Why have some developing country states been more successful at facilitating industrialization than others? An answer to this question is developed by focusing both on patterns of state construction and intervention aimed at promoting industrialization. Four countries are analyzed in detail - South Korea Brazil India and Nigeria - over the twentieth century. The states in these countries varied from cohesive-capitalist (mainly in Korea) through fragmented-multiclass (mainly in India) to neo-patrimonial (mainly in Nigeria). It is argued that cohesive-capitalist states have been most effective at promoting industrialization and neo-patrimonial states the least. The performance of fragmented-multiclass states falls somewhere in the middle. After explaining in detail as to why this should be so the study traces the origins of these different state types historically emphasizing the role of different types of colonialisms in the process of state construction in the developing world.

Introduction: states and industrialization in the global periphery; Part I. Galloping Ahead: Korea: 1. The colonial origins of a modern political economy: the Japanese lineage of Korea's cohesive-capitalist state; 2. The rhee interregnum: saving South Korea for cohesive capitalism; 3. A cohesive-capitalist state reimposed: Park Chung Hee and rapid industrialization; Part II. Two Steps Forward One Step Back: Brazil; 4. Invited dependency: fragmented state and foreign resources in Brazil's early industrialization; 5. Grow now pay later: state indebted industrialization in modern Brazil; Part III. Slow but Steady: India: 6. Origins of a fragmented-multiclass state and a sluggish economy: colonial India; 7. India's fragmented-multiclass state and protected industrialization; Part IV. Dashed Expectations: Nigeria: 8. Colonial Nigeria: origins of a neopatrimonial state and a commodity-exporting economy; 9. Sovereign Nigeria: neopatrimonialism and failure of industrialization; Conclusion: understanding states and state intervention in the global periphery.