Market, State, and Society in Asian Development

Abstract

Since the mid-1980s, there has been keen debate in development studies and international political economy over whether the state or the market is the key factor in explaining the undeniable economic growth and industrial transformation that have occurred recently in a few places in the developing world, most particularly East Asia. On the one hand, scholars working in this new tradition argue that the state must almost inevitably play a leading role in promoting industrialization in "late developing" nations and that the East Asian "economic miracles" vindicate strong state intervention and leadership in the economy (Amsden, 1989; Evans et al., 1985; Wade, 1990). In contrast, these assertions are strongly challenged by advocates of neoclassical economics who argue that the best-performing Third-World economies are those that have opened their markets and pursued their comparative advantage in the global economy (Balassa et al., 1986).

An earlier version of this chapter was published in Governance, 7 (1994), pp. 332–59. It has been revised and condensed for publication here with the permission of Basil Blackwell.