INFORMAL POLITICS IN EAST ASIA (PB 2000)

The authors of Informal Politics in East Asia argue that political interaction within the informal dimension (behind-the-scenes politics) is at least as common and influential, though not always as transparent or coherent, as formal politics. This book is a pioneering effort to delineate the various forms of informal politics within different East Asian political cultures and to develop some common theoretical principles for understanding how they work. Featured here are contributions by political scientists specializing in the regions of China, Taiwan, Japan, the Korean peninsula, and Vietnam.

"This work studies informal politics in Confucian systems and is offered as an aid to understanding the workings of these systems...This work is a fine introduction about a subject you will be hearing more about." Indochina Chronology

"This scholarly examination of the political role of personal relationships and informal networks in Asia provides an authoritative framework..." Foreign Affairs

"Fukui successfully demonstrates the significance of formal, state-centric politics in advanced societies of the Western world; and he makes an equally strong case for the significance of informal or "infrastate" politics, particularly in Asian societies where the fusion of state and society is common, such as those that evolved within Confucian traditions." Perspectives on Political Science

"This valuable contribution to comparative politics theory and East Asia regional studies belongs in all major university collections." Choice