| Summary/Abstract |
The modern world's structure is not only explicitly pyramidal, but it is also very rigid. Only a few Second or Third world countries could make it into the First World after they had speedily modernized themselves. By accident or coincidence, all such countries happen to be in the Confucian cultural region. The most obvious example is the Republic of Korea, which in the early 1960s was behind Nigeria in terms of development but which by the beginning of the current economic crisis aspired to be among the top ten most developed countries. Singapore and Taiwan showed impressive economic growth rates, and now Vietnam and the Peoples Republic of China are following suit.
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