World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability

by Amy Chua

Book Overview

The reigning consensus holds that the combination of free markets and democracy would transform the third world and sweep away the ethnic hatred and religious zealotry associated with underdevelopment. In this revelatory investigation of the true impact of globalization, Yale Law School professor Amy Chua explains why many developing countries are in fact consumed by ethnic violence after adopting free market democracy. Chua shows how in non-Western...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385721862
• ISBN13: 9780385721868
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Anchor Books
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.67 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.2" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Another view of globalization

We hear so much back and forth on globalization, pro and con, propaganda or otherwise, that we tend to think in generalities. This useful work gets down to particulars, and in particular the problem of 'dominant minorities' and their effect on lopsided development. It is easy to forget to form an abstract image of far away economic triumphs described statistically. Looking at the actual outcome in terms of cultural conflict shows a different picture and is quite unsettling. The author documents the extensiveness, globally, of this issue, as the account fairly well globe-trots the planet. Must read as an adjunct to any discussion of globalization.

Amy Chua may be right

This has turned out to be one of the most interetsing books I've read all year, I simply could not put it down as I found Chua's arguments very compelling. Although I don't believe that problems are rarely uni-dimensional (of course I realize that Chua doesn't either) I think that the book's argument that globalization in the developing world has been skewed in favor of already economically dominant ethinic minorities is one of the best arguments ever proferred to explain the worldwide resentment of the current approach to 'globalization'. I've witnessed some of the examples she cites first hand as I've been to Indonesia and observed much of what she describes about the Chinese leadership in business and the corresponding resentment of the Muslim majority. Her examples deal mostly with the Jakarta area and Kalimantan, but she may rest assured that the phenomenon is very visible in Bali and even less populated islands such as Lombok - where it is uncanny how every worldwide chain (McDonald's - KFc, etc.) fast food restaurant is owned by Chinese businessmen. Her theory also works very well for the many South and Latin American examples, and while she describes Bolivia at length her observations might easily - and perhaps even more dramatically - made about neighboring Perù. It may even be said, to her credit that Chua predicted the ousting of President Gonzalo Sánchez de Loazada in October 2003 in this book as she mentions the correlation between globalization - of which exports of privatized national gas and oil are a part - and public resentment in Bolivia. If I have any criticisms, and they're mild and certainly do nopt detract form what the reader gains in terms of understanding, they have to do with the sometimes excessively 'personal' accounts of students or friends. Evenb these, however, eventually serve their purpose in supporting theauthor's argument. Overall, this is one of the finest books on globalization available today and Amy Chua's arguments are worthy of consideration and further investigation by more specialized scholars and, hopefully, by Chua herself in a follow-up volume..?

Eye-opening and important

Francis Fukuyama famously announced at the end of the Cold War that humanity had reached "the end of history." Unfortunately, he forgot to tell history not to bother coming to work anymore.Easy as it is to make fun of Fukuyama, where exactly did he go wrong?Fukuyama's conception was formed by his expensive miseducation in the works of Hegel and other 19th Century German philosophers. History consists of the struggle to determine the proper ideology. Now there are no plausible alternatives to capitalist democracy. History, therefore, must be finished.Lenin held a more realistic theory of what history is about: not ideology, but "Who? Whom?" (You can insert your own transitive verb between the two words.) History continues because the struggle to determine who will be the who rather than the whom will never end.Amy Chua's readable and eye-opening new book "World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability" documents just how pervasive ethnic inequality is around the world-and how much that drives the traumas we read about every day. Chua builds upon Thomas Sowell's concept of the "middle-man minority"-the often-persecuted immigrant ethnic group with a talent for retailing and banking, such as Jews, Armenians, Chinese, Gujarati Indians, Lebanese Christians, etc. She broadens that idea to include other relatively well-off groups, such as un-entrepreneurial hereditary landowners, like the Tutsis of Rwanda and the Iberian-descended whites of much of Latin America. She lumps them all together under the useful term "market-dominant minorities."Chua begs off explaining why economic inequality exists between hereditary groups. So let me offer a general explanation. Creating wealth is difficult. People who have wealth tend to pass down their property, their genes, and their techniques for preserving and multiplying wealth to their descendents, rather than to strangers. In countries without a reliable system of equal justice under the law, clannishness is particularly rational. Businessmen must depend upon their extended families for protection and enforcement of contracts. So they are particularly loath to do serious business with people to whom they have no ties of blood or marriage and who would thus be more likely to stiff them on a deal."Globalization," or economic liberalization, tends to make the poor majorities slightly richer and the "market dominant minorities" vastly richer. Sometimes the masses find this an acceptable tradeoff. But sometimes it drives them into a fury.Often, the minority's post-globalization riches are honestly earned, but not always. American-backed privatization schemes in Russia and Mexico put huge government enterprises into the hands of the most economically nimble and politically well-connected operators at give-away prices. Chua, a professor at Yale Law School, is herself the progeny of a market dominant minority: the Chinese of the Philippines. Chinese-speakers make up only 1%

