The Developmental State, Social Change, and Education

Abstract

Since the modern state's emergence in the sixteenth century, theorists have articulated various approaches to understanding the development of different countries, the relative importance of the role of the state and markets in development, and the models and strategies of development that countries should follow. Of these approaches, the developmental-state thesis (and world systems theory) has been more useful in explaining the state's important role in economic growth and industrialization, particularly in East Asia and Latin America after World War II. Developmental states refer to countries that, compared to Western industrial countries, achieved ``late development'' (White & Wade, 1988b: 1). They include capitalist countries, such as Germany, Japan, Russia, South Korea, and Taiwan, and socialist countries, such as China, the former Soviet Union, and North Korea. Despite the severe challenges posed by the fi nancial globalization crisis that took place in Asia in 1997, this statist approach is still useful in explaining the intertwined interactions of the state and markets for development and competition within and between national borders.