Creating problem-solving systems

Bill Easterly contends that to solve development challenges "problem-solving systems" must be be in existence. This assertion has been on this blog and Timbuktu Chronicles under a number of guises. Be it evolving the culture; informal industrial clusters;startup; ecosystems; etc. Societies that do not evolve autocatalytic,sustainable methods of overcoming their challenges will remain moribund,regardless the level of external intervention:

Development happens thanks to problem-solving systems. To vastly oversimplify for illustrative purposes, the market is a decentralized (private) problem solving system with rich feedback and accountability. Democracy, civil liberties, free speech, protection of rights of dissidents and activists is a decentralized (public) problem solving system with (imperfect) feedback and accountability. Individual liberty in general fosters systems that allow many different individuals to use their particular local knowledge and expertise to attempt many different independent trials at solutions. When you have a large number of independent trials, the probability of solutions goes way up.