If the rise of science marks the first great trend in this story, the second is itsdiffusion. What was happening in Britain during the Industrial Revolution was notan isolated phenomenn. A succession of visitors to Britain would go back to reportto their countries on the technological and commercial innovations they saw there.Sometimes societies were able to learn extremely fast, as in the United States.Others, like Germany, benefited from starting late, leapfrogging the long-drawn-outprocess that Britain went through.
This diffusion of knowledge accelerated dramatically in recent decades. Overthe last 30 years we have watched countries like Japan, Singapore, South Korea andnow China grow at a pace that is three times that of Britain or the United States atthe peak of the Industrial Revolution. They have been able to do this because oftheir energies and exertions, of course, but also because they cleverly and perhapsluckily adopted certain ideas about development that had worked in the West, suchas reasonably free markets, open trade, a focus on science and technology, and soon.
The diffusion of knowledge is the dominant trend of our time and goes wellbeyond the purely scientific field. Consider the cases of Turkey and Brazil. If youhad asked an economist 20 years ago how to feel about these two countries, hewould have explained that they were classic basket case, Third World economies,with triple-digit inflation, soaring debt burdens, a weak private sector and thegrowth at a snaiPs pace. Today they are both remarkably well managed, withinflation in single digits and growth rate above 5 percent. And this shift is happeningaround the world. From Thailand to South Africa to Slovakia to Mexico, countriesare far better managed economically than they have ever been. Even in cases wherepolitical constraints make it difficult to push far-reaching reforms, as in Brazil,Mexico or India, governments still manage their affairs sensibly, observing theHippocratic oath not to do any harm.
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