It’s another mind-blowing, short and easy to read book although the author goes a little deeper than necessary on statistics repeatedly to prove or to make her points. I think this book is more imperative to anyone who is coming from a third world and illiberal democratic country where economic distress has a more lethal impact.
First she started by illustrating why economic growth is important at all levels and she continues to emphasizing that having natural resources alone will not lead to economic success. To make her point she shares the Dutch Disease story and economic growth stories of Japan, China, Argentina, the United States, and Europe that prove the importance of strong and trustworthy institutions.
Then she goes into the crux of the matter, why we are currently in economic distress, provoking, challenging and questing some established concepts about free market, capitalism & liberal democracy and she also explains how tit-for-tat policy responses, trade protection and immigration restriction measures like those we usually see between our East African countries prove impotent to solve the distress.
The first part that blew-up my mind and eye-opening is a paradigm of adopting the Chinese way of economic growth which is less democracy, more authoritarian & state capitalism. Is it eye-opening because even though the Chinese way has proven results and hence appealed to both developed & developing countries as they are becoming more interventionist in their economies, is not sustainable in the long run, according to the author.
Eventually, the last part that blew-up my mind is the controversial/radical proposals to reform democracy. These proposals targeted merely the political system (politicians to be long-term policymaker and voters to be more engaged). Although these proposals are intended to mature democracies like the US, UK and German, I find some are also appealing to our developing world. These are;
1. Requiring officeholders to have nonpolitical experience
2. Mandating voter participation like in Democratic Republic of the Congo and more importantly
3. Instituting minimum qualifications for voters similar to passing a driving test to secure a driver’s license
Overall it’s a good book , proposals given in it are worth serious consideration. This book was recommended to me by my fellow Engineer Sunday Matembo, I’m recommending this book also to anyone who is interested in understanding how politics is indispensable to economic growth.
