Embedded Autonomy: States and Industrial Transformation
... Developmental State Theory emphasizes the state's role in directing economic growth through strategic planning, investment, and intervention (Evans, 1995 zones, provides infrastructure, and shapes regulatory environments conducive to long-term development. ...
... Developmental State Theory emphasizes the state's role in economic development through strategic planning, investment, and intervention (Evans, 1995). The success of industrial parks in countries like Ethiopia and Nigeria, where BRICS countries have introduced governance models characterized by strong state involvement, supports this theory. ...
... Theoretical Contributions: This study's findings contribute to the existing literature on institutional and developmental state theories by illustrating how BRICS governance models align with and diverge from traditional African governance frameworks. This duality highlights the necessity for local adaptations of foreign governance strategies to ensure successful outcomes (Evans, 1995). ...
This study investigates the governance of industrial parks in Africa, with a particular focus on the contributions from BRICS nations and other emerging economies. Employing a comparative method through a thorough review of secondary sources, this research aims to analyze how diverse governance models influence the capacity of industrial parks to attract investments, ensure operational efficiency, and promote sustainable economic growth. The findings reveal that BRICS countries, notably China and India, have played a pivotal role in shaping governance structures, exemplified by successful case studies in 11 selected African countries.This research enriches existing theories on institutional governance and developmental states while identifying critical challenges, including bureaucratic inefficiencies and corruption. Furthermore, it offers actionable recommendations for policymakers aimed at enhancing industrial park governance in Africa. By establishing a roadmap for future research, this study lays the foundation for examining the long-term effects of BRICS engagement and the adaptation of governance models across various African regions. Ultimately, the results underscore the significance of effective governance in driving industrial growth and supporting the broader economic development aspirations of the continent.
... Nota-se, portanto, que as ações executadas pelos governos dependem de suas capacidades estatais, relacionadas às estruturas existentes e à sua relação com os grupos sociais (Evans, 1995). Aliado a isso, destaca-se que quanto mais desenvolvidas forem as capacidades estatais do ente em questão, maior será a possibilidade de sucesso para desenvolver suas funções e alcançar seus objetivos (Grin, Nascimento, Abrucio & Fernandes, 2018). ...
Embora os três Poderes do Estado estejam sujeitos às mesmas leis, ainda persistem diferenças nos graus de transparência entre eles. Além disso, há uma lacuna nos estudos quanto à transparência no Legislativo municipal, sendo predominante na literatura as avaliações dos Portais da Transparência, havendo poucas análises em profundidade nessa temática. Portanto, o objetivo deste trabalho é analisar a percepção dos servidores das Câmaras Municipais de Minas Gerais sobre a qualidade da transparência de seus portais eletrônicos. Para a coleta dos dados, foi aplicado um questionário estruturado às câmaras mineiras, sendo obtidas 100 respostas dos 853 municípios considerados. Os dados foram analisados utilizando tabelas de frequência e testes estatísticos, complementados pelo cálculo do Alfa de Cronbach, para avaliar o grau de confiabilidade das respostas obtidas. A partir da análise das respostas, os resultados revelaram que algumas características dos respondentes influenciam na avaliação sobre a qualidade da transparência, como servidores com maior grau de formação, agentes efetivos, funcionários atuantes há mais tempo na função e ocupantes dos cargos de contador(a) e controlador(a) interno(a) são mais rigorosos ao avaliar as questões relativas à transparência. Demonstrou-se ainda que a percepção sobre a qualidade da transparência tem associação com a capacitação dos servidores. Esse estudo possui relevância social, uma vez que poderá auxiliar os gestores das Câmaras Mineiras na melhoria de suas políticas de transparência, a partir do conhecimento das características e competências de seu quadro de pessoal.
... Research has long been interested in the role that organizations intermediating between the state and the market can play in policymaking (Block, 2008;Evans, 1995;Schmitter, 1977). A key idea behind intermediary organizations is that their independence from the state can make them nimble and flexible in structuring public-private interactions in a way that facilitates the building of trust and the exchange of high-quality information in the policymaking process (Allan et al., 2022;Rodrik, 2014). ...
While there is growing agreement that government-affiliated intermediaries can be an asset in advancing climate policy, perspectives diverge on the precise governance arrangements and conditions under which they excel. Some view government-affiliated intermediaries as instruments that states can exert control over to achieve their centrally determined objectives. Others contend that such bodies work best when they have the autonomy to experiment and shape policy formulation. This paper seeks to clarify these debates by demonstrating that there is value in adopting governance arrangements that keep these two approaches (instrumental/experimental) in tension. The argument here is that a governance approach which balances instrumental and experimental logics can generate "productive tensions" to manage trade-offs between flexibility and control. Using a process-tracing analysis, the paper explores this argument through a case study of a government-affiliated intermediary in Quebec-Propulsion Québec-deliberately created by the state to intermediate between the public and private sectors in the electric transportation sector. Findings reveal productive tensions between the state and a government-affiliated intermediary, as well as between different government-affiliated intermediaries, but show that these tensions can be difficult to sustain over time. Overall, attending to these tensions allows for a deeper understanding of the governance arrangements and conditions under which government-affiliated intermediaries can advance climate policy.
... For Africa, this pessimism is rooted in the discredited assumptions of neopatrimonialism. However, Mkandawire has provided the definitive critique of the 'impossibility' thesis and argued that the core definitional elements of the developmental state, i.e. a visionary agenda for economic transformation and serious pursuit of this agenda has never been absent in Africa, especially in the early decades of independence (Mkandawire, 2015; see also Adésínà, 2009;Koddenbrock, 2024) The core features of developmental states have been drilled down by Peter Evans into 'embedded autonomy' (Evans, 1995), i.e. the ability of the state to foster a close relationship with core social actors to be able to direct production and development while remaining autonomous enough to not be beholden to any particular interest group. However, later work by Fang and Hung (2019) on the Chinese experience shows that embedded autonomy is not enough, and that what really counts is the ability of the state and its functionaries to pursue a well-thought through developmental strategy over the longue durée while also being flexible to changing circumstances. ...
