> To be a modern country, it is hypothesized that the developing country needs immediately adopt American systems, laws, behavior & structures (the Washington c

> To be a modern country, it is hypothesized that the developing country needs immediately adopt American systems, laws, behavior & structures (the Washington consensus, etc.). Rather than immediately following american "style", it is conjectured that you need to be given america's blessing and be allowed in our international world order. > China: China is the egg, because they view modernization more or less independent (i.e., democracy is not a necessary). Britain, Japan, Germany, France, etc all modernized when they weren't a democracy. If we are talking post ww2, south korea, taiwan, singapore, etc all modernized while they weren't real democracies. You could be a dictatorship and still be part of the american world order - saudi arabia, kuwait, SK/taiwan for most of their history. > that means more data points to understand how to modernize other parts of the world. Modernization doesn't require data points. It's simply a political choice. As long as a major power isn't actively preventing you from modernizing, any country can modernize. It's simply a matter of political stability and investing in education and industry. What makes china unique is that they are building institutions outside of the US world order ( AIIB, RCEP, BRICS, SCO and of course the belt and road initiative ). https://www.brookings.edu/research/chinas-emerging-institutional-statecraft/ https://www.brookings.edu/research/chinas-emerging-instituti... But world order doesn't necessarily have anything to do with modernization.