 |
Development and Aid |
Contents:
- Introduction
- Africa
- Europe
- Foreign Aid During the Cold War
- General
- Latin America
- Middle East/Central Asia
- Pork
- Poverty and Instability in the Third World
- World Bank and International Monetary Fund
“Foreign aid,” the late economist Peter Bauer reminded us, is a euphemism for forced government-to-government transfers of wealth. To be sure, someone is aided, but the beneficiaries do not include the perceived objects of the aid, namely, the common people of the target countries. Such transfers move wealth, taken forcibly from taxpayers, to the government leaders (and their cronies) in the recipient countries, centralizing power and politicizing life. As government becomes a more dominant force in those countries, power is coveted all the more fervently by people who will otherwise be on the receiving end of its coercive, even deadly, policies. This works against the peaceful evolution of civil society in poor and strife-torn countries that need it so desperately. In addition, “aid” can insulate a corrupt foreign government from pressures to open and reform its economy—the only sure path to prosperity for its people. Moreover, “aid” can directly harm the economic interests of the common people, such as when massive government food donations ruin local agricultural markets.
The donor country experiences benefits, but again, not for average citizens. Rather, the beneficiaries include the political class, which gains in power, prestige, and patronage, and well-connected private-sector contractors who sell goods and services to foreign bureaucrats spending the forced donations, at least those that do not get deposited in foreign bank accounts.
Foreign aid has provided rationalizations for direct U.S. intervention in other countries. Continuing “assistance” program tend to create vested interests in the affairs of recipient nations. When one of those nations experiences turmoil, perhaps from an economic crisis or insurgency, forces are set in motion within and outside the U.S. government to prompt intervention in order to protect “U.S. interests.” The result can be a long and even violent involvement.
Also, click here for Bibliography for Crisis and Leviathan.
Ayittey, George. Africa Betrayed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 1993.
—. Africa in Chaos. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999.
—. Indigenous African Institutions. Transnational Publishers, 1991.
—. “New Path for Africa: Establishing Free-Market Societies,” Independent Policy Forum, The Independent Institute, April 28, 1999. [Forum Announcement, Forum Audio, Forum Transcript]
Bauer, Peter T. The Rubber Industry. 1948.
—. West African Trade. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1954.
Kimenyi, Mwangi S. “Review of the book Africa in Chaos by George B. N. Ayittey,” The Independent Review, Vol. III, No. 3 (Winter 1999), pp. 471-474.
Mbaku, John Mukum. “Constitutional Engineering and the Transition to Democracy in Post-Cold War Africa,” The Independent Review, Vol. II, No. 4 (Spring 1998), pp. 501-517.
Cowen, Tyler. “The Marshall Plan: Myths and Realities,” in Doug Bandow, ed., U.S. Aid to the Developing World: A Free Market Agenda. Washington, D.C.: Heritage Foundation, 1985
Eland, Ivan. “Review of the book The Political Economy of NATO: Past, Present and into the 21st Century by Todd Sandler and Keith Hartley,” The Independent Review, Vol. V, No. 2 (Fall 2000), pp. 303-306.
Hazlitt, Henry. “Collectivism on Relief,” Newsweek (July 19, 1948).
—. “Dangers of Dollar Diplomacy,” Newsweek (July 12, 1948).
—. “The Future of Foreign Aid,” Newsweek (January 16, 1950).
—. “Sense Instead of Dollars,” Newsweek (March 28, 1949).
—. “Subsidizing Planned Chaos” Newsweek (June 23, 1949).
—. “The Uncalculated Risk,” Newsweek (January 5, 1948).
—. “What Are We Trying to Do,” Newsweek (February 28, 1949).
Jones, E. L. The European Miracle: Environments, Economies and Geopolitics in the History of Europe and Asia. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
Milward, Alan S. “Was the Marshall Plan Necessary?”, Diplomatic History, Vol. 13 (Spring 1989), pp. 231-153.
Palyi, Melchoir. The Dollar Dilemma: Perpetual Aid to Europe? Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1954.
