A World Fit for People. - book reviews

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, The,  April, 1995  by S.K. Kaushik

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Economic development, as an academic subject, has been difficult to define. Today it not only includes the general meaning of economic progress and better standards of living given to it by Adam Smith, but also the study of Third World economic goals, methods, plans, and programs. The ideas and prescriptions for betterment of the developing countries (as the scope of the "Third World" expanded to encompass them in the post-war period) came from practices of the democratic industrial countries of the West and the socialist countries of USSR and eastern Europe. These practices as applied to different continents and economic conditions have been fragmented since there was no unified theory or approach that could solve both the diverse conditions of poverty and the pre-industrial state of such societies. The scope of the general concept of economic development has recently expanded again to include the study of transformation of east European societies and economies into democracies with market based economic systems. So once again, social, political and economic aspects of societies are part of the unified study of economic development.

The economic development literature did not challenge political structures in the developing countries as they related to the success or failure of policies regarding economic development. The advisers of developing countries attempted to work within whatever political structure existed. The focus in economic development was on programs and their implementation in an ad hoc manner in each country since there was no common framework that could be borrowed from the industrialized countries. The end of the Cold War in 1990-1991 and the disintegration of communist-socialist, and authoritarian regimes that is underway currently has brought back the holistic concept of economic development as used by Adam Smith.

A World Fit for People (New York and London: New York University Press, 1994) is a collection of 55 essays presented by academics, practicing experts on economic development and government officials at the second Round Table Conference on Global Change held at Bucharest, Romania in 1992 under the auspices of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Development Study Programme. (The first Round Table was held at Antalya, Turkey in 1990) The Round Table was initiated by the UNDP Development Study Programme under the leadership of Uner Kirdar, Senior Advisor to the UNDP Administrator and Director of the Development Study Programme and co-editor with Leonard Silk, economic columnist and author, (formerly with the New York Times and currently with Pace University's Lubin School of Business as Distinguished Professor of Economics, and the Graduate School of the City University of New York where he is Senior Research Fellow of the Ralph Bunche Institute on the United Nations.)

Kirdar and Silk state in their Introduction, "We want to make the world fit for ordinary people hoping for a better life for themselves and their children." To achieve this broadest of goals of economic development, the editors also precisely relate political conditions to economic development when they conclude that "political and economic freedom are indivisible. Democracy and political stability cannot be ensured without economic and social progress. There cannot be development without democracy, nor can there be democracy without development."

This collection has four parts: Political Reconstruction, Economic Development, Human and Ecological Values, and Countries in Transition. Each part is divided into two or more chapters. The essays, written by experts with training in economics, politics and government, sociology, and management of national and multilateral government agencies and departments, are of consistent high quality. They are logically sequenced so as to allow the reader the benefit of understanding the evolution of the policies or programs under discussion. Stimulating summaries of the issues and arguments appear at the beginning of each of the main parts of the book. These summaries or introductions written by one or both of the editors with one or more of essayists involved are most useful in learning the scope of policy issues covered in the essays that follow.

Part 1 on Political Reconstruction has essays written by Kishore Mahbubani, Shafiqul Islam, Lord Judd of Portsea, Turgut Ozal, Volkmar Kohler, Flora Lewis, Peter Jankowitsch, Dankwart A. Rustow, Saburo Okita, Lawrence R. Klein, Andrew Schotter, Joseph S. Berliner, Masahiro Sakamoto, Louis Emmerij, Carl Tham, Benjamin Bassin and B. O. Abu Affan. The first group of essays are far ranging. The West, North-South relationships, global change, interdependence among countries including democratization of the world are all touched. These essays create a base for broader policy questions faced by the world community and stress the importance of political and governmental institution building in order to make it possible for societies to function in the interest of their people. The essays dealing with political and economic changes cover the evolution of political-economic systems of mixed market economies from the extremes of communism-socialism, on the one hand, and pure market economy-authoritarianism-fascism on the other. A combination of good democratic process and a functioning market economy is generally what is prescribed in these essays as a way to make this world a place fit for people. The question of relationship between democracy and efficiency of the market is examined in subsequent essays. It is suggested by the authors that the empirical evidence of democracy being essential to economic efficiency is inconclusive. But it is generally agreed and asserted that democracy improves economic conditions as it permits operation of the market mechanism.