First World, Third World

This new, updated and extended edition of First World, Third World examines the failures of aid to eliminate poverty. The world development effort can claim only limited success, and in some parts of the world, especially Africa, failure must be recognised. William Ryrie, while starting from a position of sympathy with the aims of the aid effort, insists that the record must be analysed with ruthless honesty. Well-intentioned aid has often had perverse and harmful effects. One of these has been to undermine the working of the market economy, which offers the best hope of rapid growth and declining poverty. Ryrie argues that a new intellectual basis for aid must be formulated urgently. His book proposes a new approach to the development task which would reconcile it with market philosophies. Contents......Page 6 List of Figures......Page 7 List of Tables......Page 8 Acknowledgements......Page 9 Foreword to the Second Edition......Page 10 Introduction......Page 13 1. Half a Century of International Development......Page 19 2. Success or Failure?......Page 53 3. The Illusion of State-Managed Development......Page 74 4. The Market Revolution......Page 92 5. Global Capital Flows......Page 112 6. Is Capitalism Right for the Third World ?......Page 126 7. Re-inventing Aid......Page 150 8. The International Finance Corporation......Page 177 9. What Future for the World Bank and IMF?......Page 201 10. The Collapse of the Second World......Page 216 11. Where Now?......Page 231 12. Twenty Propositions about Development and Aid......Page 250 Notes and References......Page 254 Index......Page 258 After half a century of international aid more than a billion people still live in abject poverty. The world development effort can claim only limited success, and in some parts of the world, especially Africa, failure must be recognised. William Ryrie, while starting from a position of sympathy with the aims of the aid effort, insists that the record must be analysed with ruthless honesty. Well-intentioned aid has often had perverse and harmful effects. One of these has been to undermine the working of the market economy, which offers the best hope of rapid growth and declining poverty. Ryrie argues that a new intellectual basis for aid must be formulated urgently. His book proposes a new approach to the development task which would reconcile it with the market philosophy of the 1990s. This new updated and extended edition of First World, Third World examines the failures of aid to eliminate poverty. The world development effort can claim only limited success, and in some parts of the world, especially Africa, failure must be recognised. William Ryrie, while starting from a position of sympathy with the aims of the aid effort, insists that the record must be analysed with ruthless honesty. Well-intentioned aid has often had perverse and harmful effects. One of these has been to undermine the working of the market economy, which offers the best hope for development and growth. His book proposes a new approach to the development task which would reconcile it with market philosophies.