Asia. In
Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore, the
states and peoples had scant time to learn and
absorb modern practices, norms, and concepts
before undertaking, or being subjected to,
countless reforms and revolutions in the name of
"modernization." How, or in what terms, did the
people in this "great transformation" understand
and interpret what they were doing? If the as-yet
imperfectly understood concepts and values could
not be appealed to, what resources—intellectual
and ethico-moral—were at their disposal to use to
motivate themselves and persuade others to
undertake or endure such massive changes?