Developmental states in the new millennium - Launch of Development Policy Review Theme Issue

The developmental state is back at the centre of international policy debate. Building states that work is increasingly recognised as crucial for achieving development progress. This special theme issue of Development Policy Review (DPR 25 (5), September 2007, edited by Verena Fritz and Alina Rocha Menocal) seeks to promote a discussion about the conditions under which more developmental states may emerge in today’s poor countries – and what may be holding them back.

While closely related to the governance agenda, thinking about the developmental state is more strongly rooted in comparative history and evidence-based analytical theory and hence less value-laden and prescriptive. There are rich academic literatures on the state and its underlying political economy in different regions of the developing world. However, their relevance to today’s policy concerns have remained relatively unexplored and few attempts have been made to use them as building blocks for development policy. This theme issue intends to help fill this gap. Drawing on the contributions made by leading academics and practitioners to an ODI meeting series in 2006, the issue seeks to inform the process of rethinking how more effective and responsive states can be (re)built – and what the role of the international assistance community may be in that process.