Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Chapter 16 The Economics of Reindeer Herding: Saami Entrepreneurship between Cyclical Sustainability and the Powers of State and Oligopolies
- Chapter 17 European Integration, Innovations and Uneven Economic Growth: Challenges and Problems of EU 2005
- Chapter 18 Institutionalism Ancient, Old and New: A Historical Perspective on Institutions and Uneven Development
- Chapter 19 European Eastern Enlargement as Europe’s Attempted Economic Suicide?
- Chapter 20 The Economics of Failed, Failing and Fragile States: Productive Structure as the Missing Link
- Chapter 21 Emulation vs. Comparative Advantage: Competing and Complementary Principles in the History of Economic Policy
- Chapter 22 The Terrible Simplifers: Common Origins of Financial Crises and Persistent Poverty in Economic Theory and the New ‘1848 Moment’
- Chapter 23 Industrial Restructuring and Innovation Policy in Central and Eastern Europe since 1990
- Chapter 24 Capitalist Dynamics: A Technical Note
- Chapter 25 Neo-Classical Economics: A Trail of Economic Destruction
- Chapter 26 Modernizing Russia: Round III. Russia and the Other BRIC Countries: Forging Ahead, Catching Up or Falling Behind?
- Chapter 27 Economics and the Public Sphere: The Rise of Esoteric Knowledge, Refeudalization, Crisis and Renewal
- Chapter 28 Three Veblenian Contexts: Valdres, Norway and Europe; Filiations of Economics; and Economics for an Age of Crises
- Chapter 29 Civilizing Capitalism: “Good” and “Bad” Greed from the Enlightenment to Thorstein Veblen (1857–1929)
- Chapter 30 Failed and Asymmetrical Integration: Eastern Europe and the Non-financial Origins of the European Crisis
- Chapter 31 Renewables, Manufacturing and Green Growth: Energy Strategies Based on Capturing Increasing Returns
- Chapter 32 Financial Crises and Countermovements: Comparing the Times and Attitudes of Marriner Eccles (1930s) and Mario Draghi (2010s)
- Chapter 33 The Inequalities That Could Not Happen: What the Cold War Did to Economics
- Chapter 34 Industrial Policy: A Long-term Perspective and Overview of Theoretical Arguments
- Index
Chapter 20 - The Economics of Failed, Failing and Fragile States: Productive Structure as the Missing Link
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 April 2024
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Chapter 16 The Economics of Reindeer Herding: Saami Entrepreneurship between Cyclical Sustainability and the Powers of State and Oligopolies
- Chapter 17 European Integration, Innovations and Uneven Economic Growth: Challenges and Problems of EU 2005
- Chapter 18 Institutionalism Ancient, Old and New: A Historical Perspective on Institutions and Uneven Development
- Chapter 19 European Eastern Enlargement as Europe’s Attempted Economic Suicide?
- Chapter 20 The Economics of Failed, Failing and Fragile States: Productive Structure as the Missing Link
- Chapter 21 Emulation vs. Comparative Advantage: Competing and Complementary Principles in the History of Economic Policy
- Chapter 22 The Terrible Simplifers: Common Origins of Financial Crises and Persistent Poverty in Economic Theory and the New ‘1848 Moment’
- Chapter 23 Industrial Restructuring and Innovation Policy in Central and Eastern Europe since 1990
- Chapter 24 Capitalist Dynamics: A Technical Note
- Chapter 25 Neo-Classical Economics: A Trail of Economic Destruction
- Chapter 26 Modernizing Russia: Round III. Russia and the Other BRIC Countries: Forging Ahead, Catching Up or Falling Behind?
- Chapter 27 Economics and the Public Sphere: The Rise of Esoteric Knowledge, Refeudalization, Crisis and Renewal
- Chapter 28 Three Veblenian Contexts: Valdres, Norway and Europe; Filiations of Economics; and Economics for an Age of Crises
- Chapter 29 Civilizing Capitalism: “Good” and “Bad” Greed from the Enlightenment to Thorstein Veblen (1857–1929)
- Chapter 30 Failed and Asymmetrical Integration: Eastern Europe and the Non-financial Origins of the European Crisis
- Chapter 31 Renewables, Manufacturing and Green Growth: Energy Strategies Based on Capturing Increasing Returns
- Chapter 32 Financial Crises and Countermovements: Comparing the Times and Attitudes of Marriner Eccles (1930s) and Mario Draghi (2010s)
- Chapter 33 The Inequalities That Could Not Happen: What the Cold War Did to Economics
- Chapter 34 Industrial Policy: A Long-term Perspective and Overview of Theoretical Arguments
- Index
Summary
Introduction: Lost Theoretical Insights from US Secretary of State George Marshall
Seventy-five years ago, on 5 June 1947, US secretary of state George Marshall gave a speech at Harvard University announcing what was to be called the Marshall Plan. The Marshall Plan was probably the most successful development plan in human history, re-industrializing and industrializing countries from Norway and Sweden in the North to Greece and Turkey in the South-East. At about the same time, a similar process based on the same principles re-industrialized and industrialized East Asia, spreading from Japan in the North-East towards the South-West. In this way a cordon sanitaire of wealthy countries was created around the communist world, stemming the communist tide that was rising at the time of Marshall's speech. One country to benefit from the Marshall-type ideology was South Korea, a country that in 1950 was poorer (GDP per capita estimated at $ 770) than Somalia (GDP per capita estimated at $ 1057; Maddison 2003), which today is an example of a failed state (see Figure 20.1 below).
Although sometimes it is misunderstood as a scheme for giving away huge sums of money rather than a re-industrialization scheme, the Marshall Plan is well known. What is less known is that the relatively short speech contained three key theoretical insights with strong relevance in today's situation.
The first insight is the link between a certain type of productive structure and what George Marshall calls ‘modern civilization’, what in a more politically correct and neutral language today could be called ‘development and democracy’ (italics added):
There is a phase of this matter which is both interesting and serious. The farmer has always produced the foodstuffs to exchange with the city dweller for the other necessities of life. This division of labor is the basis of modern civilization. At the present time it is threatened with breakdown. The town and city industries are not producing adequate goods to exchange with the food-producing farmer. During the formation of the European nation-states, it was common knowledge that democracies and ‘civilization’ were both products of certain economic structures associated with ‘city activities’ (chapter 13).
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- The Other Canon of EconomicsEssays in the Theory and History of Uneven Economic Development, pp. 591 - 618Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2024