In the space of ten short years, Germany and Japan have gone from paragons of economic success to models of political paralysis. In both countries, reformers call for a decisive move toward the liberal market model, yet find themselves frustrated with their governments' inability to act. This deadlock reflects the normal operation of German and Japanese democracy, and not its failure, for Germany and Japan are fundamentally divided over the merits of the proposed liberal reforms. As a result, Germany and Japan proceed with reforms slowly and cautiously, they package delicate compromises, and they design reforms to preserve the core institutions of their respective economic models as much as possible. Steven K. Vogel is Associate Professor of Political Science at UC Berkeley. He specializes in the political economy of the advanced industrialized nations, especially Japan. His book, Freer Markets, More Rules: Regulatory Reform in Advanced Industrial Countries (Cornell University Press, 1996), won the 1998 Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Prize. He has written extensively on Japanese politics, industrial policy, trade and defense policy. He has taught previously at the University of California, Irvine and Harvard University. He has a B.A. from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in Political Science from UC Berkeley.

Before becoming the Governor of the Bank of Korea in 1995, Mr. Lee was Advisor for the Korea-Foreign Trade Association (1994) and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economic Planning Board (1993). He was also President of the Korea Gas Corporation (1991) and of Daewoo Motors Co. Ltd. (1988). In 1981, he was a Visiting Professor at the University of Minnesota after having been the President of the Small and Medium Industry Promotion Corporation.

Qian investigates decentralization and fiscal incentives in the central-provincial relationship during China's reform. He finds a strong correlation between local government revenue collection and local government expenditure and shows that the fiscal contracting system provides local governments with strong fiscal incentives. He also finds that stronger fiscal incentives in terms of higher marginal revenue retention rate implies faster development of non-state enterprises and more reform in state-owned enterprises. Federalism, Chinese style, is compared to federalism, Russian style. Born in Beijing, Yingyi Qian received his B.S. in applied mathematics from Tsinghua University, Beijing; his M.A. in statistics from Columbia University; his M.Phil. in management science from Yale University; and a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. Professor Qian's fields of research include the theory of organizations, comparative institutional analysis, economics of transition, and reform and development in China. He is the author and co-author of many papers, including "Federalism and the Soft Budget Constraints," "Understanding China's Township-Village Enterprises," "Financial System Reform in China: Lessons from Japan's Main-Bank System," and "Enterprise Reform in China: Agency Problems and Political Control."

Southeast Asia has been buffeted by several shocks and momentous events over the last two years, in particular the economic recession which started in July 1997; the return of Hong Kong to China; and political instability, particularly in Indonesia.

Increasingly, large, extended urban regions compete with each other in the Region and in the global economy. Furthermore, as a result of strong driving forces, including free trade, convergence in tax structures, and the "death of distance", Southeast Asian urban regions are less protected and influenced by nation states, and are thus highly vulnerable to unpredictable consequences of strong forces associated with globalization and co-evolving domestic change.

Dr. Webster will assess events of the last few years in terms of the dramatic re-positioning that has occurred among major urban regions in Southeast Asia - identifying winners and losers. His assessment will be based on consideration of both competitiveness and resilience - the two primary objectives, perhaps non-reconcilable, of most Southeast Asian urban regions.

Dr. Webster is currently a visiting scholar at the Asia/Pacific Research Center. He has been Senior Urban Advisor to the National Planning Board, Prime Minister's Office, Thailand for the last five years. He is involved in formulation of strategies and policies related to urbanization in the context of rapid socio-economic change in Thailand. He is also full time advisor to the World Bank's Asia and Pacific Urban Unit. At the global level, he is involved in formulation of the World Bank's Global Urban Strategy, and the World Development Report 2000 which will focus on urbanization and decentralization.

Dr. Webster was formerly Director of the Urban Planning Program at the University of Calgary and Professor of Planning at the Asian Institute of Technology. He has advised a wide variety of governments, cities, corporations, and development agencies on urban policies and programming, particularly in Southeast Asia, over the last 25 years. He is the author of many academic and professional publications on urbanization and urban issues in Southeast Asia.

