Developmental State Theory Research Articles

A Regulatory‐Developmental Turn Within EU Industrial Policy? The Case of the Battery IPCEIs

The European automotive industry is transitioning from combustion engines to electric vehicles but lags behind international competitors. This geoeconomic competition has contributed to the revival of industrial policy in the EU. However, EU competition policy restricts more vertical industrial policy approaches. In this context, the Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEIs) have emerged as a novel governance tool. This article examines this transformation in EU industrial policy by focusing on the Battery IPCEIs. The article includes an in-depth case study of the Battery IPCEIs, using secondary literature and 11 expert interviews. It concludes that IPCEIs represent a gradual regulatory-developmental turn within EU industrial policy by drawing on developmental state theory in a European context, critical EU integration literature, and global production networks research. In response to geoeconomic competition and the region’s lack of productive capacities, the EU is indirectly facilitating the development of European battery innovation and production networks by issuing direct state aid at the national level. However, the EU’s participation in the subsidy race and the global green-tech race via “green” industrial policy indicates only a partial shift in the relationship between states and markets.

Marshaling a Triumph: The Park Chung Hee Era, Developmental State Theory, and the Meaning of Success in South Korea

South Korea has long been looked to as a model of developmental success. Undoubtedly, South Korean society has experienced a remarkable expansion of wealth, social well-being, and technological capacity over the last half-century. The central turning point in this momentous transformation coincided with the authoritarian rule of Park Chung Hee (1961-1979). As such, scholars of political economy and development have paid close attention to the various facets of his regime to glean the primary causes underpinning South Korea's developmental feats. The most significant of these efforts have emerged from works emphasizing the role of the South Korean developmental state. This paper critically explores the theoretical foundations of developmental state theory to consider intellectual architecture of the success narrative widely appended to the era. The analysis builds from a premise that, given its widespread use of political violence and surveillance, framing the Park regime as a success carries significant ethical undertones. As such, the paper centers the interplay of ethics and empirics in the theoretical engagement with this crucial site in both Korean and development history. As such, it demonstrates that developmental state theory's reluctance to engage with these significant ethical questions systematically corresponds to distorted analytical and empirical representations of the case.

The Effect of Government Policies on Investment in Poverty-Stricken Areas in South Africa

Purpose: The aim of the study was to analyze the effect of government policies on investment in poverty-stricken areas. Methodology: This study adopted a desk methodology. A desk study research design is commonly known as secondary data collection. This is basically collecting data from existing resources preferably because of its low cost advantage as compared to a field research. Our current study looked into already published studies and reports as the data was easily accessed through online journals and libraries. Findings: Government policies positively impact investment in poverty-stricken areas, fostering economic revitalization and poverty alleviation. Targeted fiscal incentives, infrastructure development, and microfinance initiatives stimulate investment, create jobs, and improve livelihoods. These interventions attract private sector investment, encourage entrepreneurship, and foster sustainable development. Overall, government policies play a crucial role in unlocking economic potential and promoting inclusive growth in marginalized regions. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Institutional theory, political economy theory & developmental state theory may be used to anchor future studies on effect of government policies on investment in poverty-stricken areas. The research on the effect of government policies on investment offers valuable insights for practitioners involved in poverty alleviation efforts and economic development initiatives. The research contributes to the formulation of informed policy decisions aimed at addressing poverty and promoting investment in marginalized regions.

ASSESSMENT OF COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES OF COMMUNITY AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS IN BENUE, NASARAWA, AND TARABA STATES

The study anchored on assessment of communication strategies of Community and Social Development Projects in Benue, Nasarawa and Taraba States in Nigeria. The statement of the problem centred on how effective the communication strategies were in terms of their deployment; the specific communication channels used; the challenges of the use of these communication strategies. The objectives of the study were to: determine the communication strategies, ascertain how the communication strategies are deployed and the challenges of communication strategies used. The theories used were the Developmental State Theory and Alternative Paradigm Model. The aim of this study was to ascertain how the communication strategies are deployed. The methodology adopted in this research designs were survey and Focus Group Discussion (FGD). The population of the study was 11, 468, 425; the sample size was 384, while the sampling techniques were multi-stage, and simple random sampling techniques. The study find out that the respondents were fully-aware of the CSDPs in their communities based on the communication strategies; and that mobile phone calls/text messages and WhatsApp messages have now displaced radio as the dominant communication channels. The finding of the study show that the communication strategies deployed contributed maximally to the success.

