The Tyranny of Experts - Research Paper Example

English Experts The book The Tyranny of Experts by Bill Easterly is a most appealing book, which raises many questions about the different policies of our world. The author of this book is an economist academician who is also that author of another famous book titled The White Man’s Burden. The author asserts a central point that poverty is caused due to the lack of the political and the economic rights. He goes on to say that the thought of the experts which points to the fact that an autocratic dictator would solve the problems of the poverty across the world by his technical solutions is actually vey wrong. He says that this thought is not the solution but rather the main problem. He claims that the government or all the people on the top are mostly in competent, tyrannical, and corrupt in their ways. The question that Easterly raises out of this book is that whether this philanthropy of the rich is a sham or actually, it points to an imperfect democracy. Throughout the book, Easterly goes on to condemn the act of the technocrats who claim to be helping the people from the clutch of poverty and in turn are crumpling their rights with these supposed remedies or solutions (Birrell). He notes that more than often these remedies, which are designed by these technocrats, are often imported from abroad. Further, these designs are although very impressive to hear in the beginning however, they have very little regard to the local conditions existing in the place it has to be implemented. Therefore, when these so-called remedies are put into effort they destroy the conditions of the economy and the people and harm them more than helping them in return. The author also shows that in most cases the autocratic economies have worse economic growth even in comparison to the democratic economies. She attributes this finding with the fact that the liberties, which are offered to the civilians, are highly essential for the free exchanging of the ideas, further this free exchange of the ideas would lead to the discovery of innovation, which would change the face of the world and ensure success. Moreover the author also points out the term innovation was coined as a term of abuse. What the author tries to make the world realize is that freedom is the solution to the problems of poverty. He claims that the arrogance of the Western thought should be abolished. He claims in this passionate argument that the approach of economic development of pitying and offering pre thought out solutions has to be stopped because these solutions are worsening the situations rather than correcting them. The author tries to tell that in trying to provide bureaucratic solutions from the outside the bureaucrats are actually making the woes of the poor worse. The author points out that since the year 1949 when Harry Truman ushered in the first foreign aid program the westerners were completely immersed in the idea that the problems of poverty was solvable by solutions which can be arrived at technically such as by providing stuff like food nutritional supplements, medicines and antibiotics and fertilizers. The way of going about of finding the solution to the problems of poverty was to collect the money and hand it in the hands of a hierarchy who was in charge of distributing and dispensing the cash. This outlook is reprimanded by the author and he points out in this book that by this method more than often the poor did not benefit at all (Chayes). Moreover, the status of the poor to remain the same as the y remained at the bottom where they were before. The author also points out to some of the well-known facts that many a times the foreign policy of the united sates of nation has consciously or unconsciously played itself to place itself into the arms of despots. The author to provide example of this kind of situation talks about the story of Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah who got the support of Washington in his thirst for power, which ultimately led to the domination of his compatriots. He also talks about the atrocities concerning human rights in the country of Rwanda, by Paul Kagame, which was initially ignored by the United States and its different agencies, which inspired him to act in grandeur, boosted his exemption for all the wrongs he committed. The author also blames the technocrats and almost accuses them of sleep walking through the history while the crimes keep on being committed against the poor. He points to the incidents, which were conveniently overlooked by the technocrats and the leaders. He points that as they kept on supporting the choice of one Colombian President after another while the World Bank turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to the Voilencia, which assumed the status of a multi-headed monster and gobbled up the precious lives of almost 400,000 of innocent people within the minor frame of eight years. The reason that the author attributes to this kind of neglecting attitude of the western rich people towards the rest of the world is deep racism that they feel towards the poverty stricken southern hemisphere. He recounts that this kind of prejudice has a very deep and old root. He points out that none of the voices of the world was confident enough before this to voice out and lashes out towards this deep prejudice of the west before (Easterly). The author also points out that this racism had been present in the mind of Lord Lugard, who is the governor general of Nigeria even during the year 1922. The author points out that from the long past year of 1922 this idea has not changed a bit. The westerners still look down upon the dark skinned races as child races of the world. He points out that the continent of Asia, Africa and the Latin America has been portrayed throughout the history as a helpless lot. This kind of attitude of the west has failed them to look past their prejudices and realize the fact that even the poor too require as much individual right and freedom like any other citizen of the West. He reminds the west that once they too were poor population who had to struggle a lot to achieve a stature in which they are now. He reminds the West that it was democracy that shaped them as they are and helped them to grow and flourish. In a way, he establishes that, the backwardness of the continents like Asia. Latin America and Africa are due to imperfect democracy. Works Cited Birrell, Ian. The Tyranny Of Experts Review – Taking On The Development Technocrats. the Guardian. N.p., 2014. Web. 16 Oct. 2014. Chayes, Sarah. Book Review: The Tyranny Of Experts By William Easterly. WSJ. N.p., 2014. Web. 16 Oct. 2014. Easterly, Professor William. The Tyranny Of Experts. 1st ed. Washington: BASIC CIVITAS BOOKS, 2013. Print. Read More