Wedel, Janine R. Collision and Collusion: The Strange Case of Western Aid to Eastern Europe, 1989-1998. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998.
Foreign Aid During the Cold War:
Hazlitt, Henry. “Can We Buy Off Communism?” Newsweek (December 15, 1947).
—. “Communism and the Marshall Plan,” Newsweek (March 8, 1948).
Higgs, Robert. “The Cold War is Over, but U.S. Preparation for It Continues,” The Independent Review, Vol. VI, No. 2 (Fall 2001), pp. 287-305.
—. “The Cold War: Too Good a Deal to Give Up.” Oakland, Calif.: The Independent Institute, 2002.
Ashton, Thomas S. The Industrial Revolution, 1760-1830. New York: Oxford University Press, 1948. The renowned historian refutes the myth of “immiseration” during the industrial revolution.
Bandow, Doug. “Review of the book Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire by Chalmers Johnson,” The Independent Review, Vol. V, No. 4 (Spring 2001), pp. 611-614.
—. “Review of the book Isolationism Reconfigured by Eric A. Nordlinger,” The Independent Review, Vol. I, No. 1 (Spring 1996), pp. 147-150.
—, ed. U.S. Aid to the Developing World: A Free Market Agenda. Washington, D.C.: Heritage Foundation, 1985.
Bauer, Peter T. “Population Growth: Disaster or Blessing?”, The Independent Review, Vol. III, No. 1 (Summer 1998), pp. 67-76.
Borden, William. The Pacific Alliance: United States Foreign Economic Policy and Japanese Trade Recovery, 1947-1955. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1984.
Castle, Eugene W. Billions, Blunders and Baloney. Greenwich, Conn.: Devin-Adair, 1955. An exposure of the nature and impact of U.S. foreign aid.
—. The Great Giveaway: The Realities of Foreign Aid. Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1957. Further study of the harmful effects of foreign aid.
Eberstadt, Nicholas. Foreign Aid and American Purpose. Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute, 1988.
Goodell, Grace. “The Importance of Political Participation for Sustained Capitalist Development,” European Journal of Sociology, Vol. 26 (1985). Showing that economic welfare results from a foundation of legal and economic institutions involving entrepreneurs, savers, investors, and consumers in a market economy. Here is why foreign aid does not result in economic growth in developing countries
Gress, David R. “The Drama of Western Identity,” The Independent Review, Vol. IV, No. 3 (Winter 2000), pp. 463-466.
Hancock, Graham. Lords of Poverty: The Power, Prestige, and Corruption of the International Aid Business. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1989.
Hanke, Steve, ed. Privatization and Development. San Francisco: ICS Press, 1987.
—, ed. Prospects for Privatization. New York: Academy of Political Science, 1987.
Hartwell, Ronald Max. The Causes of the Industrial Revolution. London: Methuen, 1967.
Hayek, F. A., ed. Capitalism and the Historians. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963.
Hazlit, Henry. Illusions of Point Four. Irvington-on-Hudson, N.Y.: Foundation for Economic Education, 1950.
—. “The Marshall Plan: We Cannot Buy Off the Russians,” Newsweek (January 26, 1948).
—. Will Dollars Save the World? New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1947.
Hill, Polly. Development Economics on Trial: The Anthropological Case for a Prosecution. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
Kasper, Wolfgang. Economic Freedom and Development: An Essay about Property Rights, Competition, and Prosperity. New Delhi, India: Centre for Civil Society, 2002.
McKendrick, Neil, John Brewer, and J. H. Plumb. The Birth of a Consumer Society: The Commercialization of Eighteenth-Century England. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1982. The growth of a market society with its elimination of privileges and increase in choices and mobility.
Meynell, Laurence Walter, ed. The Long Debate on Poverty: Eight Essays on Industrialization and ”The Condition of England.” London: Institute of Economic Affairs, 1974.
Mitchell, William C. and Randy T. Simmons. Beyond Politics: Markets, Welfare and the Failure of Bureaucracy. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press for The Independent Institute Book, 1994.
