Abstract
PurposeThe per capita GDP of the countries of Southeast Asia (SEA) varies from less than $5,000 to over $97,000. This paper aims to analyze the political factors behind such variation, such as wars, extreme politics, political instability, and kleptocratic governments and leaders, and how they affect the development experience within the region.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses the comparative political economy analysis approach to make a comparison among SEA countries using knowledge from well-known political–economic history and development data from World Development Indicators provided by World Bank.FindingsA long period of political stability creates a favorable environment for investment that, in return, stimulates sustained economic growth in SEA. The countries have all grown rapidly, but their experience of development varies. The four countries that avoided political extremes (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Brunei) have the highest per capita incomes today. Those that have had long periods of war and political instability, but which have also had substantial periods of stability (Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines), come next. Cambodia and Laos have suffered long periods of war and are the least developed. Myanmar’s military rulers, through civil wars and kleptocratic mismanagement of the economy, have prevented growth much of the time.Originality/valueMost studies of Southeast Asian growth have analyzed the experience of single countries and missed the central role played by extreme politics, including wars, to explain why some countries have much higher per capita incomes than others. This paper is expected to fill this gap.
Highlights
The nations of Southeast Asia contain 661 million people, or 8.6% of the world’s population (World Bank, 2021)
As we go through the histories of the various Southeast Asian countries, it is useful to keep in mind the comparative experience of Northeast Asia, where from at least 1960 onwards, with the notable exception of China, none of these economies (Japan, Republic of Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong) experienced sustained political instability that significantly interfered with economic growth
Government economic development policies are almost by definition driven by politics
Summary
The nations of Southeast Asia contain 661 million people (in 2019), or 8.6% of the world’s population (World Bank, 2021). Indonesia alone is the world’s fourth-largest country in terms of population, but outside the region, little attention has been paid to Southeast Asia’s experience of economic development. This is to be regretted because the region shares many of the historical characteristics of other parts of the developing world in ways that the much better-known experience of Northeast Asia (Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Taiwan and Hong Kong in Greater China) does not. The first decades after the Second World War were painful for much of Southeast
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