Mainstream development theorists prescribe liberal democracy and 'inclusive institutions' as the panacea to the economic and social problems of the developing world. However, after three decades of liberal reforms under the tutelage of the Bretton Woods Institutions, the Global South continues to struggle with recurrent crises. I challenge the liberal orthodoxy as a self-serving and highly sanitised interpretation of the history of European development that overlooks centuries of plunder, repression, and bloodshed. I then draw on experiences from Ghana and other developing countries to show that the multiparty system, the ideal political manifestation of liberal democracy, is antithetical to the pursuit of development because of its preoccupation with contestation for political power and its subservience to corporate interests. The pressure of electoral competition reduces the time horizons of political leaders, creating conditions that erode state capacity and undermine long-term development planning. Moreover, liberal democracy is an illusion in a geopolitical reality where western-controlled multilateral institutions (coercively) impose policies and conditionalities on the Global South, often against the expressed democratic preferences of national populations. The ongoing geopolitical shifts have once again brought up the need to re-engage with the concept and practice of democracy in ways that can fulfil the developmental aspirations of the Global South, and that can transcend the thin definitions espoused by the multilateral institutions of the 'rules-based international order'.
... The first five facets relate to the nature and quality of the organizational structure and personnel of the developmental state apparatus; the next two features illustrate its effective intervention mechanisms; and the rest refers to the outcomes of the first seven features of the developmental state model. To successfully become a functional developmental state, it must be able to manage the private interests of the country (by its centralized control of resources, notably finance) and strategically lead the development process (by its selective use of industrial policy), in addition to achieving good performance and trust (Johnson 1982;Evans 1995). ...
The overarching intention of this contribution is to propose an alternative economic development framework for India taking into account the country’s historical, social, cultural, institutional, and political characteristics. The main focus of the paper is to sketch out the policy framework that might be advisable to promote an internally-propelled growth pattern and diversify the production lines of India while broadly spreading the socioeconomic gains. To this end, a “developmental state argument with Indian characteristics” is proposed as a realistic alternative policy framework for the support of selected industries of high potential and achievability while leaving space for further social and political advancement.
... Norms of professionalism also matter for obedience to the law, particularly for bureaucrats and elected officials, such as judges, police, and employees of agencies of the executive power. Evans (1992Evans ( , 1995 ascribes the success of economic bureaucracies in developmental states, such as Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry, to meritocratic recruitment and promotion practices, which strengthen esprit de corps and adherence to professional norms, providing a bulwark against corrupt temptations. ...
Corruption, the abuse of entrusted power for private gain, has long been understood to respond to costs and benefits as shaped by the law. Increasingly, informal norms are also receiving attention as drivers of corrupt behavior and as potential policy targets to combat corruption. This chapter surveys existing scholarship about how informal norms affect behavior, how they interact with the law, and how they might be influenced through policy interventions to combat corruption. The reader seeking fully crafted answers and policy recipes will not find them here. Instead, this chapter aims to highlight promising ideas, suggestive evidence, and avenues for future research and policy development.
... Political science adds depth by analyzing institutional evolution and governance. Historical Institutionalism emphasizes path dependence, power asymmetries, and policy legacies, explaining how institutional conditions are shaped over time (Evans et al., 1985;Evans, 2012). Comparative Capitalism focuses on institutional complementarity and coordination across different economic systems (Hall and Soskice, 2001;Streeck and Thelen, 2005), while Rational Choice examines micro-foundations, assuming stable preferences and rational behavior to explain institutional dynamics. ...
This article critically examines the reliance on the concept of institutional voids in emerging market studies within institutional research, advocating for a more nuanced and configurational understanding of institutional dynamics and complexities, particularly in the MENA region. It reviews various strands of Institutional Theory, assesses the limitations of the institutional voids concept, and underscores the need for a holistic approach to institutional research—one that is both theoretically and methodologically comprehensive. It argues for the importance of disentangling institutional concepts and ensuring that methodological approaches are contextually relevant and appropriate. The article concludes by presenting four key takeaways for developing a more comprehensive and nuanced approach to institutional research.
... This perspective is instrumental in examining the role of planners as they navigate the social fabric of rural communities. Evans (1995) extended this theory by proposing 'embedded autonomy,' highlighting the necessity for the state to engage with societal needs to foster national development. ...
Rural revitalization and sustainable development, while globally desired, pose heightened challenges in remote regions that experience geographical seclusion and social-cultural disparities. These factors can impede effective planner engagement with local communities, potentially leading to planning initiatives lacking feasibility and sustainability. With government support and guidance, planners have become key forces in promoting rural development as facilitators of community engagement and drivers of institutional change. Through participatory observation and comparative analysis of small garden initiatives in two remote villages, this research reveals that compared to floating, activity-based involvement, planners’ embedded participation significantly bolsters the efficacy of villager engagement and fosters collaborative governance among multiple village stakeholders. The findings indicate that planners with long-term objectives are more effectively integrated into the rural construction process, which, in turn, amplifies villager participation and consolidates the impact through institutional embeddedness. By leveraging embedded theory, this study elucidates the essential function of planners in encouraging villager involvement. It provides both actionable insights and theoretical underpinnings for public participation in China’s remote rural area, guiding strategic national resource allocation and contributing to the broader understanding of rural development dynamics.
... But government is not only a fixer but also a shaper and co-creator of markets. Polanyi (1957) sees markets as outcomes of the interactions of individuals, firms, and the state, 'embedded' within social and political frameworks (Evans, 1995;Mazzucato, 2016). This means that value in the economy is created collectively and requires understanding investment and production capacity in all actors, including the state Mazzucato & Kattel, 2020). ...
