Asia's and Latin America's development in comparative perspective: landlords, peasants, and industrialization

Scholars and policy-makers have long debated over the causes of the spectacular
economic success achieved by the East Asian newly industrializing countries (NICs) as
well as over the lessons that other developing countries can learn from this
development experience. Latin America started to industrialize many decades before
the East Asian NICs and yet was quickly overtaken by them in the last few decades.
This essay seeks to explore the agrarian roots which may explain the different
development trajectory and performance between the East Asian NICs, particularly
South Korea and Taiwan, and Latin America. The analysis focuses mainly on three
interconnected factors in seeking to understand why the East Asian NICs outperformed
Latin America: (1) State capacity and policy performance or 'statecraft', (2) character of
agrarian reform and its impact on equity and growth, and (3) interactions between
agriculture and industry in development strategies.