Development as Freedom

Amartya Sen

The main purpose of development is to spread freedom and its thousand charms to the unfree citizens. The author explains how in a world of unprecedented increase in overall opulence, millions of people living in the Third World are still unfree. Even if they are not technically slaves, they are denied elementary freedom and remain imprisoned in one way or another by economic poverty, social deprivation, political tyranny or cultural authoritarianism.

The Anti-Politics Machine

'Development', Depoliticization and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho

James Ferguson

Attributes Canadian withdrawal from the Thaba-Tseka rural development project largely to problems accompanying the expansion of state power ("etatization"). Includes an introductory literature survey on development planning and evaluation in general.

Losing Time

The Industrial Policy Debate

Otis L. Graham

The United States already has an Industrial Policy, says Otis Graham in this timely, well-written book. It is composed of many sector-specific policies of the federal government (such as airline deregulation and tariffs on Asian textiles), along with similar policies adopted in numerous states. These amount to a national Industrial Policy, but one which is uncoordinated and often harmful.

The Race Between Education and Technology

Claudia Dale Goldin, Lawrence F. Katz

This book provides a careful historical analysis of the co-evolution of educational attainment and the wage structure in the United States through the twentieth century. During the first eight decades of the twentieth century, the increase of educated workers was higher than the demand for them. This boosted income for most people and lowered inequality. However, the reverse has been true since about 1980. The authors discuss the complex reasons for this educational slow-down and what might be done to ameliorate it.

Let the Cowboy Ride

Cattle Ranching in the American West

Paul F. Starrs

A detailed and comprehensive look at one of America's most enduring institutions, this richly illustrated book combines the authentic detail of an insider's view (the author spent six years working on a cattle ranch on the high desert Great Basin range) with a scholar's keen eye for objective analysis. 130 photos & maps.

The Origin of Wealth

Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking of Economics

Eric D. Beinhocker

Over 6.4 billion people participate in a $36.5 trillion global economy, designed and overseen by no one. How did this marvel of self-organized complexity evolve? How is wealth created within this system? And how can wealth be increased for the benefit of individuals, businesses, and society? In The Origin of Wealth, Eric D. Beinhocker argues that modern science provides a radical perspective on these age-old questions, with far-reaching implications. According to Beinhocker, wealth creation is the product of a simple but profoundly powerful evolutionary formula: differentiate, select, and amplify. In this view, the economy is a "complex adaptive system" in which physical technologies, social technologies, and business designs continuously interact to create novel products, new ideas, and increasing wealth. Taking readers on an entertaining journey through economic history, from the Stone Age to modern economy, Beinhocker explores how "complexity economics" provides provocative insights on issues ranging from creating adaptive organizations to the evolutionary workings of stock markets to new perspectives on government policies. A landmark book that shatters conventional economic theory, The Origin of Wealth will rewire our thinking about how we came to be here--and where we are going.

Global Political Economy

Understanding the International Economic Order

Robert Gilpin, Jean M. Gilpin

The end of the Cold War has unleashed unique economic and political forces. Computers are an increasing impetus to the world economy, along with technological developments. This work studies these developments, and others, to survey the approaches to understanding international economic relations.

China and the Knowledge Economy

Seizing the 21st Century

Carl J. Dahlman, Jean-Eric Aubert

Annotation Argues that, in order to address the growing economic, social, and political pressures of the 21st Century, China will have to build solid foundations for a knowledge-based economy by updating the economic and institutional regime, upgrading education and learning, and building information infrastructure.

Common Wealth

Economics for a Crowded Planet

Jeffrey Sachs

Assessment of the environmental degradation, rapid population growth, and extreme poverty that threaten global peace and prosperity, with practical solutions based on a new economic paradigm for our crowded planet.

Eisenhower and the Management of Prosperity

John W. Sloan

Three years out of eight, President Eisenhower achieved a balanced budget.

Latin America and Global Capitalism

A Critical Globalization Perspective

William I. Robinson

2009 Best Book, International Political Economy Group of the British International Studies Association This ambitious volume chronicles and analyzes from a critical globalization perspective the social, economic, and political changes sweeping across Latin America from the 1970s through the present day. Sociologist William I. Robinson summarizes his theory of globalization and discusses how Latin America’s political economy has changed as the states integrate into the new global production and financial system, focusing specifically on the rise of nontraditional agricultural exports, the explosion of maquiladoras, transnational tourism, and the export of labor and the import of remittances. He follows with an overview of the clash among global capitalist forces, neoliberalism, and the new left in Latin America, looking closely at the challenges and dilemmas resistance movements face and their prospects for success. Through three case studies—the struggles of the region's indigenous peoples, the immigrants rights movement in the United States, and the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela—Robinson documents and explains the causes of regional socio-political tensions, provides a theoretical framework for understanding the present turbulence, and suggests possible outcomes to the conflicts. Based on years of fieldwork and empirical research, this study elucidates the tensions that globalization has created and shows why Latin America is a battleground for those seeking to shape the twenty-first century’s world order.

