Jan. 29th, 2026 - Book Talk: Why States Matter - REGISTER TO ATTEND

Dr. Jawied Nawabi will be presenting his book at University of London - SOAS, on Thursday, January 20th, 2026.

Register here to attend: Why Socioeconomic Conditions Matter in Shaping State Institutions that Propels or Hinders | SOAS

Event Description:

In spite of humanity’s significant advancements in science, technology and institutionalization of universal human rights conventions in the last seven decades, many countries are still failing to achieve successful development results.

As a result, enormous levels of inequality, poverty, and malnutrition prevail. The book,Why States Matter in Economic Development: The Socioeconomic Origins of Strong Institutions, by Professor Jawied Nawabi, focuses on the role of the state in the political economy of development, tracing the socio-economic origins of effective state institutions from a comparative historical-institutional perspective.Drawing on the case studies ofSouth Korea, Brazil, India, Spain, France, and England,the study looks at how good state institutions form, and why these are central to the socioeconomic advancement of their populations.

The book contends that effective developmental states are those in which state actors are able to effectively diminish and co-opt the power of the country’s landed elites during the early years of state building. Effectively, the power balance between these two classes determines the developmental trajectory of the state. Consideringagrarian reform as the foremost indispensable policytool to open conditions for positive changes ineffective taxation, education, healthcare, and strategic sustainable industrial policies, this analysis offers a significant contribution to the literature on the sociology of institutions and the political economy of development.