Why do some states thrive, grow their economies and uplift their people while others, facing similar challenges, slide into low growth, social dysfunction and failure?

After decades of work on the ground in states in Africa, Latin America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, bestselling author Greg Mills seeks to provide answers in Rich State, Poor State.

On each continent he traverses, Mills interrogates the how and why. How did Botswana go from being one of the least-developed and poorest nations at independence to enjoying the highest rate of per capita growth of any country in the world? Why has South Africa failed to attain similar heights? How did the Baltic states achieve reforms that have positioned them among the best-performing economies in Europe? How did Vietnam overcome a traumatic past in favour of a rapid and positive development transformation? Why is Mexico – despite what Donald Trump and Narcos may have you believe – the only large developing economy that competes with China in manufacturing?

Based on extensive interviews with current and former presidents, prime ministers and key government officials across the globe, as well as research from leading institutions like the World Bank, Freedom House, the Heritage Foundation, the IMF and the Brenthurst Foundation, Mills concludes that, while some states unlock reform, creating an environment where agility, dynamic change and a relentless desire for progress overwhelm political obstacles, others are stymied by vested interests and the inability to look beyond short-term gains for an elite. In the African context, a failure to reform, and to make better choices, explains the persistent continental default to economic, social and political crisis.

Yet the upside of getting things right is encouragingly positive. The examples of change in Rich State, Poor State contrast success and failure, and in so doing, determine a path for Africa’s next generation of reformers.

This is the first full historical study of the principles underpinning Germany's so-called 'economic miracle'. It makes an important contribution to our understanding of the historical dynamics of the German economy and the political culture of the Federal Republic.

Joseph Stiglitz examines the theory behind the economic downturns that have plagued our world in recent times. This fascinating three-part lecture acknowledges the failure of economic models to successfully predict the 2008 crisis and explores alternative models which, if adopted, could potentially restore a stable and prosperous economy.

This book examines the domestic and international dimensions of European Union (EU) competition policy, particularly mergers, anti-competitive practices and state aids. The authors argue that important changes in EU competition policy are having profound effects on the global political economy, and these changes are best understood as European Commission responses to new domestic and international pressures. Using a two-level game analytical framework that is both intra-EU and global in scope, Damro and Guay investigate a wide variety of domestic and foreign public and private actors that interact in crucial ways to determine the development and implementation of EU competition policy. They address this broad question: In what ways do changing external and internal factors affect the evolution of the EU's competition policy and the role that the Commission plays in it? Among the conclusions is that the EU - and particularly the European Commission - has become a leading global regulator.

This book examines failure in the urbanisation of Northwest China as a result of government industrial policies that have impacted on the economic development of the region. By looking at the under-researched provinces of Gansu, Qinghai and Inner Mongolia, which make up a quarter of China's territory, Zheng and Deng challenge the common story of China's miracle growth and reveal the dark side of the country's pursuit of modernity. Severe weather conditions, chronic drought, permanent lack of oxygen and unforgiving terrain in the Northwest make farming, manufacture and services difficult simply because people tend not to stay. Yet, China's current political system forces growth to take place even though basic conditions and prerequisites for market-based growth are missing. This volume analyses 'ghost cities' and social tension in the process of 'forced urbanisation' in which huge amount of resources are wasted, the local environment is systematically damaged and ordinary people's basic rights are brutally violated in the name of higher GDP and greater government glory.

*Selected by Emma Watson for her Ultimate Book List* Fashion is political. From the red carpets of the Met Gala to online fast fashion, clothes tell a story of inequality, racism and climate crisis. In The Anti-Capitalist Book of Fashion, Tansy E. Hoskins unpicks the threads of capitalist industry to reveal the truth about our clothes. Fashion brands entice us to consume more by manipulating us to feel ugly, poor and worthless, sentiments that line the pockets of billionaires exploiting colonial supply chains. Garment workers on poverty pay risk their lives in dangerous factories, animals are tortured, fossil fuels extracted and toxic chemicals spread just to keep this season's collections fresh. We can do better than this. Moving between Karl Lagerfeld and Karl Marx, The Anti-Capitalist Book of Fashion goes beyond ethical fashion and consumer responsibility showing that if we want to feel comfortable in our clothes, we need to reshape the system and ensure this is not our last season.

