Collective action in East Asia : how ruling parties shape industrial policy / Gregory W. Noble.

Includes index.

1. The Problem of Cooperation in East Asian Industrial Policy -- 2. How Parties and Politics Shape Policy Objectives and Organizational Capacities -- 3. Steel Minimills in Japan: The Limitations of Cartels without Effective Compulsion -- 4. Alternatives to Cartels in Taiwan's Minimill Industry -- 5. Standard Setting and R&D Consortia in Japan's Video Industry -- 6. Hapless Standard Setting and Direct Provision of Engineering "Consortia" in Taiwan's Computer Industry -- 7. Extending the Political Logic in Time and Space: Japan, Taiwan, and Korea in the 1990s -- 8. Conclusion.

This book offers a close look at the impact of industrial policies on collective action in East Asia - in Japan and Taiwan and, more briefly, in South Korea. Systematically comparative and based on interviews and original research in the local languages, it focuses on forms of collective action such as cartels, standardization, and research and development consortia in the consumer electronics and minimill steel industries.

Gregory Noble combines detailed case studies with analyses of the political, bureaucratic, and industrial environments in which policy is crafted. He also considers how these environments have evolved in the past decade as long-ruling conservative parties have been challenged in all three countries.