Models of Economic Development from a World-Systems Perspective: Moving beyond Universalism

This essay examines the construction of models of economic development based on the perceptions of East Asian success through a systemic long-term, large-scale perspective.These models take three main forms: neo-liberalistic, state-centric and cultural. Each of them focuses on a main explanatory variable. it is argued that in a complex and interdependent system like the capitalist world-economy, problems should be examined not separately but in their mutual connections.