After a brief description of the legacy of the past of the Mongolian political system, the lecture then considers the influence of the Socialist era and finally focuses on the post-Socialist era, dealing with both the successes and failures of the so-called Democratic Union which currently rules the country. A brief analysis of Western and U.S. policy will also be included. Morris Rossabi, born in Alexandria, Egypt, received his Ph.D. in Chinese and Central Asian History at Columbia University. Author of Khublai Khan: His Life and Times (Main Selection, History Book Club, May, 1988), China and Inner Asia, The Jurchens in the Yuan and Ming, Voyager from Xanadu and editor and contributor to China Among Equals. Has also contributed three chapters to Cambridge History of China and numerous other books on traditional China and Inner Asia. He also wrote chapters for the catalogs for the following museum exhibitions: "Mongolia: The Legacy of Chinggis Khan" (Asian Art Museum, San Francisco), "When Silk Was Gold" (Metropolitan Museum of Art), and "Ilkhanid Art" (Metropolitan Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art). Professor Rossabi is Board member of the Project on Central Eurasia of the Soros Foundations and is currently conducting research for a book on modern Mongolia at the Asia/Pacific Research Center of Stanford University.

What will "post-developmental" Japan look like? In contrast to the view that Japan's political economy will converge with the U.S. system, Schaede argues that Japan is characterized by a system of cooperative capitalism. One feature of this system is the dominant role played by industry associations, which have increasingly assumed regulatory functions in the 1980s and 1990s. With the decline in ministerial power to guide industrial development, this self-regulation by industry is becoming a critical factor in understanding the workings of Japan's political economy. Ulrike Schaede is Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS) at the University of California, San Diego. She has a Ph.D. from Marburg University (Germany) in Japanese Studies, and has held various visiting positions and research affiliations in Japan, including at Hitotsubashi University (Tokyo), the Bank of Japan, MITI, and the Ministry of Finance. Prior to joining IR/PS, Schaede taught at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. She specializes in Japanese government-business relations and business regulation in Japan, and Japan's financial markets.

The Internet has penetrated China at an unprecedented rate. In 1994 2,000 Chinese computers had on-line access; by 2000 that figure had grown to 6 million, and China is now host to more than 30,000 websites. Many have lauded these developments for their potentially liberalizing effects; others have argued that the Internet merely strengthens the administrative capacity of the central government. How will the Internet transform China? Duncan Clark has been intimately involved in the Internet in China since its commercial inception in 1995. A recognized authority on the telecom sector in China, he is the founder of BDA China Limited, and serves on the Advisory Board of China's leading portal, Netease.com. He is a technology columnist for The South China Morning Post, and a frequent commentator on radio and television. He is a graduate of the London School of Economics.

After a brief description of historical legacies, Dr. Katahara looks at changes and continuities in the patterns and contents of civil-military relations through an exploration of the jurisdictional boundaries in the two areas: the structure of political domination; and national security policy making. This study is part of East-West Center's project on the State and the Soldier in Asia, directed by Muthiah Alagappa. Dr. Eiichi Katahara teaches Japan's diplomatic history and international relations in Asia and the Pacific in the Faculty of Law at Kobe Gakuin University, Japan (1992~). He held a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California's Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (1991-1992) and at the Australian National University (1989-1991), lectured in Japanese Politics in the Department of Political Science and was a research fellow in the Australia-Japan Research Center. He has published articles on topics related to Japan's security policy, and security affairs in the Asia-Pacific region. His recent publications include "Japan's Plutonium Policy: Consequences for Nonproliferation" (The Nonproliferation Review, Vol.5, No.1, 1997); "Japan's Concept of Comprehensive Security in the Post-Cold War World" (in S. Shirk & C. Twomey eds. Power and Prosperity: Economic and Security Linkages in Asia-Pacific, 1996). He has also written background chapters on Japan for Asia Pacific Security Outlook 1998 and Asia Pacific Security Outlook 1999 (forthcoming) (edited by Charles Morrison).

This presentation will focus on the effects of the economic crisis on poverty in Southeast Asia illustrated by a case study of Indonesia. Particular attention will be paid to the government responses with social safety net programs and how these responses have been influenced by government perceptions of the role of rural-urban dynamics and the urban informal sector. This presentation is based upon research carried out over the last sixteen months in Indonesia. The final part of the talk deals with the issue of inserting social policy into development plans in the period of economic recovery in Indonesia. Terry Mc Gee has spent more than 40 years carrying out research in Southeast Asia. He has held appointments at the University of Malaysia, University of Hong Kong and the Research School of Pacific Studies, Australia National University (Canberra), as well as UBC since l978. He is the author of The Southeast Asian City (l967), Essays on Third World Urbanization ( l971) and co-editor of The Extended Metropolis in Asia (l991) and Mega-Urban Regions in Southeast Asia (l995) he has acted as a consultant for UNDP and CIDA on urban policy in Asia.