Water utilities provide water, sewerage and sanitation services. Yet, they have failed worldwide to provide safely managed water services to at least 2.2 billion people and safely managed sanitation services to between 3.5 and 4.4 billion. Following 70 years of experience in different modes of water services provision, this paper addresses the question: What lessons can be learnt from the scholarship on the policy and practice of water service provision, and how can these inform and be integrated into a justice framework? This paper examines the literature through the lens of Water System Justice, charting how an early stage of state water and sanitation provision gave way to an increase in private sector participation and eventually hybrid services provision. Neither the state, private nor hybrid models have been able to provide water and sanitation services to all. Combining a Water System Justice approach with a purpose-led market-shaping approach, we argue that the state must take responsibility for a purpose-based approach that puts the furthest behind first – in line with the Agenda 2030. This includes using water within water system boundaries (quantity) and standards (quality), through collaboration with other actors, using patient and local finance, contextual modular systems and ensuring accountability.
... bureaucracy, police, courts), class structures, and racial and/or ethnic arrangements established under colonialism and their consequences for postcolonial development. Not only do effective state institutions guarantee property rights necessary for economic growth (North, 1990;Weber, 1968), but also states with Weberian bureaucracies and social autonomy can act as handmaidens of economic transformation (Evans, 1995;Evans and Rauch, 1999;Rueschemeyer and Evans, 1985) and social progress (e.g. Lange, 2009;Lange et al., 2006). ...
This article analyzes the development legacies of Italian colonialism in Africa. The comparative-historical analysis shows that colonial Italy pursued “settler colonialism” in areas conducive to colonial settlement and large-scale exploitation, and “plantation colonialism” in areas with fewer resource endowments and settlement opportunities. In the immediate aftermath, while settler colonialism had a positive influence and plantation colonialism exerted a negative impact on economic prosperity, both types of Italian colonialism had strong negative effects on human development. In the post-1960 period, whereas the colonial legacy of plantation colonialism led to persistent poverty in Somalia, long-run development in Eritrea and Libya was contingent on critical junctures, which variously reinforced, destabilized, and/or transformed the institutional and developmental legacies of settler colonialism. I draw on the comparative-historical tradition emphasizing national orientation of European colonizers and natural conditions in colonized areas as key determinants of European colonialism and long-run development. However, I emphasize “factor endowments” as one such condition that defined Italian colonization strategies and institutions, finding little empirical support for factor endowments per se or precolonial ethnic centralization as principal determinants.
... The degree and particular sorts of autonomy and capabilities for state bureaucratic apparatus, while partially a function of its internal organizational structure, are primarily shaped by the broader and durable institutional environment that they are embedded in. Inter-agency relations, state-society relations, state-business relations that have evolved in long-run history shape the mode of state intervention that are deemed legitimate or are effective (Dobbin, 1993;Chibber, 2002;Block, 2008;Block, Keller, & Negoita, 2023;Schrank & Whitford, 2009;Weiss, 2013;Evans, 1995;Klingler-Vidra, 2018;Pfotenhauer & Jasanoff, 2017). In this sense, the adoption and adaptation of an innovation model entails dealing with the historical legacies and institutionalized imprints of what the state bureaucratic apparatus has been familiar with. ...
In the recent decade, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has garnered increasing global attention as advanced economies in Western Europe and East Asia seek to replicate its model to overcome institutional barriers to radical and disruptive innovation. However, the transferability of the DARPA model—its distinctive organizational structure and strategic repertoires—remains uncertain. In this review, I synthesize previously dispersed and fragmented accounts to lay the foundations for future research. I examine the core elements of the DARPA model, the institutional barriers that may impede its adoption in different political economies, and the broader theoretical insights that can be gained from studying this process. I first disaggregate the DARPA model into five essential elements: (i) institutional independence from external pressures, (ii) flat and flexible internal structure, (iii) unconventional employment and personnel system, (iv) exceptional discretion granted to program managers, and (v) strong administrative support. I then explore the mechanisms through which these components facilitate radical and disruptive innovation. The second half of the paper identifies three key obstacles to transferring the model: the incompatibility of DARPA’s autonomous program managers with Weberian bureaucratic traditions, the difficulty of adopting its high-risk, high-failure approach in economies focused on short-cycle innovation, and the potential misalignment between DARPA’s network-driven model and innovation systems dominated by large firms or centralized governance. Additionally, the paper highlights three mediating factors that shape the model's adaptation: preexisting bureaucratic structures, the perceived legitimacy of mission-driven innovation, and the agency’s role within the broader policy landscape. In sum, this paper provides a theoretical framework for studying DARPA's global diffusion by clarifying its core elements and constraints on transfer. Furthermore, it positions the adaptation of the DARPA model as a critical test case for understanding the limits of bureaucratic transformation in innovation policy in distinct political economies.
Previous research presents conflicting views on whether cultural similarities between state officials and the societies they govern promote or hinder economic growth. We posit that cultural embeddedness can facilitate local growth by reducing the transaction costs for alleviating the credible commitment problem, thereby efficiently diminishing the uncertainty for production and investment. Using linguistic similarity as a proxy for cultural embeddedness, we find that the Chinese municipalities governed by political leaders whose cultural background is similar to that of the local society exhibit significantly stronger economic growth. Further, the appointment of a new political leader typically dampens business performance due to local enterprises’ inclination to avoid risks, but this effect is absent when the incoming leaders are culturally embedded. We also demonstrate that in the institutional setting of modern states, cultural connection serves as a “weak tie” that efficiently facilitate state-society communication of credible commitment, but are inadequate to foster corruption.
Singapore’s developmental state has undergone significant transformations over the decades. Initially focused on national survival under a developmental state model, it later embraced neoliberal principles, applying market mechanisms to society. This shift was accompanied by a transition to a post-industrial, knowledge-based economy, characterised by the rise of the financial sector and a focus on research and innovation. However, these changes resulted in a growing crisis of inequality, driving repoliticisation as rising public discontent translated into increased electoral competition and calls for reform. Using Flinders and Buller’s framework of “arena-shifting”, we conceptualise these shifts as sequential phases: depoliticisation for reasons of national survival, depoliticisation via market mechanisms, and repoliticisation spurred by inequality. These transformations illustrate “policy stretch”, wherein the state faces the challenge of simultaneously pursuing diverse and often conflicting goals – in the case of Singapore, economic growth, global competitiveness, and the provision of social welfare. Stretch strains the state’s capacity and coherence, as it attempts to expand its interventions across multiple domains within a highly compressed timeframe. This paper contributes to the discourse on developmental states by framing these transitions as an ongoing process of arena-shifting, where repoliticisation necessitates the state to foster citizen engagement and create robust social safety nets to address inequality and adapt.
