> But the alternative you put is to assume that their failures are due to external forces and their success due to policy choices. I'm not assuming it, but I

> But the alternative you put is to assume that their failures are due to external forces and their success due to policy choices. I'm not assuming it, but I think someone should make that argument given that the country was subject to over 300 years of brutal colonialism which included being the literal capital of the slave trade and later neocolonialism. China's a different story because they eradicated foreign ownership and interference before any of its success and still has pretty heavy capital controls and other mechanisms in place including local ownership requirement laws. In any case, there are many other factors that could influence any countries development starting from simple geographic luck. To assume that it is a self-made problem (or isn't) without argument is not useful.