Review by Choice Review
What is the key to Singapore's remarkable economic performance over the past four decades? According to Sung (Univ. of Leicester, UK), it derives from the state's inclusion of workers in economic policymaking and directing resources to improving standards of living. State-led economic development by itself neglects to include what the author calls the "developmental worker model," which produces quantitative and qualitative economic change through worker participation, commitment, and a sharing of the fruits of economic growth. Government-sponsored housing, education, health care, and programs for the poor contribute to forming a social contract. This motivates workers to re-skill to continue to participate in a technologically changing and advancing economy. Policy makers consider worker-management relations but focus on the development of worker-state relations. Sung contends neoclassical policies for capital formation or purely state development policies will not by themselves generate robust economic development. This study makes three significant points: a system of free markets will not lead to sustained economic development; state intervention in markets is necessary to correct market failures; appropriate state intervention will channel resources into economic outcomes resulting in a worker-state social contract, technologically driven economic development, and excellent per capita income growth. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate through professional collections. B. F. Hope California State University, Chico
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
