The Socialistic Society

SIA today presents a fascinating array of experiments in A- ways of organizing responsibility for industrial develop ment. In one great area, mainland China, the state has been made the chief instrument for achieving the industrial revo lution on the Communist model. Outside the Iron Curtain, too, government is everywhere cast in a central r?le, though doctrine is less binding, and wide divergences exist as to how, where and and to what purpose the state is to take the lead in economic affairs. Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, Burma, India, Pakistan ?these countries run a wide gamut of non-totalitarian choices as between public and private initiative, or blends of the two. Especially interesting is the contrast between India and Japan in the philosophy and practice of industrial enterprise. Observers have tended to neglect it in favor of the more dramatic confron tation of India and China in their respective Five Year plans. For those who are dedicated to democratic means, however, the contrast between India and Japan may be more deserving of study, since it highlights a range of choices within a basically liberal order. And it concerns the two Powers whose progress will largely determine the prospects for any such order in Asia. To be sure, Japan is far ahead of India in industrialization. This alone accounts for many differences in the way they or ganize the functions of innovation, risk-taking and control of in dustrial enterprise. The Japanese have now risen well above the traditional poverty line of Asia. They possess skills and organiza tion for modern life such as India is only beginning to acquire. But other differences are quite independent of stage of develop ment. They can also be seen in a comparison of present-day India with Meiji Japan before the turn of the century. They relate more to contrasts in ruling philosophies, in social heritage and in natural endowment. With this caution as to interpretation, let us look at the two systems as they are operating today

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