developmental state

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

a form of state organisation in which government institutions actively guide and direct national economic development through industrial policy, strategic trade protection, state investment, and coordinated relationships with private industry, rather than relying primarily on market mechanisms to allocate resources and determine the structure of the economy; the concept was developed by Chalmers Johnson in his analysis of Japan's postwar economic miracle and subsequently applied to South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and more recently China; developmental states are characterised by embedded autonomy — insulation from particularistic interest group pressures while maintaining close coordination with productive economic actors; they challenge neoliberal orthodoxy by demonstrating that active state intervention in markets can accelerate industrialisation and growth under the right institutional conditions