Between the Neoliberal and the Developmental States

This book critically compares the development §strategies of Neoliberalism and the developmental §states. It examines why some poor states which §followed the neoliberal prescriptions between 1960 §and 1990 failed to develop but some East Asian §states, which adopted contrary strategies during the §same period succeeded. It weighs the capacity of §poor states to implement market oriented structural §adjustments against the history of western free §market economic transformation to understand the §reasons for neoliberal failures in these countries. §Furthermore, it assesses the intricacies of the §developmental state approach, which guaranteed §development success in the East Asian countries. §Analyses of Nigeria s neoliberal experience between §1960 and 1990 contextualized against the experiences §of Indonesia and Malaysia during the same period §substantiated key shortcomings of neoliberalism in §poor economies. This book argues that while §neoliberalism may be a suitable future development §milestone for poor countries, their choice of §developmental state actions during early stages of §state economic growth is nonnegotiable.