Who Prospers: How Cultural Values Shape Economic And Political Success [Paperback]

Lawrence E. Harrison (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 21, 1993 | ISBN-10: 0465091679 | ISBN-13: 978-0465091676

What lies behind America’s economic and social decline? Can racism explain the ghetto tragedy if two-thirds of America’s blacks have made it into the middle class? Why have Chinese, Japanese, and Korean immigrants done so much better than Mexicans? According to Lawrence E. Harrison, the key to answering these and other questions is culture—the values of a people with respect to work, education, frugality, community, fair play, and progress.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Why do some nations and ethnic groups prosper while others stagnate? Harrison, a former director of the U.S. Agency for International Development in Guatemala, Haiti, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, finds the answer in a culture's values. In his diagnosis, Brazil's hard-working, family-oriented European and Japanese immigrants spurred that nation's dynamic growth, whereas Mexico's economic disaster and failure to build solid democratic institutions are due to its "Hispanic value system" promoting passivity, mistrust of outsiders and an overemphasis on family. The U.S. black underclass's plight, he maintains, is due not primarily to racism but rather to "a set of values and attitudes, strongly influenced by the slavery experience" and perpetuated by the ghetto. Featuring success stories such as Japan, Spain, Korea and Taiwan, this study verges on blaming the victim and slights political factors as well as the West's domination and molding of Third World markets and regimes to serve its own needs. Harrison ends with a jeremiad blaming U.S. decline on the erosion of education and the work ethic, TV, a quick-fix mentality and welfare programs. First serial to the National Interest.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Coming at a time of national and international concern about the persistence of poverty, Who Prospers? focuses on the part that individuals' basic values play in advancing prosperity. For Harrison, both national and ethnic advancement are tied to cultures that value work, frugality, planning for the future, ties to the community as a whole, and education--the traditional ethic lauded by Max Weber in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1930). Expanding the ethic to include the Confucianism of Asia and the post-Franco energy of Spain, Harrison, a former director of development programs in Latin America for the U.S. Agency for International Development, reviews the postwar economic "miracles" of Brazil, Spain, Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. He then examines the experience of Asians, Mexicans, and African Americans in the United States and each group's success or failure at integration into the American economic mainstream. In all cases, Harrison finds the presence or absence of the basic values he has identified to be the decisive factor in development. Harrison concludes with thoughtful recommendations for reform that are refreshing in their lack of dogmatism and their optimism. Recommended for most libraries.
- Mary Jane Ballou, Ford Fdn. Lib., New York
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (July 21, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465091679
• ISBN-13: 978-0465091676
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #959,099 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow, May 21, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Who Prospers: How Cultural Values Shape Economic And Political Success (Paperback)

This is a brilliant book that explains everyday confusions about the world. I highly recommend it. And I would like to counter the couple of comments below that suggest that this is a pro-white-Protestant polemic. It does not praise JUST western Protestant thought...there is PLENTY of praising of Eastern thought, such as Chinese Confucianism, and Japanese social attitudes, and of the the Jamaican blacks. These are obviously not white Protestant groups! So to suggest this book is some rash polemic is dead wrong. It's a real eye-opener and quite educational.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Character and culture do lead to wealth or poverty., December 28, 1998

By 

Dennis McNutt ([e-mail]) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Who Prospers: How Cultural Values Shape Economic And Political Success (Paperback)

An excellent discussion of the influence of culture on a nation's economic performance. It should be no surprise to learn that beliefs lead to acts and acts can lead either to prosperity or poverty. But given the eagerness of many analysts to blame the industrialized countries for the problems of the developing world, Harrison's work provides an invaluable correction. The beliefs of a people regarding such matters as the role of women, attitude toward the future, circle of trust, moral virtue, frugality, fair play, community and whether or not gaining wealth is a zero-sum game have a great impact on the potential of a county to escape poverty.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good, May 16, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Who Prospers: How Cultural Values Shape Economic And Political Success (Paperback)

This is a refreshing book. It's politically incorrect, so the knee-jerk liberals (like those here who gave it one star) won't like it. Reality is reality, whether you like it or not. And this book presents the reality of what works and what doesn't. I would recommend reading Eric Fromm's "ESCAPE FROM FREEDOM," too, because some points that are incorrect in this book, you can see corrected in that book. But most of the points made in this book are correct. Just as a child's parents can make or break his life emotionally, so can culture make or break a country's economic and political life. Harrison is dead wrong in some of the details, but his overall point is dead right, and it's refreshing to see someone make it. This book shows the importance of self-discipline, and, personally, inspired me to become more self-disciplined.