White Paper: Leveraging Principles of Adaptive Development and Strategic Problem-Solving for SME Growth in Diverse Economies

1. Introduction

This white paper explores the potential application of insights derived from China's remarkable economic transformation and poverty reduction efforts, not as direct policy prescriptions, but as guiding principles for Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) growth and business development in diverse economies such as Canada, India, and the USA. Drawing upon analyses of China's unique adaptive development process, often termed "directed improvisation", alongside concepts from problem-solving, critical thinking, and dynamic competitive strategy, we aim to identify transferable lessons for SMEs operating in vastly different institutional and market environments.

It is important to preface this analysis by stating that the sources provided focus primarily on China's national and subnational state-led development strategies and do not directly discuss the application of these specific poverty escape policies to SME growth in Canada, India, or the USA. Furthermore, while the sources touch upon macroeconomic stability as important for poverty reduction, they do not delve into specific macroeconomic theories, such as those associated with Samuelson, in a context applicable to this discussion. Similarly, the specific term "outcome-based education" is not present in the sources, although related concepts of defining and measuring success in bureaucratic performance are discussed. Therefore, the focus here will be on the generalizable principles of adaptive economic activity and the tools of strategy development and problem-solving, rather than a direct transposition of China's unique, state-centric methods or specific macroeconomic frameworks not present in the source material.

2. Lessons from China's Economic Rise: Principles for SME Adaptation

China's economic transformation and its success in poverty reduction were significantly driven by factors including the growth of the private sector and Township and Village Enterprises (TVEs), which operated within a "mixed economy" structure. These entities, often analogous to SMEs, navigated environments with weak formal institutions and relied on adaptive strategies [42, 71, 102, 127, 128, 180, 235, 238, 243–44, 356, 357]. The core approach identified is "directed improvisation," where a guiding framework from the center enabled significant bottom-up adaptation and experimentation.

Several principles emerge from this experience that can be reframed for SME business strategy and growth:

  • Harnessing Available Resources and Adapting to Weak Institutions: China built markets by adapting existing informal practices and networks when formal institutions were weak or absent [14, 16-17, 46, 102, 121, 142, 144, 180, 235, 238, 243–44, 255, 286n24, 287n24]. For SMEs, this translates to leveraging existing community ties, informal networks, and local advantages, particularly when formal support structures (e.g., access to traditional finance) are challenging. It suggests focusing on what is available locally or within the business's immediate network.
  • Fostering an Environment for Improvisation and Adaptation: China's success involved creating conditions that encouraged adaptive, bottom-up initiatives within a broader framework. For an SME, this means fostering a culture of flexibility and experimentation within the organization. It involves empowering employees to find localized solutions to problems and adapting business processes to fit specific market conditions or customer needs, rather than strictly adhering to rigid, top-down plans.
  • Defining and Rewarding Success: China motivated bureaucratic agents by clearly defining success, often in economic terms, and aligning incentives accordingly. For an SME, this highlights the importance of setting clear, measurable goals for individuals and teams, and creating incentive structures (monetary or non-monetary) that reward performance aligned with the company's growth objectives. This links abstract goals to concrete actions and outcomes.
  • Pursuing Incremental, Interconnected Changes: China's reforms were incremental but broad in scope, with changes in one area complementing changes in others [65, 75–77, 88, 100, 182, 241, 251, 252]. SMEs can apply this by implementing changes iteratively across different functions (e.g., marketing, sales, operations) to ensure they are mutually reinforcing. Avoid isolated "piecemeal" reforms that don't integrate with other parts of the business [76–77].
  • Giving Stakeholders a Personal Interest: The system aimed to give lower-level actors a stake in the development process [67-68, 104, 123, 125, 136–37, 242, 251, 254]. SMEs can foster commitment by giving employees a sense of ownership or direct stake in the business's success, linking their efforts to tangible results for themselves and the company.
  • Niche Identification and Leveraging Diversity: China leveraged regional diversity for national advantage through "niche creation". SMEs can identify and exploit specific market niches or leverage internal diversity (e.g., employee skills, product lines) to find comparative advantages and tailor offerings to specific customer segments or local conditions.

3. Integrating Problem Solving and Critical Thinking for Strategy Development

China's adaptive capacity is linked to the ability of actors to improvise solutions to evolving problems. This process requires strong critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

  • Critical Thinking: Essential for navigating today's complex business environment. It involves observing situations, questioning assumptions, analyzing information, and evaluating options to identify the right problems and potential solutions. For an SME, this means constantly analyzing market trends, competitive actions, customer feedback, and internal performance data with a questioning and objective mindset.
  • Problem Solving: Provides a structured approach to tackling challenges. Methodologies, such as the seven-step process involving logic trees, help break down complex problems into manageable parts, develop creative solutions, and plan for implementation. SMEs can use structured problem-solving to diagnose issues (e.g., declining sales, inefficient processes), explore potential solutions, and develop actionable plans for growth.

