The Rural Economic System and Agricultural Modernization, 1949–78

Theorists tend to stress the role that the system plays in the development of an economy. In practice, developing countries are required to remove all sorts of systematic or institutional barriers to their progress, be these economic, political, social or cultural. New economies are able to evolve more easily when old institutions are replaced, as has been shown in many case studies, including the Chinese experience which has demonstrated that transformation of a system cannot be achieved in one fell swoop, but rather is a continuing process.