Developmental state and its role in aid effectiveness: lessons Ethiopia can derive from Korea’s experience

A state with its socio economic and political institutions is undeniably the most important socio economic and political institution in a society. But states have exhibited varying ability in fostering socio economic development across the world which partially could be explained by the difference in the ability of states to mobilize natural and non-natural resources towards developmental goals. Contemporary works on aid effectiveness posited that developmental aid has been less successful in fostering socio economic development of recipient countries and which is less significantly explained by the kind of aid. As a result there has not that much success story to be told as regards aid in bringing about aid effectiveness. This article stands on premises that developmental aid can be made more effective in developmental state. Accordingly it defines developmental state as a state where government is intimately involved in the macro and micro-economic planning in order to grow the economy. Developmental state approach has brought about a tremendous socio economic progress in South East Asian economies and this work makes a particular reference to the developmental state of South Korea during the era of President Park Chung Hee and explores the characteristics of Park’s developmental state with the view to derive some experiences relevant to Ethiopia. The article identifies that, in making developmental aid effective, the Korean developmental state was characterized by the establishment of bureaucratic autonomy which is a source of strong government, gave opportunity for developmental elites who took development as a life and death matter, accepted that the source of legitimacy of the government was its socio economic performance which will be possible in a meritocratic state which appreciates and make use of merits of the elites. The article established that even though the Ethiopian developmental state shares some of some of the characteristics with its own peculiar features, there are yet very fundamental aspects of a developmental state which it lacks and may take as a lesson from Korea.