Strong States, Cooperative Unions, and the Structure of the International System: A Three-Stage Model Explaining the East Asian Development Path

Abstract This article discusses alternative explanations for the successful development of the newly industrialized countries in East Asia, namely Singapore, Hongkong, Taiwan, and South Korea. Based on the assumption that the specific form of cooperative trade unionism is a major reason for their success, different hypotheses are discussed. In contrast to a cultural and an institutional approach a three-stage model of labour relations is developed: From emerging colonial labour unions in East Asia to their suppression in the post-war era, to the reform of labour- management relations and the elaboration of institutional cooperation in recent years. The proposed model is based on two arguments: First, labour relations in East Asia have had significant political underpinning. They are the result of institutional regulation rather than cultural traits. Second, the decisions of governments to resort to massive repression of trade unions is not the result of a specifically authoritarian political culture in Asia, but has changed according to the structure of international relations. With the beginnung of the East-West confrontation in the 1940s, these relations constituted the basis of the emerging antagonism between Western-oriented nation-building elites and the oppositional, especially communist, trade unions in these states. Concomitantly, the relaxation of East-West tensions diminished the governments’ motivation as well as their legitimation to further suppress oppositional trade unions. Confronted with this change of opportunities for political suppression, they resorted to refined methods and even offers of cooperation. Thus, labour-relations must be seen as the result of political learning, whereby not only trade unions but also governments learned to adapt their strategy to changing economic and political conditions.