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| Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective | 
 enlarge | Author: Ha-joon Chang
Publisher: Anthem Press
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
Buy New: $17.48
You Save: $9.47 (35%)
Buy New/Used from $17.45
Avg. Customer Rating:  (8 reviews)
Sales Rank: 14493
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 187
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.5
ISBN: 1843310279
Dewey Decimal Number: 338.90091724
EAN: 9781843310273
ASIN: 1843310279
Publication Date: September 1, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
How did the rich countries really become rich? In this provocative new study, Ha-Joon Chang examines the great pressure on developing countries from the developed world to adopt certain "good policies" and "good institutions", seen today as necessary for economic development. Adopting an historical approach, Chang finds that the economic evolution of now-developed countries differed dramatically from the procedures that they now recommend to poorer nations. His conclusions are compelling and disturbing: that developed countries are attempting to "kick away the ladder" by which they have climbed to the top, thereby preventing developing counties from adopting policies and institutions that they themselves used.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 Brilliant study of economic policy December 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In this pioneering book, Ha-Joon Chang, Assistant Director of Development Studies at Cambridge University, explores development strategies in theory and practice. First, he studies how the developed countries became developed using active industrial, trade and technological (ITT) policies. Then he looks at the role that social institutions play in economic development. Finally, he proposes some lessons for the present.br /br /He shows how Britain was the first country to perfect the art of infant industry promotion. Then he looks at the USA, which still has subsidies for its farmers, quotas for textiles, huge state spending on military RD, trade sanctions against many other nations, and state funding for RD in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries - all protectionist measures.br /br /All the developed economies used active ITT policies, yet they now promote free trade for all, claiming that it will benefit all. Renato Ruggiero, the first Director of the World Trade Organisation [WTO], said in 1998 that this world order has `the potential for eradicating global poverty in the early part of the next century'.br /br /But free trade policies have failed: they haven't delivered the promised growth. Free trade harms the less developed countries' national manufacturers and thus their prosperity in the long run. br /br /A study of 116 countries showed that their GDP per head grew 3.1% a year with 1960-80's interventionist policies, but only 1.4% with the post-1979 Thatcherite policies. This study also proved that the quality of a society's institutions is not the key to growth; so does the similar slowdown in the developed countries since 1979. The World Bank and the IMF impose conditions that they say will ensure that `good governance' aids economic growth, but good institutions are the result, not the cause, of economic development.br /br /Chang shows how the developed countries' states have vested interests in keeping poor countries as providers of cheap raw material and labour, in preventing them from emerging as rivals. The WTO restricts developing countries' ability to pursue active ITT policies. The WTO is a modern version of the unequal treaties that Britain and others imposed on China and other semi-independent countries in the 19th century. br /br /The developed countries' states are indeed kicking away the ladder to stop others climbing up after them. They say, `Do as I say, not do as I did'. But today we too need active ITT policies to get us out of the slump. br /br /
The practical effects of free trade and "comparative advantage" for the undeveloped world July 8, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Ha-Joon Chang argues that free trade and the principle of comparative advantage were used by advanced industrial countries to keep undeveloped countries on agriculture instead of developing their own manufactures (which would have made them competition for the industrialized nations). Similar to the way that those individuals who have accumulated much capital support a "free" contract between themselves and wage-laborers, in order to employ them for labor and then sell the products of their labor back to them after taking a profit, those countries which have already industrialized prefer "free" trade between nations, in order to maintain a similar type of dependence of the undeveloped world upon the already developed world: with developed world capital employing the labor of citizens of undeveloped nations, then selling the products of their labor back to them through international trade (after taking a profit).br /br /If you are not already familiar with the early history of free trade (I'm referring to the pre-WWI period, when there was a push toward international economic integration that mirrored today's globalization but was shattered by the advent of the war), and of the intellectual arguments marshaled in support of it (by the economic theorists of *developed* nations, don't forget), such as David Ricardo's principle of comparative advantage or Adam Smith's theories about the supposedly even benefits of the division of labor, then as background to Kicking Away the Ladder I would suggest you read Global Capitalism: Its Fall and Rise in the 20th Century by Jeffry Frieden. That was my only background to these issues, but it was enough. Just the right amount in fact.br /br /Or alternatively you might just wiki a few concepts:br /-Comparative advantagebr /-Primitive accumulationbr /br /If you check out the Comparative Advantage wiki page and some of it looks familiar, I didn't plagiarize this review. I wrote that section of the wiki page. :)
4.5 stars-Overlooks the wisdom of Adam Smith March 10, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
The author does an excellent job in showing that ,historically, the role of government spending(on infrastructure,public goods,public works,education and public health),import restrictions,tariffs,quotas,etc., has played a major role in the economic development of every single first world country over the last two hundred years.This fact directly refutes the claims of many,if not all,economists,especially those making policy decisions at the World Bank,International Monetary Fund,and World Trade Organization, who claim that free trade is the way a country reaches prosperity.Free Trade is interpreted in a neoliberal(libertarian anarchist)manner to mean that there is minimal government spending and no tariffs whatsoever.The author demonstrates that the historical record provides zero support for this approach.The author is certainly correct.br / My major criticism of the book is the author's apparent belief that Adam Smith supported the ideas of Laissez faire and free markets.This is simply incorrect.Adam Smith was a major SUPPORTER of both revenue tariffs and retaliatory tariffs if there was any chance greater than 0 that the retaliatory tariff would lead to the repeal of the original protective tariff that had been instituted by the offending country.This is all covered on pp.434-439 of the Modern Library(Cannan)edition of Smith's Wealth of Nations(1776).br /
A must read for third world economic policy makers September 14, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book is a must read for all Ministers of finance and economic development in the third world. Policy makers in the third world should read this book over and over. Also all libraries in the research department of central banks in third world countries should have this book. Third world policy makers can definitely use this book as the starting antidote for the `developmental advice' that emanates form teams of economists who descend from the IFIs. br /br /This book would be required reading for my students (at New College of Florida) in development economics. br /br /
Now I have more doubts than before - and that's excellent September 1, 2006
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
This is a book I intend to reread a year from now. I believe it has changed my perspective regarding international politics and developmental issues, so from now on I'll try and interpret facts through the perspective Chang provided. Meanwhile, I'll try and follow some of the bibliography he suggests to see if I can mitigate some of my doubts. br /br /If you believe you're a neoliberal, this book is for you. It will challenge some of your most basic beliefs - and what could be better? You might be able to disagree with him entirely, but I'm sure that reading this book will sophisticate your thoughts in the matter and throw some doubts where there was none. Too bad this is not the best-seller it could have been.
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