Of miracles and models: The rise and decline of the developmental state in South Korea

This article argues that the South Korean economic 'miracle' was based on the ability of the state to implement a strongly developmental policy. The state was able to do so because, for a time, it was highly insulated from demands from social classes which might have diverted it from the objective of industrialisation. This insulation, or 'relative state autonomy', derived from an historical trajectory which left the state in an unusually dominant position in relation to these classes. Domestic dominance was one factor enabling the state to insert the South Korean economy into world markets in a more advantageous position than would otherwise have been possible. However, its very success in industrialising the country strengthened various class forces, whose demands and intrusion into politics undermined the autonomy of the state. With industrialisation, the state's freedom of manoeuvre was lessened. International influence only reinforced those class pressures inside South Korea. The overall effect was to force a retreat of the state and an end to a developmental policy.     

Administrative decentralisation and changing state-society relations in china

This study seeks to explain the evolution of the state and state policies under China's decentralised system by taking into consideration the political input from society and the dynamics of state-society interaction. It argues that the emergence of unorganised collective action creates an unique channel of political inputs from the society, while the diffusion of the power centre and the flattening of bureaucratic hierarchies make local leaders much more sensitive and responsive to political demands from the local populace. These two conditions together provide the basis for the state-society interaction in the reform era, leading to the collapse of the state's institutional levers of coercion (such as the commune and the brigade in rural areas and to some extent the unit or “danwei” in urban areas), resulting in new state-society relations.     

Whither the Developmental State? Explaining Singapore's continued Developmentalism

This paper examines why the Singapore developmental state, unlike the other East Asian developmental states, has shown no signs of devolving but instead appears to be strengthening its position within society by embarking upon several ‘post-industrial’ economic programmes. By utilising a class relations perspective, the paper argues that the resilience of the Singapore developmental state results from the continued weakness of the domestic capitalist class as well as from the state's collaboration with transnational capital and government-linked corporations. At the same time the working class has continuously been ‘incorporated’ by the state. To illustrate these processes, the paper examines Singapore's Biomedical Sciences Initiative, and the Work Restructuring Scheme, which have reinforced the supremacy of the Singapore developmental state, particularly in the economic sphere. The paper concludes that developmental states need not necessarily devolve, if they can continue to provide economic growth as well as to carefully ‘manage’ class relations in society.     

From agricultural modernisation to agri-food globalisation: The waning of national development in Thailand

Agriculture has been central to accounts of Thailand's modernisation and the rise of the national development project between the 1940s and the 1970s. However, the role of agriculture in the waning of national development is rarely explored critically in the Thai context. This paper focuses on agriculture and the role of the state in the shift from national development to globalisation. The first part of the paper examines the beginnings of Thailand's modern agricultural sector, before turning to the state-sponsored diversification of agriculture in the 1950s. The paper locates shifting state responses to agriculture in the late 1950s and 1960s in the context of specific political and historical social forces, before exploring the emergence of agri-food exports in the 1970s and the rise of agribusiness in the 1980s and 1990s. The paper concludes by commenting on the significance of the Thai state's role in the national development project and the globalisation project.     

The (Neglected) Statist Bias and the Developmental State: the case of Singapore and Vietnam

Abstract

This paper highlights three key weaknesses with the developmental state as a theory of the state. First, that the theory imagines the state in Weberian terms and then seeks to judge all states—even ones which are not Weberian—according to Weberian yardsticks which are not universal. Second, that the theory underestimates the extent to which it is itself bound up with dominant global power structures associated with the Cold War and the post-cold war period. Third, that in its concern to identify the correct ‘institutional mix’ for development to occur, developmental state theorists ends up believing that the (best) states really do stand apart from society, forgetting that this is an illusion which is fundamental to how states rule. Not to be alert to the state's ‘ideological effects’ is not really to study the state at all; this is ultimately a criticism which has to be levelled at the theory of the developmental state. To suggest—as many scholars do—that the theory's weaknesses can be solved by breaking the state down into its constituent parts, focusing more on society, or trying to locate the ‘blurred’ boundary between state and society more effectively, completely misses the point, since it does little, if anything, to uncover how states really rule. The issues are explored via a comparison of the state in Singapore and Vietnam.     