Evolution of government and market under China’s reform era: through the perspective of state capacity

There are two main stream theories explaining China’s rapid economic development in the reform era: new institutionalism and developmental state theory. Realizing the weaknesses of two main stream theories and based on China’s unique experience as both a transitional economy and developing economy that experienced rapid industrialization and marketization, scholars also developed other theories with some revisions of the above two mainstream theories. While these theories have very different focuses, they agree on the importance of state capacity. The author argues that the Chinese Communist Party composes the institutional foundation of state capacities to promote economic growth and build market institutions, and discusses three important aspects of how party strength and state capacity helped the market transition, government restructuring and enterprise reform. The future challenges are discussed in the conclusion.

“Power to the People!”: The Catalytic Role of the Black Power Movement in Trinidad and Tobago’s Industrialization

AbstractRecent developmental state research highlights state-society configurations and contentious politics in shaping industrialization. Still, much of this work focuses on East Asia and tends to sidestep racialized labor exploitation, imperialism, and uneven incorporation into the global capitalist system through the trans-Atlantic slave trade and colonialism as important drivers. Through an historical analysis of Trinidad and Tobago, this paper examines how interventionist industrial policies emerged out of such structures and conditions. It highlights the role of anti-imperial and anti-racist struggles exemplified by the Black Power Movement in Trinidad and Tobago – a social movement comprising workers, marginalized youth, and civic leaders, which sought to overturn a colonial economy, reconfigure hierarchical race relations, address economic injustices, promote democratically negotiated industrialization, and chart a new course for a post-independent, multiracial Trinidad and Tobago. Utilizing archival data, this paper argues that Trinidad and Tobago’s government shifted from a passive industrial strategy characteristic of the colonial era to a more active approach from 1970 to 1984 largely in response to forceful demands and demonstrations by the Black Power Movement, which, in turn, led to improved social conditions, nationalization of key industries, the creation of state-owned enterprises, new skills and technological investments, and more. These findings advance developmental state theory by specifying the heretofore largely unacknowledged role of racial justice and anti-imperialist social movements in bringing about a different path from the East Asian model toward industrial and social transformation.

Bridging developmental state and entrepreneurial state theory: A typology of startup policies’ incumbent firm benefits

ABSTRACT Developmental state literature primarily focuses on the state’s (evolving) direct relationship with large incumbent firms. This article bridges developmental state and entrepreneurial state theories by employing an open innovation logic. We study Japan (1991-2021) as an archetypal developmental state; we hand coded 83 startup policies and a corpus of media coverage of the policies’ launch events and performance for how policymakers speak about ways in which startup policies strive to involve and benefit incumbent firms. Our typology of the strategic “access” benefits for incumbent firms in startup policies are: (1) access to innovative capacity, ideas and (2) access to talent.

South Africa’s dwindling developmental local government: a dying dream?

ABSTRACT This article brings politics and Democratic Developmental State (DDS) theory back into the debates surrounding the operationalisation of Developmental Local Government (DLG) in South Africa. It interrogates the extent to domestic political factors and actors have impacted the ability of the DLG to fulfil its constitutional and developmental mandate. It does so by adopting a theoretical case study methodology in assessing the functioning of South Africa’s DLG against three ‘micro-foundations’ of the DDS model: Developmental-Oriented Leadership, Effective Local ‘Pilot Agency’ and Meritocratic Bureaucracy, and Developmental Performance. It finds that the political imperatives and motives of the ANC at play at the onset of democracy in 1994 coupled with the local politicking ever since has crippled the ability of local government to fulfil its constitutional and developmental mandate. This article proposes the adoption of the Developmental Civil Society (DCS) model as a tool to circumvent South African local power politics and boost developmental capacity at the local level in order to fully realise a DDS. It goes beyond the objective of DLG through the self-empowerment of citizens, not only as policy formulators and passive recipients of development, but as active producers of inclusive socioeconomic development.

Reformulating the developmental state theory to explain Chinese spatial planning

Developmental state literature almost completely neglects the fact that one of the unique features of the developmental state is its capacity to reorganize its territory, and the literature on the Chinese developmental state repeats the same oversight. Against this backdrop, this study attempts to retheorize China’s spatial planning from a developmental state perspective. In light of the theoretical discussion in this study, we argue that the developmentalist spatial planning has five main characteristics of the developmentalist spatial planning: (1) The state sees its territory as a means of production, not as a living environment. (2) Industrial location policies were market-conforming. (3) The spatial planning was controlled or strongly influenced by the elite economic agency that formulates industrial policies and guides the market. (4) The bureaucracy is more or less insulated from local growth coalitions. (5) Spatial planning creates rather than responds to economic changes. These five characteristics are apparent in China’s spatial planning as much as in South Korea’s.

