Japan is a good example that demonstrates this fact: the domestic ruling class who develop capitalism and modernity on their own, their power elites importing some cultural and scientific products of other nations at their convenience while rejecting others* at will, perform far better than the foreign ruling classes of empires that delay and deform development of capitalism in the hinterlands of their respective realms through colonialism and imperialism.
* Japan's ruling class, in the process of developing their capitalism and modernity, were far more xenophobic than any Third World revolutionary, socialist or capitalist or Islamist. Sakoku (limiting the trade with the West), fumie (a method of identifying Christians in order to persecute them), and so on all helped fend off would-be colonizers and fostered Japan's economic development, without which it could have turned into just another underdeveloped former Asian colony of a Western empire. Really, no matter how hard you try, it's impossible to sell the Japanese on the virtue of getting colonized, though the Right in Japan are no doubt as sure as you of the virtues of dominating others and helping America dominate others, both of which have added to Japan's economic development. -- Yoshie