This is the first systematic attempt to explore the causal relationship between financial market reform and financial crisis in an interdisciplinary and comparative perspective. It examines the political underpinnings of financial policy-change and provides an in-depth analysis of market liberalisation processes and their impact on the economic turmoil of 1997-98 in Korea and Thailand. The common crisis stemmed from divergent reform patterns and originated from dissimilar institutional deficiencies and political constraints. The book will be essential reading for both policy-makers and academics concerned with national governance in an era of globalisation.