economic groups (such as motor manufacturers in Korea) and the impor-
tance of co-operation with the state of at least those parts of civil society
with an interest in industrialization, especially the business community.
‘Governed interdependence’ and partnership with private industry, rather
than its domination, were essential for effective state intervention, though
the state had the power to choose which socio-economic interests it would
co-operate with (Polidano, 2001).
An overdeveloped bureaucratic state
Another distinctively post-colonial feature of this theory of state structure is
the idea of an overdeveloped bureaucratic state apparatus. Colonialism
had produced a distorted state structure. Certain institutions which had been
particularly significant for colonial government and which had a relatively
long history had been highly developed, namely the bureaucracy, the military
and the police. A central feature of colonial government was a heavy reliance
on these institutions. Colonialism required a state structure which would
enable control to be exercised over all indigenous classes. This state appara-
tus had to be bureaucratic. The bureaucratic–military nature of the colonial
state represented the ‘institutionalized practices’ of an overdeveloped state.
So of Pakistan it was said ‘that the “superstructure” in the colony is therefore
“overdeveloped” in relation to the “structure” in the colony’ (Alavi, 1972).
This could partly be accounted for by the disproportionate involvement
of the state in managing the economy. Where the private sector is small,
where the market as a basis for the arrangement of production and distribu-
tion is weak, and where the economic activity of the state is significant, the
state becomes the key economic actor. It is the major employer. It plays a
prominent role in managing the flow of international finance from aid, loans
and foreign investment. The state becomes the source of capital. It controls
its use. An extensive state apparatus supports economic development, even
when it is in the form of an emerging capitalist system. Public sector
management, state marketing and rationing of scarce foreign exchange and
consumer goods, state ownership, the provision of an infrastructure of
communications, energy supply and transportation, the creation of a legal
structure for commercial transactions, maintaining political stability to
create confidence among investors – all are the responsibility of the state.
The Indian subcontinent had probably had the longest history of demo-
cratic development of any part of the empire, but even here the bureaucratic
state apparatus appeared to Alavi to be overdeveloped. How much more this
118 Understanding Third World Politics