Rural Development in China and East Asia: Achieving Modernization through Campaign-Style Mobilization

A guest lecture by Professor Kristin Looney of Georgetown University.

Abstract:  Mobilizing for Development, by Kristen Looney, addresses the question of how countries achieve rural development. By comparing Taiwan, South Korea, and China, Looney shows that different types of development outcomes were realized to different degrees, at different times, and in different ways. She argues that rural modernization campaigns, defined as policies demanding high levels of mobilization to effect dramatic change, played a central role in the region and that divergent development outcomes stem from the interplay between campaigns and institutions. The analysis departs from the developmental state literature and demonstrates that rural development was not just a byproduct of industrialization.