East Asia has delinked–can Ethiopia delink too?

Abstract

The possible emergence of a developmental state in Ethiopia has renewed the debate among African activists, scholars and policymakers over how to explain the remarkable success of the ‘East Asian model’. Rapid industrialisation in South Korea, Taiwan and China supposedly invalidates dependency theory, yet Samir Amin’s framework of delinking can better explain the success of these countries than can competing theories of the developmental state, since it highlights the role of international and domestic political alliances. Delinking means submitting international trade and financial relations to domestic priorities and is necessary for capitalist or socialist development.