The terms of debate on the role of institutions in economic development are changing. Stable market institutions, in particular secure private property rights and democratically accountable governments that uphold the rule of law, are widely seen to be a prerequisite for economic transformation in low-income countries. Yet over the last thirty years, economic growth and structural transformation has surged forward in a range of countries where market and state institutions have differed from these ideals, as well as from each other. This book studies the role of the state in economic transformation in two such countries, Tanzania and Vietnam. These were two of the poorest countries in the world in the early 1980s but, over the last thirty years, both have experienced significant changes in the pace and character of economic development. While both countries experienced faster rates of GDP growth, their paths of economic transformation were very different. Vietnam experienced rapid manufacturing growth and poverty reduction while Tanzania’s path of economic change was characterized by the rise of mining and a much slower pace of poverty reduction. Employing a political settlements approach, this book argues that their paths of economic transformation were mediated by the lasting influence of differences in the institutions and distributions of power that had been forged during the socialist period. The comparison generates new insights into the variable relationship between political order and economic outcomes.