Crony capitalism is not about free market excellence or business entrepreneurship. It depends on family connections, lobbying and political manoeuvering. Whom you know is more important than what you do and how you do it. Many such business leaders make their success in protected or regulated industries, deriving a good deal of income from government subsidies.
Wall Street, together with some individuals in the financial press, have always been critical of the Asian Tigers' success in the late 1980s, attributing these to crony capitalism.