Book Review: The Myth of Development

ARREZA, Maria Veronica L.
2004-07926
BA Development Studies
Development Studies 100
Prof. Ponsaran

Book Review: The Myth of Development: The Non-Viable National Economies

Before I give a book review, I believe it would be more appropriate to give the critique that this book deserves. Due credit should be given as deserved; this book is very “loaded”. Loaded in a literal sense because its content is packed with so much information, statistics and percentage data to back up all its claims. Also the term loaded used to describe it earlier can be given context in a literal and yet “not so literal way.” This book used a lot of words and phrases that have certain biases. It is hard to explain but to give you an idea, the phrases, and sentences by the writer Oswaldo de Rivero are what you would call the antithesis of euphemisms. If euphemisms were invented and intended to make a person feel good, the words that were used in this book on the other hand is not a very subtle of saying that he is dismayed and disgusted of how things are going. But all in all, this book is highly recommendable. It becomes boring to an extent but the information that could be extracted can and would most likely come in handy.
In the introduction of the book alone you can already very much grasp how reading the entire book would feel like. It provides an overview of the not-too-pleasant realities that there are about the less developed countries as well as the accusatory tone that the author makes use of to emphasize how grueling developed countries are. Oswaldo de Rivero coined the term quasi-nation states to aptly describe national countries that experienced stinted economic growth due to unfinished national projects, which could be directly attributed to lack of funding. From here we can infer that he is referring to all the less developed countries and even the “developing” countries whose ascent towards progress is abruptly yet needlessly impeded. For accounting purposes, he made mention of 140 non-developed countries (take note: non and not less) and an addition of 4 more newly industrialized countries particularly Singapore and Hongkong which are classified as city-states and South Korea and Taiwan as full-fledged countries. As a drawback though, although these economies have been typified as newly industrialized countries they are unable to sustain the rate of progress due to unfortunate but induced unfavorable circumstances. This he said can be traced as a fruit of the technological revolution.
The writer referred to his notion of technological revolution as a struggle and battle to modernize a nation’s current state of technology by inventing and applying the most number, in quantity as well as qualitatively, of futuristic gadgets, software and other paraphernalia as a means to produce. Instead of an arms race there seems to be a race to invent and make use of mass-producing machinery. Putting it in analogy: If the Cold War is to Technological Revolution, then arms race is to mass-producing machinery. In effect, non-developed countries became reliant of developed countries because they are the source of all these which were promised to bear the fruit of instant progress.
Historically, the occurrence of the Cold War, started to sketch the outcome of the dependent nature of non-developed economies. During this time, they relied on countries such as the US and UK for economic aid and political support and this escalated to make matters less advantageous for non-developed nations. They were strategically subsidized for their survival, which was done in exchange of excessive state intervention and the permission, though it seems they do not really have the choice, to profligate economic policies.
The Unholy Trinity played a huge role in this hullabaloo as well. They are said to be the reason why the non-developed countries are unable to withstand competition. It is evident that amidst the technological revolution poor countries remain to be exporters of raw materials and manpower (labor). Actually these two can be considered as a comparative advantage that the third world nations are capable of producing but the ironic thing is they are rapidly pushed into obsolescence by the use of high-end technologies. So in effect, third world nations are not only technologically backward they suffer from the diseases of having to thrive on low-income, and being manipulated by an authoritarian and low-powered form of democracy as well. At present, the essence of the technological revolution can be extracted from this wide-scale drive towards globalization. The positive aspect of this is that cultures are going to be brought together, political, economic and scientific information is easily disseminated and sports and amusement can be enjoyed by everyone. But it seems that this is only partially existent, and if not purely then mostly speculative and theoretical. Globalization was likened to the universal law of gravity in that it is inescapable. What makes this even more unfair is that countries such as the US, Japan and UK are promoting so much because they are already at an advantage point; their economies are already developed. During their time of development they could freely copy each other’s technology and they could protected their small industries from vicious cutthroat competition. But now, with the existence of intellectual property rights, patents, trademarks and copywrites which the first world countries themselves created, non-developed economies don’t have the chance to progress without having to pay a debilitating amount for royalties. The global north would undoubtedly do anything for profit, no wonder they are so excited for the wide-scale unbridled and unbridling effects of globalization.
