Pathways to Asia
Edited by Richard Robison
Allen and Unwin, 1996, $24.95
Reviewed by James Goodman
Beginning in the mid-1980s, "looking north to Asia" emerged as the official Australian answer to intensified globalisation. Australian living standards were directly counterposed with those in East Asian societies which were seen as threatening Australian markets and employment. Academics and politicians began arguing that Australia should adopt "the East Asian model".
Conservatives and assorted neo-liberals embarked on their pathways to Asia. They selected aspects of East Asian society and used them to undermine social democracy in Australia. Conservatives stressed the centrality of the family and of social discipline. Neo-liberals stressed the low wages and lack of social welfare. East Asian societies were defined as static — fixed in concrete — for Australia to copy.
As demonstrated by the editor and contributors to Pathways to Asia, these accounts were gross distortions of reality. The nine chapters cover misinterpretations of culture, economy, society and politics, all of which are shown to be lurking behind the mantra of competitiveness that dominates Australian politics.
The authors argue that East Asian societies are facing powerful democratic and social pressures. They face intense demands for social and political participation which in some cases are forcing them down the road of social democracy. Meanwhile, Australian business and governments have been pushing in the opposite direction.
Many of the authors are optimistic, arguing that as big business and governments link-up so Australian socialist and labour movements are building stronger ties with people's movements and political parties across the region. Such links can serve Australian movements as much as their East Asian counterparts. There are powerful lessons to be learnt for social solidarity, political action and public policy from such mutual link-ups.
One author, for instance, uses the East Asian experience to challenge the official consensus that there are two options for the Australian economy: Keating's slow deregulation or Howard's fast deregulation. Instead, drawing on the East Asian experience, government intervention in trade and finance, and in manufacturing, are favoured. Regulation of pension funds, the creation of a Commonwealth Development Bank, infrastructure investment, export incentives and the use of overseas aid to support trade unions in East Asia are all suggested.
However, these issues are not fully developed. What are the implications for Australian social movements — for land rights campaigns or the women's movement, for example? How might links with East Asian labour movements work out in practice, and what evidence is there of increased joint work? Such questions are left unanswered. Nevertheless, the book does at least pose them and present some agendas. It should become an influential taster of an increasingly intense political debate.