A DETHRONED KING? THE LIMITS OF STATE INFRASTRUCTURAL POWER IN FRANCE

Since the 1980s in Western Europe, centralized states' control over subnational territories has been deeply affected by processes of Europeanization and regionalization. These changes have raised the issue of state territorial restructuring in a particular fashion: what capacity have formerly centralized states retained to steer and control subnational territories? The article draws on Mann's concept of infrastructural power, which refers to the state's capacity to exercise control and implement political decisions over the national territory. The article applies the two main operationalizations of the concept, namely the capability of the state to exercise control and the weight of the state in the subnational territories. Empirically, the article focuses on the French state in two policy sectors (education and housing). Although France is a most likely case, this article challenges this expectation, and shows the limits of the French state's infrastructural power over the subnational territories since the late 1980s.     

STATE REGULATORY CAPACITY: EXPERIENCES FROM PUBLIC SECTOR REFORMS IN NORWAY

State regulatory capacity is being threatened by internationalization, commercialization and persistent demand for public services. The article addresses the overarching question of how the state is changing due to recent public sector reforms. By studying changes in the regulation of the health care sector and the food sector in Norway, the article challenges the assumption that recent public sector reforms have necessarily led to a decline of the central state's regulatory strength. The conclusions are that the central state level has in fact been strengthened by regulatory reforms, by transferring authority to the state level and by enhancing the central administration's co‐ordinating and regulating capacity.     

South Africa's emergence as a middle power

This article seeks to explain South Africa's ostensible emergence as a middle power. It makes the case for the use of a Coxian-based critical theory perspective, which relates the interrelationship between change at the level of world order, the nature of production and the social forces operative in the middle power's state-societal complex to explain South Africa's increasingly active role in international affairs. Playing a mediatory role helps the South African state make diverse foreign policy goals more compatible and it also goes some way in thwarting criticism levelled at its foreign policy in the state-societal domain. Contrary to earlier theorising about middle powers, this article supports a more recent contention that middle powers act in their own (ie dominant societal) interests. The value of such a perspective is illustrated in the light of current debates about the apparent incongruity of South African foreign policy.     

Poland and the international system: external influences on democratic consolidation

Democratization in Poland has been heavily influenced by agents and structures external to the Polish state. However, the influence of these external agencies is mediated through domestic social and political institutions, the state foremost among them. The Polish state's response to and interaction with external agencies is heavily conditioned by the very process of democratization which these agencies seek to influence. Thus, the impact of external agencies on the democratic consolidation process cannot be understood without reference to the influence that democratization has played in reshaping Poland's foreign relations. This paper explains the interaction between systemic and domestic factors in shaping the democratic consolidation process in Poland.     

Public Sector Restructuring and Democracy: The State,Labour and Trade Unions in India

This article looks at the ways in which marketisation reforms affect the empowerment, ideological universes and functioning limits of popular institutions. Under what circumstances do left-leaning trade unions accept job cuts and wage freezes? What are the boundaries of consent and dissent? Case studies of three public sector companies in Bangalore city in the southern state of Karnataka, India, indicate that labour rationalisation has occurred with trade union acquiescence and support. However, as yet there is no broad institutional framework to handle social security, rehabilitation and redeployment of displaced workers. Public sector workforce reduction is taking place in a general economic context where there has been little growth of employment in the organised manufacturing sector. Beneath unions' apparent acquiescence to rationalisation processes, there are critical areas of dissent. Dissent, however, has not manifested itself in a critical alternative to the state's rationalisation policies. Changing party-union relations, and shifts in the internal dynamics of unions affecting choice of leaders, union aspirations and ideologies - underwritten by the broader economic changes wrought by the marketisation process - partially explain the inability of the labour movement to shape a definitive challenge to the marketisation process.     

