In Search of a New Developmental State in the Global South: From Authoritarianism to Democratic Populism to the "Green State"

This panel is concerned with the emerging "new developmental state models" that transcend the "accumulationist" and GNP-centric models of the Asian developmental experience. The search for a new developmental state model is predicated on several important premises. But it mainly derives from the lessons and experiences of recent projects of statist developmentalism in the Global South outside of Asia. The key lesson driving the search for a modified or new developmental state is the unequal effects of global economic integration. Whereas the old authoritarian developmentalist approach enabled Asian economies – mainly Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan – to take advantage of an export-oriented strategy to rapidly grow their economies, in the globalized economy of the 21st century, the same strategy of export-driven economic development is unlikely to bring about the kind of prosperity and rapid industrialization that the Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs) of Asia registered in the 20th century. It is, therefore, imperative for economies of the Global South to re-envision as well as institutionally adapt the developmental roles of the state to the realities of neo-liberal globalization. The panel invites papers that 1) explore theoretical and philosophical perspectives of a new developmental state paradigm, 2) propose and develop ways and metrics of classifying and measuring state capacity in the new developmental state model, 2) provide comparative analysis of case studies – either at inter-and intra-state level – that showcase economic and social policy from the Global South (Africa and South-Central America) indicative of the new developmental state, 4) propose and develop alternative paradigms and indices of measuring economic and developmental success including Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDGs) and the “Green State” model.