Reviving the Invisible Hand

The Case for Classical Liberalism in the Twenty-first Century

Deepak Lal

"Lal bases his case on a historical account of the rise of capitalism and globalization in the first two liberal international economic orders: the nineteenth-century British, and the post-World War II American."--Jacket.

Comparative Economic Transformations

Mainland China, Hungary, the Soviet Union, and Taiwan

Yu-Shan Wu

This pathbreaking work attempts to understand China's economic policies by examining the political logic behind economic reforms in authoritarian, command-economy states from the wholly original perspective of property rights.

Brazil's State-Owned Enterprises

A Case Study of the State as Entrepreneur

Thomas J. Trebat

The economic role of the state; Origins of public enterprise in Brazil; The control of public enterprise in Brazil; Relationship with economic growth; Sources of growth and rates of return; Policies on pricing; The financing of public enterprise investment.

Rebuilding War-Torn States

The Challenge of Post-Conflict Economic Reconstruction

Graciana del Castillo

With public attention increasingly focused on efforts to reconstruct war torn countries like Iraq and Afghanistan, this book looks at the unique set of challenges faced by such countries in the transition to peace. Strategies to promote peace-building, state-building, and economic reconstruction are discussed alongside real world examples.

Scientific Management, Socialist Discipline, and Soviet Power

Mark R. Beissinger

How does the excessive bureaucratization of central planning affect politics in communist countries? Mark Beissinger suggests an answer through this history of the Soviet Scientific Management movement and its contemporary descendants, raising at the same time broader questions about the political consequences of economic systems. Beissinger traces the rise and decline of administrative strategies throughout Soviet history, focusing on the roles of managerial technique and disciplinary coercion. He argues that over-bureaucratization leads to a succession of national crises of effectiveness, which political leaders use to challenge the power of entrenched elites and to consolidate their rule. It also encourages leaders to resort to radical administrative strategies--technocratic utopias, mass mobilization, and discipline campaigns--and gives rise to a cycling syndrome, as similar problems and solutions reappear over time. Beissinger gives a new perspective and interpretation of Soviet history through the prism of organizational theory. He also provides a comprehensive history of the Soviet rationalization movement from Lenin to Gorbachev that describes the recurring attractions and tensions between politicians and management experts, as well as the reception accorded Western management techniques in the Soviet factory and management-training classroom. Beissinger uses a number of unusual sources: the personal archive of Aleksei Gastev, the foremost Soviet Taylorist of the 1920s; published Soviet archival documents; unpublished Soviet government documents and dissertations on management science and executive training; interviews with Soviet management scientists; and the author's personal observations of managers attending a three-month executive training program in the Soviet Union. Beissinger's skillful handling of this singular material will attract the attention of political scientists, historians, and economists, especially those working in Soviet studies.

The Brush and the Spur

Chinese Culture and the Cockfight

Robert Joe Cutter

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Peerless Science

Peer Review and U. S. Science Policy

Daryl E. Chubin, Edward J. Hackett, Edward J.. Hackett

This book examines the structure and operation of peer review as a family of quality control mechanisms and looks at the burdens placed on the various forms of peer review. Assuming that peer review is central to the functioning of U.S. science policy, Chubin and Hackett explore the symbolic and practical value of peer review in the making, implementing, and analysis of this policy.

Globalization and Catching-up in Transition Economies

Grzegorz W. Kołodko

Globalization and post-communist transition are currently two of the most important economic issues. Kolodko considers the links between them, and the way forward for post-socialist economies. Kolodko, former finance minister of Poland, considers the links between issues of globalization and post-communist transition, the two most important economic features of the turn of the century. He discusses the pattern of economic growth and contraction of the past fifty years, and reviews the options for the next half century. He accounts for the severity of the transitional recession in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union as a result of both the legacies of the past and current policy mistakes, but demonstrates how structural reforms and gradual institutional building have enabled some post-socialist economies to recover. He proposes that, within the wider context of globalization, several of these emerging market economies will be able to catch up with the more advanced industrial countries, but emphasizes the need for quality growth policies and continuing coordination between development strategies and efforts toward structural reform. Grzegorz W. Kolodko is John C. Evans Professor in European Studies at the University of Rochester, and Director of TIGER -- Transformation, Integration and Globalization Economic Research -- at the Leon Kozminski Academy of Entrepreneurship and Management [WSPiZ].

The History of Development

From Western Origins to Global Faith

Gilbert Rist

With all its hopes of a more just and materially prosperous world, development has fascinated societies in both North and South. Looking at this collective fancy in retrospect, Gilbert Rist shows the underlying similarities of its various theories and strategies, and their shared inability to transform the world. He argues persuasively that development has always been a kind of collective delusion which in reality has simply promoted a widening of market relations despite the good intentions of its advocates.