This course is available on the MSc in International Political Economy, MSc in International Political Economy (LSE and Sciences Po) and MSc in International Political Economy (Research). This course is not available as an outside option to students on other programmes. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process. For information on controlled access courses, including eligibility, application processes, deadlines, and departmental contact details, please refer to the Controlled Access Courses webpage.

All International Relations (IR4) optional courses at LSE are Controlled Access and require an application via LfY. Students must include a statement in their LfY application of no more than 200 words explaining their interest in the course and its relevance to their academic and/or career goals.

Application deadline: 12:00 noon, Friday 25 September 2026.

Notification of outcome: by 12:00 noon, Monday 28 September 2026.

After this date, students should consult the MSc Course Availability Spreadsheet (2026/27) for remaining spaces on IR4-level courses. 

For further details, see the LSE Selecting Courses webpage in the first instance or contact IR.Programmes@lse.ac.uk only if necessary.

What role should the state play in economic development? How has globalisation affected what the state can still actually do to promote economic development? Between the 50s and 80s, the East Asian ‘developmental state’ model delivered rapid industrialisation through extensive state intervention, seemingly refuting not only the claims of free market economics, but also of dependency theory: that poor countries could never develop due to the very nature of the capitalist world system.

Since the 80s, the applicability of the East Asian model was challenged in new ways. Structural changes in the global political economy, including the end of fixed exchange rates, increased capital mobility, the development of international financial markets, privatisation of the commanding heights of the economy, the proliferation of restrictive trade and investment agreements, and the rise of global value chains, led many to argue that even if it was economically beneficial for other countries to implement the East Asian model, this was no longer possible because globalisation had dramatically constrained the power of the nation state. Others argued that concerns over the constraints posed by globalisation were overblown, and that domestic interests, institutions, and ideas were responsible for holding back structural transformation of the economy.

This course will combine debates in IPE, over how the process of globalisation has transformed the capacity for state action, with debates in the political economy of development over the role of the state in the process of late development. Students will gain an understanding not only of the debate over how much domestic policy autonomy developing countries have after globalisation, but also of the kinds of policies they need this policy space for. Problems of underdevelopment are approached through the prism of both core-periphery power relations, and power relations arising from the domestic productive structure. By the end of the course, students will be able to:

1. Make theoretically informed arguments in written and oral form, supported by empirical evidence on key questions in the study of globalization and late development
2. Critically engage (understand and be able to point out the weaknesses and strengths of) with various theoretical approaches (dependency, developmentalist, liberal, Marxist) to the study of late development
3. Critically engage with various theoretical approaches (hyperglobalists, constraints school, sceptics, compensation hypothesis) to the study of globalisation 
4. Apply these theoretical frameworks to concrete empirical situations
5. Undertake empirical research on country cases drawing on relevant theory in the study of late development and globalisation

15 hours of seminars and 10 hours of lectures in the Autumn Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.

For formative assessment, students will receive feedback on a plan of their final research essay. Personalised feedback on research design, literature choice, and argument will be given. This will provide students with the opportunity to refine their work prior to grading. 

Students will also get feedback on power point presentations on a seminar question applied to their chosen country case. This will further help students prepare for their final research essay. The feedback will focus not only on academic content, but also presentation skills.

• Kicking Away the Ladder, Ha Joon Chang
• States and Markets, Susan Strange
• States Versus Markets, Herman Schwartz
• Globalisation in Question, Hirst, Thompson and Bromley
• The Myth of the Powerless State, Linda Weiss
• Reclaiming Development Economics, Chang and Grabel
• The Developmental State, Woo-Cummings
• Business and the State in Developing Countries, Maxfield and Schneider

Course participation (10%).

Essay (90%, 2500 words).