Open Access

Christian von Lübke

• This chapter takes a detailed look at the developmental state model and its manifestations in regional development policies. Developmentalist ideas have been waxing and waning across periods of economic boom and bust. Recent years, however, have seen a renaissance of East Asian developmentalism – reminiscent of its heyday in the 1980s and 1990s and most notably driven by the region’s continued economic strength. The endorsement of state-led modernization, preferential policies, and close state-business relations – which underpinned Japan/Korea/China’s transformations – has also left its mark on current ODA practices in the region and beyond. East Asia’s state agencies are pushing ahead with colossal infrastructure programs – in close cooperation with commercial actors – that advance broad development goals and, at the same time, promotes national interests. Compared to Western OECD peers, Asian development cooperation tends to focus less on neoliberal and democratic principles and, instead, places greater emphasis on state-corporatist and meritocratic ideas. To what extent East Asia’s infrastructural megaprojects and connectivity corridors across Eurasia and Africa (BRI, EAI, and Partnership for Quality Infrastructure) will generate political momentum for an emergent developmental consensus remains uncertain. The jury is still out when it comes to whether and how Asian developmentalism will take center stage in global development debates. What is clear, however, is that the changing zeitgeist of a less Anglo/Euro-centric world bodes well for more heterodox and diverse ideas on development cooperation.