Easterly - The New Tyranny

What is the main argument?

• international development experts have empowered dictators and failed to end poverty because they ignore the fundamental rights of the poor

• poverty is not just a technical problem that can be solved with things like forestry or nutritional supplements 

• the real cause of poverty is unchecked power of dictators against poor people who have no rights

How do development experts tie into this?

• they create the illusion that technical fixes are the answer and they advice dictators they think are benevolent

What is the path to alleviating poverty?

• individual economic and political rights, such as the right to own property

• if economic entrepreneurs have property rights, they are rewarded for solving consumer problems. If political leaders solve consumer’s problems, they are rewarded with longer tenure. Dictators stay in office through repression

• i.e. success story of South Korea - its miracle of rapidly rising prosperity matched its rising economic and political freedom

What is the history of rights invasions?

• officials using expert guided development to continue colonial despotism 

• later, new indigenous African dictators adopted the same strategy claiming that technical economic progress had to come first, making political liberties seem meaningless

• today this is often fueled by the world bank and the US