One party rule:

After Indian independence from British rule in 1947, India became a democracy but was ruled by a single party, the Indian Congress Party that had established its prestige from its lead in the struggles against British rule. Its predecessor was the Indian National Congress, founded in 1885. This organization, which enlisted the support of many prominent Hindus and Muslims, gradually heightened the political consciousness of the masses and accelerated the trend toward national unification. Jawaharlal Nehru, leader of the Indian National Congress, was the prime minister of the newly independent India and leader of its dominant party the Congress Party until his death (1947-64). He was succeeded to by his daughter indira Gandhi (note related to Mohatma Gandhi), who ruled on and off till 1984, when she was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards for suppressing Sikh independence movement, and the Congress party ruled on until Gandhi's son Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in 1991 for intervening in a Sri Lanka coup where the Tamils wanted to be independent. From Nehru on, India was impressed by the Soviet model of economic development.

Road to market economy:

India's wake-up call was the downfall of Communism and the economic development of the East and Southeast Asian countries in the 1980s. It has set itself on a road to greater marketization, giving up much of government regulation (permit raj means you need to apply for a permit for everything; raj comes from the Sanskrit word for rajan, or king/rule).

India's advantage in moving toward a free market economy lay in a good educational base for its middle class: a structure laid down by Nehru: science and technology would make India strong. Consequently India has produced good scientists, engineeers, doctors, and computer programmers, all facilitating its joining the international market economy.

The rise of Bangalore: a southern Indian city that is today synomymous with internationalization. When you are making a customer service call to Dell computer or some other software company at night, the Indian accent on the other side of the phone very often confirms your suspicion that the call is handled by India, and more specifically, Bangalore.

Social divisions and military junta rule

Economic and political structures fashioned by history: land concentration, single commodity export economy, political control by landed interests.

• After independence, Latin America continued to be controlled by European economy, this time British economy. It provided raw materials, including foodstuffs to Europe, and market for manufactured products from Britain and other European countries. The facilities built for exporting goods, roads, canals, ports, were funded by foreign money. Latin America remained little industrialized. Land, once for subsistance farming, was now for commercial production of agricultural goods for export and huge agrobusinesses and concentration of land replaced small farmers.
• Industrialization during the 1930s and 1940s led to rise of urban political interests, and political fightings between large landed interests and industrial interests. The deep struggle between the two groups and the lack of a democratic tradition often led to military coups as a way to end the political confrontations.
• An alternative to solve the problem of deep social divisions was authoritarian rule: the state would take over and conduct the country like a corporation, or apply a socialist approach to the economy. It would also redistribute land and nationalize industries as a way to resolve the deep seated social problems.
• The inefficiency of state run economy and high inflation eventually drove many LA countries to reform. It would take the bankruptcies of governments, including in Mexico and Argentina, to move them toward greater privatization.