Can Chinese companies innovate in cutting-edge technology? It is a question many have been asking in the last few years as the size and dynamism of China's economy become apparent. This article focuses on the development of Chinese companies in the information and telecommunication sectors of industry, conventionally known as “Information Communication Technology” (ICT), among the most dynamic, profitable and globalized industries.
Apple's commercial triumph rests in part on the outsourcing of its consumer electronics production to Asia. Drawing on extensive fieldwork at China's leading exporter—the Taiwanese-owned Foxconn—the power dynamics of the buyer-driven supply chain are analysed in the context of the national terrains that mediate or even accentuate global pressures. Power asymmetries assure the dominance of Apple in price setting and the timing of product delivery, resulting in intense pressures and illegal overtime for workers. Responding to the high-pressure production regime, the young generation of Chinese rural migrant workers engages in a crescendo of individual and collective struggles to define their rights and defend their dignity in the face of combined corporate and state power.
This chapter argues the dominant presence of the chaebol not only engenders practically normalized distortions in the market economic order and its regulatory and legal principles but also induces widespread administrative, political, and even judiciary corruptions. As a combined outcome of these structural irregularities, the liberal systemic order has incurred fundamental legitimation crises in the economic, social, and politico-legal aspects. If seen in the class perspective, the chaebol, as South Korea’s mainstream bourgeoisie, have been responsible for the complex and chronic distortions of the nation’s liberal order, and thereby contradict (Western) liberal modernity’s historico-societal foundation of bourgeois civility and autonomy. South Korea’s liberal (and, currently, neoliberal) industrial modernity without liberal bourgeoisie—or, conversely, its state capitalist industrial modernity with state-dependent (and increasingly state-parasitic) (il)liberal industrialist class—has necessitated nearly permanent fundamental contradictions, instabilities, and conflicts in the nation’s social, politico-legal, as well as economic order. The unprecedentedly rapid and pervasive neoliberalization of South Korea and its incomparably detrimental social, economic, and even politico-legal effects can be meaningfully understood only by paying careful attention to the chaebol system’s organizational and financial irregularities conflated with democratic struggles of workers, activists, and intellectuals.
The legitimacy challenges experienced by state-owned companies are often described as resulting from intrinsic deficiencies of state ownership as compared with private ownership. However, this perspective cannot explain cross-national differences in the attitudes toward state-owned companies—that is, why liabilities associated with state ownership have much more detrimental impact on their legitimacy in some countries than in others. In exploring factors that may account for cross-national differences in the legitimacy of state ownership, we focus on government characteristics that are likely to influence public attitudes toward state ownership: the political orientation of the government, its ability to maintain the rule of law, and its effectiveness in providing public services. Using the data from 95 countries, we demonstrate that the legitimacy of state ownership is greater in countries with authoritarian governments and in countries with governments incapable of maintaining the strong rule of law. As for the government effectiveness in providing public services, its relationships with the state ownership legitimacy are nonlinear—at the low levels of public services, their improvements are associated with a more favorable perception of state ownership, but this positive effect gradually fades away and turns negative when the quality of public services increases beyond the average values.
Мақалада Шығыс Азияның үш жетекші елі – Жапония, Оңтүстік Корея жəне Сингапурдың мемлекеттік модернизация саясатына салыстырмалы талдау жасалады. Зерттеу аталған елдердің əлеуметтік-экономикалық жəне саяси жаңғыру процестерінің ерекшеліктерін, олардың даму модельдерінің ұқсастықтары мен айырмашылықтарын анықтауға бағытталған. Мақалада «Азия жолбарыстары» феноменінің қалыптасу мен дамуының негізгі кезеңдері қарастырылып, əр елдің модернизациялық стратегиясының өзіндік ерекшеліктері талданады. Жапонияның соғыстан кейінгі қалпына келу тəжірибесі, Оңтүстік Кореяның индустриалды-инновациялық даму жолы жəне Сингапурдың «ақылды қала-мемлекетке» трансформациялану процесі зерттеледі. Зерттеу барысында мемлекеттік басқару жүйесінің реформалары, экономикалық саясаттың трансформациясы, əлеуметтік модернизация жəне технологиялық даму стратегиялары сияқты маңызды аспектілерге ерекше назар аударылады. Əр елдің модернизациялық саясатының табысты жəне проблемалық тұстары анықталып, олардың қазіргі заманғы сын-қатерлерге бейімделу қабілеті бағаланады. Мақалада сондай-ақ аталған елдердің модернизациялық тəжірибесінің негізгі сабақтары тұжырымдалып, олардың қазіргі жаһандық экономикадағы бəсекеге қабілеттілігін сақтау үшін қабылдап жатқан шаралары талданады.
In an era of rapid technological innovation, significant global disparities in access persist, impeding sustainable development. This chapter examines technology transfer—the dissemination of knowledge and tools across borders—as a catalyst for equitable growth. Analyzing mechanisms such as licensing, joint ventures, and FDI, it elucidates how businesses can utilize these strategies for market expansion addressing barriers including restrictive intellectual property regimes, cultural incongruities, and regulatory fragmentation. Case studies, encompassing Kenya's M-Pesa mobile payments and COVID-19 vaccine inequities, underscore the dual potential for empowerment and exploitation. The chapter posits the necessity for ethical frameworks that balance profit and equity, urging stakeholders—governments, corporations, and international bodies—to implement tiered pricing, reform IP laws, and invest in local capacity. Prioritizing inclusive innovation, technology transfer can mitigate disparities, unlock $12 trillion in market opportunities by 2030, ensuring progress benefits to humanity.