Applying China's principles requires SMEs to use critical thinking to identify opportunities for adaptation and problem-solving methodologies to implement the necessary changes within their specific business context. This iterative process of analysis, strategizing, and execution is key to dynamic growth.

4. Developing Dynamic Competitive Strategy

Dynamic competitive strategy involves adapting a firm's approach (e.g., Cost Leadership, Differentiation, Niche Focus) in response to changing market conditions and competitive forces. China's experience with adaptation and niche creation aligns with the need for SMEs to develop dynamic strategies.

  • Strategic Adaptation: Rather than static planning, successful organizations rely on nimble, iterative problem-solving and adaptation. SMEs should view strategy not as a fixed blueprint, but as an evolving response to the environment.
  • Niche Focus: Drawing on China's experience, focusing on a specific market niche or leveraging unique internal capabilities can be a powerful competitive strategy for SMEs. This requires identifying areas where the business can excel and create a distinct value proposition that may be difficult for larger, less agile competitors to replicate.
  • Competitive Analysis: Understanding competitive forces is crucial for strategy formulation. Critical thinking can be applied to analyze these forces and identify strategic options.

Combining the principles from China's development (like harnessing local resources, improvising, and focusing on niches) with critical thinking and problem-solving enables SMEs to formulate and adjust their competitive strategies dynamically.

5. Applicability in Canada, India, and the USA

While China's specific path to poverty escape through state-led mechanisms is not directly transferable, the process of adaptive development and the tools of critical thinking and problem-solving are universally valuable for SMEs in any country, including Canada, India, and the USA.

  • Differing Contexts: Canada, India, and the USA possess established formal institutions, diverse market structures, and unique historical trajectories. India faces challenges related to inequality and differing sectoral importance compared to China. The USA has a long history of distinct institutional development. These differences mean that direct replication of China's specific policies is not feasible or advisable.
  • Transferable Principles: The lessons on fostering adaptation, leveraging local conditions, aligning incentives, and pursuing incremental yet interconnected changes are abstract principles that SMEs in Canada, India, and the USA can consider when developing their internal organizational strategies, approaching market challenges, and building resilience.
  • Universal Tools: Critical thinking and structured problem-solving are essential skills for business leaders and teams everywhere. These tools empower SMEs in any market to analyze their unique environment, identify relevant insights from diverse sources (including abstract principles from China's experience), formulate tailored strategies, and adapt effectively to change.

Therefore, the value lies not in mimicking China's state-level interventions, but in applying a mindset of adaptive improvisation and using rigorous analytical tools to navigate the complexities of their specific markets.

6. Conclusion

China's success in escaping the poverty trap offers valuable insights not in the form of direct policy blueprints for SMEs in Canada, India, or the USA, but through the underlying principles of its adaptive development process. The concept of "directed improvisation," involving strategic guidance coupled with bottom-up adaptation, highlights the importance of flexibility, leveraging available resources, and aligning incentives.

For SMEs in diverse economies, these principles are most effectively applied through the complementary use of critical thinking and structured problem-solving methodologies. These tools enable business leaders to analyze their unique market contexts, identify opportunities for adaptive strategy, and implement changes iteratively across their organizations. While macroeconomic conditions are acknowledged as important for national development, and performance evaluation (related to outcomes) was key in China, the sources do not provide specific insights on Samuelsonian macroeconomics or "outcome-based education" directly applicable to this cross-country SME strategy framework.

Ultimately, fostering SME growth in Canada, India, and the USA drawing on China's experience means embracing a culture of dynamic adaptation, empowering teams to improvise within a strategic framework, and using critical analysis and problem-solving to navigate the specific challenges and opportunities of their respective markets.

7. References

Here is a list of references drawn from the provided sources:

Ackland, Robert, Steve Dowrick, and Benoit Freyens. 2006. “Measuring Global Poverty: Why PPP Methods Matter.” Processed. Australian National University1.

Acemoglu, Daron. 2003. “Root Causes.” Finance and Development 40(2)23.

Acemoglu, Daron, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson. 2002. “Reversal of Fortune: Geography and Institutions in the Making of the Modern World Income Distribution.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 117(4)2.

