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340Book Reviews significantly reduce the capacity of the political machine in monopolizing control and distribution of resources? And third, how similar would the findings be when the theoretical approach is employed in a more rural setting? The author's use of a single case study provides rich empirical detail on the nature ofpolitics in Naga City. However, further research that attempts to answer the third question may yield substantial insights on the salience of state institutions as explanatory variables that are independent ofthe process of urbanization. This short but rich book is thus significant not only because of the attempt to explain the parallel existence ofgood governance and political machines in local politics, but also because it provokes additional questions that are important in more accurately understanding the nature of local politics in the Philippines. Antonio Pedro, Jr. Department of Political Science De La Salle University - Manila Philippines Globalization and Democratization in Asia: The Construction of Identity. Edited by Catarina Kinnvall and Kristina Jönsson. London & New York: Routledge, 2002. 276pp. What is the relationship between globalization and democracy? For the most part the chapters in this book are concerned to explore the argument that the processes entailed in the economic, financial and cultural manifestations of globalization cannot be assumed necessarily to facilitate democratization. Historical and cultural factors can play the role of independent variables, and in Asia especially there can be observed a wide range ofpolitical and social outcomes even in ostensibly democratized states. In reviewing the causes and consequences of the Asian financial crisis, Lowell Dittmer argues the case that the crisis marks the end of "Asian exceptionalism", global market forces now having "gained the upper hand" (p. 36). But this is not to assume that globalization will henceforth clear the way for a more thorough democratization. In reviewing the Indian case, Aswini Ray argues that local democracy has often been overwhelmed by such forces, and in the six chapters that follow, which are devoted specifically to the impact of globalization on particular Asian democracies, this message is Book Reviews341 reinforced. In South Korea, Geir Helgesen finds democratic forms to co-exist with distinctive (perhaps pre-democratic) social norms, and of Indonesia Richard Robison argues that the formal democratization of 1999 has not yet consolidated democratic practices, there being a struggle within the forces of democracy between those who would have the state exercise regulatory powers as opposed to those who would seek to mobilize its institutions in pursuit of "predatory" policies redolent of the dictatorial past. The emergence of non-government and "non-profit" organizations in Japan, focused especially on security, environmental and gender issues and facilitated, once again, by the forces of globalization, marks a somewhat contradictory development. Hugo Dobson argues that this phenomenon has led to increased demands for government transparency and accountability, though the definitive response of the state is still unclear. By contrast, Anders Uhlin, in reviewing the experience of Malaysia and Thailand, cautions against the assumption that the empowering of civil society as a result of the operation of globalizing forces is necessarily a democratic development. What can be safely concluded, however, is that globalization opens a new space for political contestation, though what outcome that contest will have depends to a large extent on the nature of the political system in question. Similarly Bishnu Mohapatra, writing on India, observes that the emergence ofthe discourse of "minority rights" has undermined, to some extent, the claims of citizenship in the interests of a sometimes narrow exceptionalism. This case study introduces the second thesis of this collection, namely that "identity" comprises a major item if not the "missing link" in the study of the link between globalization and democracy. There can be no doubt that the forces and technologies associated with globalization have helped to stimulate the emergence of local identities in various Asian societies, as four of the chapters (devoted respectively to India, Malaysia, China and Indonesia) demonstrate. However, the question ofwhether these new assertions of identity can be harmonized within their existing national political contexts would seem to depend on the nature of the states in question. The transnational "Chinese" networks identified by Shamsul A.B. would seem to gain their impetus, in...

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