Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The developmental state is one that strongly influences the direction and pace of economic development by directly intervening in the development process, rather than simply relying on market forces to allocate economic resources ( Beeson 2003 ). American scholar Chalmers Johnson is widely credited with coining the term in his seminal work MITI and the Japanese Miracle: The Growth of Industrial Policy, 1925–1975 (1982), although the notion of state intervention in the market to ensure growth was not necessarily new. Johnson's book subsequently triggered a boom in studies of the state's role in the economy. Like many observers in the 1960s and 1970s, Johnson was puzzled by Japan's post-war economic miracle. His response was to highlight the important role of a plan-rational capitalist developmental state, which combined private ownership and state guidance, as the key to Japan's remarkable industrial transformation and growth. By doing so, Johnson created a third category of state classification that transcended the traditional liberal (free market)–Stalinist (command economy) dichotomy. In Asia, this pattern of state intervention in the market was initially and successfully emulated by Japan's former colonies South Korea and Taiwan, and then later with mixed success by the countries of Southeast Asia, as well as China. The economic success of the East Asian states, rightly or ... log in or subscribe to read full text