On the emergence of developmental states in the twenty-first century : urgency or agency?

This chapter looks at the origins of the classic developmental states and differentiates between the agency and urgency views explaining the emergence of developmentalist institutions and policies in the twentieth century. By recalling the experiences of the Northeast Asian model-cases it puts special emphasis on the political-economic explanation of Doner et al. (International Organization 59(2): 327-361, 2005), the so-called systemic vulnerability concept, and aims to apply its logic and reinterpret its mechanisms under the new circumstances of the twenty-first century. First it reveals the changes in the external conditions of aspirational developmental states in the first two decades after the Millennium, and highlights the dynamics of contextual changes both in economic and political terms. Then it turns towards the domestic arena and aims to provide a political economy interpretation of the challenges of building developmentalist institutions and strategies in the twenty-first century. The aim is to contribute to a better understanding of the scarcity of catching up success stories and re-open the debate on the origins of developmental states.