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Can fragile states learn from the development tigers?

12/12/2008 By Ivan Briscoe

M.Chargel/AFP/Getty Images

“High, sustained growth” has been achieved in 13 countries (nine of them in Asia) since 1945, according to the recent report of the World Bank’s Growth Commission. Numerous studies have explored the historical background and policy and institutional dynamics that explain these successes, concentrating on the conditions that gave rise to capable governments, dynamic private sectors and cohesive societies in unfavourable contexts.

But in countries that are both poor and run by weak or fragile states, focused state intervention appears almost impossible to replicate. The core of the difficulties in generalising the experience of developmental states to the rest of the developing world can be found in the issue of transferability. There is now a general consensus that the simple transplant of public, industry- promoting institutions from a successful context to a low-income economy – particularly when it is ruled by weak institutions - is no guarantee that development can be initiated.

Even so, this policy brief argues that important general lessons can be derived from the study of the startling record of countries such as South Korea and Taiwan. Case studies show that active intervention, strategic economic policies and a hands-off approach by the international community are all crucial components in kick-starting fast growth. At the same time, there is little doubt that such growth, and the policies that often go with it, could aggravate institutional and social instability in regions such as the Great Lakes or the Andes.

In short, the huge difficulties in bringing fast development to weak states, divided elites and informal subsistence economies must be acknowledged. Even so, greater freedom of action for poor countries is essential at a time that neither the modern global economy nor the aid community seem ready to embrace a new cohort of poor countries forcibly working their way up the developmental ladder.

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Keywords

Asia Democracy Development Fragile state Latin America & Caribbean

Bio author: Ivan Briscoe

Former senior researcher in Peace, Security and Human Rights at FRIDE.