The Rise of the Rest

The author explains how some developing countries outside the North Atlantic area were able to achieve accelerated economic growth following World War II.

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After World War II a select number of countries outside Japan and the West--those that Alice Amsden calls "the rest"--gained market share in modern industries and altered global competition. By 2000, a great divide had developed within "the rest," the lines drawn according to prewar manufacturing experience and equality in income distribution. China, India, Korea and Taiwan had built their own national manufacturing enterprises that were investing heavily in R&D. Their developmental states had transformed themselves into champions of science and technology. By contrast, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico had experienced a wave of acquisitions and mergers that left even more of their leading enterprises controlled by multinational firms. The developmental states of Mexico and Turkey had become hand-tied by membership in NAFTA and the European Union. Which model of late industrialization will prevail, the "independent" or the "integrationist," is a question that challenges the twenty-first century.