In the Shadow of Violence: Politics, Economics, and the Problems of Development

Description

This book applies the conceptual framework of Douglass C. North, John Joseph Wallis and Barry R. Weingast's Violence and Social Orders (Cambridge University Press, 2009) to nine developing countries. The cases show how political control of economic privileges is used to limit violence and coordinate coalitions of powerful organizations. Rather than castigating politicians and elites as simply corrupt, the case studies illustrate why development is so difficult to achieve in societies where the role of economic organizations is manipulated to provide political balance and stability. The volume develops the idea of limited-access social order as a dynamic social system in which violence is constantly a threat and political and economic outcomes result from the need to control violence rather than promoting economic growth or political rights.

Douglass C. North is co-recipient of the 1993 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science. He is Spencer T. Olin Professor in Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis and Bartlett Burnap Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Professor North received the John R. Commons Award in 1992. He is author of eleven books, including Institutions, Institutional Change, and Economic Performance (1990), Understanding the Process of Economic Change (2005), and co-author, with John Joseph Wallis and Barry R. Weingast, of Violence and Social Orders: A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History (Cambridge University Press, 2009). John Joseph Wallis is Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He received his PhD from the University of Washington in 1981 and had a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Chicago. Professor Wallis is an economic historian who specializes in the public finance of American governments and more generally in the relation between the institutional co-development of governments and economics. His large-scale research on American state finance and institutions has been supported by the National Science Foundation. Steven B. Webb worked at the World Bank for twenty-one years as an economist and advisor on policy research, evaluation and operations for Latin America and the Caribbean and other regions. He currently serves as a consultant to the Bank. Dr Webb's specializations include political economy, decentralization, public finance, central banks and monetary policy and economic history. His publications include Public Sector Reform - What Works and Why (2008), Achievements and Challenges in Decentralization (2000) and Voting for Reform: The Politics of Adjustment in New Democracies (1994, edited with Stephan Haggard). Barry R. Weingast is the Ward C. Krebs Family Professor in the Department of Political Science and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He received his PhD from the California Institute of Technology in 1977. Professor Weingast spent ten years at Washington University in St. Louis in the Department of Economics and the School of Business. The recipient of the Riker Prize, the Heinz Eulau Prize and the James Barr Memorial Prize, he has also worked extensively with the World Bank and the US Agency for International Development. Professor Weingast co-authored Analytical Narratives (1998) and co-edited The Oxford Handbook of Political Economy (2006).

'This book is a welcomed and outstanding companion to Violence and Social Orders by North, Wallis, and Weingast. The editors apply the earlier framework to numerous countries and draw lessons from which we gain considerable insights into modern development.' Lee J. Alston, University of Colorado 'The rigorous analyses of In the Shadow of Violence empirically demonstrate the explanatory power of the theory advanced by North, Wallis, and Weingast in Violence and Social Orders, corroborating their novel understanding of economic underdevelopment as a violence-reducing equilibrium.' Benito Arrunada, University Pompeu Fabra, Spain 'In In the Shadow of Violence, eight knowledgeable specialists address the politics and economics of eight key countries in the developing world. They explore as well what North, Wallis, and Weingast call the logic of 'limited access', wherein, it is held, political order comes at the expense of sustained economic growth. Using case materials, they evaluate this claim and teach us much about the political economy of development.' Robert Bates, Harvard University 'The essays in this provocative volume, written by analytically attuned area experts, give flesh and bones to the theoretical perspective on 'limited access orders' developed in Violence and Social Orders. The studies show how the World Bank's attempts to transform countries into 'open access orders' typically yield more violence than development. The well-acclaimed editors offer an alternative approach to development policy - working within 'limited access orders' in order to improve people's livelihoods.' David D. Laitin, Stanford University 'Through the insightful, well-documented case studies in this volume, we discover that control of violence is central to the experiences of the least and most successful developing countries of the last 50 years. The lesson from their experiences is as compelling as it is unpalatable: success - peace - may depend on allowing elites to retain large rents and supporting organizations that make it easier for elites to collude. This book is necessary reading for development professionals and political economy scholars alike.' Philip Keefer, The World Bank 'North, Wallis, and Weingast come down to earth to apply their ideas to the details of poor countries' problems and institutions. Finally we are headed in the right direction. I hope Jim Kim buys everyone at the World Bank a copy; it won't leave my desk for years.' James Robinson, Harvard University