Yuen Yuen Ang

Answers have been sharply divided. Modernization theory holds that “growth  good governance

democracies.2 Similarly, others argue that countries succeed in modernizing public administrations and eradicating corruption only after they become sufficiently wealthy

cording to the Harrod-Domar model in classical economics, growth comes from capital investments

get governance right” before markets can grow.8 The logic is intuitive

copying best practices from the developed West, then late developers would have accomplished it long ago

standards has been “a root cause of the deep problems encountered by developing countries

If the seeds of national successes and failures were indeed planted long ago and became rooted over time, what can nations lacking the right history do today?16
The observation that many poor nations fail

development is a coevolutionary process. States and markets interact and adapt to each other, changing mutually over time

The first: build markets with weak institutions. My analysis reveals that the institutions, strategies, and state capacities that promote growth vary over the course of development, among countries and even among localities within countries. Even more surprisingly, I show that the practices and features that defy norms of good governance—normally viewed as “weak” institutions—are paradoxically the raw materials for building markets when none exist

This book points to a different path. It illuminates the development potential that may lie hidden within apparently weak institutions