China's economic slowdown has spurred discussions about its prospect of Japanification-a protracted period of low growth and deflation. Building on the Growth Model perspective, this paper shifts attention to the two countries' initial encounters with deflation (Japan in the late-1950s, China in the late-1990s), their distinct policy responses and growth models, and the profound implications for China today. While both governments adopted expansionary policies to tackle emerging oversupply and deflation, Japan in the 1960s had a domestically driven growth model with both strong social and industrial policies, whereas China in the 2000s had weak social policy and worsening macroeconomic imbalance. Underlying their policy and growth model differences were their distinct political dynamics and the evolving US hegemony. Consequently, unlike Japan since the 1980s, China since the 2010s has faced high inequality, waning global imbalance, a pro-cyclical macroeconomic policy tendency, and a greater potential for sociopolitical conflicts domestically and internationally.
This chapter reviews the theory and practice of industrial policy, focusing on three key themes. First, it presents industrial policy as a vehicle by which manufacturing (and other dynamic and high-productivity services and agricultural activities that share technological and linkage spillovers) drives structural change. It also underlines the strategic role of exports, especially as a source of international learning and relaxing balance-of-payment constraints. Second, it examines industrial policy as a conduit of technological catch-up and emphasises the centrality of technological learning and the development of technological and innovation capabilities for economic catch-up and sustained economic growth. Finally, it reviews the origins, dynamic, and adaptive nature of industrial policies and the unevenness and variations in policy design and outcomes. The chapter draws primarily from structural development economics and evolutionary economics and includes a broader literature scan. It provides the groundwork for subsequent chapters examining theoretical perspectives, connections, and experiences from advanced, emerging, and developing countries.
Social scientists have long been interested in elite cohesion in American society, recognizing its potential implications for democracy and governance. While empirical research has focused on corporate elites and, in particular, on cohesion derived from shared board memberships, cohesion among those in the highest positions in the American state and historical change in that cohesion have been little studied. Drawing on a novel dataset of the career histories of 2,221 people who were appointed to these elite positions between 1898 and 1998, I examine whether administrative elites, prior to their elite appointment, attended the same educational institutions or worked in the same agencies of the federal government at the same time. I find evidence of increasing elite cohesion during the twentieth century. Educational cohesion increases significantly in the three decades following the World War II and then declines slightly toward the end of the century. This increase goes hand in hand with a change from college to graduate education as the primary site generating educational cohesion. Federal government workplace cohesion increases markedly in the 1930s and 1940s and then remains high. As people are appointed to different organizations within the American state, their educational and workplace connections create inter-agency networks that, it is expected, facilitate mutual understanding and coordination and thus help integrate the American administrative state.
Public health infrastructure varies widely at the local, state, and national levels, and the COVID-19 response revealed just how critical local health authority can be. Public health officials created COVID policies, enforced behavioral and non-pharmaceutical interventions, and communicated with the public. This article explores the determinants of public health capacity, distinguishing between formal institutional capacity (i.e., budget, staff) and informal embedded capacity (i.e., community ties, insulation from political pressures). Using qualitative data and interviews with county health officers in California, this article shows that informal embedded capacity—while difficult to measure—is essential to public health capacity. It concludes by relating public health capacity to broader issues of state capacity and democracy.
This chapter synthesizes the evolution of social policy in Qatar, tracing its development from informal tribal support networks to a comprehensive state-led welfare system. An analysis of various policy sectors, including education, healthcare, employment, and social security, illuminates the complex interplay between traditional values, modernization pressures, and economic diversification goals. This chapter posits that Qatar’s welfare model is a hybrid system that combines elements of rentier state welfare provision with developmental state strategies. This chapter identifies key policy development trends, such as the increase in state capacity, the shift toward rights-based approaches, and the challenge of striking a balance between tradition and modernization. This study combines different theories, such as historical institutionalism, modernization theory, and developmental state theory, to demonstrate how welfare state development differs in a resource-rich Gulf state that is becoming more modern very quickly.
This introductory chapter provides a context for understanding the transformation of a nation from a small pearling society to a global energy leader. This chapter also presents the book’s analytical framework, which encompasses the Policy Arrangement Approach, Rentier State Theory, and Historical Institutionalism. These frameworks help us understand the evolution of social welfare in Qatar. The chapter discusses the objectives of the book, which focuses on analyzing the development and institutional arrangement of social welfare systems across nine sectors: public health, education, social security, social care, housing, disability, employment, family, and gender. A core focus of this book is the concept of “modern traditionalism”—Qatar’s deliberate strategy of integrating modern state welfare provisions with traditional cultural values. The chapter also delineates the book’s methodology, using a mixed-methods approach that blends secondary data analysis and qualitative interviews to produce a comprehensive, well-rounded analysis. This provides readers with both a broad historical perspective and an in-depth understanding of policy dynamics. This chapter sets the stage for exploring how Qatar has managed to modernize while maintaining cultural continuity, particularly through its social welfare system, which blends contemporary policies with traditional norms.
Business groups comprise independently owned firms based on different types of owner solidarity, such as kinship, ethnicity, religion, or political identity. However, research has been slow to account for how the adverse effects of ethnic solidarity influence BG-affiliate firm performance. We investigate the interplay of owner ethnicity and their firms’ innovation and export performance. We find variations in affiliates’ performance based on their self-identified ethnicities by analyzing data from the World Bank’s Enterprise Surveys (WBES) across 20 sub-Saharan African countries. Notably, long-established migrant communities, including Indian, Middle Eastern, and European entrepreneurs, experienced waning performance within the BG structure. In contrast, group-affiliated firms led by Chinese entrepreneurs show significant outperformance compared to their African counterparts and minority group affiliates. This study contributes to a novel understanding of the heterogeneous relationship between ethnic solidarity and BG-affiliated firms’ performance across sub-Saharan Africa.
The developmental states of Asia-South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore-have been widely recognized for their successful COVID-19 governance. However, despite these successes, a closer examination reveals significant differences in their strategic responses and the medical resources mobilized. This paper explains the different governance approaches taken by the three developmental states. We argue that the pre-crisis industrial coordination capacity of each developmental state plays a crucial role in determining both whether and which medical resources can be mobilized during emergencies. Through comparative case studies and within-case process tracing, we demonstrate how pre-established industry-level coordination capacities enabled Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore to strategically prioritize the production and mobilization of test kits, masks, and vaccines, respectively, especially in the initial phase of the pandemic. This article emphasizes that a country's domestic production capacity, an often-overlooked institutional factor, can 2 facilitate a more efficient response in a short period of time and significantly strengthen crisis management efforts.