In this new volume of Research in Economic History, editors Christopher Hanes and Susan Wolcott bring together a cast of expert contributors to vigorously interrogate and analyze historic economics questions. The volume looks across a range of issues. Two papers address the political economy of the US: one explores how editorials in Business Week encouraged the acceptance of Keynesian policies among US business elites; and one quantifies the role of economics in the political support of William Jennings Bryan. Two papers bring new insight into longstanding debates, looking at the "antebellum puzzle" and why medieval peasants had scattered fields. Finally, two papers explore topics in European history, including the effect of deflation on the distribution of income in Denmark, 1930-1935, and the influence of shareholders on policy at the Banque de France. For researchers and students of economic history, this volume pulls together the latest research on a variety of unanswered questions.

This volume focuses on the topic of energy transitions in the coal mining industries of China and Japan by adopting a Sino-Japanese comparative approach in area studies to examine the experiences between the two major East Asian economies. In China, rapid industrialization led to dramatic growth in energy demand and much of this energy demand was fueled by affordable coal energy. With growing social concerns about the environment and an increasingly vocal middle class in contemporary China, the authorities and state-owned enterprises are studying the use of coal fuels for its future development. In Japan, coal was also an affordable main source of energy for Japan's early post-war heavy industrialization until it was gradually replaced by oil in the 1960s. The oil shocks of the 1970s compelled Japan to look for cleaner and cheaper fuels, including nuclear power. In these energy transitions from coal to oil and then onto non-fossil fuels, the story of coal power in both countries is highlighted in this publication as a comparative study. This volume is a crucial contribution to the discussion of China's energy reforms, and required reading for scholars of climate change and society.

Produced here in two low-cost paperback volumes, John Bapty Oates' challenging insights into the human condition, and specifically, the REAL reasons behind the current global crises, is a must-read for any serious student of human nature, sociology or economics. Topics covered include the evolution of human consciousness; the rise of a global economy; and the many dangers and pitfalls that await us as a species if we cannot - or will not - listen with real urgency, to the lessons that life places before us. A true heavyweight amongst contemporary philosophical works.

Produced here in two low-cost paperback volumes, John Bapty Oates' challenging insights into the human condition, and specifically, the REAL reasons behind the current global crises, is a must-read for any serious student of human nature, sociology or economics. Topics covered include the evolution of human consciousness; the rise of a global economy; and the many dangers and pitfalls that await us as a species if we cannot - or will not - listen with real urgency, to the lessons that life places before us. A true heavyweight amongst contemporary philosophical works.

This work focuses on the EU's participation in the Dispute Settlement Proceedings (DSP) of the WTO for matters of non-conferred competences. The underlying thesis is that the joint membership of the EU and its Member States is fallacious, in that it could cause the EU to become responsible for violations of the WTO regulations on the part of the Member States. Such fallacies are rooted in the blurred nature of the distribution of powers in the EU polity.In order to tackle the issue of international responsibility, the analysis is based on the facts of a real-world case. Based on the tenets of public international law, the law of mixed agreements and the EU constitutional principles, the book puts forward a model for the EU's participation in the DSP, and for the reallocation of burdens to the respective responsible entity. This proposition deconstructs the joint responsibility regime and endorses a solution that could address the issue of responsibility in mixed agreements without a declaration of powers.

This enlightening text analyses the origins of Western complaints, prevalent in the late nineteenth century, that Japan was characterised at the time by exceptionally low standards of 'commercial morality', despite a major political and economic transformation. As Britain industrialised during the nineteenth century the issue of 'commercial morality' was increasingly debated. Concerns about standards of business ethics extended to other industrialising economies, such as the United States. Hunter examines the Japanese response to the charges levelled against Japan in this context, arguing that this was shaped by a pragmatic recognition that Japan had little choice but to adapt itself to Western expectations if it was to establish its position in the global economy. The controversy and criticisms, which were at least in part stimulated by fear of Japanese competition, are important in the history of thinking on business ethics, and are of relevance for today's industrialising economies as they attempt to establish themselves in international markets.

