William Easterly argues in his book The Tyranny of Experts that the support of autocratic dictatorships does not promote economic or political development in a more efficient way than what allowing a democratic and free regime to flourish would promote. He presents the idea that development experts who try to implement policies through dictators in order to promote the economic well-being of nations fail to support the economic or political well-being of individuals due to four things that development experts ignore: the history of the nations with autocratic leaders, the importance of individual rights, the merit of spontaneous solutions, and the success of free development. The first of these he refers to as the “Blank Slate,” the idea
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This is the argument that I find most compelling. Poor individuals’ desires are often ignored when experts make policy recommendations intended to enhance the economy of the entire nation. In collectivist nations, this is especially problematic, where autocracies that have been propped up by technocratic development experts perpetuate a cycle that silences individuals for the sake of the nation. Easterly argues that allowing individuals the protections that give them options for free speech, including free democratic elections would do a better job of increasing their political rights than just holding elections that could be strongly influenced by communal pressure or political blackmail from expert-empowered …show more content…
At this point, the ideas of individual over nation and spontaneous solutions over conscious direction coalesce into this idea that individuals allowed to solve problems for one another based on their needs, rather than on commands from the state, can solve problems and stimulate the economy more effectively than an autocrat. He also contends that a free market that allows free trade allows developing nations to piggyback off of the technology already produced without having to produce it themselves, allowing them a chance to specialize and advance faster than they could without these
This is the argument that I find most compelling. Poor individuals’ desires are often ignored when experts make policy recommendations intended to enhance the economy of the entire nation. In collectivist nations, this is especially problematic, where autocracies that have been propped up by technocratic development experts perpetuate a cycle that silences individuals for the sake of the nation. Easterly argues that allowing individuals the protections that give them options for free speech, including free democratic elections would do a better job of increasing their political rights than just holding elections that could be strongly influenced by communal pressure or political blackmail from expert-empowered …show more content…
At this point, the ideas of individual over nation and spontaneous solutions over conscious direction coalesce into this idea that individuals allowed to solve problems for one another based on their needs, rather than on commands from the state, can solve problems and stimulate the economy more effectively than an autocrat. He also contends that a free market that allows free trade allows developing nations to piggyback off of the technology already produced without having to produce it themselves, allowing them a chance to specialize and advance faster than they could without these