Speakers
Robert WADE, Professor of Political Economy and Development, London School of Economics
Shaun BRESLIN, Professor of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick
WANG Zhengyi, 王正毅, Professor of International Political Economy, Peking University
Giuseppe GABUSI, Professor of International Political Economy and Political Economy of East Asia, University of Torino
ABSTRACT
The year 2015 marks the 25th anniversary of the publication of Robert Wade’s seminal book “Governing the Market”. In his book, Wade elaborates a theory stressing the role of the state in economic development. As the consequences of the Great Recession are forcing many governments and the International Financial Institutions themselves to put into question their ideological stance of unfettered free markets, the anniversary marks the occasion to review the developmental state paradigm (DSP) debate and re-assess validity in the XXI century global political economy. Have financial crises in the 90s and the Great Recession itself generated more political support for DSP principles or have neoliberal attempted solutions to the same crises undermined the tenets of developmental state theories? Are DSP policy measures still feasible (and desirable) in a globalized era dominated by global value chains? With an eye to the Chinese experience in the past decades, the roundtable will discuss whether the key principles of the DSP – as properly understood – are still valid, and what lessons developing countries can learn from China’s developmental trajectory.
