This book is about the future of capitalism and its national varieties. "Free market capitalism and democracy for all" is the sermon preached by development-aid dispensers in the rich nations of the Northern Hemisphere, whose representatives like to believe that their countries' wealth is the result not of the exploitation of the rest of the world but of the felicitous combination of capitalism and democracy. If only the poor countries of the South would follow their lead -- welfare and peace would reign supreme around the world.
This plea obscures the fact that capitalism and democracy come in different forms. The dissolution of the Soviet Union has been celebrated as a triumph of capitalism, but this is not the end of history.
In the age of globalization it is no longer a question of whether there is any alternative to capitalism; but rather, what kinds of capitalism are there? Should recipients of Japanese development assistance in the third world adopt the Japanese model of capitalism? What if assistance comes from various sources?