Problems of Civilizational Development in the Leading Countries of the Asian Region

Abstract

The problem of civilizational development confronts any country every time in a crucial period of its history. A sharp turning point in the countries of the Asian region came in the middle of the 20th century, when the colonial system collapsed and the former colonies, as well as dependent countries gained political sovereignty. The main problem for them was to determine the further path of their development. As a result of the broad political discourse that accompanied the na­tional liberation movement of the 19th – the first half of the 20th century, every­one chose its own path: Iran chose Shah’s regime and accelerated modernization according to the Western model; India embarked on the path of building a demo­cratic, federal, secular republic with a mixed planned economy and a strong state sector; China proclaimed a people’s republic led by the Communist Party on the way to building a Chinese socialism; Japan constructed a parliamentary state (while preserving the traditional imperial monarchy), implementing the scientific and technological revolution and the active development of the capitalist model of the economy. Half a century later, there are radical changes in the previously taken political course of Iran, India and China, which is manifested in the ar­chaization of the political space. This is discussed in this article, the author of which considers the modern experience of civilizational development of the lead­ing Asian countries to be instructive and warning against the temptation to turn to the archaic when forming their own path of civilizational development.