Social Structure and Conflicting Elite Interest

This paper is a comparative study of the elite capture in Pakistan and the developmental structure in South Korea. The paper seeks to examine: why does the Pakistani state remain captured by social actors, despite similar post-colonial geopolitical trajectories of Pakistan and South Korea, failing to set up a developmental state and transform into an Asian tiger? On the other hand, South Korea was able to become a developmental state and achieved high rates of social and economic growth, uplifting the living standards of the vast majority of its population. It identifies social structure and conflicting elite interest as twin independent variables explaining the divergent (outcome) dependent variable of a developmental state in South Korea and a predatory state in Pakistan. This paper refutes the neoliberal school of thought that attributes the success of the East Asian Tigers to market forces rather than the role of the state. It aligns itself with the developmental state theory and neo-statist approach emphasizing on state intervention to explain the phenomenon of the East Asian economic miracle and likewise, the failure of Pakistan to achieve similar levels of socioeconomic growth.

Four Asian Tigers' Political and Economic Development Revisited 1998-2017: From the Perspective of National Identity

Developmental state used to be and is still regarded as a very practical theory to explain why Four Asian Tigers-Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore enjoyed almost averagely double-digit economic growth rate each year from 1970 to 1990 as well as East Asian economic development. However, developmental state theory couldn’t tell why South Korea and Singapore’s economic development had done much better than Taiwan and Hong Kong’s in terms of GDP per capita after 2003 and 2004 respectively. The aim of the study is trying to use national identity perspective to explain why it happens like this, since Four Asian Tigers’ economic development more or less was troubled by national identity issue. The major difference between these two groups is that South Korea and Singapore have done better in dealing with national identity issue than Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Developmental state theory and its application in geography

Developmental state theory and its application in geography

Thailand 4.0: A new value-based economy and its implication on wellness business

The research aims to explain Thailand’s value-based economy and its implications on wellness business. The research uses political and management theories namely, developmental state theory, neo-authoritarian developmental state theory, social network theory, social capital theory, diffusion of innovation theory, resource-based theory, and image theory to portray and applied into the case. Moreover, the research is a qualitative research by nature as it uses semi-structure interviews and focus groups to find the answers. The main finding of this research is that since 2002 where the Thai government has set “Medical and Wellness Tourism” as the country’s development strategy to make Thailand a “hub” for medical and wellness tourism—though the country’s politics has faced two coup d’états and the country’s administrations have been rough as it is controlled by different political groups—both, civilian and military, governments have followed the strategy and have highlighted medical and wellness business sector as one of their development strategies as well as policies. The conclusion of the research is that the military government has stepped forward from solely being authoritarian state and transform the country to become a neo-authoritarian developmental state where it practices capitalism while limits people participation in politics. On top of that, the state implements policies that benefit healthcare and wellness industry, especially SMEs, to assure that it achieves the goal of being a medical and wellness hub of the region.

Thailand 4.0: A new value-based economy and its implication on wellness business

The research aims to explain Thailand’s value-based economy and its implications on wellness business. The research uses political and management theories namely, developmental state theory, neo-authoritarian developmental state theory, social network theory, social capital theory, diffusion of innovation theory, resource-based theory, and image theory to portray and applied into the case. Moreover, the research is a qualitative research by nature as it uses semi-structure interviews and focus groups to find the answers. The main finding of this research is that since 2002 where the Thai government has set “Medical and Wellness Tourism” as the country’s development strategy to make Thailand a “hub” for medical and wellness tourism—though the country’s politics has faced two coup d’états and the country’s administrations have been rough as it is controlled by different political groups—both, civilian and military, governments have followed the strategy and have highlighted medical and wellness business sector as one of their development strategies as well as policies. The conclusion of the research is that the military government has stepped forward from solely being authoritarian state and transform the country to become a neo-authoritarian developmental state where it practices capitalism while limits people participation in politics. On top of that, the state implements policies that benefit healthcare and wellness industry, especially SMEs, to assure that it achieves the goal of being a medical and wellness hub of the region.

