The Retreat of the State (Editorial)

Article originally published July 1987, Volume 18 Issue 3; original IDS editing is retained here. We are currently witnessing a global process of economic restructuring in both North and South, East and West. Though country contexts may differ, there is one strikingly common element: the criticism of statist modes of development and provision and the move towards greater use of market mechanisms in the delivery of goods and services. As the case studies covered in this Bulletin suggest, this reaction against statist forms of development is common to both Western Europe and the Third World. This similarity is hardly surprising given their economic interdependence, the activity of international disciplinary institutions such as the MF and the World Bank, and the historical link between the emergence of developmental states in the newly independent territories and the system of managed capitalism practised by their former colonial masters. Do the contributors to this Bulletin offer any ways forward for both theory and practice? Certain analytical points emerge which arc important guides to thinking about policy.