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Title: Power and Prosperity: Outgrowing Communist and Capitalist Dictatorships by Mancur Olson ISBN: 0-465-05196-0 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: November, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.21 (14 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Interesting and clear reasoning
Comment: As a young student I found Olson's 'Rise and Decline of Nations' a very interesting and well-written book. Recently, as an eonomist on international economic relations 15 years further down the road I picked up this book and again was caught by the clear writing and the compelling reasoning. I recently taught a graduate course on East European economic conversion and I would have put this book on the reading list if I had read it earlier. I think the text is sometimes a bit too pat and I would have liked to see more empirical evidence. On the other hand, Olson does make a good case for his theory and I like the hopeful message it conveys. His emphasis on the importance of institution building in economic and social development I think is correct. This is certainly one of the more interesting books I have read on the subject. Recommended!
Rating: 4
Summary: Incomplete But Insightful
Comment: Mancur Olson takes the same approach that has worked well for economists in other areas: Assume that governments are run by self-interested, profit-maximizing "autocrats." This means that the country will score broad gains if the "autocrat" is a broad democratic majority, but even a dictatorial bandit will have some advantages if the bandit has long-term stability and is therefore interested in maximizing his profits over a long rather than a short term. Olson applies this formulation with success to the Soviet Union, showing why there was considerable growth in the days of Stalin but an inevitable sclerosis set in in the later years. He argues in his final chapter that the key to a successful transition from dictatorship to democracy is the assurance of individual property and contract rights, and that in the absence of such assurance the transition is certain to be problematic.
Olson died before he believed the book ready for publication, and the final effort shows it. Although the prose is polished and extremely readable, the argument tends to be quite skimpy. For example, he argues that the reason for widespread corruption is governmental price-fixing, which he applies to the Soviet experience. I would have liked more detail here, and in particular an analysis of the American experiences with prohibition and the ban on recreational drugs. Also, Olson's theory does not fully explain why third-world democracies have not been more successful. After all, you would think that at some point the "autocrats" would secure the individual rights necessary to maximize their "profits." It will necessarily fall to others to expand Olson's arguments and to determine if this plausible-sounding approach is correct. Meanwhile, we have this fascinating outline.
Rating: 5
Summary: very interesting book
Comment: Olson's book is very interesting and rewarding. It summarizes Mancur Olson's remarkable research on the politics of collective actions and governments in a clear and stimulating way. Can be recemmended to all readers interested in how different governments and institutions can affect the economy, and why.
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Title: The Rise and Decline of Nations: Economic Growth, Stagflation, and Social Rigidities by Mancur Olson ISBN: 0300030797 Publisher: Yale University Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 1984 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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Title: Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups (Harvard Economic Studies) by Mancur Olson ISBN: 0674537513 Publisher: Harvard University Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 1971 List Price(USD): $20.50 |
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Title: Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance (Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions) by Douglass C. North, Randall Calvert, Thrainn Eggertsson ISBN: 0521397340 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 26 October, 1990 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Structure and Change in Economic History by C. North Douglass ISBN: 039395241X Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 01 June, 1981 List Price(USD): $17.05 |
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Title: Economic Discrimination and Political Exchange by Kenneth A. Oye ISBN: 0691000832 Publisher: Princeton University Press Pub. Date: 12 July, 1993 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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