Ahluwalia, Montek S. 2002. “Economic Reforms in India: A Decade of Gradualism.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 16(3): 67–881.

Ajwad, M.I. 2006. “Coverage, Incidence and Adequacy of Safety Net Programs in India.” Background paper for Social Protection for a Changing India, World Bank1.

Allegretto, Sylvia A. & Kai Filion. “The Economic Policy Institute.” Economic Policy Institute4.

Allegretto, Sylvia A., and Kai Filion. “The Economic Policy Institute.” Economic Policy Institute. Economic Policy Institute, 23 Feb. 2011. Academic Search Complete Web. 26 June 20134.

Allen, J. F. (1984) “Towards a general theory of action and time.” Artificial Intelligence 23(2): 123-1545.

Allen, J. F., Ferguson, G. and Frankfort, P. (1990) “Coping with spontaneous change.” In Proceedings of the AAAI Fall Symposium on Planning with Incomplete Information, Arlington, VA5.

Allen, J. F., Ferguson, G. and Frankfort, P. (1991) “Planning with incomplete knowledge.” In Proceedings of the 12th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-91), Sydney, Australia, pp. 15-245.

American Psychological Association. Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 6th ed. Washington, DC: APA, 2010. Print4.

Andrews, Matt. 2010. The Limits of Institutional Reform in Development: Changing Rules for Realistic Solutions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press6.

Andrews, Matt. 2013. The Limits of Institutional Reform in Development: Changing Rules for Realistic Solutions. Cambridge University Press6....

Ang, Yuen Yuen. 2009b. “Are There Too Many Officials in China? A Comparative Perspective.” The China Quarterly, 198, 341–365910.

Ang, Yuen Yuen. 2012b. “Counting cadres: A comparative view of the size of China’s public employment.” China Quarterly, 211, 676–6961011.

Ang, Yuen Yuen. 2014a. “Authoritarian restraints on online activism revisited: Why ‘I-Paid-A-Bribe’ worked in India but failed in China.” Comparative Politics, 47(1), 21–4010.

Ang, Yuen Yuen. 2014b. “Making details of courts among private firms in China.” The Journal of Politics, 76(2), 318–3321213.

Aoki, Masahiko. 1994. “The Japanese firm as a system of attributes: A survey and research agenda.” In M. Aoki and R. Dore (Eds.), The Japanese firm: The sources of competitive strength. Oxford: Oxford University Press13.

Arrighi, Giovanni. 2007. Adam Smith in Beijing: Lineages of the Twenty-First Century. New York: Verso1415.

Asen, R. (2002) Visions of Poverty: Welfare Policy and Political Imagination. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press16.

Austin, J. L. (1962) How To Do Things With Words. Oxford University Press, Oxford17.

Austin, M.J.(2006). Understanding poverty from multiple social science perspectives. University of California, USA16.

Axelrod, Robert M., and Michael D. Cohen. 1999. Harnessing complexity: Organizational implications of a scientific frontier. New York: Free Press7....

Axelrod, R. (1984) The Evolution of Cooperation. Basic Books, New York17.

Axelrod, R. (1997) The Complexity of Cooperation. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ17.

Backhouse, Roger E. (2017). Founder of Modern Economics: Paul A. Samuelson: Volume 1: Becoming Samuelson, 1915–1948. Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-066411-419.

Baecker, R. M. (ed.) (1993) Readings in Groupware and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work. Morgan Kaufmann, San Mateo, CA17.

Bardhan, Pranab. 1997. “Corruption and development: A review of issues.” Journal of Economic Literature, XXXV, 1320–134618.

Bardhan, Pranab. 2010. Awakening giants, feet of clay: Assessing the economic rise of China and India. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press18.

Barrett, Grant. Perfect English Grammar: The Indispensable Guide to Excellent Writing and Speaking20....

Barringer, H. et al. (1989) “METATEM: a framework for programming in temporal logic.” In REX Workshop on Stepwise Refinement of Distributed Systems: Models, Formalisms, Correctness, LNCS Volume 430, pp. 94-129. Springer, Berlin17.

Bates, Robert. 1981. Markets and States in Tropical Africa. University of California Press23.

Bates, Robert. 1989. Beyond the Miracle of the Market: The Political Economy of Agrarian Development in Kenya. Cambridge University Press23.

Bates, Robert. 1997. Open-Economy Politics: The Political Economy of the World Coffee Trade. Princeton University Press23.

Bates, L., Bryan, T., Loyall, J., and Reilly, W. (1992) “Trapped!” CMU-CS-92-144, CMU-CS-92-142, Pittsburgh, PA17.