Why Are Some States More Generous in Offering R&D Tax Credits than Others? An Empirical Answer

This article examines political cost factors that affect a state's propensity to adopt a corporate income tax credit to encourage research and development (R&D) activities in the United States. Assuming state elected officials are vote-maximizers, this article hypothesizes that politicians' consideration of potential revenue losses and influence from organized interests are critical in a state's decision to provide a R&D tax credit. To test the hypothesis, two statistical models are specified. With a dichotomous dependent variable of whether or not a R&D tax credit is offered, a Logit regression model is utilized. For the interval level dependent variable of effective R&D credit rates, this article specifies a Tobit model. The results show that politicians' concerns about revenue losses loom much larger than private organized interests.     

Hungary and the European Union: The political implications of societal security promotion

Hungary's constitutional commitment to support kin-nationals beyond its borders (nation policy) has been a central feature of its post-1989 foreign policy and highlights a particularly important national security concern—the societal security of national identity, culture, language and tradition. This article examines Hungary's societal security concerns and the policy methods it utilises, including its EU membership and the promotion of minority rights at the European level, to help combat these concerns. It is suggested that Hungary has found it somewhat difficult to balance its societal security policy objective with internal economic demands on its welfare system and its external foreign policy objective to maintain good neighbourly relations. This article also notes that Hungary's attempts to Europeanise, or rather ‘EU-ise’, minority and ethnic rights issues as a means to enhance societal security for the Hungarian nation has certain political consequences for the EU. This suggests that societal security provision is an issue that cannot be overlooked when trying to understand the longer-term implications of EU eastern enlargement.     

Democratization and bureaucratic restructuring in Taiwan

Taiwan has been moving toward democracy, with a dramatic transition taking place in the past decade. Critical to this transition is a restructuring of the relationship between the state bureaucracy and society. This study focuses on democratization's effect on Taiwan's bureaucracy. In particular, it seeks to examine such aspects of bureaucratic transformation as bureaucratic decisionmaking, legislative-bureaucratic politics, interest group-bureaucratic relations, the expansion of local autonomy, and civil service reform. This study finds that the bureaucratic state is facing a great challenge from political, legislative, and societal forces. The old type of insulated bureaucratic planning and decision making is no longer possible, the bureaucracy is losing its KMT patrons, and bureaucrats are finding themselves answerable to political pressure, legislative oversight, and interest group lobbying. While the bureaucracy has lost its previous level of discretion in terms of macro-management and the formulation of developmental policies, the bureaucratic state has not withered away. Qingshan Tan is Associate Professor of Chinese and East Asian politics and Director of the International Relations Program in the Department of Political Science at Cleveland State University. His recent publications are on issues of democratization in Taiwan and China.     

Associations in the Embrace of an Authoritarian State: State Domination of Society?

According to conventional wisdom, associations that are closely linked with and penetrated by an authoritarian state are significant chiefly as symbols of state domination of society. Yet a review of empirical evidence suggests that the nature and significance of incorporated or co-opted associations varies much more widely than the conventional perspective suggests. Not only are close association-state linkages sometimes looked upon favorably by societal participants, but some independent societal associations actually seek to be co-opted by an authoritarian state. Moreover, incorporated associations often have more to do with strategies by state agencies and officials to accomplish parochial goals than with state efforts to control society. This article elucidates a new analytical perspective for understanding the dynamics and functioning of incorporated associations, citing a wide range of empirical cases to show how this perspective facilitates a better understanding of the kinds of state-society engagement that occur within and through incorporated associations. The article concludes with a brief analysis of associations in contemporary China that builds on the preceding discussion, illuminating the importance of local-level interactions in determining the character of incorporated associations. Kenneth W. Foster is a Ph.D. candidate in the department of political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. His research interests include state-society relations in developing countries, comparative public administration and organizational behavior, and the politics of China and Taiwan. His Ph.D. dissertation focuses on the relationship between bureaucratic processes and the emergence of associations in contemporary China.     

