Stirrings of Mutual Recognition

Abstract

The newly industrialized countries (NICs) of East Asia and Latin American liberal democracies have at least this much in common: The end of the Cold War, the "third wave" of democratization, and the consolidation of more uniform rules and institutional procedures concerning international investment and trade have presented them with increasingly convergent international opportunities and constraints. The East Asian financial crisis of 1997-98 and the recent advances of democracy in Indonesia, South Korea, and Taiwan underscore this parallelism and prepare the way for broader comparisons between these two large regions. As opinion-formers on both continents adjust their frames of reference to include the experiences of their counterparts across the Pacific, it becomes possible to detect stirrings of mutual recognition.