The Tyranny of Experts

January 6, 2014
A well-known skeptic of foreign aid, NYU economist Easterly (The White Man’s Burden) examines efforts to produce and sustain growth in developing nations. Easterly deplores “authoritarian development” that fails to respect local knowledge and individual rights, and here assesses “benevolent autocrats” as well as “experts who aspire to technocratic power.” Using historical and contemporary examples, Easterly calls for the expanded rights of the global poor and a “time at last for all men and women to be equally free.” To illustrate the advantages of organic change and individual rights, Easterly analyzes gentrification of New York City’s SoHo district since the 1930s. What this case study has to do with Uganda, Ethiopia, or anywhere beyond Manhattan is unclear. Mechanistic top-down international planning has many critics, but Easterly’s alternatives are removed from reality. His line of thought seems to ignore the many legal, economic, geographic, and cultural forces that impede global development. This loose, sometimes incoherent collection of high-minded notes does not add up to a convincing thesis or argument. Easterly tries to craft global solutions, but fails to come up with practical proposals that will work in the messy world beyond his neighborhood. Charts, graphs, and photos.

March 1, 2014

Many developing countries lag critically behind their Western counterparts according to reports of health, life expectancy, income, and other measurements that are used to assess poverty. Leading development economist Easterly (economics, director, Development Research Inst., New York Univ.; The White Man's Burden) argues cogently that solutions imposed by outside agencies to reduce poverty miscarry when individual rights and freedoms are ignored. He shows through historical examinations of growth in the 20th and 21st centuries that failure continues to result from the use of the same faulty approaches. He asserts that because supplying aid is complex and demands a deep understanding of cultural, economic, and political factors in a country, the major mistakes, such as the empowerment of corrupt regimes and the further oppression of poor people, are often made. All the while he argues that misconceptions about developmental assistance have still not been addressed. VERDICT Easterly's research may help start a dialog about identifying better methods for alleviating global poverty and should assist readers interested in humanitarian efforts who want to draw their own conclusions about how to aid the world's poor.--Caroline Geck, Camden Street Sch. Lib., Newark, NJ

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January 15, 2014
Easterly (Economics/New York Univ.; The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good, 2006, etc.) delivers a scathing assault on the anti-poverty programs associated with both the United Nations and its political and private sector supporters. No stranger to controversy, the author takes off the gloves again in a no-holds-barred account of the history and hypocrisy of the ideas associated with development economics. He charges that to the extent anti-poverty programs intended for the developing sector rely on outside economic and technical expertise and top-down government action, they become authoritarian, anti-democratic and unlikely to succeed. Easterly derides the recent acclaimed success of the Millennium Development campaign in Ethiopia in reducing infant mortality, which has been praised by many. The author shows that the results are difficult to substantiate given the lack of coherent data, and they are undermined by the government's use of aid funds for its own political purposes. He contends that the Ethiopian case reflects a longer history in which the World Bank acts in a political manner, despite the prohibition in its charter, and he explores how the World Bank programs ignored the brutality in Colombia during la violencia of the 1950s. For Easterly, the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 marked the beginning of modern development economics, and he shows how "development ideas took shape...at a time when...attitudes...were still racist." He provides a broader historical perspective on especially African countries, demonstrating how the history of slavery still influences current politics. The author offers the alternative of fostering greater human rights and increasing political freedom. A sharply written polemic intended to stir up debate about the aims of global anti-poverty campaigns.

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