Resources,Sovereignty, and Governance: Can Mongolia Avoid the ‘Resource Curse’?

The revenue generated from Mongolia's natural resources has the potential to transform the Mongolian state and society. Indeed, investment in mining has already led to a spate of urban growth in Ulaanbaatar and rural development throughout the rest of the country. Yet Mongolia's natural resources could also contribute to a ‘natural resource curse’ if not properly managed. Effective governance in relation to the state's natural resource sector is, therefore, essential. This article examines Mongolia's sovereignty in order to determine whether or not the state is capable of ‘good governance’ in relation to the mining sector.     

Epistemology and ‘evidence’ in development studies: a review of Dollar and Kraay

This paper examines the constraints on state policy autonomy engendered by globalisation. It evaluates the three major competing hypotheses on the decline in the state's inability to bargain with multinational corporations for the purpose of promoting economic development in light of two case studies of state – firm bargaining. The case studies are drawn from the mining sectors in Argentina and Chile in the late 1990s.     

Understanding Insurgency Violence: A Quantitative Analysis of the Political Violence in Northern Ireland 1969–1999

The main argument examined in this article is that the escalation of political violence in Northern Ireland between 1969–1999 resulted because of the state's reliance on repression and this had conflicting effects contributing to the rise in violence. Perhaps the most important finding reached by this research was that a state's reliance on repression is positively associated with more insurgent violence. This research suggests that variations in outcomes to the use of force by a democratic state may result because one may assume a linear model exists when in reality the true relationship maybe curvilinear.     

Non-State Health Care Provision in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan: Is Politicisation a Model?

Drawing on comparisons with cooperative and competitive non-state health care provision around the world, this article analyses non-state provision of health services in post-Soviet Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. It explores the conditions in which non-state provisions remain cooperative or become politicised and contrasts the relations between NGOs and the state in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan and the way they became politicised in the Middle East. In contrast to Western conceptions of NGOs, Central Asia's health NGOs cooperate with state agencies to serve their constituencies. In contrast to the perceptions of Central Asian governments, health-oriented NGOs do not aim to politicise health care. Donor support to Central Asia's health NGOs has created civically oriented actors that fill gaps in the state's capacity and enable governments to better serve their populations.     

The Case of Nord-Ost: Dubrovka and the Search for Answers

The paper reviews the experience of the group Nord-Ost (The Regional Social Organisation for Assistance and Defence of the Victims of Terrorist Acts) as an example of an NGO that has taken a rights advocacy position which has led it into confrontation with the state. Nord-Ost demands the state's accountability for the consequences of its response to the 2002 Dubrovka terrorist attack. Thus, it confronts challenges common to other rights advocacy groups in Russia today.     

An empirical approach to the grouping of small communities in the state of new jersey: Opportunities and challenges for comparative study

Despite the fundamental social, political and economic importance of America's small towns, academic research activity concerning these communities has been sparse. Instead, scholarly interest has historically focused on larger urban settings. This circumscribed perspective has often led to an image of small towns as a largely homogeneous residual of metropolitan areas. In fact, small towns are highly diverse in character, and this quality offers intriguing opportunities and challenges to scholars and policy makers in regard to comparative analysis and evaluation. Since it is plausible to assume that dissimilar communities will present a greater variation of needs and problems than will towns with similar characteristics, an enhanced ability to understand, appraise and predict small town variation can provide the basis for improved policy-making, capacity building and service delivery.

The purposes of this study are to empirically demonstrate the wealth of diversity among one state's population of small towns, and to illustrate a set of useful and objective techniques which can be used as an extension of the more familiar deductive approach to dealing with the problem of classifying local government community systems.