The Future of Development: A Radical Manifesto, by Gustavo Esteva, Salvatore Babones and Philipp Babcicky
In one of his unforgettable quotes, George Bernard Shaw said: “The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them but to be indifferent to them: that’s the essence of humanity” (Shaw 1906). In this book, The Future of Development: A Radical Manifesto, the authors display a fervent concern to the agonies of the marginalized people in the South, or the developing world, who have suffered—rather than benefited—from decades-long concerted efforts for development by the North. The Future of Development: A Radical Manifesto by Gustavo Esteva, Salvatore Babones and Philipp Babcicky is a burst of anger, a rebellion against the status quo regarding the current development approach, and a meticulous diagnosis of illnesses that developing—and in many cases the developed—countries suffer from as a result of the current conceptualization and route of development that started post WWII. The authors end their book with a dream of a better world that could potentially result from an alternative path for development. Written by an activist, an academic, and a PhD student, each chapter brings a different aspect of the problems associated with mainstream development. Chapter One starts with the rise of the “underdevelopment” conceptualization in 1949 by former United States president Harry Truman, which suddenly placed millions of people in the developing world in an inferior status compared to their counterparts in the developed world. While the objective was removing underdevelopment through economic growth, neither economic growth nor development were achieved. In Chapter Two, the authors criticize the contemporary development indicators created mainly by international institutions, either because they do not reflect the improvement in well-being and lead merely to the proliferation of consumerism (such as GDP growth), or because they miss the correct representation of the dimension required (such as the Corruption Perception Index, CPI). On the other hand, the truly needed dimensions of development do not have any indicators to quantify them. In Chapter Three, the authors provide what they believe is an alternative path to development which many people around the globe are pursuing since—according to the authors—“the cultural homogenization associated with the development enterprise finds increasing resistance everywhere” (p. 68). Chapter Four argues that the current development problems—especially the ecological ones—do not rise from the overpopulation of the South, but from the overconsumption by the North. The world can be a cleaner place, and there would be enough for everyone, if the North consumes less of everything. In Chapter Five, the authors explain how social movements are rising from the bottom up, not only against “neo-liberalism” but also against “state neo-liberalism” which aims at mobilizing state resources to protect private firms. Resisting Westernization, these movements, organized JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ISSUES Volume LIV No. 1 March 2020 DOI 10.1080/00213624.2020.1721979