Modern Mongolia: From Khans to Commissars to Capitalists

by Morris Rossabi

Land-locked between its giant neighbors, Russia and China, Mongolia was the first Asian country to adopt communism and the first to abandon it. When the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s, Mongolia turned to international financial agencies―including the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank―for help in compensating for the economic changes caused by disruptions in the communist world. Modern Mongolia is the best-informed and most thorough account to date of the political economy of Mongolia during the past decade. In it, Morris Rossabi explores the effects of the withdrawal of Soviet assistance, the role of international financial agencies in supporting a pure market economy, and the ways that new policies have led to greater political freedom but also to unemployment, poverty, increasingly inequitable distribution of income, and deterioration in the education, health, and well-being of Mongolian society.

Rossabi demonstrates that the agencies providing grants and loans insisted on Mongolia's adherence to a set of policies that did not generally take into account the country's unique heritage and society. Though the sale of state assets, minimalist government, liberalization of trade and prices, a balanced budget, and austerity were supposed to yield marked economic growth, Mongolia―the world's fifth-largest per capita recipient of foreign aid―did not recover as expected. As he details this painful transition from a collective to a capitalist economy, Rossabi also analyzes the cultural effects of the sudden opening of Mongolia to democracy. He looks at the broader implications of Mongolia's international situation and considers its future, particularly in relation to China.

Genres: History, Politics, Nonfiction, Asia

434 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Laila · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a well-written account of the challenges Mongolia faced in its transition from a centrally-planned economy to a market economy in the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s. The author argues that international donors, such as the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, dictated Mongolian domestic policies without an in-depth understanding of Mongolia's cultural heritage and society. They encouraged (or rather forced) the government to implement a shock therapy, which was never before tested in a country like Mongolia where a third of the population were pastoral nomads, leading to massive income inequality, poverty, and unemployment. The vast majority of foreign assistance focused on creating a pure market economy, with very little attention given to education, health, and environment.

Although the book provides a useful analysis, it is unbalanced in the sense that it focuses almost exclusively on the negatives. For any sector, the author describes positive developments in only 1-2 sentences and spends a great deal of time talking about the problems. He does not highlight the major achievements Mongolia has made in democracy, human rights, and freedom of press since 1990, especially compared to the former Soviet republics. The book was published in 2005, so it would be interesting to see his analysis of the last decade, when Mongolia became one of the fastest developing countries in the world.

[Reza Amiri Praramadhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once, the Mongols presided over one of the largest empires the world has ever seen. This empire spanned from the eastern Europe steppes to western coast of the Pacific, and down to the southern Chinese. Yet, in the 20th century, they were just a rump, landlocked state sandwiched between two giants the Russians and the Chinese. A long time vassal of the Chinese, the breakdown of authority of Qing Chinese led the Mongols to proclaim its independence. As the Mongol leaders came to identify themselves with communism, thus, it became closer to its northern neighbour, the Soviet Union. As the communists consolidated its power, Mongolian People Republic, mimicking Stalin’s Soviet, embarked on collectivisation (it failed horribly) and industrialisation, while Buddhist influences and powers were obliterated. Mongolia fell on hands of couple of strongmen, first Marshal Choibalsan, then his successor, Tsedenbal.

As Cold War came to a close with the collapse of the USSR, Mongolia lost its patron. The communist rule became increasingly untenable, and the ruling party decided to end the one party rule. Mongolia entered the democratic era. But of course, just like other post-communist states, democratisation came with the usual challenges. Mongolian democrats were divided into two main camps. The first were the market economy champions, who sought to prescribe the Washington Consensus e.g. Economic Shock Therapy, cutting of state expenditures. The other camps emerged as the reaction caused by the negative effects of Economic Shock Therapy, that was, the Democratic Reformers, who sought to alleviate the negative effects of market economy through greater state intervention than prescribed by IMF and other donors.

The impacts of donors-imposed economic policies were felt through the whole fabrics of Mongolian society, as herder community system, established by the communist regime was dismantled, wrecking the livelihood of the majority of the Mongols, while social benefits such as free healthcare and education, guaranteed under communists, were privatised. The donors were mostly on free-marketers side, seemingly intent to turn Mongolia into laboratory of free market economy experiments, recommending policies that they would not even dare propose in the countries where they came from. However, despite the challenges, Mongolia democracy continues to flourish. While books about ancient Mongols were numerous, the history of modern Mongolia are much harder to find, thus I find this book very interesting and informative.

[Glen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surely there is no more thoroughly-written analysis of post-communist Mongolia than this book. As imposing as the text is (thick with names and numbers), it provides a digestible account of Mongolia in the mid-2000s. Though the book is divided by topic, Rossabi takes care to re-iterate the most important points regarding the state of Mongolia across chapters. Thorough citations are a great launch point to learning more about any particular topic. Balancing deep technical details with a high-level account of the country is difficult, but this book does a decent job of it.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was written the year after I spent a summer in Mongolia. As such, it reflects the situation on the ground as I once knew it, but not as I know it has changed in the past decade.

Mongolia's economy has exploded since then, becoming one of the fastest growing and the state has also made great strides in upping its infrastructure and health services.

Still, the many challenges of the failures of post cold war 'shock therapy' (as much if not more damaging than the equally misguided herder collectivization plans of the 30s) still linger in the country and Rossabi, who is both an accomplished historian as well as a on the ground foreign policy guy, gives a great accounting of the structural adjustment of the 90s.

[Jerry · Rating 3 out of 5]

history of mongolia from the fall of the ussr to the present. of interest and more to explore: reformation of herding economy, relationship to inner mongolia, the qing, chinese-mongolian relations..

also, cashmere production

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A factual and plain account of Mongolia's course of history. I honestly gained more from this book after visiting Mongolia as it gave me a context and something to align my thoughts with. Worthy of skimming through if you're planning on traveling in Mongolia or are a world history buff in general.

[Chintogtokh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked it. I think the author got a bit lazy toward the end, rehashing all the same ideas explained in the first few chapters. The overreliance on anecdotal evidence from a select few people (S.Oyun etc.) also took away from the quality. Nevertheless, a very interesting read.