In reality, however, the development policies behind these growth successes, especially in their early stages, resembled much more the recipes associated with the dirigiste paradigm of early development thinking and were not unlike the policies that had, in earlier times, promoted modern development in Western Europe and Japan. These development policies involved, inter alia, agrarian reforms, investments in human capital, selective trade protection, directed credit and other government support for developing industrial and technological capacity while exposing firms gradually to global competition. Trade liberalization and capital-account liberalization were key components of the reforms.