The Resurgence of the Developmental State: A Conceptual Defence

Since financial crisis swept Asia in the late 1990s, many scholars have predicted the “decline” and “demise” of the region’s developmental states and called into question the ongoing utility of the developmental state idea. South Korea has subsequently emerged as the case study of choice within what I call the “declinist” school of thought. In this article I identify the key claims of the declinist school in its radical and moderate variants and evaluate arguments about the decline of developmentalism in Korea. My broader aim is to develop a conceptual defence of the developmental state (DS) idea and to highlight its ongoing analytical relevance for discussions of Korea and elsewhere.