New Tigers and Old Elephants

The lighthearted title symbolizes the subject of the book, the disparity between economic breakthrough and stagnation, a crucial choice for developing countries. As we near the close of the twentieth century, the so-called New World Order remains undefined and its parameters hazy. Amidst all the uncertainty, one thing appears clear - a great many of the advantages that propelled countries forward during the Cold War decades no longer apply. In a world in which economic power is driven by the harnessing of new technological breakthroughs, cheap labor and abundant raw materials will not remain decisive as in the past. Increasingly, developing countries must bridge an ever-widening economic gap to achieve industrial status.New Tigers and Old Elephants examines which factors and attributes will identify "winners" hi the development game and which factors are decisive in success and failure alike. "Winners" are represented as tigers - countries that are breaking through to a more advanced economic level. In contrast, elephants are countries with sporadic but ultimately disappointing spurts of growth, whose mammoth economies nonetheless permit them to lumber on due to one or two outstanding performing sectors. The tigers of the 1970s were mostly Asian; during the 1980s this group broadened to include Chile, Malaysia, and Thailand. Four chapters of this volume describe the authors' picks for the tigers of the future. This book offers an original and comprehensive approach to development in the economic trenches. It will appeal to teachers and students of international politics, business, and economics, and all those generally interested hi the developmental process.