Many pundits hold that for non-Western societies to modernize, they must adopt the individualist ethos that led to the rise of the West. But this view ignores key differences between material and cosmological beliefs, and how those differences have shaped economic development around the globe.

Deepak K. Lal was the James S. Coleman Professor of International Development Studies at the University of California at Los Angeles.
AsiaDefense and Foreign PolicyGovernment and PoliticsInternational Economics and DevelopmentLaw and LibertyPolitical HistoryPolitical Theory
Other Independent Review articles by Deepak K. Lal
Fall 2002 The Riddle of the Modern World: Of Liberty, Wealth, and Equality
Summer 2000 Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed