Asian States, Asian Bankers

Financial markets are given to instability, but some financial systems are more crisis-prone than others. Natasha Hamilton-Hart's historically grounded investigation of central banks, governments, and private bankers in Southeast Asia helps explain why. Focusing on Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, she shows how the long-term development and internal attributes of central banks and state financial institutions shape their interactions with private bankers and influence their ability to manage the financial sector.The politics of finance in Southeast Asia is understudied, Hamilton-Hart contends, and central banks themselves virtually ignored. Yet central banks play a pivotal role in determining a country's vulnerability to regional and global financial pressures such as the currency and financial crises of the late 1990s. Southeast Asian central bankers were major players in the events surrounding these upheavals. Countries in the region experienced the economic chaos in different ways, however, as the central banks of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore drew upon different institutional capacities and legacies. Asian States, Asian Bankers brings new case material to the field of political economics and delineates the operation of central banks and their roles in the monetary and financial policies of three Southeast Asian states. In addition, Hamilton-Hart's work bridges two areas that have often been studied apart from each other: the national-level politics of financial management and the transnational orientation of many bankers in Southeast Asia.

Examines central banks, governments, and private bankers in a group of Southeast Asian countries, focusing on the regulatory functions of government with regard to money and finance., This is a well-researched and nuanced study of central banks in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. It traces the historical evolution of the central banks in these countries, the resulting organizational culture, and the governance capacity, which in turn are linked to financial sector outcomes. All social scientists can benefit from the careful research and the many interesting and pertinent observations made throughout Hamilton-Hart's book., Hamilton-Hart's thought-provoking book is a very valuable contribution to the literature on states and the financial sector more broadly, and on Southeast Asian comparative political economy more specifically. It offers us new insights into a little-studied phenomenon in political economy, namely the manner in which policies are implemented and the institutional factors that influence that process., This is an analysis of the highest quality as well as a highly engaging study. The dramatic events of the Asian economic crisis are used to provide a unique window into the inner workings of the financial and political systems of Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia, and into the power relations in which they are embedded.... It is a study not only of banks and financial systems but also of theories of institutional change and reform well anchored in broader theoretical debates about the nature of institutions and power.... One of the strengths of Asian States, Asian Bankers is the author's exploration of how institutions might change in her nuanced and thoughtful consideration of the postcrisis debate about convergence., The author argues the policy merits neither of financial regulation and open capital markets nor of their alternatives, but of states that do what they say they will do.... This study of the impact of institutional development, organizational capacities, and administrative styles in pleasingly old-fashioned in its use of comparative case methods to interrogate complex questions.... The studies of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore are very helpful.

Natasha Hamilton-Hart is Assistant Professor in the Southeast Asian Studies Programme at the National University of Singapore.