Nardinelli, Clark. Child Labor and the Industrial Revolution. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1990. Economic liberalization and growth of the market, rather than child labor laws, diminished child labor.
Osterfeld, David. Prosperity Versus Planning: How Government Stifles Economic Growth. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
Poulson, Barry. Economic Development: Public and Private. West Information Publishing Group, 1994.
Raico, Ralph. “Review of the book Promised Land, Crusader State: The American Encounter with the World since 1776 by Walter A. McDougall, The Independent Review, Vol. III, No. 2 (Fall 1998), pp. 273-278.
Rosenberg, Nathan and L. E. Birdzell, Jr. How the West Grew Rich: The Economic Transformation of the Industrial World. New York: Basic Books, 1985.
Roth, Gabriel J. The Private Provision of Public Services in Developing Countries. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.
Schwarz, Benjamin and Christopher Layne. “A New Grand Strategy,” The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 289, No. 1 (January 2002), pp. 36-42.
Weaver, Mary Anne. “Blowback,” The Atlantic Monthly, May 1996.
Wedel, Janine R. “U.S. Assistance for Market Reforms: Foreign Aid Failures in Russia and the Former Soviet Bloc,” The Independent Review, Vol. IV, No. 3 (Winter 2000), pp. 393-417.
Barry, Tom and Deb Preusch. The Soft War: The Uses and Abuses of U.S. Economic Aid in Central America. New York: Grove, 1988.
Feder, Ernest. The Rape of the Peasantry: Latin America’s Landholding System. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, 1971.
Knowlton, Clark S. “Land-Grant Problems Among the State’s Spanish-Americans,” New Mexico Business (June 1967), pp. 343-346.
Johnson, Chalmers. “Responding to Terrorism Without Committing Terrorism,” Los Angeles Times, September 30, 2001.
Rashid, Ahmed. “Osama bin Laden: How the U.S. Helped Midwife a Terrorist,” Center for Public Integrity, September 13, 2001.
Higgs, Robert. “Beware the Pork-Hawk: In Pursuit of Reelection, Congress Sells Out the Nation’s Defense,” Reason, June 1989.
—. “World War II and the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex,” Freedom Daily, May 1995.
Trevino, Ruben and Robert Higgs. “Profits of U.S. Defense Contractors,” Defence Economics, Vol. 3 (1992).
Poverty and Instability in the Third World:
Andreski, Stanislav. Parasitism and Subversion. New York: Schocken Books, 1969.
Bauer, Peter T. Aid and Development in the South Pacific. Sydney, Australia: Centre for Independent Studies.
—. The Development Frontier: Essays in Applied Economics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991.
—. Dissent on Development: Studies and Debates in Development Economics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971.
—. Economic Analysis and Policy in Underdeveloped Countries. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1982.
—. Equality, the Third World and Economic Delusion. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981.
—. From Subsistence to Exchange and Other Essays. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2000.
—. Markets, Market Control and Marketing Reform: Selected Papers. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
—. Reality and Rhetoric: Studies in Economic Development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1986.
—. Two Views on Aid in Developing Countries. London: Institute of Economic Affairs, 1966.
Bauer, Peter T. and Basil S. Yamey. “Against the New Economic Order,” Commentary (April 1977), pp. 25-31.
—. The Economics of Under-Developed Countries. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970.
Bhagwati, Jagdish N. India in Transition: Freeing the Economy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Boettke, Peter J., ed. The Collapse of Development Planning. New York: New York University Press, 1993.
De Soto, Hernando. The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else. New York: Basic Books, 2000.
—. The Other Path: The Invisible Revolution in the Third World. New York: HarperCollins, 1989.
Dorn, James A., Steve H. Hanke, and Alan A. Walters, eds. The Revolution in Development Economics. Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute, 1998.
Higgs, Robert. “Chile and New Zealand—Models for U.S. Reform.” Oakland, Calif.: The Independent Institute, November 29, 1995.
Johnson, D. Gale and G. Edward Schuh, eds. The Role of Markets in the World Food Economy. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1983.
