The Tyranny of Experts
The Tyranny of Experts: Economists, Dictators and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor by William Easterly.
Easterly’s book seeks to address the following question: Why has so much development aid from the West done so little good for the Rest? He opens with a history of the “development industry”, from its inception with Western aid and advice to post-Imperial China in the early 20th C, through WW II, the end of the British Empire and the set-up of the World Bank, IMF and UN. He shows that, ironically, one of its major roots was the desire to perpetuate colonial empires by puttng a more benevolent twist on their “raison d’etre” (Oh, it’s not for our benefit, it’s for yours!). The reigning development model’s origins were thus colonialist and racist, and these themes pop up again and again in the early years of its genesis. Development aid later morphed into a potent tool of Cold War statecraft aimed at maintaining/expanding the spheres of influence of the both West and communist world.
One of the basic premises of the development experts is that the poor themselves are essentially ignorant, apathetic, and incapable of improving their own lot, without really looking at why that might be! The resulting development model was top-down, driven by the unholy alliance of Western “experts” and autocratic national leaders who were often those responsible for, and most interested in, keeping the poor in the conditions noted above! The experts and their sponsoring Western gov’t’s and agencies justified their embrace of autocrats as making implementation of their enlightened plans (which usually ends up more like coercion) much easier than would “messier” democratic processes and that, in fact, workable democracy was impractical anyway at the primitive level of development of the people they were supposedly trying to help. This often resulted in the trampling of individual rights, little in the way of prior consultation with, or benefits for, the supposed beneficiaries.
He then goes on to examine the historical antecedents of the differing levels of development in the real world, looking for underlying predictor variables. The most significant is respect for the individual and his/her personal and property rights, both of which have been routinely ignored by development experts and their allies. Legal recognition and societal respect for these rights allows the fertile process of individual innovation, testing, failure and ultimate winnowing down to successful ideas and inventions, to occur, very much analogous to the process of natural selection that drives the evolution of life. Here he gets back to looking at a theme introduced at the beginning of the book: Frederick Hayek’s (and Adam Smith’s) view of the primacy of respect for individual (including property) rights as a driver of economic prosperity. He analyzes the most oft-cited apparent contradiction to this pre-condition: the recent rise of China under autocratic leadership, and argues that while respect for individual rights still lags well behind the West there, relative to the relationship of state to the citizenry under Mao, things have improved markedly and that this is reflected in the acceleration of economic growth and prosperity.
In the final analysis, Easterly advocates for this as the most basic approach to development, which would be right in line with the ideas of Peruvian development economist Hernando de Soto (The Mystery of Capital), whom I’m surprised he never mentions in the book: Economic development comes from the bottom-up, not the top down, and is best fomented by establishing a strong legal (and societal) respect for individual rights. This will be reflected in a vibrant market economy, free interchange of ideas, people and goods; and a more rapid path to a better life for all of those who participate.
I could write a lot more about this book, but best read it yourself for a very provocative view of what remains a key issue in today’s world.
