Since the end of World War II, many East Asian economies have experienced “miraculous” growth. And while so many other countries remain in poverty, economists and leaders are looking to the "East Asian tigers" to see if they can replicate their results. When looking at the facts, it is evident that the circumstances faced by East Asian countries were very different from those faced by countries today. But aside from these differences, a loose model of the East Asian miracle can be used in third world countries today and, given the high success rate of many developing economies, East Asia, it would most likely have positive results. Asian economies are the hand the government has had in industrial affairs. Starting in the 1950s, countries like China began taking steps toward centralized government through reforms. An example would be the Chinese land reform of the 1950s under the new communist regime of Mao Zedong (Blecher, 2010: p. 27). This land reform removed oligarchic control of landowners, transforming the feudal politics of land ownership into a more capitalist form of socialism in which the government exercised control. This is clearly an essential part of the industrialization process, as many countries that failed in land reform continue to struggle out of poverty. A modern example of this would be Brazil, where rural landlords have blocked any sort of reform that could dismantle their domination over peasants, farmers and tenants (Kay, 2002: p. 1076). The institution of land reform was an essential part of industrialization in East Asia, unlike other countries it was introduced before the economies were on their feet and...... in the middle of a paper......to one day truly put into practice total free trade only opened its borders in the 19th century (Chang, 2003: 23). Despite this, industrialized countries, with the United States at the forefront, continue to advocate for more "freedom" in the economies of developing countries, claiming that there is no other way to free themselves from poverty. In doing so, they present themselves as hypocrites calling for more market freedom when in reality countries that practice state intervention, as they did in previous stages, have had more success economic. Two good examples would be China and India, both of which have a high level of state involvement in their respective markets, and yet these two nations have become a model for developing countries in the 21st century (Chang and Grabel, 2004: 13). But for one reason or another, the West continues to advocate a policy that it itself has barely used..