What Makes an Industrial Revolution?

The WSJ asks "What Makes an Industrial Revolution?" Gregory Clark author of a 'A farewell to Alms' posits:

The lessons are that growth requires a combination of social culture, and half-decent institutions, but culture dominates. The right culture can compensate for poor institutions -- as in Sweden. Look at China now. Not a democracy, rife with corruption and nepotism, no respect for law -- yet spectacular growth.
Further foist the institutions of the West on countries with the wrong cultural background -- as the World Bank has attempted -- and the formal institutions of democracy, rule of law, public education, transparency, get corrupted into nepotism, looting, and faction. How can we transform the economic cultures of poor societies to be more like rich ones?

African countries suffer from terrible political and economic institutions. These are difficult to change because they reflect the underlying structure of political power in these societies. This means that simple-minded institutional advice will fail. The most important thing in solving the problem of underdevelopment, however, is to get the right diagnosis.