Richard Doner
In this systematic and compelling study, Looney addresses a question of great theoretical and policy importance: How do we account for successful rural development in East Asia, as well as variation within the region? Based on exhaustive empirical research, deep knowledge of the countries involved, a sharp sense of comparative theory, and thoughtful methodology, this is a model of comparative historical analysis that effectively builds on and goes beyond the developmental state literature. With its emphasis on center-local relations and the roles of campaigns and institutions, this book is must reading for scholars of development, including economists, as well as development practitioners.
Andrew Mertha
Kristen Looney's path-breaking book forces us to rethink the state's role in development strategies, the ways in which rural society organizes politically for economic gain, and how to compare East Asian newly-industrializing economies. Her explanatory mechanism is political campaigns, an audacious analytical approach that will change the way we understand urban bias, state-society relations, and developmental imperatives.
Dr. Kate Xiao Zhou
Mobilizing for Development challenges the dominant view of the East Asian state development model by focusing on different strands of political culture and modes of politics. The focus on how institutions and campaigns interacted to affect rural development in East Asia provides a new theoretical understanding of the developmental state and other bodies of literature on development.
Roselyn Hsueh
Mobilizing for Development is an excellent, original interpretation of research on the East Asian developmental state. It underscores the important role of political campaigns and attendant rural institutions and how their interplay shaped the varying rural development outcomes in East Asia.
