After the Second World War, development strategy came into the fore as many independent nations had to think about how to deliver better jobs and incomes for their citizens.
There were essentially three schools of thought. The first was the Adam Smith-inspired neoliberal free market philosophy that was pushed through the Bretton Wood institutions, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Second, Mahatma Gandhi in India and Latin Americans preferred the self-help strategy, supplemented by an import-substitution industrialisation strategy. The third path, which the Japanese led with the backing of America, was the export manufacturing model, which East Asia followed with great success.