Angličtina
This work deals with the big questions about development: what, actually, is it?; can Third World countries ever hope to "catch up"?; can a development path be found which avoids indefinite impoverishment on the one hand, and environmental destruction on the other?; what is the relationship, if any, between economic growth and political development?; can a country that has failed hitherto create a second chance for itself? In their wide-ranging exploration, the authors take as their main examples two famous countries - Ghana, which was the first African colony to win independence but which, following its high hopes, plunged into a downward spiral of economic decay; and Thailand, which escaped colonial rule, was actually poorer than West Africa in the 1950s, but went on to achieve decades of extraordinary rapid economic growth, albeit at very considerable environmental and human cost. The reader is introduced to the countries' very different historical experiences; natural resource endowments; social and cultural systems; political cultures and economic policies. And in an analysis which will create much debate, the authors weave a general answer to their questions in which history, the quality of leadership and whether or not an open society develops take pride of place.
