ABSTRACT
States in East Asia have widely been characterized as strong developmental states whose bureaucrats have picked winners among industrial sectors and guided growth in anticipation of comparative advantages.1 In Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea, economic bureaucrats selected industries which they regarded to be of importance for future development and directed capital into these industries. As a result, the East Asian states are today very competitive in, for example, the high-technology industry which was nurtured and protected by the state. The states were led by technocrats who, insulated from societal demands, formulated strategic industrial policies in the national interest. In the common characterization of East Asian developmental states, their bureaucracies are autonomous from society and Weberian in nature. This conception of the East Asian states has been heavily criticized for its lack of empirical underpinnings and undertheorization, calling for a reassessment of the model.
