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.