Surprises of Economic Development
HEILBRONER, ROBERT L.
Surprises of Economic Development THE RICH NATIONS AND THE POOR NATIONS By Barbara Ward Norton. 159 pp. $3.75. Reviewed by ROBERT L. HEILBRONER Author, "The Future as History," "The...
...What is the trouble then...
...more disruptive, not more annealing...
...The larger question is the tone in which the public—the ladies' clubs and the discussion clubs, the serious general reader and the student in college—should be addressed about economic development...
...But the issue goes beyond the merits of this little book which, not surprisingly, has earned much praise in high places...
...There was a time, when the Western world was just awakening to the "challenge" of development, in which the hortatory tone and the evangelistic appeal suited very well...
...Not that the trials and terrors of underdevelopment are omitted...
...To choose between Spartan methods of development today or avoidable human misery tomorrow...
...more revolutionary, not more evolutionary...
...more discouraging, not less discouraging...
...They are walked up to, gravely examined, and then allowed to fade away into the background...
...to acquiesce in the rise of collectivist, probably Left-wing, governments which will speed economic growth or to encourage conservative regimes which will hold back the pace of progress—these are likely to be the choices which development will force upon us in the years to come...
...In the end we are left with a comforting hopefulness, a sense that all will work itself out: "During the next twenty to thirty years we hope to see a majority of the developing nations pass through the sound-barrier of sustained growth...
...I think it is in the blandness, the mildness, the wishfulness which clings to these pages...
...she offers a glimpse of the long hard process which lies ahead...
...To be sure, this will not happen quite by itself: "We have to be ready to be as foresighted, as determined, as ready to work and to go on working, as are our busy Communist comrades...
...Reviewed by ROBERT L. HEILBRONER Author, "The Future as History," "The Worldly Philosophers" How is one to review a book whose only fault is its agreeableness...
...Development is on the world's agenda firmly enough for the moment...
...If the Western commitment to development is to stick, what is required is to warn the good ladies and good men that the tasks of development will grow heavier, not lighter...
...The style is hardly distinguished but it is brisk, and if one could quibble over a few details, it is difficult to take exception to the broad historic sweep or the general analytic approach of the book...
...I suppose we are all aware of the fact that we live in the most catastrophically revolutionary age that men have ever faced," writes Miss Ward as the opening sentence of her book...
...Yet somehow the problems do not come home...
...On the contrary, there is every possibility that they will pull apart, or more confusing still, that we will no longer be able to say with certainty where either lies...
...What is needed today is to prepare the Western public for the ordeal that lies ahead...
...Aiming at a wide and unsophisticated audience (the book was originally a series of radio talks), Miss Ward begins from the beginning: She tells what an underdeveloped country is and how it came to be that way...
...They will come as surprises to one who reads this all too pleasant book...
...Barbara Ward has set out to write a brief, non-technical primer of economic development, and in a sense she has achieved her purpose...
...Granted that development is the supreme task of contemporary history, we have yet to face the profound dilemmas which this task will thrust upon us...
...And this can no longer be accomplished by preparing that public for development as a benign and painless process...
...she describes the problems of development and the relationship between the poor nations and the rich ones...
...Some of us are, but I find it hard to include Miss Ward among them...
...They are all respectfully dealt with—the cancerous population problem, the debilitating shortage of capital, the inextricable political strains of development, the appeal (and underneath the appeal, the relevance) of Communist techniques of forcing economic growth...
...It is no service any longer to encourage the West in its easy belief that aid to development will somehow turn out to be a smooth amalgam of altruism and self interest—that, in Miss Ward's words, "Our morals and our interests— seen in true perspective—do not pull apart...
...But things are a little different now...
...The sentence typifies Miss Ward's outlook: earnest and well-meaning, and withal, cozy and moralistic...
Vol. 45 • May 1962 • No. 10
