The Past and the Future of the Developmental State

Abstract

Like most human institutions—the family, the village, the city, the state, customs, laws, the nation—the developmental state was born longbefore anybody thought of naming it. There are debates about when it was born, whether all developmental states (as they are usually characterized)are properly labeled, and whether there have been developmental states overlooked literature. In this paper, it will be claimed, inter alia, that indeed there were developmental states long before economists, political scientists or historians recognized them as such, and that not all developmental states, as conventionally labeled, have been true members of the select club of developmental states.