Easterly Flashcards
What is the “Blank Slate” Principle?
The technocratic (authoritarian) viewpoint that history doesn’t matter when developing a nation, and the issues of the past can be ignored in favor of the opinion of technical experts. It is associated with a higher amount of autocracy (think stalin, hitler) and generally is not associated with freedom.
Hayek & Myrdal: Overall beliefs
Hayek: Put emphasis on individual rights over compulsory regulations. He believed individual rights were both the end and the means for a society to escape poverty.
See: The Carrot
Myrdal: Proposed compulsory regulations. “putting obligations on people and supporting them by force”
Myrdal saw government as essential to this, and was supportive of development via technical experts. Favored stringent nationalism.
See: The Stick
How was the Blank Slate principle used in the history of global development?
The West had the option to reject the blank slate due to its democratic principles. The Rest never rejected the blank slate due to the presence of autocrats and their experts who were able to implement blank slate policies.
Hayek & Myrdal: Nationalism
Myrdal believed that people should hold a “firm allegiance” exclusively to the “national community”.
Hayek believed such nationalism might promote intolerance.
Hayek & Myrdal: Conscious design vs spontaneous solutions
Hayek: Believed that market solutions appeared out of “spontaneous order” and would be generated naturally by the system.
Myrdal: Said the state should take “responsibility for economic development” and envisioned a government as the active subject in planning
What characterized development of china and africa from the period of 1919 to 1949?
Technocratic development.
In China: Sun Yat-sen’s early suggestion of authoritarian development was followed by development initiated by the western Institute of Pacific Relations (IPR). Key to china’s technocratic past was the role of the Rockefeller Foundation and the large part they played in technocratic development in the 1920-30s
In Africa: United Kingdom and United States enacted many technocratic policies under the role of “benevolent autocrats” in the name of development.
What was the final result of extensive autocratic development in China?
A “free” china with a corrupt, weak, autocratic government incapable of building a nation. These western technocratic policies left the chinese people with very few rights when compared to westerners living in china, a concept called “extraterritoriality”
What decision made at versailles (Treaty ending WWI) caused the advent of technocratic development in Africa?
The failure to support racial equality which was proposed by japan. Britain needed support from its African colonies for WWII, but after failing to support racial equality following WWI, assumed the role of the benevolent autocrat, beginning major technocratic development in Africa.
What was the major dilemma for nonwhite individual rights in Africa?
On one hand the British and lord Hailey had been advocating technocratic development in Africa as a solution to the problem of what to do in Africa. In the United states segregation was a contentious issue, but new deal leaders were trying to convince the black populace that economic advancement was a means to ending segregation.
Forced to either support the British technocratic march across Africa or face ridicule for racist policies, the US was forced to back the UK in its technocratic development of the continent, creating a technocratic empire that continued to limit nonwhite rights.
Basically: Big nations said here let us get you black fellers your rights, we can do it better than you could on your own.
What caused the end of imperial technocratic development in Africa?
As time went on, new nationalist leaders emerged in African nations who proved more convincing that the british and their benevolent autocracy. One by one nations seceded by leaders that wanted the benevolent autocrat title for themselves.
The Bretton Woods conference: Name the 3 new regimes
IMF, World Bank, GATT
Summarize: Technocratic consensuses in China, Africa, and Columbia.
China: Western semicolonial interests in China agreed with a chinese autocrat to suppress individual rights.
Africa: British colonial interests agreed with postcolonial African rulers on the suppression of Aftican individual rights.
Columbia: US cold war interests in Columbia agreed with a Columbian autocrat on the suppression of Columbian individual rights.
Contrast the Maghribi system of doing business and the effects on the system long term with that of the Genoese.
The Maghribi were a tight knit group of traders who only traded within their own group. Maghribis only married other Maghribis and exerted contract enforcement from within. In the long term this limited the scope of trading partners for the group who eventually could not sustain itself.
The Genoese traded openly with others, and instead of policing their group by means of internal pressure, developed a legal system to hold themselves accountable. This enabled the Genoese to expand their trade in a way the Maghribi could not.
What is the effect of autocracy on values?
Autocracies perpetuate collectivist values (Maghribi). Free cities and states perpetuate individualist values (Genoese).
Identify long term trends of autocratic nations.
Regions with a history of autocracy have significantly lower values of trust and respect for others (Think: chinese tourist assholes).
Also: historically autocratic territories are still poorer today than those with individualist values and more democratic history.
