Developmental States in Central Asia

The research addresses the relevance of the institutional arrangements in the East Asian developmental states for the Central Asian countries. It is argued that the Central Asian transition countries share crucial similarities with the economies of East Asia. Through a detailed analysis of historical developments in Northeast and Southeast Asia, a coherent and comprehensive model of the East Asian developmental state on the basis of the new institutional economics is developed. This model is applied to Central Asia through a comparative study on the basis of semi-structured interviews that were carried out in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Both Central Asian countries show notable similarities but also crucial differences to the East Asian developmental states.

The results of this research have been published in the following volume:
Manuel Stark, The Emergence of Developmental States from a New Institutionalist Perspective: A Comparative Analysis of East Asia and Central Asia. Frankfurt: Peter Lang Verlag, 2012.