Departing from characterizations of Asian governments as benevolent overlords and Asian citizens as politically naive and/or docile, Fiona Yap explores the dynamic interactions between state and citizenry in the arena of economic policies. Yap focuses on the cases of Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan to show that, with the strategic use of activities ranging from labor unrest to investment in production, citizens can push a government to accept responsibility for poor economic conditions - and to adopt specific reforms. Melding some forty years of comparative empirical data with formal modeling, she demonstrates a surprising pattern of government-citizen bargaining that exists independent of democratic institutions/processes.