Over the last two decades, political settlements analysis (PSA) have been widely published in academic journals and been influential in development programming. This article is based on a review of 75 peer-reviewed publications employing PSA across social science journals. In line with existing research, it identifies two schools of PSA research. First, an ‘originalist’ approach that aims to expand the historical materialist and structuralist roots of PSA, initially developed by Mushtaq Khan. Second, ‘revisionist’ approaches, which dissent from Mushtaq Khan’s original work while aligning with mainstream approaches to varying degrees. Such ‘revisionist’ approaches are not entirely unified and show both dissent from and alignment with dominant New Institutional Economics and Good Governance approaches. Building on Michael Polanyi’s analysis of how scholarly communities are captured by incentives to both show dissent from existing scholarly work and show alignment with dominant framings, this article evaluates how such tensions have evolved within the PSA literature. PSA is an example of an approach that was originally established in opposition to neoclassical economics. However, revisionist PSA approaches have brought more popular interpretations of PSA in line with mainstream understandings, hoping to build a consensus, while the structuralist roots of PSA have been obfuscated.
The climate crisis challenges management scholars to address the system‐level factors that constrain and enable firms' climate action. We argue that to meet this challenge, we need to study the climate action capacity of alternative systems of political‐economic power. We proceed in three steps. First, we develop a historically grounded map of four main types of power systems: ‘Oligarchy’, ‘Localism’, ‘Authoritarianism’, and ‘Democratization’. These types represent analytical categories – not clichéd labels – to examine alternative responses to the climate crisis. Second, we use this map to compare four cases in the taxi transportation sector, a sector which exemplifies the confluence of the digital and green revolutions in today's political‐economic landscape. Our analysis of these cases suggests that Oligarchy's climate action capacity is weak because its climate action is limited to what is profitable for the dominant firms. Oligarchy has been challenged by Authoritarianism, whereas Localism and Democratization have yet to yield stable alternatives. Building on these insights, in the third step we identify three priorities for strengthening our field's capacity for relevant climate action research: (a) a focus on the systems within which firms are embedded, (b) a focus on political‐economic power, and (c) a programme of international comparative research.
Like other large emerging markets, India’s economy cannot be understood without explaining significant sectoral variations within manufacturing and services. Diverse and persistent sectoral patterns reveal the inadequacies of a dirigisme-liberalization frame that relies on a state versus market dichotomy adopted by most analyses of India’s political economy. Rather, each sector combines state and markets in diverse ways. Focusing on sectors, however, is not enough. This paper’s contribution shows how sectors are embedded in international, national, or regional contexts. This paper, and the larger collaborative project of six papers, offers a distinctive, disaggregated perspective on India’s large emerging market by deploying a sector-centered approach that embeds the study of sectors across India’s international, national, regional, and micro-levels. We advance explanations of the politics of “marketcraft” across sectors by incorporating “sectoral political networks” into our analytical framework. We show how they play a crucial role in shaping policy formation and implementation in a manner that connects the different levels of analysis and structures of political contention. The framework also yields important insights for other large and diverse economies and comparative political economy more generally.
Scholars have hitherto tended to theorise China's ecological civilisation project either as a form of environmental authoritarianism or as a vision of eco‐socialism. This paper contributes to the conversation by conducting a textual analysis of Chinese scholarly discussions on eco‐civilisation. The analysis uncovers topics and themes related to both narratives of environmental authoritarianism and eco‐socialist envisioning. It also captures the shift in discussion from an ideological critique of industrial civilisation to a techno‐bureaucratic agenda concerning sustainable development and governance strategies, along with the growing roles of the party‐state, state‐corporate cooperation, and geopolitical ambition. To interpret the findings, I revisit the neo‐Weberian institutionalist notion of embedded autonomy and revise it through critical realist Marxism, not only to explain the growing bureaucratisation of eco‐civilisation but also to untangle its Hobbesian institutional features that distinguish China's eco‐civilisation project (or the making of a Climate Leviathan) from the Western liberal mode of environmental governance.
Motivation
This article contributes to the ongoing debate on the institutional preconditions for inclusive and sustainable development in the global periphery, countries that are in a subordinate position within global capitalism.
Purpose
The authors argue that deliberations pertaining to the effectiveness, inclusiveness, and sustainability of economic development must take into account the political‐economic contexts of specific peripheral countries. The article goes on to further conceptualize inclusive late industrialization processes and operationalize institutional setups for industrial policy to make it more useful from a policy perspective.
Approach and methods
Our conceptual framework draws on neo‐Gramscian and materialist state theory, the developmental regime approach, and other contributions on the necessary conditions for effective industrial policy of late industrializers, particularly in sub‐Saharan Africa.
Findings
We contend that the peripheral states' strategic selectivity often severely limits the emergence of comprehensive industrialization regimes that have extensive elements of embedded autonomy and hegemony. In fact, pro‐developmental social forces are likely to be more successful in promoting selective industrialization projects in peripheral contexts. Notwithstanding the comprehensiveness of industrialization regimes, we propose the operationalization of industrial policy institutions with regard to their degree of inclusiveness, decentralization, managerialism, and state‐led production. We conceptualize the different ways actors may be included or excluded at different scales of industrial policy institutions. In doing so, potential trade‐offs within and between these institutional areas are highlighted, enhancing the policy relevance of the debate.
Policy implications
From a strategic policy perspective, the exclusive nature of bureaucratic–authoritarian industrialization regimes of the 20th century needs to be avoided in latecomer industrialization processes of the 21st century, which is why the support of pro‐developmental civil society, and thus the construction of hegemony to achieve inclusive development processes, continue to be crucial in peripheral country contexts. The management of the institutional setup and respective trade‐offs will involve learning‐by‐doing, constant monitoring, and continuous adaptation.
