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A review by alexisrt
An Uncertain Glory: India and Its Contradictions by Jean Dreze, Jean Drèze, Amartya Sen
5.0
This is an interesting and detailed examination of India's failure to turn GDP growth into developmental progress for large segments of its population. India has dropped behind other developing nations on major indicators of development such as health and education.
Drèze and Sen focus largely on government efforts, which they criticize as insufficient and largely badly organized, though they highlight regional successes such as Tamil Nadu. They are critical of pushes to see the private sector as a solution to the needs of India's poorest and advocate vigorous efforts in the public sector. Despite this, anyone who wishes to characterize their approach as Marxist (for better or for worse) is overstating the case and probably hasn't read Sen very much. The focus is on government as a driver of progress for basic improvements in education, health, and welfare. They acknowledge that the private sector has a role to play. They are passionate about the role of government, but strongly critical of how it has operated in the past and present.
There is attention paid to social factors, particularly the role of women in anti-poverty work, as well as caste and regional variation within India.
The only weakness of the book is that it does not look at how the private sector--which the authors, based on previous writings and which they imply here, believe has a large role to play in India--does fit in in the larger scheme. While I agree that the private sector will not solve the problem of inadequate primary education, the question of how economic development will be harnessed for the benefit of larger numbers of Indians is not addressed. In addition (a minor point), I would have liked to see them address some of the other economic criticisms of direct food aid, such as potential market distortion, which they advocate with reservations rather than cash transfers.
The material may not be (probably is not) revolutionary to people who are well read in the field, but it was informative and readable for the non-expert.
Drèze and Sen focus largely on government efforts, which they criticize as insufficient and largely badly organized, though they highlight regional successes such as Tamil Nadu. They are critical of pushes to see the private sector as a solution to the needs of India's poorest and advocate vigorous efforts in the public sector. Despite this, anyone who wishes to characterize their approach as Marxist (for better or for worse) is overstating the case and probably hasn't read Sen very much. The focus is on government as a driver of progress for basic improvements in education, health, and welfare. They acknowledge that the private sector has a role to play. They are passionate about the role of government, but strongly critical of how it has operated in the past and present.
There is attention paid to social factors, particularly the role of women in anti-poverty work, as well as caste and regional variation within India.
The only weakness of the book is that it does not look at how the private sector--which the authors, based on previous writings and which they imply here, believe has a large role to play in India--does fit in in the larger scheme. While I agree that the private sector will not solve the problem of inadequate primary education, the question of how economic development will be harnessed for the benefit of larger numbers of Indians is not addressed. In addition (a minor point), I would have liked to see them address some of the other economic criticisms of direct food aid, such as potential market distortion, which they advocate with reservations rather than cash transfers.
The material may not be (probably is not) revolutionary to people who are well read in the field, but it was informative and readable for the non-expert.