Score contribution per author:
α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
The paper attempts via case studies to illustrate the nature and importance of political structures and transitions in the course of rapid growth and development. The cases are drawn principally from Asia, where the pattern has often been a dominant single-party structure evolving into a full multi-party democratic structure. This results from the interaction of the politics and changes that result from the growth process itself, such as the emergence of politically active middle and entrepreneurial classes. The role of political leadership in managing, sequencing, and pacing these transitions is discussed. We do not yet have a general model for which these cases would be instances. The hope is that an in-depth understanding of the case dynamics will be a useful input to the development and testing of more general theories. Copyright 2009, Oxford University Press.