The Developmental State in Middle Age: Prospects, Pitfalls and Promises of National Development in the 21st Century

In the forty-two years since the publication of Johnson’s MITI and the Japanese Miracle, the developmental state has achieved and maintained preeminence as the modal concept for the political economy of national development. The developmental state argued that the existence of powerful, autonomous yet embedded, state institutions are necessary and sufficient for transformative economic growth through trade and industrial policy, with South Korea and Taiwan as exemplars. In the decades since the concept was originated and applied to the East Asian tigers in comparative perspective, there has been significant research on the historical social and political origins of developmental state institutions, their persistence in the face of opposition, and the presence of developmental state institutions at the subnational level. Scholars throughout the world have reached for the developmental state framework to explain growth dynamics in different case-contexts, from Ethiopia to Canada. Even as it settles into the depths of middle age, the concept still inspires scholars who believe in nationalist projects that allow developing countries to reconstruct ladders kicked away by dominant industrialized economies, thereby escaping the middle-income trap and achieving living standards that are comparable to wealthy countries, thus reversing legacies of colonialism and imperialism.
For all the continuing salience of the developmental state, however, we need to address challenges that have arisen to the developmental state. First, there continues to be significant disagreement on the inner essence and external boundaries of the category. Second, the developmental state was originated at a specific time, before the end of the Cold War and subsequent transformation of trade, investment and production regimes. What might the developmental state mean in an age of the WTO, global value chains and American reshoring? Third, the developmental state stands counter to an
overwhelming emphasis on the part of development policy on the provision of local social and public goods and accountability – what is its relevance to development practitioners? And finally, what is the relevance of the developmental state in an age of anti-establishment populism and distrust of expertise? This panel will address these questions at the very heart of the politics of development.