This study assesses whether the legacy of colonialism continues to influence patterns of civil violence in the contemporary era. A large and established quantitative literature attributes civil violence to low levels of economic development and limited political rights, but few quantitative studies consider whether colonial legacy plays an enduring role in such conflicts. This is surprising given the substantial evidence showing that colonialism impeded long-run development in many parts of the world. Drawing on ideas from macro-comparative sociology, institutional economics, and political science, the study develops several theoretical expectations regarding colonialism’s effect on contemporary civil violence. These ideas are tested with a global sample of 152 countries observed annually from 1960 to 2018. Results from logistic regression models support the contention that (1) post-colonial societies are more prone to civil violence than non-colonized societies, that (2) ex-British colonies are especially prone to ethnic-based civil violence while ex-Spanish colonies are especially prone to socio-economic-based civil violence, and that (3) these historical effects change and evolve but never fully abate. This latter finding implies that elevated levels of civil violence are a path-dependent legacy of colonialism. The study ends by running robustness checks and discussing the theoretical implications of the study’s findings, in particular reflecting on our understanding of the long-run consequences of colonialism.
Digital state capacity has served as a critical dimension of contemporary governance worldwide, yet the foundational processes and determinants that building digital state capacity remain understudied. With a special focus on China that contributes to a unique digital leapfrogging scenario, this paper explores the digital state capacity based on information mechanisms and explores the key demand–supply dynamics underlying the state capacity-building process. Through analyzing 56,900 government procurement records from 2018–2022, we find that China’s digital state capacity building follows a supply-driven model led by state actors rather than social actors. Moreover, we demonstrate how digital corporatist relationship, indicative of the state’s increasing control of data, combined with traditional clientelist and developmentalist interactions, has created a distinctive pattern of state-business relationship in China’s digital transformation. This study contributes to understanding the institutional foundations of digital state capacity and provides new insights into how technological revolution reshapes state-business relationship for digital governance.
Public sector worker absence has been cited as a reason for the poor performance of public services. This paper argues that the differential attention politicians pay to public services over their tenure cycle can explain levels of absenteeism. Using the case of teachers in India, teachers and politicians are embedded in a dynamic principal-agent relationship that allows for absenteeism when electoral incentives are not salient and results in increased accountability when they are. I constructed a panel of all schools across India between 2006 and 2018, employed an event study design, and found that teacher absenteeism decreases the year before an election and is higher the year after an election. I found inconsistent effects in the private sector, lending support for a channel of political control in the public sector. Political interference has an effect on bureaucratic performance, and relationships between public sector workers and politicians can ameliorate absenteeism.
Why does Hungary, a small peripheral economy within the EU, aspire to become the second-largest European battery producer by 2030? Our principal aim is to explain Hungary's ambitious pursuit of the state-sponsored creation of this new sector. We argue that the Hungarian strategy does not align with the real developmental state approach and that the best way to understand it is to combine the dependency and illiberalism arguments, building on recent developments in the comparative capitalism field. The Hungarian case underscores the primary limitations of these theories in comprehending contemporary changes and challenges, including the misapplication of green industrial policy.
After rising for almost two centuries, global income inequality declined substantially after 2000. While past scholarship on global inequality has explored several causes for this recent decline in inequality, these studies take for granted the official GDP figures released by national governments. A parallel social science literature has documented the manipulation of official data to exaggerate economic performance in autocratic countries, but this work has stopped short of examining the broader implications of this phenomenon. In this study, I explore the overstatement of GDP growth figures in autocracies as another contributor to the recent decline in estimates of global inequality based on officially reported GDP figures. Drawing on satellite-based night-time lights data and an empirical strategy from recent research, I compute model-based estimates of GDP overstatement in autocracies. I then combine this information with data on within-country income inequality to arrive at adjusted estimates of global income inequality in a sample of 109 countries constituting 92 percent of the world’s population. I find that between 1995 and 2014, ~20 percent of the decline in global inequality can be explained by the overstatement of GDP growth in less democratic countries. I conclude by discussing the broader implications of these findings for our understanding of global inequality and its political economy.
The Indian information technology and software services sector has been a poster boy of Indian business. The purpose of this paper is to offer an interest-based institutional understanding of the factors behind the governance of the IT sector’s growth, which departs from the national narrative of economic change. Three actors are identified, namely, the state, the industry and its business association, and the role of the Indian diaspora that links the national structure of production with the international market. I show that in this dynamic interconnection, the Indian IT-BPM sector has coalesced around a development model (if it can be labeled as such) in which the state has been an initial facilitator of the now largely privately-led IT industry, with external (international) demand as the main driver. The response to this exogenous driver has been self-governance for collective action and institutional interventions such as state-sponsored software technology parks, repurposing of educational infrastructure to meet industry demand for technical workers, creating an industry-level business association, namely, NASSCOM, and internalizing the business requirements of global clients, and aligning them with the interests of the IT-BPM sector.
This Element qualifies the common understanding of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) as mere instruments of the state and instead conceive of them as economic actors in their own right. Specifically, SOE top management teams have leeway to diverge from goals that the state they are owned by pursues. Through 'institutional work' they can even actively shape the institutional framework in which they are embedded. However, the extent of SOE top management teams' leeway for agency is determined by macro- (country), meso- (State–SOE governance system), and industry-level factors. These factors, in turn, vary from country to country and over time. In other words, SOE agency is 'embedded agency.' Combining institutional work and historical institutionalism analytic lenses, this Element presents a multilevel model to understand embedded agency of top management teams of SOEs in contemporary capitalism. The model adds an important element to our understanding of the 'new state capitalism.'
The issue of participation of less developed countries in the effort to
develop new high technologies has been the subject of a fierce debate.
Analysts who draw on neo-liberal thinking insist that it is a waste of
time and scarce resources for LDCs to join the hi-tech race. They say it
would be better for such countries to concentrate their efforts on
acquiring mature technologies from advanced societies and then try to
achieve competitiveness using their so-called traditional comparative
advantages (see Chapter 1).
Contrary to this, this chapter argues that it is precisely the early stages
of the new techno-economic paradigm that offer opportunities to LDCs,
at least those which possess minimal requirements, particularly in
industrial and technological infrastructures. Thus this chapter follows
Perez (1986, 1988) who suggests that early entry enables LDCs to follow
different technological paths to those established in advanced countries.
