The conditions to get out of economic backwardness

Ugo Pipitone's book La Salida del Atraso: Un Estudio Histórico Comparativo is reviewed. His main idea concerning the existence of only two preconditions for modernization, namely the presence of a reasonably efficient government which should be freee from corruption and a developed agriculture, is subject to criticism. It is pointed out that other factors such as the stage of cultural and educational development attained by the society in question as well as the income level, the presence of markets for manufactured goods and the existence of an adequate infrastructurem are equally important. It is pointed out that the author´s idea that tipically the modernization process lasts at most two generations (about 50 years), is correct for England and some late starter as Germany and the US, but that this did not hold either for Italy or Japan. JEL Classification: Y30; O10.