Adolescence is tough. Changes come fast; many are dramatic and not what’s expected. And everyone stands in judgment.

So it is for the emerging markets now. Long revered for their rapid growth and promise of an exploding middle class that can gobble up the world’s goods, they’ve also been marked by periods of dramatic upheaval. This past year alone, we’ve seen a potentially game-changing political election in India and a contentious one in Brazil, along with the start of major economic and political reforms in China that…