ABSTRACT
History shows that the now industrialised countries (the ‘Global North’) did not reach their current status by following the neoliberal policies that have been widely prescribed to developing countries over the past four decades. Neither did the few countries (or economies) that have successfully closed the gap and reached ‘developed’ country status over the past hundred years. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and erstwhile challenger China have all relied heavily on state intervention—on a developmental state. This chapter discusses three main issues. The first is what, analytically, constitutes a developmental state drawing upon East Asian experience. The second concerns whether, and in what forms, developmental states are possible given the current configurations of power at the global level and the organisation of global capitalism, in short, in the face of ‘globalisation’. The third issue concerns the desirability of the model, given the oppression that has, historically, accompanied it.
