Routledge The Political Economy of Nation Building: The World's Unfinished Business

Donor nations may advise and counsel, but the creation of a liberal nation state falls to its own people. They must create laws, exercise their liberties, provide freedom of belief and expression, and protect individual property rights. No nation becomes or remains free unless its people build, use, and defend these institutions, and protect them with understanding, vigilance, and effort. The Political Economy of Nation Building reviews the effects of political structures on the evolution and stability of liberalism in developing nations and considers the outlook for their success.Discussing the origins and applications of the modern liberal state from an explicitly Anglo- and Euro-centric view, Mack Ott addresses the origins of the rule of law and innovations that led to the rise of a market economy, separation of faith and governance, and the autonomy of finance - key components of the liberal state. He then addresses the emergence of sustained economic growth, a bridge between the liberal infrastructure and its application during the construction of a nation.Ott examines budget policy and laws, and accurate and timely economic and financial statistical reporting that assure donors that the recipient government is operating within the constraints of law. He addresses the beneficial effects of privatization of state-owned industry, examines the costs and benefits of nurturing non-governmental associations, and concludes with a review of transparent fiscal and monetary policies and the importance of non-interference in financial markets by the state. Review -Ott (international economic consultant; former academician) offers a spirited defense of civil and political liberties, property rights, and wealth creation as a handmaiden for world peace. The first half of the book deals with the history of the development of the liberal nation-state and market economy. Ott describes the institutions underpinning the modern nation-state and where they originated (mostly in England); the growth of property rights necessary for the functioning of a market economy; the rise of literacy and civil society; the development of finance; and the quest for sustained economic growth and its relationship to income inequality. The sixth chapter provides a review of the success and failure of policies in selected less developed countries. Chapters in the second half of the book discuss policies to create the institutions necessary for nation building. The analysis revolves around the importance of good governance; the beneficial effects of privatization of state-owned enterprises; the costs and benefits of nurturing civil society; the role of salubrious fiscal and monetary policies; and the effects of income redistribution on economic growth. The epilogue includes a brief discussion of China, noting that the government may bend--gradually, to calls for greater democracy. Summing Up: Recommended.- --S. Paul, Choice -In this paradigm-busting exploration of the roots of the liberal nation-state, Ott, an international economic consultant and policy advisor who has taught at universities around the world, picks apart the very foundations of the Western model to get to the heart of the societal, political, and economic developments that enabled the modern liberal, democratic nation-state to emerge and evolve, with a view toward understanding what is wrong with current foreign assistance and development policies. Ott questions and deconstructs the prevailing Western developmental paradigm used by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the US and other donor nations and offers political and economic advice for policy makers in the West who are dealing with the challenges of the developing world. Cases compare the policies of five pairs of less-developed countries over the past twenty years, illustrating the contrasting effects of these policy stances on law, property, civil and economic liberties, and economic growt