Abstract

Our goal is, using the concept of critical juncture, to discuss developmentalism
as a historical legacy. To do so, in the first section, we provide a stylized description of four
typical cases (Brazil, Mexico, South Korea, and Taiwan) and then, employing the technique
of process tracing, propose a causal mechanism composed of structural and volitional factors
to understand the emergence of developmentalism. It concludes that developmentalism
illustrates the advantages of a historical social science that allows us to go beyond the analysis
of the ideational content of various developmentalist paradigms and move towards identifying
the historical conditions of their production as a political project.

JEL Classification: B0.