Charles Gore

The Rise and Fall of the Washington Consensus as a Paradigm for Developing Countries

The introduction of the Washington Consensus involved not simply a swing from state-led to market-oriented policies, but also a shift in the ways in which development problems were framed and in the types of explanation through which policies were justified. Key changes were the partial globalization of development policy analysis, and a shift from historicism to a historical performance assessment. The main challenge to this approach is a latent Southern Consensus, which is apparent in the convergence between East Asian developmentalism and Latin American neostructuralism. The demise of the Washington Consensus is inevitable because its methodology and ideology are in contradiction.

Entitlement relations and ‘unruly’ social practices: A comment on the work of Amartya Sen

This article examines the conceptual basis and analytical deployment of Sens entitlement analysis in ethics and economics, focusing on the rules of entitlement. Sen specifies the rules of entitlement in different ways in his work, ignores how legal rules work in practice and downplays the way in which socially enforced moral rules constrain and enable entitlement. The appropriateness of Sens approach for the analysis of hunger and famine and for the philosophical arguments which Sen makes are assessed, and an alternative view of the rules of entitlement is suggested. This draws in particular on the literature on the moral economy of provisioning.

The investment-profits nexus in East Asian industrialization

Abstract Both orthodox and heterodox interpretations of East Asian industrialization have concentrated on questions of resource allocation, and neglected overall capital accumulation and the role of government in accelerating it. This paper argues that corporate profits and other profit-related incomes were the main source of investment in the most successful East Asian economies. Government policies played a major role in promoting capital accumulation by creating rents and animating the dynamic interactions between profits and investment. This was achieved through a broader set of measures than those usually identified as “selective industrial policies.”

Methodological nationalism and the misunderstanding of East Asian industrialisation

This study argues that the controversy over the role of public policy in East Asian industrialisation should not be seen as a question of whether economic success can be attributed to states or markets, but rather as a conflict over policy frames. East Asian policies analyse national trends in a global context and have sought to achieve nationalist economic goals; the currently dominant development policy paradigm attributes national economic success mainly to internal factors yet seeks to promote a liberal international economic order. The study examines misunderstanding which arises when East Asian success is explained in the terms of the dominant paradigm, focusing on ‘outward-oriented’ as a key word, the World Bank study The East Asian Miracle, and the flying geese model of development.

Globalization, the International Poverty Trap and Chronic Poverty in the Least Developed Countries

The argument of this paper is founded on an analytical perspective that can be summarized through three basic propositions. Firstly, the phenomenon of chronic poverty is best analysed through examination of the nature of poverty traps. Secondly, the causes of poverty can be identified at different levels of aggregation, running from the micro level (the characteristics of the household and community), up to the national level (characteristics of the country) and up to the global level (the nature of the international economy and the institutional structures which govern international relationships). As a corollary, it is possible to identify poverty traps at different levels of aggregation. Thirdly, globalisation, which is understood here as increasing interrelationships between countries, necessitates a shift in the framework for poverty analysis so that poverty at the household, community and national level is analysed in a global context. The paper applies this perspective to analyse chronic poverty in the least developed countries (LDCs). It argues that

MDGs and PRSPs: Are Poor Countries Enmeshed in a Global-Local Double Bind?

1-a-day poverty is pervasive and persistent in most LDCs because they are caught in an international poverty trap. At the heart of this trap there are a various domestic vicious circles through which the high incidence and severity of poverty act as constraints on national economic growth, thus perpetuating all-pervasive poverty. The poverty trap can be described as international because an interrelated complex of trade and finance relationships is reinforcing the cycle of economic stagnation and generalized poverty within many LDCs, which is in turn reinforcing the negative complex of external relationships. The paper suggests that the current form of globalisation is tightening rather than loosening this international poverty trap. Section 2 briefly describes poverty trends in the LDCs. Section 3 argues that these trends are the result of economic stagnation, by looking at growth trends in the LDCs and the nature of the long-term relationship between economic growth and extreme (

‘The Bottom Billion’: A Critique and Alternative View

1-a-day) poverty in lower income countries. Section 4 sets out elements of the international poverty trap, which is particularly relevant for commodity-exporting LDCs, and section 5 identifies ways in which the current form of globalisation is likely to be tightening rather than loosening the international poverty trap. The conclusion draws out some general policy implications.

Irreducibly social goods and the informational basis of Amartya Sen's capability approach

This short article proposes that the interaction between the global and the local can take the form of a double bind for developing countries. Focusing on two of the most important new elements of international development practice – the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) – it identifies conditions under which these creative and potentially progressive initiatives could together be implemented in such a way that they constitute a double bind. Finally, it considers the extent to which these conditions are being met in the least developed countries (LDCs).

African Economic Development in a Comparative Perspective

In his book; The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It?, Paul Collier argues that the core development challenge of the new millennium is the failure of the growth process in the poorest countries in the world. These countries are falling behind, and often falling apart’ (Collier 2007: 3), and ‘if nothing is done about it’, he writes, ‘this group will gradually diverge from the rest of the world economy over the next couple of decades, forming a ghetto of misery and discontent’ (ibid.: xi). He identifies 58 countries in the group, including most countries in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as Bolivia, Cambodia, Haiti, Laos, Myanmar and Yemen, and much of landlocked Central Asia. The population of the group together numbers almost one billion. His book is concerned with why the growth process is failing in these bottom billion countries (BBCs) and what can be done about it, particularly by G8 countries.