Free Market Democracy, Ethnic Hatred, and Global Instability?
After lunch today, I settled down to read the Review section of the weekend Wall Street Journal, which is as wonderful as the Off Duty section is awful. It was on the front page of the Review section that Amy Chua’s deliberately provocative article Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior appeared. And so inspired by Claire’s recent post on the piece and the discussion to which it gave rise, I read it in its entirety, as did my wife, and we have been talking about it ever since, wondering just how hard we should push our four children.
I noticed when I read Chua’s article, that she has published a number of books – among them a work with the provocative title World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability, which Thomas Sowell describes as
a profound book, written in plain English, challenging the very foundations of some glib and dangerous assumptions behind American foreign policy. This book should be read in the highest circles of decision-making, as well as by all those who like to consider themselves thinking people. It should provoke some re-thinking and, for some, real thinking for the first time.
Here is the blurb from Publisher’s Weekly:
A professor at Yale Law School, Chua eloquently fuses expert analysis with personal recollections to assert that globalization has created a volatile concoction of free markets and democracy that has incited economic devastation, ethnic hatred and genocidal violence throughout the developing world. Chua illustrates the disastrous consequences arising when an accumulation of wealth by "market dominant minorities" combines with an increase of political power by a disenfranchised majority. Chua refutes the "powerful assumption that markets and democracy go hand in hand" by citing specific examples of the turbulent conditions within countries such as Indonesia, Russia, Sierra Leone, Bolivia and in the Middle East. In Indonesia, Chua contends, market liberalization policies favoring wealthy Chinese elites instigated a vicious wave of anti-Chinese violence from the suppressed indigenous majority. Chua describes how "terrified Chinese shop owners huddled behind locked doors while screaming Muslim mobs smashed windows, looted shops and gang-raped over 150 women, almost all of them ethnic Chinese." Chua blames the West for promoting a version of capitalism and democracy that Westerners have never adopted themselves. Western capitalism wisely implemented redistributive mechanisms to offset potential ethnic hostilities, a practice that has not accompanied the political and economic transitions in the developing world. As a result, Chua explains, we will continue to witness violence and bloodshed within the developing nations struggling to adopt the free markets and democratic policies exported by the West.
The book came out in 2004. On Amazon, its current sales rank is 4518, and there you can peruse 98 customer reviews (most of them highly favorable). Chua obviously has a gift for gaining attention, But there is clearly more to her than this.
Has anyone read the book? Is it as intriguing as it sounds?
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Jul '10
Re: Free Market Democracy, Ethnic Hatred, and Global Instability?
Professor, I haven't read the book.
But I'm always wary of a Yale professor who praises "redistributive mechanisms".
And it occurs to me that there is a missing element in her argument: population migration.
She's citing the anger of indigenous populations towards the Overseas Chinese. Just as with Indians who were imported into British colonies in order to seed a merchant class, the Overseas Chinese have been vilified in the post-colonial period.
Just as Uganda and Tanzania expelled Indians wholesale, the populace of the countries she references would surely wish to expel the Overseas Chinese. However, lacking the political power - for now - to do so, they engage in localized acts of terrorism.
Take ethnic migration out of the mix and then ask oneself what the effects of exporting capitalism and democracy might be. We certainly haven't seen this sort of social unrest in, say, Taiwan, South Korea or Japan, all beneficiaries of Western democratic and economic influences.
Edited on Jan 9, 2011 at 2:07pmRe: Free Market Democracy, Ethnic Hatred, and Global Instability?
Kenneth: Professor, I haven't read the book.
But I'm always wary of a Yale professor who praises "redistributive mechanisms".
And it occurs to me that there is a missing element in her argument: population migration.
She's citing the anger of indigenous populations towards the Overseas Chinese. Just as with Indians who were imported into British colonies in order to seed a merchant class, the Overseas Chinese have been vilified in the post-colonial period.
Just as Uganda and Tanzania expelled Indians wholesale, the populace of the countries she references would surely wish to expel the Overseas Chinese. However, lacking the political power - for now - to do so, they engage in localized acts of terrorism.
Take ethnic migration out of the mix and then ask oneself what the effects of exporting capitalism and democracy might be. We certainly haven't seen this sort of social unrest in, say, Taiwan, South Korea or Japan, all beneficiaries of Western democratic and economic influences. · Jan 9 at 2:01pm
Edited on Jan 09 at 02:07 pm
Very interesting.
Jul '10
Re: Free Market Democracy, Ethnic Hatred, and Global Instability?
Paul A. Rahe
Very interesting. · Jan 9 at 2:27pm
It also occurs to me that the migration effect works in the reverse in the United States.
Here, we've imported low-skilled people from countries without a tradition of democracy and free-market capitalism - and the effect has been that they resent us.
Aug '10
Re: Free Market Democracy, Ethnic Hatred, and Global Instability?
With no knowledge of your family situation, I'd say: do push your children, to the extent your family can afford it (psychologically and economically).
My parents prided themselves in being "un-pushy parents". They were not, in retrospect, un-pushy -- they just pushed their children in many conflicting directions at once!
If your child has an exceptional and worthwhile gift, don't hesitate to add your motivation to the child's motivation. Children are usually too young to be sure of their gifts, and even in this age of "self-esteem", some children with considerable natural talents -- talents they would find more fulfilling for life if developed earlier -- may simply lack the sublime self-assurance that it takes to succeed despite apparent parental indifference. This is particularly true of girls.
And using "well-roundedness" as an excuse to discourage children from focusing on a vocation early is just wasteful.
Parents will, one way or another, push their kids around some. Might as well make that pushing around useful!
OK, I'll get off my soapbox now :-)
Edited on Jan 9, 2011 at 2:54pmJul '10
Re: Free Market Democracy, Ethnic Hatred, and Global Instability?
Looking a little further, I see she references Indonesia, Russia, Sierra Leone, Bolivia and the Middle East.
Piffle.
Indonesia is an example of hatred of the Overseas Chinese - and the more successful indigenous Christians - by the local Muslim population.
Russia is utterly irrelevant. Post-Soviet Russia was captured by oligarchs who were predominantly members of the Soviet apparatchik.
Sierra Leone is a typical African basket case, rich in natural resources, plundered by it's elites. It has never come close to democracy or un-corrupt capitalism.
Bolivia is an example of a Marxist governmental elite whipping up the indigenous people against the European and mestizo elites.
And there is not a single example in the Middle East - save, perhaps, Turkey - in which true democracy has ever existed. And their economic systems are purely oligarchical.