Jonathan's review
Understanding Development: Theory and Practice in the Third World
by John Rapley
Jonathan's review
Understanding Development: Theory and Practice in the Third World by John Rapley
Jonathan's review
rating:
An excellent introduction to the recent trends in the ongoing quest for the economic development of the poor nations of the world. Rapley chronicles the rise and fall of the Import Substitution Industrialisation (ISI) strategy and the dawning of the neo-liberal era of the push to market liberalisation. He offers an acute diagnosis of the failings and successes of the ISI period with reference to trends in Africa, Asia and Latin America before going on to assess the impacts of recent developments in these regions.
The thrust of the book is both clear and readily comprehensible, a workable and reinvigorated model of state-led development is needed which looks beyond the narrow confines of market-led strategies championed today. In short, the dogma of neoliberalism which has failed to deliver what it has promised must be supplanted by more diverse and varied strategies which leave room for the "developmental state".
The thrust of the book is both clear and readily comprehensible, a workable and reinvigorated model of state-led development is needed which looks beyond the narrow confines of market-led strategies championed today. In short, the dogma of neoliberalism which has failed to deliver what it has promised must be supplanted by more diverse and varied strategies which leave room for the "developmental state".