Bates, Robert H., Avner Greif, Margaret Levi, Jean-Laurent Rosenthal, and Barry Weingast. Analytic Narratives. Princeton University Press18.

Bauer, B., Heckel, R., Kuester, J., and Taentzer, G. (2001) “Graph transformation based specification of agent interaction and agent migration using UML.” In Agent-Oriented Software Engineering - Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop AOSE-2000 (eds P. Ciancarini and M. Wooldridge), LNCS Volume 1957, pp. 105-120. Springer, Berlin17....

Baum, Richard, and Alexei Shevchenko. 1999. “The ‘state of the state’ in China.” In M. Goldman and R. MacFarquhar (Eds.), The paradox of China’s reforms. Harvard University Press11.

Becker, G.S. (1958). “Competition and democracy”. Journal of Law and Economics 1, 105-10923.

Belnap, N. D. (1991) “Before projection: evaluation and the agents of evaluation.” Philosophia Scientiae 1(1): 19-305.

Belnap, N. D., and Perloff, M. (1988) “Seeing to it that: a canonical form for intentional verbs.” Acta Philosophica Fennica 42: 175-1995.

Belman, D. L., & Wolfson, P. (2010). “The effect of legislated minimum wage increases on employment and hours: A dynamic analysis.” LABOUR: Review of Labour Economics and Industrial Relations, 24 (1), 1–25. doi:10.1111/ j.1467-9914.2010.00468.x426.

Benhabib, J., Rustichini, A. (1996). “Social conflict and growth. Journal of Economic Growth 1, 125-14223.

Beman, B.J., Lonsdale, J. (1992). Unhappy Valley. James Currey, London23.

Besley, T.F., Coate, S.T. (1998). “Sources of inefficiency in a representative democracy: A dynamic analysis”. Journal of Political Economy 106, 728-76123.

Biggs, Tyler, and Brian Levy. 1991. “Strategic interventions and the political economy of industrial policy in developing countries.” In D. Perkins and M. Roemer (Eds.), Markets in developing countries. Harvard University Press6.

Blackburn, P., De Rijke, M. and Venema, Y. (2001) Modal Logic. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK27.

Blanchard, Olivier, and Andrei Shleifer. 2001. “Federalism with and without political centralization: China versus Russia.” IMF Staff Papers 48(1): 171–17928.

Blank, R. (2010) “Selecting among anti-poverty measures, can an economist be both critical and caring?”, Review of Social Economy, 61, 447-46916.

Blau, F. & Kahn, M. (2000) “Gender differences in pay.” The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 14 (4), 75-9916.

Blecher, Marc. 1991. Popular discontent with antiregime policies and the collapse of the reform process in China. University of Iowa29.

Blecher, Marc. 2008. “Chronicling discontent: Protest and resistance in rural China and their implications for the future.” In M. Goldman and E. Perry (Eds.), Changing meanings of citizenship in modern China. Harvard University Press29.

Blecher, Marc, and Vivienne Shue. 1996. “Age of the cadres: Legitimacy and contemporary Chinese politics.” In S. Ogden, K. Hartford, L. Sullivan, and D. Zweig (Eds.), China’s search for democracy. Rowman & Littlefield29.

Blecher, Marc, and Vivienne Shue. 2001. “Trailing behind to keep up: The logic of developmental privileging in China.” World Development 29(2): 343–36429.

Boix, Carles, and Susan Stokes. 2003. Democracy and Redistribution. Cambridge University Press30.

Bonasso, R. P., Firby, R. J., Gat, E., Kortenkamp, D., McFarland, D., and Schoppers, M. (1996) “Experiences with an architecture for intelligent, reactive agents.” Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence 9: 237-25631.

Bond, A. H. and Gasser, L. (eds) (1988) Readings in Distributed Artificial Intelligence. Pitman, London and Morgan Kaufmann, San Mateo, CA17....

Bradshaw, J. M., Dutfield, S., Benoit, P., and Woolley, J. (1997) “KAoS: toward an industrial-strength open agent architecture.” In Intelligent Agents, III, LNAI Volume 1193 (eds J. P. Muller, M. Wooldridge and N. R. Jennings), pp. 375-386. Springer, Berlin34.

Bradshaw, (2006)35.

Brazier, F. M. T., Jonker, C. M., Van Keleen, J., and Treur, J. (1995) “Designing an agent population: from conceptual specification to software agents.” In Intelligent Agents: Theories, Architectures and Languages (eds M. Wooldridge and N. R. Jennings), LNAI Volume 890, pp. 325-342. Springer, Berlin2425.

