Developmentalism

Complementarities between political and economic institutions have kept Brazil in a low-level economic equilibrium since 1985.

Why do so few countries achieve development success? Achieving development requires many changes over a short period of time, generating instability and risk. It is a deep and integrated economy of change involving force, strategic thinking, and ideological conviction - it emerges when successful development is seen as necessary for the survival of a political order. Developmentalism engages with the moral issues that this raises. Developmentalism: The Normative and Transformative within Capitalism uses a historical comparative approach to understand development as a transformation which involves a deep and integrated political economy of change - a shift from a state of 'capital-ascendance' to 'capital dominance'. It is only through a transformation towards capital dominance that mass poverty reduction and the construction of a commonwealth are possible. However, capitalist development is extremely difficult and requires a highly exacting political endeavour. The politics of development is conceptualized as developmentalism: a strategy and ideology in which governments exercise heavy directive power, endure instability and crisis, and secure a rudimentary legitimacy for their efforts. This book argues that developmentalism requires a conflation of successful capitalist transformation with some form of existential insecurity of the state itself. It flourishes when capitalist transformation connects to profound questions of sovereignty, statehood, nation-building, and elite survival. Developmentalism shows deep contextualisation of capitalist transformation as well as the massive improvements in material life that it has generated.

This book studies the experiences of Brazil and India, the major economic powerhouses of the 21st century, during the neoliberal era. Both the nations have become important players in global markets and their economic performance has captured the attention of policymakers and academicians across the world. The book explores the patterns of growth and the changing status of human development in the two regions, since the 1980s. In an attempt to better grasp the subtleties of their developmental experiences, it also highlights the political and institutional dynamics that have under girded the liberalization of the two countries.

The inter-disciplinary contributors to Developmentalist Cities offer a richly nuanced and critical account of how the urban has been integral to East Asian developmentalism, and, vice versa, how developmentalism has profoundly shaped the nature of the urban in East Asia.

Why do so few countries achieve development success? Achieving development requires many changes over a short period of time, generating instability and risk. It is a deep and integrated economy of change involving force, strategic thinking, and ideological conviction - it emerges when successful development is seen as necessary for the survival of a political order. Developmentalism engages with the moral issues that this raises. Developmentalism: The Normative and Transformative within Capitalism uses a historical comparative approach to understand development as a transformation which involves a deep and integrated political economy of change - a shift from a state of 'capital-ascendance' to 'capital dominance'. It is only through a transformation towards capital dominance that mass poverty reduction and the construction of a commonwealth are possible. However, capitalist development is extremely difficult and requires a highly exacting political endeavour. The politics of development is conceptualized as developmentalism: a strategy and ideology in which governments exercise heavy directive power, endure instability and crisis, and secure a rudimentary legitimacy for their efforts. This book argues that developmentalism requires a conflation of successful capitalist transformation with some form of existential insecurity of the state itself. It flourishes when capitalist transformation connects to profound questions of sovereignty, statehood, nation-building, and elite survival. Developmentalism shows deep contextualisation of capitalist transformation as well as the massive improvements in material life that it has generated.

The global financial and economic crisis starting in 2007 has provoked the exploration of alternatives to neo-liberalism. Although neo-liberalism has been critiqued from various perspectives, these critiques have not coalesced into a concrete alternative in development economics literature. The main objective of this book is to name and formulate this alternative, identify what is new about this viewpoint, and project it on to the academic landscape. This book includes contributions from many prominent development economists who are unified by a form of "developmental pragmatism". Their concern is with the problems of development that preoccupied the pioneers of economic development in the mid-twentieth century, known as the developmentalists. Like the developmentalists, the contributors to Towards New Developmentalism are policy-oriented and supportive of institutional development and engagement with economic globalization. This collection has an over-arching concern with promoting social justice, and holds the general view of the market as the means to affecting an alternative program of development rather than as a master whose dictates are to be obeyed without question. This important collection sets the agenda for new developmentalism, drawing on issues such as industrial policy, technology, competition, growth and poverty. In broad terms, the economic development debate is cast in terms of whether the market is the master, an ideological neo-liberal perspective, or the means to affect change as suggested by the pragmatic perspective that is being termed neo-developmentalism. This book will be valuable reading to postgraduates and researchers specialising in the area of development studies including within economics, international relations, political science and sociology.

This timely book offers a concise summary of new developmentalism, exploring this in the context of both heterodox economics and political economy. It adopts a historical–structural method that is critical of orthodox or Neoclassical Economics. Luis Carlos Bresser-Pereira delves into the roots of new developmentalism from the quasi-stagnation of middle-income countries, covering how it developed from Marxian economics, post-Keynesian economics and Classical Structuralism.

This book collects essays on the political economy of Brazil, focusing on the administrations led by the Workers’ Party, under Presidents Lula and Dilma Rousseff (2003-16). The essays examine the economic, political, and social aspects of these governments.