Indeed ‘the main objective of [these new] R&D systems should be the
exploration of possible technological trajectories, in order to concentrate
on those best adapted to the conditions of the region’ (Herrera 1986).
Brazil has the ninth largest GDP in the world, the sixth largest population, and the fifth largest area. Its per capita income in 1987 was US79 billion, the ninth largest in the world, about 15% larger than that of Canada, two times that of Mexico or Korea, and almost three times that of Australia.
This volume consists of papers chosen from the Boston Area Public Enterprise Group Conference that was held in 1980 and concentrated on public enterprises in less-developed countries. The Boston Area Public Enterprise Group is composed of scholars dedicated to understanding the public enterprises operating in the world's mixed economies. Public enterprises are government-owned firms that sell goods or services in a market. Involved in public production for private consumption, they are a hybrid of government and private enterprise. Thus, an analysis of public enterprise requires insights from economics, management, political science and law. Each of these disciplines is represented in addressing the following questions: Why public enterprise? Who should control public enterprise? How are decisions made in practice? How do public enterprises behave in international markets? How does risk and uncertainty alter public enterprise decisions'? How are incentive structures to be designed'? How do public enterprises compare with other public policy tools for dealing with particular problems'? The contributions combine theory and practice in analysing a variety of less-developed countries.
Until recently, dominant theoretical paradigms in the comparative social sciences did not highlight states as organizational structures or as potentially autonomous actors. Indeed, the term 'state' was rarely used. Current work, however, increasingly views the state as an agent which, although influenced by the society that surrounds it, also shapes social and political processes. The contributors to this volume, which includes some of the best recent interdisciplinary scholarship on states in relation to social structures, make use of theoretically engaged comparative and historical investigations to provide improved conceptualizations of states and how they operate. Each of the book's major parts presents a related set of analytical issues about modern states, which are explored in the context of a wide range of times and places, both contemporary and historical, and in developing and advanced-industrial nations. The first part examines state strategies in newly developing countries. The second part analyzes war making and state making in early modern Europe, and discusses states in relation to the post-World War II international economy. The third part pursues new insights into how states influence political cleavages and collective action. In the final chapter, the editors bring together the questions raised by the contributors and suggest tentative conclusions that emerge from an overview of all the articles. As a programmatic work that proposes new directions for the analysis of modern states, the volume will appeal to a wide range of teachers and students of political science, political economy, sociology, history, and anthropology.
Until recently, dominant theoretical paradigms in the comparative social sciences did not highlight states as organizational structures or as potentially autonomous actors. Indeed, the term 'state' was rarely used. Current work, however, increasingly views the state as an agent which, although influenced by the society that surrounds it, also shapes social and political processes. The contributors to this volume, which includes some of the best recent interdisciplinary scholarship on states in relation to social structures, make use of theoretically engaged comparative and historical investigations to provide improved conceptualizations of states and how they operate. Each of the book's major parts presents a related set of analytical issues about modern states, which are explored in the context of a wide range of times and places, both contemporary and historical, and in developing and advanced-industrial nations. The first part examines state strategies in newly developing countries. The second part analyzes war making and state making in early modern Europe, and discusses states in relation to the post-World War II international economy. The third part pursues new insights into how states influence political cleavages and collective action. In the final chapter, the editors bring together the questions raised by the contributors and suggest tentative conclusions that emerge from an overview of all the articles. As a programmatic work that proposes new directions for the analysis of modern states, the volume will appeal to a wide range of teachers and students of political science, political economy, sociology, history, and anthropology.
Many products follow a predictable pattern in international trade. Understanding the international product life cycle may lead to improved policies resulting in increased exports and a reduction in the effectiveness of import competition.
The book analyses and evaluates the development role and impact of the state in East Asia, in both capitalist (South Korea and Taiwan) and socialist (China) contexts. It makes use of new research data on the mechanisms and impact of state intervention in East Asian development and presents an original theory, taking issue with the conventional view that East Asian development reflects the power of market forces.
For over one hundred years, the British economy has been in decline relative to other industrialized countries. This book explores the origins of Britain's economic problems and develops a striking new argument about the sources of decline. It goes on to analyze the evolution of economic policy in postwar Britain from the development of Keynesianism to the rise of monetarism under Margaret Thatcher. France, by contrast, experienced an economic miracle in the postwar period. Hall argues that the French state transformed itself and then its society through an extensive system of state intervention. In the recent period, however, the French system has encountered many difficulties, and the book locates their sources in the complex interaction between state and society in France culminating in the socialist experiment of Francois Mitterrand. Through his insightful, comparative examination of policy-making in Britain and France, Hall develops a new approach to state-society relations that emphasizes the crucial role of institutional structures.
Specifies the origins, mechanisms and results of the autonomous power the state possesses in relation to the major power grouping of 'civil society'. The state is first defined, and two aspects of that definition, centrality and territoriality, are discussed in relation to 'despotic' and 'infrastructural' state power. Argues that the state is essentially an arena, a place, and that this is precisely the origin and mechanism of its autonomous powers. -after Author
The theory of imperialist capitalism, as is well known, has so far attained its most significant treatment in Lenin’s works. This is not only because Lenin attempts to explain transformations of the capitalist economies that occurrred during the last decade of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth, but is mainly because of the political and historical implications contained in his interpretations. In fact, the descriptive arguments of Lenin’s theory of imperialism were borrowed from Hobson’s analysis. Other writers had already presented evidence of the international expansion of the capitalist economies and nations. Nevertheless, Lenin, inspired by Marx’s views, was able to bring together evidence to the effect that economic expansion is meaningless if we do not take into consideration the political and historical aspects with which economic factors are intimately related. From Lenin’s perspective, imperialism is a new form of the capitalist mode of production. This new form cannot be considered a different mode of economic organization, insofar as capital accumulation based on private ownership of the means of production and exploitation of the labor force remain the basic features of the system. But its significance is that of a new stage of capitalism.