Developmentalism by Graham Harrison, Hardcover | Indigo Chapters

Why do so few countries achieve development success? Achieving development requires many changes over a short period of time, generating instability and risk. It is a deep and integrated economy of change involving force, strategic thinking, and ideological conviction - it emerges whensuccessful development is seen as necessary for the survival of a political order. Developmentalism engages with the moral issues that this raises. Developmentalism: The Normative and Transformative within Capitalism uses a historical comparative approach to understand development as a transformation which involves a deep and integrated political economy of change - a shift from a state of "capital-ascendance" to "capital dominance". It is onlythrough a transformation towards capital dominance that mass poverty reduction and the construction of a commonwealth are possible. However, capitalist development is extremely difficult and requires a highly exacting political endeavour. The politics of development is conceptualized asdevelopmentalism: a strategy and ideology in which governments exercise heavy directive power, endure instability and crisis, and secure a rudimentary legitimacy for their efforts. This book argues that developmentalism requires a conflation of successful capitalist transformation with some form ofexistential insecurity of the state itself. It flourishes when capitalist transformation connects to profound questions of sovereignty, statehood, nation-building, and elite survival. Developmentalism shows deep contextualisation of capitalist transformation as well as the massive improvements inmaterial life that it has generated. | Developmentalism by Graham Harrison, Hardcover | Indigo Chapters