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Wm. Theodore de Bary, Asian Values and Human Rights. A Confucian Communitarian Perspective. Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 1998, 196 pp., 17.50.
THE BACKGROUND OF (OR THE PRETEXT FOR) this book is the political-moral debate about Asian values originating in the 1980s. It was said at that time that the rapid economic growth in East Asia could be explained by the rejection of the individualistic morality characteristic of the West in favour of ... indeed, in favour of what? The Japanese identified the origins of their success with their superior management methods and the role of state guidance in export-led growth. Lee Kwan Yew of Singapore and his friend Mohamad Mahathir in Malaysia liked to praise the zero...