Strategies, Struggles, and Sites of Transformation in Korean Political Economy

Strategies, Struggles, and Sites of Transformation in Korean Political Economy

Labour Control and Developmental State Theory: A New Perspective on Import‐substitution Industrialization in Latin America

ABSTRACTDrawing on historical research into the period of import‐substitution industrialization (ISI) in Chile and Argentina between the 1930s and 1960s, this article claims that developmental state theory (DST) obfuscates a crucial feature of state intervention in Latin America. Specifically, despite a long‐standing interest in state–society relations, DST has been unable to incorporate adequately into its analytical framework labour–state relations and labour control in the workplace. This is because DST, in its various guises, privileges state–society relations mediated by institutions from which labour is implicitly or explicitly excluded. Extending the analytical lens of DST, the article combines critical labour‐relations and labour‐process theories to identify the purposive establishment of ‘regimes of labour control’ via changes in institutional and workplace relations. Using this expanded framework, it shows how the often vacillating strategies pursued by the state under ISI in Chile and Argentina, and the inefficient outcomes of ISI in these countries, can be better understood by considering efforts designed to exert control over labour.

The role of Local Economic Development Agencies in South Africa’s developmental state ambitions

South Africa’s Local Economic Development Agencies have emerged as appropriate institutional structures for advancing socio-economic development in the local government-led development landscape, due to the inability of local municipalities to lead local economic development. This shift signifies that South Africa is turning to local economic development strategies to address developmental challenges, such as poor socio-economic conditions (unemployment, poverty and inequality), by creating local development solutions and employment opportunities. This article utilises the developmental state theory to examine the role of Local Economic Development Agencies in South Africa’s aspirations of becoming a capable developmental state. While the developmental state literature is concerned with the central role of the state in economic development, this article extends the developmental state theory to the subnational level by arguing that the developmental local government is the local developmental state. In addition, the article locates Local Economic Development Agencies within the developmental state paradigm by showing that Local Economic Development Agencies were established as economic development coordinators at the subnational level to assist local government in addressing South Africa’s triple challenges. Although the roles and functions of South African Local Economic Development Agencies are aligned to the developmental state ideology, their developmental mandate is undermined by the lack of coordination within local institutions.

Neoliberalism, Development, and the Costa Rican State

Costa Rica has been celebrated for its relatively high levels of economic development in a region marked by extreme poverty and income inequality. Recent scholarship has examined the competing and complementary interests of private capital and public institutions in pursuing an aggressive neoliberal growth strategy while preserving social programs created during the developmental period of the 1950s through the late 1970s. This article extends the inquiry by considering the position of the Costa Rican state in social and economic policy making and management. It considers Costa Rica from the perspective of developmental state theory, the construction of an “intermediary state” characterized by significant elements of autonomy but without the capacity to alter independently economic or social structures. The 2008–2011 recession, public indebtedness, and related demands of capital and labor have overwhelmed Costa Rican intermediate‐state capacity and undermined Costa Rica's covenant between economic growth and social protections.

Kebijakan Developmental State Indonesia dalam Perdagangan Komoditas Hortikultura, Hewan, dan Produk Hewan

Indonesia insists to defend its regulation on trade of horticulture, animals, and animal products after its loss on New Zaeland’s indictment in Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) of World Trade Organization (WTO). Indonesia appealed the DSB decision, despite previous findings in DSB panel which reports that Indonesia’s regulations contains trade restriction and various trade barriers. This paper analyzes the reason why Indonesia appealed the DSB Panel decision, despite the fact that Indonesia violates WTO principles which lead to free trade barriers. This paper uses law perspective to find out whether Indonesia really violates the law or not. Besides, this paper also uses developmental state theory to analyze the case. The theory takes root in the merchantilism which emphasizes on export, domestic production, and national welfare. Developmental state’s position lies between liberalization and centered-plan policy which means that the country that applying this policy joins the globalization and plays its role in international order to reach national welfare.Keywords: developmental state, trade dispute settlement, trade restriction

A Geopolitical Economy of Heavy Industrialization and Second Tier City Growth in South Korea: Evidence from the ‘Four Core Plants Plan’

In this article, we examine heavy industrialization and second tier urbanization in South Korea during the 1970s from a geopolitical economic perspective. We highlight the crucial, spatially complex geopolitical process of forming transnational class alliances, embedded in Cold War geopolitics, which has been neglected within state-centric developmental state theories and approaches to urbanization. Specifically, we trace the changes in the state’s original developmental plan for promoting the machinery industry in the southeast region during the 1960s and 1970s. We show how Hyundai, one of the most dominant chaebols, grew to exercise decisive influence over the state’s developmental strategy and became a powerhouse in the Korean economy, particularly in the city of Ulsan. Based on a case study of the Four Core Plants Plan, we show that the success of Hyundai was not an outcome of the effectiveness of the state’s developmental policy but was, ironically, due to the failure of the government’s original plan. The successful substitution of Hyundai’s own strategy for the state’s plan, which contributed enormously to the growth of Ulsan, would have been impossible without Hyundai’s enrollment into the transnational geopolitical economic alliance spurred by US military projects in Asia.