The ideas contained in Karl Popper¿s The Open Society and Its Enemies¿one of the most important tracts in political philosophy in the twentieth century¿are relevant to anyone seeking to understand the recent history of the East Asian economies. Even though Popper wrote his tract to provide an explanation for both the rise and objectionable nature of totalitarian regimes in Europe in the twentieth century, many of the arguments that he advanced in this European context also explain the social, political and economic relationships that are seen in modern South Eastern Asian economies.