Incredible book, yet so misunderstood

This book is amazingly clear and well-written (in fact its main weakness is that it is TOO clear, to the point of being mildly repetitive), which is why is amazes me that so many of the reviews here seem to either miss the point or misunderstand it altogether. Chua DOES NOT blame free markets and democracy for all the evils of the world. She DOES NOT attempt to propose some 'magic bullet' solution - she is simply providing analysis in attempt to further the discussion. She DOES NOT claim that wealth redistribution programs are the ONLY reason for the relative success of the Western democracies - ethnic homogeneity is also a major factor, as are situational idiosyncrasies. If you attempt to view this book as a narrow-minded attempt to shove the complex tangled peg of the world into a smooth round hole, you will have misunderstood it. Obviously, any book with an explanatory scope of this magnitude needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Her principle thesis is extremely powerful, but it does not explain everything since the big bang! In all the low-star reviews I have read, the criticisms have been completely misguided - do not base your opinion of this book on those reviews. What Chua is trying to show is that - for better or worse - the policies we push onto the developing world far too often result in unintended consequences. We are pushing an extreme ideology onto the world - an ideology we don't practice ourselves and in fact NEVER HAVE IN OUR HISTORY. Capitalism is about increasing returns - wealth begets more wealth. A small group of wealthy can raise the level for all people, which is generally hunkey-dorey. This book builds on the concepts of path-dependence, lock-in, increasing returns in socioeconomic networks - all ideas that have been around for years now (see Brian Arthur and the Sante Fe people) but very few, especially in mainstream 'neoclassical' economics, seem to admit these things are real. I am actually impressed with how even-handed and balanced this book is, with respect to liberal/conservative ideology. She comes off as slightly conservative(in other words, in favor of market 'liberalization') and definitely pro-market. She is NOT some leftist red commie. And the fact that Thomas Sowell - the high priest of conservate economics himself - gave this book an excellent review should be a tip-off to people on the right, who would dismiss this as some leftist rant. This is an excellent, provocative book, and should be read and understood by many more people than it probably will be, which is unfortunate...

Bravo for Chua

The review above, discussing redistribution of wealth, seems to miss the point of "World on Fire." The premise of the book, it seems to me, is to define and analyze the planet's growing problem of social and economic disparity. It is a warning. It does not, at any point that I'm aware of, hold itself out as offering a/the solution. "World on Fire" defines and analyzes, with both depth and clarity, the growing and troublesome inequity within and between nations. An inequity which our current promotion of democracy and capitalism only seem to further alienate the poor majority in the developing world.Americans feel outraged by 911, and appear quick to call for retribution. Perhaps America would be advised to first listen to Amy Chua's careful and methodical explanation of why this terrible event happened. If we don't work toward solving this growing problem, it will no doubt happen again, and again. I salute Chua for her effort and encourage you to listen to her!