Freer Markets, More Rules: Regulatory Reform in Advanced Industrial Countries

Vogel’s discussion of deregulation in Japan offers the reader an understanding of the distinct issues of market liberalization and regulatory reform as they have been pursued in Japan, and also offers an analysis of the relationship between state and market in contemporary Japan. In the face of the growing acceptance of the claim that international market forces have been compelling reluctant governments to deregulate, liberalize and privatize more segments of their economies, Steven Vogel presents a political challenge to what he regards as these oversimplifications.