This topical and important book identifies the short to medium-term economic, financial and social consequences of Brexit. Containing perspectives from leading thinkers across legal, economic and financial fields, it considers both the general effect of UK withdrawal on the European integration process, and the specific impact on the free movement of capital, goods and people. Addressing the main areas within both the UK and the EU that can and will be affected by Brexit, including the financial sector, immigration, social rights and social security, After Brexit: Consequences for the European Union will make fascinating reading for all those currently engaged in the study and practice of Law, Economics, Finance, Political Science, Philosophy, History and International Affairs.

Through a green criminological perspective, Angus Nurse examines the contemporary reality of corporate environmental crime and illegal activities that have become normalized within many major corporations. Arguably this is an inevitable consequence of a corporate culture that prioritizes profits and the smooth operation of market activities over environmental concerns coupled with the increased political power of major corporations that can act almost with impunity and where problems do occur, can literally buy itself out of trouble. These same corporations are broadly perceived as being responsible actors. However, Nurse argues that corporate environmental offending is often deliberate and that corporations understand that they will often be allowed to continue with polluting and non-compliant behavior because the likely enforcement responses are fines and settlements rather than criminal prosecution. Using several case studies, Nurse explores biopiracy and the rights of indigenous peoples, the behavior of oil companies in African states, the regulation of corporate social responsibility and corporate environmental responsibility, an analysis of contemporary environmental legislation and the prosecution of environmental harm, and state-corporate crime and air pollution. Dealing with these problems requires a wider notion of crime and wrongdoing that directly engages with the types of environmental offending that represent a threat to human populations and non-human nature irrespective of whether these are defined as crime by justice systems.

This book studies the challenges for Indonesia, once a miracle economy, as it faces premature deindustrialisation, rising inequality and domestic and external factors impacting its export-oriented industrialization. Since the fall of Soeharto, Indonesia has undergone a far-reaching systemic transition from centralised and autocratic governance to a highly decentralised and democratic system. Complicated by regional variations, the country is now being called upon to respect labour rights and, amidst slow global economic recovery, is facing increased competition from other low-labour-cost countries, especially within the ASEAN Economic Community. Tadjoeddin and Chowdhury posit that Indonesia cannot recreate its past miracle based on cheap labour and suppression of labour rights. It will need to move quickly to high value-added activities driven by productivity growth and to develop its domestic market.

20 years after the collapse of communism in Central Eastern European countries and 30 years after the start of market-oriented reforms in China, this book provides a framework for understanding the differing emphasis and sequencing of two reforms and explores in-depth these issues in the demise of communism and the triumph of the market economy.

Powerful financial forces have supported the neoliberal project since the 1980s to advance their interests; but there are now signs that these forces have a new face and a new strategy. The majority of the British finance sector threw its support behind Britain leaving the European Union, a flagship institution of neoliberalism. Beyond this counterintuitive move, what was really happening and why? Alt-Finance examines a new authoritarian turn in financialised democracies, focusing on the City of London, revealing a dangerous alternative political project in the making. In a clash with traditional finance, the new behemoths of financial capital - hedge funds, private equity firms and real estate funds - have started to cohere around a set of political beliefs, promoting libertarian, authoritarian, climate-denying and Eurosceptic views. Protecting investments, supressing social dissent and reducing state interference are at the core of their mission for a new world order. By following the money, the authors provide indisputable evidence of these worrying developments. Through a clear analysis of the international dealings of this new authoritarian-libertarian regime, not just in Britain but in the US and Brazil, we can understand how our world is being shaped against our will by struggles between dominant groups.

This book is the first full-length treatment of the desirability and feasibility of implementing a citizen's income (also known as a basic income). It tests for two different kinds of financial feasibility as well as for psychological, behavioral, administrative, and political viability, and then assesses how a citizen's income might find its way through the policy process from proposal to implementation. Drawing on a wide variety of sources of evidence from around the world, this new book from the director of the Citizen's Income Trust, UK, provides an essential foundation for policy and implementation debates. Governments, think tanks, economists, and public servants will find this thorough encompassing book indispensable to their consideration of the economic and social advantages and practicalities of a basic income.

