Development Economics Book

One again this week The Sunday Times Culture section has a review of a book that may be of interest to students and teachers currently covering the development economics section of the IB syllabus.

Max Hastings reviews Paul Colliers latest book Wars, Guns and Votes.

In “Wars, Guns and Votes”, award-winning author Paul Collier investigates the violence and poverty in the countries at the bottom of the world economy that are home to a billion people. A highly-regarded economist and expert on developing countries, Collier argues that the spread of elections and peace settlements in the world’s most volatile countries may lead eventually to a brave new democratic world. In the meantime, though, nasty and protracted civil wars, military coups, and failing economies will plague the bottom billion - unless national sovereignty is curtailed and economic disciplines introduced.Through innovative research and astute analysis, Collier provides an eye-opening assessment of the ethnic divisions and insecurity in the developing countries of Africa, Latin America, and Asia where the democratic process so often fails. There have been many policy failures by the United States, the UK and other developed countries since the end of the Cold War, especially the reliance on pre-emptive military intervention, but Collier insists that these problems can and will be rectified. He persuasively outlines what must be done to bring long-term peace and stability.

In his Sunday Times review Max Hastings makes the striking point that 11% of all development aid, around $3.7bn is misapproriated each year. This could be a great book to examine the importance of institutional factors in improving economic development. The poorest in developing societies are “incapable of saving themselves from misrule”. They lack the education, free media and effective institutions to do so.

Paul Collier has also written the award winning book The Bottom Billion.