What policy choices are likely to help countries develop economically? What policies are likely to undermine economic development?
Much of the economist's recommendations have followed two approaches: 1- actively forcing industrialisation through protecting and subsidising, or 2- creating a business-friendly environment and let the markets do their "magic".
Both approaches have failed because development at its core is an institutional/ political economy problem. By focusing on strictly technical questions (which otherwise have merits), economists have failed to see that under-development and the deeply entrenched institutions that sustain it profit the elite. Furthermore, the strictly technical focus has distracted attention and energy from the true causes, and of course the elites have unquestionably adopted and supported this approach (see: "Washington Consensus").
Only true social evolution in the sense of shifting the balance of power and transforming social attitudes will change that.
For example, in latin american countries with strong native-american roots, there are prevailing attitudes from 300 years of spanish conquest to the effect that questioning the status quo is pointless because real men should stoically accept that life is hard and the social order cannot be changed. Those societies tend to be very conservative. In such countries, very few pursue advanced studies; not because they are lazy or not smart or even because of lack of resources (there are good scholarship programs in some of these countries), but because they rightly believe that they cannot change their place in society because of nepotism, cronyism, corruption, racism,...It's better to play within the system than try to change it. Or migrate.
Those are the attitudes that must be addressed before true, deep economic development can take place.
Of course, sexism -in the sense of discriminating against women- is another one of those isms that sustain those self-defeating attitudes in society. In that sense, I find that the case of Japan in the aftermath of WWII is illustrative. It was an example of forced large scale social engineering-- instituting for example democracy and women's right to vote. Those were very unfortunate circumstances, but at least wise choices were made that undoubtedly contributed to the country's subsequent economic takeoff.
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