This volume adopts a multidisciplinary and comparative approach to development that brings together issues that are characteristic of the lifelong scholarship of Professor Gordon White. These include a focus on the state, civil society, welfare and globalization. The range of disciplines represented including political science, economics, sociology and social and economic anthropology and a regional focus on China, India and East Asia gives rise to an unusually creative and synergistic set of ideas for thinking about the various meanings of politics in development. This collection provides a valuable resource for academics, policy-orientated researchers, and advanced undergraduate students trying to understand and address policy problems in a theoretically informed and empirically grounded way.