Breznitz, Dan, and Michael Murphree. 2011. Innovation in Space: National Technology Policies, Local Outcomes. Stanford University Press28.

Brewer, John. 1988. The Sinews of Power: War, Money, and the English State, 1688–1783. Alfred A. Knopf2.

Brooks, R. A. (1986) “A robust layered control system for a mobile robot.” IEEE Journal of Robotics and Automation 2: 14-2331.

Buckley, William F. Jr. (December 1951) [September 1951]. “Chapter 2: Individualism at Yale”. God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of "Academic Freedom" (4th printing). Chicago: Henry Regnery Company. pp. 45– 113. ISBN 978089526692736. (Buckley's criticism of Tarshis's textbook, The Elements of Economics, begins at p. 49 and is expanded in Appendix VII pp. 227, 230–231)36.

Burnside, Craig, and David Dollar. 2000. “Aid, policies, and growth.” American Economic Review 90(4): 847–86830.

Cai, Yongshun. 2004. “Managed participation in China.” Political Science Quarterly 119(3): 425–45137.

Cai, Yongshun. 2015. “Abuse of authority and the sabotage of implementation.” The China Quarterly 222: 415–43537.

Carlson, Allen, Mary Gallagher, Kenneth Lieberthal, and Margaret Pearson. 2010. Contemporary Chinese Politics: New Sources, Methods, and Field Strategies. Cambridge University Press38.

Carothers, Thomas, and Diane de Gramont. 2011. Development Aid Confronts Politics: The Nearly Impossible Task of Governing Development. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace78.

Central Organization Department. “Notice Regarding Implementation of the Annual Job Evaluation System for Leading Cadres of Local Party and Government Organs.” in China Personnel Management Yearbook (1991)39.

Central Organization Department. Document No. 13, “Criteria of Comprehensive Evaluation of Local Party and State Leadership,” 200939.

Chang, Ha-Joon. 2002. Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective. Anthem Press6.

Chaudhuri, Shubham, and Martin Ravallion. 2007. “Assessing vulnerability to poverty.” Economic Journal 112: C99–C12040.

Chellas, B. F. (1980) Modal Logic. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK27.

Ciancarini, P. and Wooldridge, M. (eds) (2001) Agent-Oriented Software Engineering - Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop AOSE-2000, LNCS Volume 1957. Springer, Berlin2541.

Cialdini, Robert B. Harnessing the Science of Persuasion42.

Cohen, P. R. and Levesque, H. J. (1995) “Communicative actions for artificial agents.” In Intelligent Agents: Theories, Architectures and Languages (eds M. Wooldridge and N. R. Jennings), LNAI Volume 890, pp. 109-128. Springer, Berlin43.

Collier, Paul. 2007. The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It. Oxford University Press30.

Collinot, S., Drogoul, A. and Benhamou, F. (1996) “Agent oriented design of a cooperative application.” In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Multi-Agent Systems (ICMAS-96), Kyoto, Japan, pp. 41-47. AAAI Press2425.

Conger, Jay A. The Necessary Art of Persuasion42.

Conte, R. and Gilbert, N. (1995) “Computer simulation for social theory.” In Artificial Societies: The Computer Simulation of Social Life (eds N. Gilbert and R. Conte), pp. 1-15. UCL Press, London25.

Corkill, P. P., Gallagher, K. Q. and Johnson, P. M. (1987) “Achieving flexibility, efficiency and generality in blackboard architectures.” In Proceedings of the 6th National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-87), pp. 18-23. Seattle, WA25.

Coy, Peter. “FAQ: Reinhart, Rogoff, and the Excel Error That Changed History,” Bloomberg Businessweek, April 18, 201344.

DAML (2001) The DARPA agent markup language. See http://www.dam1.org/25.

Davidsson, P. (2001) “Multi agent based simulation: beyond social simulation.” In Multi-Agent-Based Simulation (eds P. Giorgini, J. P. Müller, and J. Odell), LNCS Volume 1979, pp. 1-11. Springer, Berlin25.

Deaton, Angus. 2013. The Great Escape: Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality. Princeton University Press30.

Decker, K. S., Purfee, E. H. and Lesser, V. R. (1989) “Evaluating research in cooperative distributed problem solving.” In Distributed Artificial Intelligence (eds L. Gasser and M. Huhns), Volume II, pp. 487-519. Pitman, London and Morgan Kaufmann, San Mateo, CA2445.

Decker, K., Sycara, K. and Williamson, M. (1997) “Middle-agents for the Internet.” In Proceedings of the 15th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-97), Nagoya, Japan45.

