The developmental state is the name political scientists, following Chalmers Johnson's 1982 study of postwar Japan, give to a government that treats rapid economic development as its central organizing purpose and pursues it through close, sustained coordination between a capable state bureaucracy and private industry, including industrial policy, export promotion, and selective credit and protection for targeted sectors, while generally leaving ownership of firms in private hands. Its legitimacy claim is performance based rather than procedural or consent based: sustained, rapid material growth for the whole nation is treated as justifying the close working relationship between state bureaucrats and private firms, a claim that does not depend on the state directly owning the firms it guides, which is what distinguishes it from a fully planned economy. Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry is its most cited example, and the model is also used to describe South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore's postwar growth.
Facts
Origin Year1949 marks the founding of Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry from the merger of the Trade Agency and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the paradigm case the term was coined to describe and the example most cited in the political science literature that follows Chalmers Johnson's study of it. Japan had industrial-policy institutions before 1949, but MITI is the specific agency whose sustained, close coordination with private industry gave the model its name and its most studied case. Founding ContextIdentified and named by political scientist Chalmers Johnson in his 1982 study of Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry, MITI and the Japanese Miracle, which described how Japan's postwar bureaucracy set explicit industrial priorities and guided private firms toward them, a model subsequently used to explain the rapid industrialization of South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. 3 Classification
Ideological Family or Spectrum PositionEconomic System or Doctrine 1 Connections
Advocated By
Source MITI and the Japanese Miracle (Stanford University Press)
Source Lee Kuan Yew (Encyclopedia.com)
The LDP oversaw Japan's postwar economic recovery under close coordination between the state bureaucracy, led by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, and business, the arrangement political scientists identify as the developmental state model.
Source U.S.-China Relations, 1977-1980 (Office of the Historian)
Additional Source Liberal-Democratic Party of Japan (Britannica)Party overview, postwar economic recovery
Source Park Chung-hee (EBSCO Research Starters)
Associated With
This source names Japan directly: "Chalmers Johnson's study of postwar Japan, give to a government that treats rapid economic development as its central organizing purpose and pursues it through close, sustained coordination between..."
Source Dirigisme (Britannica Money)
Rejected Here
Source Laissez-faire (Britannica)
Held Differently
Planned Economy, Ideologies Johnson classed it as plan rational, distinct from Soviet-style plan irrational central planning.
Source Command Economy (Britannica Money)
Founded By
Sources
1. Dirigisme (Britannica Money)
Encyclopaedia BritannicaIdeological family, descriptionQuote, Ideological family, description
The developmental state is the name political scientists, following Chalmers Johnson's 1982 study of postwar Japan, give to a government that treats rapid economic development as its central organizing purpose and pursues it through close, sustained coordination between a capable state bureaucracy and private industry, including industrial policy, export promotion, and selective credit and protection for targeted sectors, while generally leaving ownership of firms in private hands.
2. Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Britannica)
Encyclopaedia Britannica
3. MITI and the Japanese Miracle (Stanford University Press)
Chalmers Johnson (Wikipedia)
WikipediaLife and careerQuote, Life and career
He coined the term developmental state.
Laissez-faire (Britannica)
Encyclopaedia BritannicaAssociated With: Laissez-faire CapitalismView the Source Command Economy (Britannica Money)
Liberal-Democratic Party of Japan (Britannica)
Encyclopaedia BritannicaAdvocated By: Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), Party overview, postwar economic recoveryView the Source Reader Challenges (0)
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