After the Crisis: The Social Contract and the Middle Class in East Asia

By Nancy Birdsall, Stephan Haggard

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace , 2000

In 1997, East Asia was beset by financial crisis and panic. Despite decades of high and sustained growth, most of these countries had little, if any, form of social insurance to help soften the effects of the crisis.

Whereas the international community focuses predominately on the poor, After the Crisis examines the impact of the crisis on an emergent most urban "striving class". Authors Nancy Birdsall and Shephan Haggard emphasize the strategic importance of this emerging middle class in forging an explicit social contract that could benefit all classes.

About 1997 East Asia Financial Crisis:

The East Asian financial crisis was a financial crisis that started in July 1997 in Thailand and affected currencies, stock markets, and other asset prices in several Asian countries, many considered East Asian Tigers. It is also commonly referred to as the East Asian currency crisis or locally as the IMF crisis although the latter is somewhat controversial.

Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand were the countries most affected by the crisis. Hong Kong, Malaysia, Laos and the Philippines were also hit by the slump. Mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore and Vietnam were relatively unaffected. Japan was not affected much by this crisis but was going through its own long-term economic difficulties.

Though called the "East Asian" crisis because it originated in East Asia, its effects rippled throughout the globe and caused a global financial crisis, with major effects felt as widely as Russia, Brazil, and the United States.

From Wikepedia.com 

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