Abstract

Yoo Dae Kim Ji-tae

The East Asian developmental states were so successful to transform their nation from the agrarian to the most advanced industrial state. Although it is believed that developmental state exists before the East Asian countries, most of the literatures give emphasis to the successful East Asian countries. All the developmental states in East Asia fulfill those requirements to be called as a developmental state. Additionally, these countries developed their own economic development models which can be taken as success factor of their development. In most of the research papers, the success of developmental states is not debating. The debating issue is whether or not the experience from East Asian developmental states can be replicated in the currently developing countries. Most authors lack confidence to recommend the applicability of East Asian developmental states success. However, as far as there is committed and strong leadership, both democracy and economic development can be implemented hand in hand. The current Ethiopian government from its beginning was democratic. The country was under dictator government and closed economy was the policy direction for 17 years before 1991. Now in Ethiopia, multiparty system exists, and power is accessed only by election. The country underwent four elections successfully in the past 20 years. Ethiopia’s economic development is impressive. The country is in a state of unprecedented economic development. This was made possible in this short period of time because of the characteristic of political leaders in Ethiopia. The state in the country shares most of the characteristics mentioned for developmental states. Moreover, there are strong grounds to implement the economic models of East Asia in the developing country, Ethiopia. There are similarities and differences between the Ethiopian and East Asian economic development models. The differences are the weakness of the state in Ethiopia, so there is a possibility to amend this by taking the experience from East Asia. Generally, Ethiopia is working as a democratic developmental state. The current situation in the country reflects this fact; therefore, the developmental state experience from East Asia can be implemented in the developing countries of Africa.