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Can fragile states copy the Asian miracle?

13/07/2009 By Ivan Briscoe

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Despite their high poverty rates, the Asian tigers defied all expectations in the decades after World War II. Through meticulous state planning and coordinated national effort, the developmental states of the region managed to achieve sustained rapid growth, enabling them to reach the income level of the Western economies - and even surpass them.

For years, however, the international community dismissed these economic miracles as the effect of Asian cultural and institutional values that could not be replicated elsewhere. In other developing countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia, the same policies of state planning and intervention led to ruin. The absence of democracy and a reliance on highly cohesive societies suggested that these successes were oddities, not models.

But in a two-tier world, marked by a widening breach between the richest and poorest countries, the appeal of the developmental state is growing. For the world’s fragile states, where both economic performance and institutional capacity is weak, and where illicit activities and ungoverned spaces are spreading fast, the need for new approaches is urgent. This report by Ivan Briscoe, based on a seminar of experts from four continents held in Madrid, asks what lessons can be salvaged from the developmental state for today’s poor and fragmented nations.

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Keywords

Angola Asia Brazil China Democracy Development Fragile state Globalization India Indonesia Latin America & Caribbean North East Asia Philippines Singapore South Korea Sri Lanka State building Sub-Saharan Africa Sudan Taiwan

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Bio author: Ivan Briscoe

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