The “developmental state” discourse has opened up fruitful scholarly explorations of alternatives to neoliberal capitalism, but its scope has been somewhat narrow and geographically limited. As a remedy, I propose a broadening of the “developmental state” concept to include three varieties of non-Western states on track to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In these states, political leaders actively developed an initial “comparative advantage” in either (a) human capital; (b) natural capital; or (c) social capital that allowed the state to invest the returns-to-capital into a broader state-led development strategy to satisfy most citizen’s basic human needs. I illustrate these three different pathways via the relatively successful experiences of Singapore, Kuwait, and Costa Rica.
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