Coming Full Circle: An Economic History of the Pacific Rim.

• Author: Olsen, Bernard M.

As those who subscribe to the Economist know, observations by outsiders can provide enhanced insight into the nature of a nation or political region. These can be views not readily available to native participants. The summary history under consideration here possesses that advantage.

Three historians from the Southern periphery of the Rim have undertaken a review of the history of the Pacific Rim. A perspective of global economic development emerging as a counter to what has been the conventional Western focus on the Europeanization of the world. In reorienting the textbook outlook the authors advance a bifold definition of the Pacific region by: geographical characteristics, and by the idea found in the minds of men. The account is essentially a history of the leadership role in economic development undertaken by a succession of certain societies, principally China, Japan and the United States.

As an history the presentation is organized chronologically, but the timing of the regional changes overlap in consideration of the differing progressions of regions. The cyclical patterns of change are not necessarily concurrent. The five regional identities are:

1. East Asia - a. China, Japan, Korea and neighbors. b. Southeast Asia - Indonesia, Philippines, et al.

2. Latin American countries, those of Iberian origin.

3. English-Speaking, U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand.

4. Northeast Asia, Russian.

5. Oceanic, completes inventory, not discussed in detail.

Further, there is a discussion of urbanization incorporating the role of large cities in propelling growth as well as generating growth problems for each region. In each of the cases analyzed political incentives and disincentives are suggested to have greater consequences for growth than the culture or the values of that society.

A central theme of the exposition is the distinction drawn between extensive and intensive growth. This is the paradigm used to explain the...