Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
conduct of business in such countries, and increases the speed and efficiency of
work in larger organizations.
The timing of intervention, concentrated development
and
the environment
It is worthwhile putting some of the observations in this chapter and the two
previous ones into perspective. Three areas will be concentrated on here. The
first concerns state policies regarding developmental issues. These may be
divided into national and regional policies.
State intervention in the course of development is currently challenged by the
neo-liberal school, which instead claims that markets and competition must be
allowed free rein. On the other hand, there are those who make the reverse claim
that exposure to markets is what has caused the problems for many poor countries.
The evidence from the successful countries is that some intervention is desirable.
In the cases of South Korea and Indonesia, this intervention continues to the
present day, limiting imports of goods that the country wishes to produce itself,
and the state shows itself to be a powerful cultivator of new industries under
favourable circumstances. This is the case made by Corbridge (1986). For the
case of the Soviet Union, the continued state intervention was obviously a burden
to the development of Russia (although possibly not to some satellite states.)
A case that might seem to deny the positive role of the state is that of Taiwan,
but here again the state has had a role. This was in the earliest stage, when in the
1950s agriculture was totally modernized through the agrarian reform
programme, which also got rid of the old elite groups and produced a more
equitable distribution of wealth. Thus farming was able to contribute to
development of the economy, and the population lost its old social and economic
structure. Before the 1950s, state-led (i.e. Japanese) improvements in
infrastructure had also been made which provided a good platform for later
change.
Another comparable case, which has not previously been discussed in this
chapter but which is commonly cited, is that of Chile. In this country, it has been
the accepted wisdom that its startling development since the 1970s is due to free-
market economics. In reality this is only half-true; in the 1960s under Frei, and
then under Allende, agrarian reform took place and the state took control of
industry on a massive scale (Martinez & Diaz 1996). Only later were free-market
principles followed, building on a new socio-economic base that had destroyed
old elites and vested interests.
Another matter is regional policy. This is a policy element for developed
countries, like France, Spain or Britain, rather than of those undergoing rapid
development. Taiwan, Indonesia and South Korea have had relatively weak
policies for regions, and major regional changes have occurred despite them
rather than because of them. This might seem to be a fairly obvious conclusion,
but it does run counter to the ideas set out originally by Friedmann, who