Decker, S., Melnik, S., van Harmelen, F., Fensel, D., Klein, M., Broekstra, J., Horrocks, I., and Erdmann, M. (2000) “The semantic Web: the roles of XML and RPF.” IEEE Internet Computing, 4(5), 63-744345.

Depke, R., Heckel, R., and Taentzer, G. (2001) “Agent-oriented modeling with UML—agent diagrams.” In Agent-Oriented Software Engineering - Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop AOSE-2000 (eds P. Ciancarini and M. Wooldridge), LNCS Volume 1957, pp. 105-120. Springer, Berlin2425.

Dib, Allan. The 1-Page Marketing Plan: Get New Customers, Make More Money, And Stand Out From The Crowd46.

Dickson, Bruce. 2008. Wealth into Power: The Communist Party’s Embrace of China’s Private Sector. Cambridge University Press12.

Dignum, F. and Greaves, M. (eds) (2000) Agent Communication Languages. Springer, Berlin34.

Dignum, F. and Nebel, B. (1999) “IJCAI-99 Workshop on Agent Communication Languages.” AI Magazine 20(3): 36-4125.

Dincecco, Mark. 2011. “Political centralization and government spending in Europe, 1700–1950.” Cliometrica 5(2): 173–1962.

d'Inverno, M. and Luck, M. (2001) “Applying formal specifications to multi-agent systems.” In Multi-Agent Systems: an introduction to distributed artificial intelligence (eds G. Weiss), pp. 447-463. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA2425.

d'Inverno, M. and Velde, F. V. d. (1996) “Communicating methodologies: understanding the role of logic and interaction.” In ECAI-96 Workshop on Agent Theories, Architectures, and Languages (ATAL-96), Budapest, Hungary, pp. 15-29. Springer, Berlin25.

Dirlik, Arif. “Beijing Consensus: Beijing ‘Gongshi.’ Who Recognizes Whom and to What End?”, www.ids-uva.nl/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/9_Dirlik1.pdf (accessed on 17 March 2014)14.

Doner, Richard. 2009. “The politics of uncertainty: Governing property rights and the allocation of investment in developing countries.” In J. Rodden and K. Tsai (Eds.), Decentralized governance and Asian development. Cornell University Press6.

Downes, A. (2010) Poverty and its Reduction in the Small Developing Countries of the Caribbean. Paper presented at Conference on “Ten Years of ‘War Against Poverty’”, Chronic Poverty Research Centre, University of Manchester, United Kingdom, September 8-1047.

Durfee, E. H., Decker, K. S. and Lesser, V. R. (1987) “Designing a coordinated plan-ning agent.” IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics 17(3): 287-31725.

Durfee, E. H., Lesser, V. R. and Corkill, D. D. (1989a) “Cooperative distributed problem solving.” In Handbook of Artificial Intelligence (eds E. A. Feigenbaum, A. Barr and P. R. Cohen), Volume IV, pp. 83-147. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA2448.

Durfee, E. H., Lesser, V. R. and Corkill, D. D. (1989b) “Trends in cooperative distributed problem solving.” IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, 1(1), 63-832448.

Easterly, William. 2006b. The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Harm and So Little Good. Penguin Press30.

EBAY (2001) The eBay online marketplace. See http://www.ebay.com/48.

Edin, Maria. 2003. “State capacity and local agent control in China: Types of fiscal relationships and their consequences.” In M. Goldman and E. Perry (Eds.), Changing meanings of citizenship in modern China. Harvard University Press2937.

Eliasmith, C. (1999) Dictionary of the philosophy of mind. Online at http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~philos/MindDict/48.

Enthoven, Alain. “Managed Competition: An Agenda for Action,” Health Affairs 7, no. 3 (Summer 1988): 25–4749.

Erman, L. D. et al. (1980) “The Hearsay-II speech understanding system: integrating knowledge to resolve uncertainty.” ACM Computing Surveys 12(2): 213-25348.

Etzioni, O., Golden, K., and Weld, D. (1994) “Task sequencing on the Web: a critical analysis of Earth mover.” In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Artificial Intelligence Planning Systems (AIPS-94), Chicago, IL, pp. 144-149. AAAI Press48.

Etzioni, O., and Weld, D. (1995) “Intelligent agents on the Internet: fact, fiction, and forecast.” IEEE Expert 10(4): 44-4948.

Evans, Peter. 1995. Embedded Autonomy: States and Industrial Transformation. Princeton University Press38.

Evans, Peter. 2004. “Development as institutional change: The active role of the state in building market societies.” In V. Nee and R. Swedberg (Eds.), The economic sociology of capitalism. Princeton University Press7.

