The literature on developmental states has mainly focused on the roles and capacities of the state in promoting industrialization in backward economies. Tuong Vu goes further to ask why some states can be developmental, while others cannot. His research explores the historical origins of developmental states, an important yet understudied issue. Vu argues that the defining features of developmental states are their cohesive state structures, including a centralized institution, cohesive political organizations, a growth-conducive state–society relationship, and ideological congruence among elites. This concentration on state structures rather than pro-growth policies leads Vu to include socialist states such as Maoist China in the category of developmental states.
However, such a definition of a developmental state is misleading and unnecessary. It is misleading because in the existing literature on developmental state, the core feature is the making of long-term industrial investment policies by technocrats, who are often well connected with industrialists, with...