This book, the second of two volumes, continues the authors' ground-breaking re-examination of India's history and political economy. This volume describes the economic fortunes of India in the second half of the 20th century. Beginning with the reconstruction of the Planning Commission and India's hybrid model of economic planning, the authors describe the multiple shocks weathered by the system before being replaced with a fully free market model after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Chapters consider the stresses placed on India's organisation by the shocks of the twentieth century, from its experiments with a socialist economy to its embrace of the Washington consensus in the 1980s. The impact of the invasion of China in 1962 and India's struggle to find its feet post-partition are also given detailed analysis. The book's unique perspective helps to shed light, for the first time, on how India's organisational structure negotiated the country's immense historical and cultural inheritance with the stresses of a twentieth century nation state.

This book demonstrates the theoretical value and practical significance of systems science and its logic of thinking by presenting a rigorously developed foundation-a tool for intuitive reasoning, which is supported by both theory and empirical evidence, as well as practical applications in business decision making. Following a foundation of general systems theory, the book presents an applied method to intuitively learn system-sciences fundamentals. The third and final part examines applications of the yoyo model and the theoretical results developed earlier within the context of problems facing business decision makers by organically combining methods of traditional science, the first dimension of science, with those of systems science, the second dimension, as argued by George Klir in the 1990s. This text would benefit graduate students, researchers, or practitioners in the areas of mathematics, systems science or engineering, economics, and business decision science.

The book contains a collection of high-quality academic and expert contributions dealing with the central question of whether the Lisbon Treaty needs further revision. Due to the difficulties European Union actors have encountered in implementing the Lisbon Treaty s reform and the inadequacies of the current legal framework brought to light by post-Lisbon practice, the volume focuses on possible innovations and functional approaches to improve the Union s response to the challenges confronting it.

In doing so, the volume first takes a horizontal approach to the Treaty revision and considers some constitutional features showing the interaction between the EU and its Member States (namely, the parameters of constitutional developments, the allocation of competences, the principles of solidarity and loyal cooperation). Then, the focus shifts to the question of fundamental rights within the EU s constitutional framework, one of the most relevant innovations of the Lisbon Treaty being the incorporation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights into the Union s primary law. The last part of the volume is devoted to another domain significantly reshaped by the Lisbon reform, namely, the Union s external dimension. ECJ Advocate General Paolo Mengozzi s conclusions highlight the common themes emerging from the various contributions, stressing the need for a more general supranational approach to the political crisis the Union is going through.

The content of this book will be of great value to academics, students, judges, practitioners and all others interested in the legal discourse on the progressive development of the European Union legal order."

How we pay is so fundamental that it underpins everything – from trade to taxation, stocks and savings to salaries, pensions and pocket money. Rich or poor, criminal, communist or capitalist, we all rely on the same payments system, day in, day out. It sits between us and not just economic meltdown, but a total breakdown in law and order. Why then do we know so little about how that system really works?

Leibbrandt and de Terán shine a light on the hidden workings of the humble payment – and reveal both how our payment habits are determined by history as well as where we might go next. From national customs to warring nation states, geopolitics will shape the future of payments every bit as much as technology.

Challenging our understanding about where financial power really lies, The Pay Off shows us that the most important thing about money is the way we move it.

A provocative account of capitalism's rise to global dominance and, as different models of capitalism vie for world leadership, a look into what the future may hold. We are all capitalists now. For the first time in human history, the globe is dominated by one economic system. In Capitalism, Alone, leading economist Branko Milanovic explains the reasons for this decisive historical shift since the days of feudalism and, later, communism. Surveying the varieties of capitalism, he asks: What are the prospects for a fairer world now that capitalism is the only game in town? His conclusions are sobering, but not fatalistic. Capitalism gets much wrong, but also much right-and it is not going anywhere. Our task is to improve it. Milanovic argues that capitalism has triumphed because it works. It delivers prosperity and gratifies human desires for autonomy. But it comes with a moral price, pushing us to treat material success as the ultimate goal. And it offers no guarantee of stability. In the West, liberal capitalism creaks under the strains of inequality and capitalist excess. That model now fights for hearts and minds with political capitalism, exemplified by China, which many claim is more efficient, but which is more vulnerable to corruption and, when growth is slow, social unrest. As for the economic problems of the Global South, Milanovic offers a creative, if controversial, plan for large-scale migration. Looking to the future, he dismisses prophets who proclaim some single outcome to be inevitable, whether worldwide prosperity or robot-driven mass unemployment. Capitalism is a risky system. But it is a human system. Our choices, and how clearly we see them, will determine how it serves us.