Evans, Peter, and James Rauch. 1999. “Bureaucracy and growth: A cross-national analysis of the effects of ‘Weberian’ state structures on economic growth.” American Sociological Review 64(5): 748–76538.

Ferber, J. (1999) Multi-Agent Systems: an Introduction to Distributed Artificial Intelligence. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA48.

Ferguson, I. A. (1992a) TouringMachines: An architecture for dynamic, rational agents. PhD thesis, Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada3148.

Ferguson, I. A. (1992b) “TouringMachines: Autonomous agents that learn to plan.” AI Magazine 13(3): 27-483148.

Ferguson, I. A. (1995) “Integrated control and planning in TouringMachines.” Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems 1: 35-4831.

Fensel, D. and Musen, M. A. (2001) “The semantic web: connecting unstructured and structured web content.” IEEE Intelligent Systems 16(2): 8-943.

Figart, M. & Power, M. (2002) Living wages, equal wage: Gender and labor market policies in the United States: New York, NY: Routledge47.

Findler, N. V. (ed.) (1993) Readings in Distributed Artificial Intelligence. McGraw Hill, New York25.

Fischer, F., Muller, J. P., and Pischel, M. (1996) “Cooperative transportation scheduling: domain application of the InteRRaP agent architecture.” In Applied Artificial Intelligence (eds J. Stender and B. Kummer), pp. 37-58. Vieweg31.

Fischer, Stanley (1987). “Samuelson, Paul Anthony”. In Eatwell, John; Milgate, Murray; Newman, Peter (eds.). The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics. Vol. 4. London: Macmillan. pp. 234– 41. ISBN 978-0-935859-10-219.

Fitch, J. P., and Luck, M. (2001) “Modeling agent systems with Z.” In Multi-Agent Systems: an introduction to distributed artificial intelligence (eds G. Weiss), pp. 465-473. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA25.

Franklin, S. and Graesser, A. (1997) “Is it an agent, or just a program?: A taxonomy for autonomous agents.” In Intelligent Agents, III, LNAI Volume 1193 (eds J. P. Muller, M. Wooldridge and N. R. Jennings), pp. 21-35. Springer, Berlin4850.

Frerer, K. and Catherine Vu(2006). An Anthropological view of poverty. University of California, USA47.

Fukuyama, Francis. 2004. State-Building: Governance and World Order in the 21st Century. Cornell University Press7.

Fukuyama, Francis. “China and East Asian Democracy: The Patterns of History,” Journal of Democracy, vol. 18, No. 1, 2007, pp. 33-4751.

Fusfeld, Daniel R. (2002). "The Neoclassical Synthesis". The Age of the Economist (9th ed.). Boston: Addison-Wesley. pp. 198–201. ISBN 978-0-321-08812-319.

Gasser, L., Rouquet, M., and Huhns, M. N. (1987a) “Building air traffic control strategies into a multiagent testbed.” In Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Workshop on Black-board Systems, Pittsburgh, PA25.

Gasser, L., Rouquet, M., and Huhns, M. N. (1987b) “When does air traffic control need intelligent agents?” In Applications of Artificial Intelligence to Military Command and Control Systems, New York, NY. ACM Press32.

Gasser, L. et al. (1989) “Distributed artificial intelligence.” In Foundations of Artificial Intelligence (eds D. Kirsh), pp. 171-215. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA32.

Genovese, Michael, and Victoria Farrar-Myers. 2010. Corruption and American Politics. Cambria Press52.

George, Susan, and Fabrizio Sabelli. 1994. Faith and Credit: The World Bank’s Secular Empire. Penguin53.

Georgeff, M. P. and Lansky, A. L. (eds) (1986) Reasoning About Actions and Plans - Proceedings of the 1986 Workshop. Morgan Kaufmann, San Mateo, CA41.

Gerschenkron, Alexander. 1962. Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press53.

Gerschenkron, A. (1970). Europe in the Russian Mirror: Four Lectures in Economic History. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK54.

Gherson, Diane and Lynda Gratton. Managers Can’t Do It All55.

Gilbert, N. and Conte, R. (eds) (1995) Artificial Societies: The Computer Simulation of Social Life. UCL Press, London25.

Gilens, Martin. 2012. Affluence and Influence: Economic Inequality and Political Power in America. Princeton University Press53.

Gill, C.M. Essential Writing Skills for College & Beyond5657.

Ginsberg, M. L. (1991) “Knowledge interchange format: the lingua franca of AI?” In Proceedings of the 12th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-91), Sydney, Australia, pp. 39-4443.

