国家构建与后发展

by David Waldner, 戴维·瓦尔德纳, 刘娟凤 (Translator)

戴维·瓦尔德纳的《国家构建与后发展》是历史制度主义的经典著作。该书探讨了在后发展的地区，为什么国家构建有时候促进经济发展，而有时候却阻碍甚至是破坏经济发展呢？《国家构建与后发展》从两个方面回来了这个问题。第一，《国家构建与后发展》提供一个框架来解释特定的国家制度的起源。第二，《国家构建与后发展》提供一个框架来系统地分析国家制度与造成经济后果的政策之间的关系。

292 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Kara Sıçan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Waldner's "State Building and Late Development" is a brilliant exploration of the linkages between critical variables in political economy via the comparative economic histories of Korea, Turkey and Syria.

Why does state building sometimes promote economic growth and in other cases impede it? The transformation from a mediated state that governs through social notables to an unmediated state that rules the mass of its subjects directly is a critical juncture in state-building. If inter-elite conflict is high at this juncture, elite elements will seek to mobilize mass support since the winning group will have to forge a cross-class coalition to defeat its rivals, which creates a wholly different political economy and institutional profile than elite unity in shaping state-society-business relations, macroeconomic structure, nature of bureaucracy and how economic interventions are done.

Although it is not what the author aimed for, Waldner kinda wrote the best Turkish EH book ever.
Its Korea and Syria parts are really good too but the depth he reached in Turkey is unprecedented, could say Korea and Syria are the bread to the delicious "Turkey" sandwich between them...
Waldner incorporates a vast amount of literature, basically everything good available at the time of his study, from structuralists to neoliberals. I consider myself well-versed in Turkish EH but still found many referential gems I haven't come across before.

Waldner's work also has special importance for the domestic debates in Turkey for lifting the veil over the political economy of ISI and providing the only book-length direct comparison between Turkey and Korea (which is an unhinged and frequently popped discourse in Turkey, the whole political spectrum blames the rest for blocking Turkey to match the economic successes of Korea)

[Peter Goggins · Rating 5 out of 5]

To start with, this was not an easy read - the author suffers from many of the worst vices of academic writing. That being said, the ideas presented are interesting enough to warrant a favorable review, particularly his challenge towards neoliberal ideas of development and his overall thesis regarding elite conflict, side payments, and rent seeking behavior in developing countries. This enmeshed well and compliments other literature contrasting extractive vs inclusive societies. In particular, this provides much of the underlying rationale behind why ossifying and oligarchic societies fall being.