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Title: World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability by Amy Chua ISBN: 0-385-50302-4 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 24 December, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.52 (52 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Interesting examples, unnecessary and poorly written thesis
Comment: The problem with Chua's book is that the thesis can't really be tied to anything. The fact that whites are an upper class in South Africa isn't the result of globalization; it's the result of a lasting legacy of colonialism and apartheid. Her examples are good, but they don't really fit her thesis. The idea that free markets somehow lead to ethnic instability in any way which is more significant than other factors do isn't valid, and certainly can't be proven across borders. As in every situation where ethnic hatred against a powerful minority exists, economics is an issue.
Chua also seems to be bandwagoning on the phenomnenon of "globalization." It's not necessarily globalization that economically empowers these market-dominant minorities.
I would cautiously recommend Chua's book, but not if you're interested in globalization. It provides a fine outline for an understanding of some lesser-known ethnic problems, especially in the developing world. (Her chapters on Jews in Russia and Israel in the Middle East are absolutely ridiculous, as far as I'm concerned. As someone with a lot of experience in the Middle East, I'm never going to be convinced that Israeli Jews' wealth is the main reason for the conflict.) If you don't read it, you're not really missing out. If you do read it, take it with a grain of salt, and don't be afraid to laugh. Some of the examples are really a stretch, and the thesis comes together poorly.
Rating: 3
Summary: Man doesn't live by bread alone
Comment: How did a book written by a heretofore little known law professor on the topic of globalization of all things receive so much acclaim? The answer is that the book is clearly and poignantly written unlike many books on globalization by economists and sociologists. But its clarity and simplicity also subtly and superficially reduces globalization to an oversimplified and hackneyed version of Marxist materialsm. Amy chua is on to something big - really big - in her book: that in nearly every third world nation the transition to a capitalist economy has brought about the rise of a "market dominant majority" that is able to capture most of the wealth and power resulting in ethnic hatred and a viscious circle of violence. Chua starts out the book by writing about the tragic and gripping story of the murder in the Philippines of her ethnic Chinese wealthy aunt at the hands of her chauffer. She then enlarges her story to discuss the economic dominance of Chinese in Asia, Crotians over Serbs in the former Yugoslavia, Europeans in South American and South Africa, Jews in post communist Russia, and the resulting spiral of ethnic conflict. Her overworked thesis is the paradox that "free market democracy" breeds ethnic hatred, genocide, terrorism, and ethnic wars. All of the praise for the book by scholars on the back book cover and elsewhere misses the obvious -- this is an old thesis originally addressed by Marx and Engels over 150 years ago. Substitute the word "bourgeoise" for Chua's "market dominant minority," "the proletariat" for "the poor," and "control over the modes of production" for "market dominance," and you have a new lexicon of Marxism. The words "market" and "laissez faire" are also used in a biased fashion as misnomers to mean their opposite: cartels, monopolies, and elites. Chua says that poverty doesn't make people kill - indignity, grievances, and hopelessness does. But then she proceeds to prove otherwise in case study after case study. But man doesn't live by bread alone. This what social scientists call "legitimation" - which means that society is held together not simply by material needs and interests but also by beliefs and religious theodicies that justify the prevailing social order. What Chua misses is the even bigger issue of not why there is so much ethnic hatred, but why there isn't more or revolution? Chua says that third world globalization invariably ends up with a small ethnic elite subjugating the mass of poor people. She fails to mention that totalitarian government does the same only with a class of muggers instead of a commercial class. Some of her solutions such as stock ownership are naive; others such as creating legal property rights are more promising. For a deeper understanding of the issues I would suggest reading:
1. Peter Berger, The Capitalist Revolution: 50 Propositions about Prosperity, Equality, and Liberty.
2. Peter Berger, Pyramids of Sacrifice: Political Ethics and Social Change.
3. Peter Berger and Samuel Huntington, eds., Many Globalizations.
Rating: 5
Summary: Analysis encourages ethnic hatred and discimination
Comment: The basic argument here is simple. Globalization exported to non-western countries enriches minorities, forcing the majority to commit acts of genocide and therefore creating chaos. So basically the argument would be that if it weren't for globalization then the semi-fascist majorities would remain in power, dictatorships would be rampant, but at least their would be 'order' and no 'chaos'. This book is basically one long trilogy blaming the hard working victim who happens to prosper because of liberalized markets.
In most of the countries examined, from Russia to Rwanda to Indonesia, their were minorities who took advantage of the equality granted them under new laws and liberalized markets to branch out of the jobs forced upon them by tradition and in some cases did disproportionately well. According to this account the Chinese of Indonesia deserved to be attacked in race riots. Why? Because they dared to become middle class, and not be servants. And yet the book describes them as "suppressed indigenous majority.". Which indigenous majority? The Muslims who attacked Chinese owned businesses were new arrivals, since only a few hundred years ago their weren't Muslims in Indonesia, but their were Chinese. So basically this book is just one giant excuse for genocide, blaming the west because our evil ideas of 'equality of minorities' dared to allow the yoke to be taken off the heads of such disparate groups as the Jews of Russia or the Indians of Burma. Apparently western ideas like 'freedom of religion' created chaos and forced the majorities in countries like Lebanon to commit genocide, and here we have a whole litany of excuses as to why the majority Hutu had to go and slaughter their neighbors. Basically the reasoning is simple: how dare minorities ever break out of their ghettos and become independent, because if they do then they have to be crushed, and the excuse can be that they became western. The reality is that the Tutsi of Rwanda never became western and neither did the Chinese, rather they simply became economically successful, and to the majority who were racist, that meant they had to trampled.
This book blames the west where it should be blaming the cultures that produced such ethnic and religious discrimination. In the end this book leaves no real compromise, arguing that apparently the world would be better off if these cultures were allowed to just commit genocide, suppress religious and ethnic minorities and have rampant totalitarian dictatorships.
Seth J. Frantzman
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Title: Globalization and Its Discontents by Joseph E. Stiglitz ISBN: 0393324397 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: April, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad by Fareed Zakaria ISBN: 0393047644 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: April, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Alternatives to Economic Globalization by John Cavanagh, Jerry Mander, Sarah Anderson, Debi Barker, Maude Barlow, Walden Bello, Robin Broad, Tony Clarke, Edward Goldsmith, Randy Hayes ISBN: 1576752046 Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Pub Pub. Date: 15 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else by Hernando Desoto, Hernando de Soto, Hernando de Soto ISBN: 0465016154 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 08 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order by Robert Kagan ISBN: 1400040930 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 28 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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