Discipline and Development: Middle Classes and Prosperity in East Asia and Latin America

by Diane E. Davis

Overview

Revealing that the key to successful economic development in late industrializers rests in the state's capacity to discipline capitalists, this study sheds light on why certain countries (South Korea and Taiwan) have the capacity to discipline capitalists, while others (Mexico and Argentina) find themselves at the receiving end of industrialists' political and economic power. Closer examination of middle classes, especially rural middle classes, reveals the extent to which they achieve sufficient political sway in politics and society, and thus are able to impose such discipline.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521807487
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/22/2004
Pages:	436
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.26(d)

Table of Contents

Preface; 1. An introduction to middle classes, discipline and development; 2. Middle classes and development theory; 3. Discipline and reward: rural middle classes and the South Korean development miracle; 4. Disciplinary development as rural middle class formation: proletarian peasants and farmer-workers in Argentina and Taiwan; 5. From victors to victims? Rural middle classes, revolutionary legacies, and the unfulfilled promise of disciplinary development in Mexico; 6. Disciplinary development in a new millennium: the global context of past gains and future prospects; Appendix A. Cases, comparisons, and a note on methodology and sources; Appendix B. Defining the middle class: notes on boundaries and epistemology; Appendix C. Tables; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"The highest praise that most historical sociologists can give is that a book is in the same league as Barrington Moore's Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. This book may well be in that league with its grand comparative sweep, its subtle attention to methodological issues, and its command of the literature. Postmodern it is not. It offers theory, it grapples with evidence, it comes to strong conclusions that point forward as well as backward." —Leslie Sklair, Professor of Sociology, London School of Economics

From the Publisher