Another major problem that globalization is confronted with is the urban population boom. And with the decreasing need for manpower because of the technological revolution, a lot of people are bound to become either underemployed or unemployed. Currently an alarming 30% of the employable adult population don’t have jobs. Also it is observable that there seems to be an increase of unskilled workers. Again there is a disparity in the supply and the demand for the kind of jobs that are needed and that are available. What makes this problem even worse is that the kind of economic orientation being promulgated globally is very materialistic and consumeristic. Plus, these consumption patterns are very environment unfriendly. With the rate that the chaotic urban community is expanding, the planet is bound to suffer in as much as its inhabitants are going to. Obviously the sustainability of the environment to which the global south is highly dependent on for the extraction of food and materials needed for production is exceedingly becoming farfetched and questionable. In as much as the global south is concerned, their functions to the worldwide economy are to pay debts, receive speculative capital and import food, fuel and industrial products all to the advantage of the global north. Not only are the environmental, social and economic costs of these circumstances highly unfavorable, they are increasingly becoming the bane of third world existence.
The term that the writer used to describe third world countries are non-viable national economies or NNEs for short. He included even the NICs or the Newly industrialized countries even if they are a step ahead economically because their kind of development is perceived as unsustainable and unprogressive. The NNEs are under such governments who readily adhere to the structural adjustment programs imposed by the Unholy Trinity, which does not do any good and in fact digs the countries deeper into a life of filth and misery. Eventually, as what is evident in the Philippines, the people will begin to experience unrest because the citizens don’t have food in their stomachs, education to help them, health security to rely on and a government who would accommodate and provide for them. This would result to an implosion of violence to which an NNE will start to manifest characteristics of an ungovernable chaotic entity or UCE.
In the third chapter entitled International Darwinism, the concepts of the famous Charles Darwin and Adam Smith were combined and explicated on. Charles Darwin wrote a book: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection which dwelt on the biological evolution of various species as a means of adaptation to their environment. Darwin theorized that only the strongest and the fittest survive and reproduce to propagate their species. Little did Darwin know that his claims would be the foundations of economic evaluation. Only the strongest and most predatory countries can survive in the global jungle. It is rather unfair actually to apply Darwin’s concepts to humanity, because although we are part of Kingdom Animalia, we should not be subject to such studies precisely because human nature is more complex in a lot of dimensions. More thoroughly applicable are the theories and studies by the neo-classicist Adam Smith within the context of globalizations in his notion of laissez-faire and a free market economy. He proposed that industries should have minimal state intervention because it impedes a person’s full economic potential. A lot of people misinterpreted it though to mean that he became the proponent of globalization in all its strident glory. Economists forget that in studying history and works by brilliant thinkers, their ideas should be seen within the context of the particular thinker’s timeframe and background. Smith did not attempt to justify the predominance of individual interest at any cost, but rather within the boundaries of moral sentiments designed to control egotism. He wrote the book The Theory of Moral Sentiment specifically to contain counterarguments that he was broadcasting his encouragement of a selfish form of development. Of course we have to take into consideration that Smith’s aim was to make economic policy into a pure body of knowledge. He assumes to formulate mathematical calculations for supply and demand and did not intend for his works to become the hard and fast law of the nature of globalization. In relation to this, concepts of evolution, conflict and dualism were discussed further. It has been applied in modern social and economic reasoning in a Marxist perspective and in neo-classicism. These two schools of thought are both rooted in the ideology of material progress brought about by the industrial revolution.
In yet another chapter entitled Global Empowerment and National Impoverishment, de Rivero wrote about the rise of the new global aristocracy as the result of a game of geopolitical balance among great powers. It was mentioned that power is not measured in terms of how much a country owns or by any other means except a country’s capacity for technological innovation. The scale is no longer gauged in geopolitical terms but in geo-economic terms. There is an existing anonymous global economic and financial kind of dictatorship by the global aristocrats, which penetrate the economies of less developed countries. He used the term perforated sovereignties to aptly describe the state of third world countries, which the aristocrats bombard with structural adjustment programs, and surplus produce that greatly affect their national sovereignty brought about by socio-cultural and political hegemony.
There’s actually so much more to be discussed I do not feel that I have given justice to the book by reviewing it this way. But for purposes of economy I will cut this cssay short. One has to read a book to fully understand and grasp the dramatic reality that this book expounds on.