The Oxford Handbook of Transformations of the State edited by

The concept of the “developmental state ” has been transformed over the course of the last thirty years. Since East Asian successes brought the concept into vogue in the 1980’s and 1990’s, theoretical and empirical work has transformed the concept into a general ideal type whose relevance transcends East Asia. While debates on the developmental state are still marked by the original use of the concept to analyze East Asian strategies of industrial transformation, social scientists have begun to supersede these origins, just as the states themselves have superseded them. This paper is intended as a contribution to that task. Development economics now acknowledges that expanding human capabilities trumps capital accumulation as a driver of economic growth as well as of development more broadly defined. Refocusing attention from capital accumulation to human development entails rethinking the role of the developmental state. Coherent state apparatuses, able to deliver collective goods have become more important than ever, but the state-society relations required for success have changed. Close ties with industria