After the Cold War it was clear that the chief policy issue facing the United States and other industrial democraries will be that of economic competitiveness. In trying to understand the origins of competitiveness, the chief puzzle concerns why capitalist East Asia grew as fast as it did over the past two generations. Most of the literature on this subject discusses the problem in terms of either free market or state interventionist policies, but few take seriously the possibility that culture somehow lies at the root of Asian success. This book will explore the ways in which countries that share apparently similar capitalist economic institutions are in fact quite different from one another - different in their approaches to work, entrepreneurship industrial organization and ultimately economic performance.