Two examples of demo- cratic development recur in MacEwan’s account: South Africa, about
which more later; and the Indian state of Kerala, which is briey re- examined here. In chapter 7 of MacEwan’s book, the example of Kerala shows that it is possible for a low-income state to launch a series of
mutually-reinforcing social reforms that have real results, as with literacy
and education supporting better health care, especially for women, or
land reform yielding greater equality in rural areas (pp. 191, 193).