The Post Crisis Developmental State

The focus of this volume is on the role of the developmental state in a situation in which a series of major crises affects the (semi-) periphery of the global economy. The authors go beyond the established debate on developmental states in East Asia by highlighting a much broader understanding of development and a very different global economic context. They also further the existing debate by covering new country cases. At the same time, they deepen our perspective on developmental states by looking at unusual sectors such as green industrial policy, education and farming.

This book assembles some of the most exciting contributions to the field of comparative capitalism studies. The book is a must-read for all scholars that strive to be up-to date in the debate on the developmental state. --Andreas Nolke is Professor of Political Science at the Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany This volume extends the earlier "developmental state" literature into the present, and the earlier world-system concept of the semi-periphery into present-day debates about institutions, path dependency, middle-income trap, and authoritarianism. Written from the perspective of the Global East and South, it reads like a breath of fresh air for those of us schooled in the Western narrative of development and modernization. --Robert H. Wade is Professor of Political Economy and Development at the LSE, UK The focus of this volume is on the role of the developmental state in a situation in which a series of major crises affects the (semi-) periphery of the global economy. The authors go beyond the established debate on developmental states in East Asia by highlighting a much broader understanding of development and a very different global economic context. They also further the existing debate by covering new country cases. At the same time, they deepen our perspective on developmental states by looking at unusual sectors such as green industrial policy, education and farming. Gerőcs, Tamás is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Institute of World Economics and SUNY Binghamton, United States. Ricz, Judit is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Institute of World Economics and Associate Professor at the Department of World Economy, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary.

A team of distinguished scholars here reassesses the notion of the developmental state to establish a common vocabulary for debates on the relationship between political institutions and industrial growth. Some observers have blamed the recent global financial crisis on the developmental strategies of East Asian states, whereas others attribute the turmoil to the sudden demise in the 1990s of these very same policies. The authors offer dispassionate accounts of how developmental states have emerged and evolved over the past century, and examine how they really work. The analyses offered in the book look broadly at the combination of political, bureaucratic, and moneyed influences that shape economic life in East Asia and elsewhere. The developmental states are often beset by structural corruption and inefficiency, but they still have a role to play in honing national competitiveness in global markets. The analyses contained in this book do not point to the disappearance of the developmental state, but to its reinvention. Book jacket.

The End of the Developmental State? brings together leading scholars of development to assess the current status of the "developmental state" in several developing and transitional economies of South Korea, Taiwan, Ireland, the United Kingdom, China, South Africa, Brazil and India. Has the concept of the developmental state become outmoded? These authors would suggest not. However, they do argue that the historical trajectories of developmental states in Asia, Latin America, Africa and Europe suggest all too clearly that the concept must be re-examined critically and creatively. The range and diversity of their positions and their rejection of stale programmatic positions from the past will revitalize the debate on the role of the state in social and economic transformation in the twenty-first century. By bringing together careful comparative analyses of national cases, in both the Global North and South, the volume highlights pivotal conditions – economic restructuring, domestic politics, epistemic shifts and ecological limits – that are forcing revision of the goals and strategies of developmental states and suggests that states that ignore these new conditions will indeed see the "end of the developmental state".

Ian Pirie gives a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of state and economic restructuring in South Korea since the 1997 crisis.

Wylde analyzes Kirchnerismo in Argentina and the developmental regime approach in the political economy of development in Latin America. He shows the systematic way in which relationships between state-market, state-society, and national-international dichotomies can be characterised within a developmentalist paradigm.

As the Asian crisis triggered or precipitated the meltdown, a second, objective is to explore the reasons and factors for the breakdown or redundancy of developmental states, distinguishing between domestic transformative capacity and external global factors as identified. A third objective is to cull experiences and lessons beyond East Asia. With many transition economies in Central and Eastern Europe beside China and Indochinese states, the theory and practice of developmental states may be a useful bridge. These are by no means exhaustive and comprehensive aims, questions and issues. For individual developmental states covered in this volume, country-specific lessons may also be drawn for them to be reconfigured to stay relevant. The most important consideration for this volume is to value-add to the literature, both the theory and principles of the Asian developmental state as well as empirical observations observed elsewhere. This volume comprises 13 chapters in two parts.

In this book Judith Cherry analyses the impact of economic and cultural globalization on efforts to promote inward foreign direct investment (IFDI) in South Korea over the past four decades. The book traces the development of Korean IFDI policy from one of restriction and control to one of encouragement and promotion. Specifically, it focuses on the challenges inherent in reforming the ‘software’ of IFDI promotion (socio-cultural issues, mindsets and perceptions) as opposed to changing its ‘hardware’ (systems, laws and regulations). Although the Korean government has made sustained efforts over the past decade to enhance Korea’s attractions as a host for inward investment, it has faced significant challenges in improving Korea’s IFDI performance. The discussion in this book of the wide range of transparent and non-transparent barriers that continue to hamper efforts to promote inward investment draws not only on the Korean debate concerning strategies for maximizing the benefits of IFDI, but also on the assessment of the Korean business and investment environment revealed in interviews conducted with European investors and officials in Seoul. Foreign Direct Investment in Post-Crisis Korea will appeal to students and scholars of international business, economics and globalization, as well as those with a more general interest in Korean society.