East Asia (Northeast and Southeast Asia) has long been the fastest growing region in the world economically. Despite intermittent financial crises and the current economic slowdown, nowhere else have so many countries developed so quickly over the last generation. A 2011 UN report calls the region the “growth driver” and “anchor of stability” of the global economy. Debates about how to explain this rapid growth have become less impassioned recently. Even strong advocates of the free market approach (e.g., the World Bank) acknowledge the role of “developmental states” in driving economic expansion. The authoritarian character of the “developmental states” has also received increasing attention recently most periods of high growth occurred under a form of non-democratic “developmentalist” rule. A third issue addressed is the impact of rapid development on political change. Does modernization lead to greater liberalization and eventually stable democracy as optimistic modernization theorists suggest? Or has an “authoritarian route to the modern world” (Barrington Moore) emerged in East Asia, particularly in China?