ISBN: HB: 9780300214284

Yale University Press

April 2024

688 pp.

23,4x15,3 cm

15 figures, 13 tables

HB:
25.00 GBP
QTY:

Rich World, Poor World

The Struggle to Escape Poverty

A landmark history of the world economic order, exploring how developing countries have fought to escape impoverishment.

Over the past two decades, experiments in neoliberal economics have opened up a chasm of inequality between the Global South and the West. Development advice from richer nations has led to social upheaval, political unrest, environmental degradation – and even the creation of a new underclass. Brutal extremes of wealth and poverty are now commonplace.

Ali A. Allawi traces the evolution of the world economic order from the late imperial era to the present day. Shedding light on continuing controversies, Allawi shows how the process of development has been hindered at every turn, from poor leadership and lost opportunities to widespread corruption. In doing so, he argues that the current neoliberal consensus is only the most recent of a series of failed policy imperatives.

Covering issues in the Global South as well as failures in the West, this definitive account offers an impassioned and authoritative call for change.

About the author

Ali A. Allawi is a politician and scholar, formerly Iraq's deputy prime minister and finance minister. His previous books include "The Occupation of Iraq", "Faisal I of Iraq", and "The Crisis of Islamic Civilization".