Kukathas, Chandran. “Does Hayek Speak to Asia?,” The Independent Review, Vol. IV, No. 3 (Winter 2000), pp. 419-429.
Labs, Eric J. “The Role of Foreign Aid in Development,” Congressional Budget Office Study, September 1997.
Lal, Deepak. Appraising Foreign Investment in Developing Countries. London: Heinemann Educational Books, 1975.
— “Does Modernization Require Westernization?”, The Independent Review, Summer 2000, Vol. V, No. 1, pp. 140-142.
— Market Access for Semi-manufactures from Developing Countries. Sijthoff.
—The Poverty of "Development Economics". Cambridge: MIT Press, 2000.
— Prices for Planning: Towards the Reform of Indian Planning. London: Heinemann Education Books, 1980.
—The Repressed Economy: Causes, Consequences, Reform. London: Edward Elgar Publisher, 1993.
—Unintended Consequences: The Impact of Factor Endowments, Culture, and Politics on Long-Run Economic Consequences. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2001.
—Unfinished Business: India in the World Economy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Lal, Deepak. Development Economics. London: Edward Elgar Publisher, 1992.
Lal, Deepak and P. Collier. Labor and Poverty in Kenya, 1800-1980. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986.
Lal, Deepak and H. Myint. The Political Economy of Poverty, Equity and Growth: A Comparative Study. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.
Lappé, Frances Moore, Rachel Schurman, and Kevin Danaher. Betraying the National Interest: How U.S. Foreign Aid Threatens Global Security by Undermining the Political and Economic Stability of the Third World. New York: Grove Press, 1988.
Powelson, John P. “Review of the book Unintended Consequences: The Impact of Factor Endowments, Culture, and Politics on Long-Run Economic Consequences by Deepak Lal,” The Independent Review, Vol. IV, No. 4 (Spring 2000), pp. 618-620.
Powelson, John P. and Richard Stock. The Peasant Betrayed: Agriculture and Land Reform in the Third World. Washinton D.C.: Cato Institute, 1990.
Reynolds, Lloyd G. “The Spread of Economic Growth to the Third World: 1850-1980,” Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 21, No. 3 (September 1983), pp. 941-980.
Schultz, Theodore W., ed. Distortions of Agricultural Incentives. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1978.
—. “The Economics of Being Poor,” Journal of Political Economy (August 1980), reprinted in The Economics of Being Poor. London: Blackwell Publishers, 1993.
—. Food for the World. New York: Ayer Company Publishers, 1976.
—. Investing in People: The Economics of Population Quality. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1981.
—. The Long View in Economic Policy: The Case of Agriculture and Food. San Francisco, Calif.: Institute for Contemporary Studies, 1987.
—. Transforming Traditional Agriculture. New York: Ayer Company Publishers, 1976.
Shenoy, Sudha R. India: Progress or Poverty: A Review of the Outcome of Central Planning in India, 1951-69. London: Institute of Economic Affairs, 1972.
World Bank and International Monetary Fund:
Caufield, Catherine. Masters of Illusion: The World Bank and the Poverty of Nations. New York: Henry Holt & Company, Inc, 1997.
Meltzer, Allan H. “What’s Wrong with the IMF? What Would Be Better?”, The Independent Review, Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall 1999), pp. 201-215.
Reynolds, Alan. “Imperial Rule: Distant and Out of Touch, the IMF Ruins Economies Great and Small,” National Review, November 9, 1998.
Sacks, David O. and Peter A. Thiel. “The IMF’s Big Wealth Transfer,” Wall Street Journal, March 13, 1998.
Schuler, Kurt. “A Currency Board Beats IMF Rx,” Wall Street Journal, February 18, 1998.
Willett, Thomas D. “Understanding the IMF Debate,” The Independent Review, Vol. V, No. 4 (Spring 2001), pp. 593-610.
Wolf, Jr., Charles. “Review of the book Masters of Illusion: The World Bank and the Poverty of Nations by Catherine Caufield,” The Independent Review, Vol. II, No. 4 (Spring 1998), pp. 617-619.