Ginsburg, Tom. 2015. “Stop revering Magna Carta.” The New York Times, June 1453.

Glaeser, Edward, and Claudia Goldin. 2006. “Corruption and reform lessons from America’s history.” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 1254353.

Glaeser, Edward L., Rafael Porta, Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes, and Andrei Shleifer. 2004. “Do institutions cause growth?” Journal of Economic Growth 9(3): 271–30330.

Glaeser, E.L., Shleifer, A. (2002). “Legal origins”. Quarterly Journal of Economics 117, 1193-123054.

Gold, Thomas, Doug Guthrie, and David Wank (Eds.). 2002. Dynamics of an Encounter: Chinese Connections. Stanford University Press9.

Goldsmith, Arthur. 2012. Building Agricultural Extension: From Analog to Digital. World Bank30.

Graves, M.A.R. (2001). The Parliaments of Early Modern Europe. Longman, New York54.

Gregory, P.R. (1991). "The role of the state in promoting economic development: The Russian case and its general implications". In: Sylla, R., Toniolo, G. (Eds.), Patterns of European Industrialization: The Nineteenth Century. Routledge, New York54.

Grindle, Merilee. 2004. “Good enough governance: Rights, regulations, and administrative reform in developing countries.” Governance 17(4): 525–5486....

Grindle, Merilee. 2011. “Good enough governance revisited.” Development Policy Review, 29(1), 533–5747....

Guo, Gang. 2009. “China’s local political budget cycles.” American Journal of Political Science, 53(3), 621–63258.

Halper, Stefan. 2010. The Beijing Consensus: How China’s Authoritarian Model Will Dominate the Twenty-First Century. New York: Basic Books59.

Hall, Peter. 2003. “Aligning ontology and methodology in comparative research.” In J. Mahoney and D. Rueschemeyer (Eds.), Comparative historical analysis in the social sciences. New York: Cambridge University Press58.

Hall, Peter, and David Soskice. 2001. Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage. Oxford: Oxford University Press58.

Hamilton, Alexander, James Madison, and John Jay. 2012. Selected Federalist Papers. Dover Publications60.

Hamilton-Hart, Natasha. 2002. Asian States, Asian Bankers: Central Banking in Southeast Asia. Cornell University Press60.

Handley, Antoinette. 2008. Business and the State in Africa: Economic Policy-Making in the Neo-Liberal Era. Cambridge University Press60.

Hardin, R. (1995). All For One. Princeton University Press, Princeton61.

Harel, D. (1984) “Dynamic logic.” In Handbook of Philosophical Logic, Volume II (eds D. Gabbay and F. Guenthner), pp. 497-604. D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, The Netherlands5.

Harel, D., Kozen, D., and Tiuryn, J. (2000) Dynamic Logic. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA5.

Hart, O.D. (1995). Firms, Contracts, and Financial Structure. Oxford University Press, New York61.

Hatch, Walter. 2010. Asia’s Flying Geese: How Regionalization Shapes Japan. Cornell University Press60.

Hausmann, Ricardo, Lant Pritchett, and Dani Rodrik. 2005. “Growth accelerations.” Journal of Economic Growth 10(4): 303–32960.

Hayzelden, A. and Bigham, J. (1999) Agent-Based Systems in the Financial Markets. Wiley, Chichester, UK2562.

Heclo, Hugh. 1995. “The Political Foundations of Health Care Reform.” In T. Skocpol, Social Revolutions in the Past and Present. Cambridge University Press63.

Heilmann, Sebastian, and Elizabeth Perry. 2011a. “Embracing Uncertainty: Adaptive Governance and Innovation in China.” In S. Heilmann and E. Perry (Eds.), Mao’s Invisible Hand: The Political Foundations of Adaptive Governance in China. Harvard University Press2864.

Heilmann, Sebastian, and Elizabeth Perry. 2011b. Mao’s Invisible Hand: The Political Foundations of Adaptive Governance in China. Harvard University Press64.

Heimer, Maria, and Stig Thøgersen. 2006. Doing Fieldwork in China. University of Hawaii Press3864.

Helmke, Gretchen, and Steven Levitsky. 2004. “Informal institutions and comparative politics: A research agenda.” Perspectives on Politics, 2(4), 725–74064.

Herbst, J.I. (1990). State Politics in Zimbabwe. University of California Press, Berkeley61.

Hicks, J.R. (1969). A Theory of Economic History. Oxford University Press, New York61.

Hill, C. (1961a). The Century of Revolution, 1603-1714. W.W. Norton & Co., New York61.