摘要：THEtargets of this book are claims about the respective merits and likely futures of East Asian and Western economic, social and political systems. These claims are that the West is sluggish and in social decline whereas East Asia is meritorious and unstoppably successful. The propositions come together in the utter-ances of East Asian politicians and bureaucrats who excoriate the West, vaunt the supe-riority of 'Asian values', and perceive the relationship between the two as zero-sum. The terms they use are deeply resentful. Within the English-speaking West, home-grown illiberal and anti-capitalist intellectuals have engendered a mood in which such criticisms are accepted almost at face value. This has been made easier because few people who contribute to public debate seem to understand the nature of the spontane-ous order underlying Western economies or display much grasp of comparative his-tory.
