The author asks why East Asian governments were able to adopt appropriate types of state intervention while countries in South Asia were not? Based on evidence of studies the book emphasises the capacity of governments to govern and that means developing political and administrative institutions capable of formulating and implementing development policies. As a critique of development policy and management, this study looks at historical and contextual factors and political and administrative systems.

The success of East Asian countries is attributed to the distinctive institutional characteristics identified with the strong state, in contrast to the soft state characteristic of South Asia.