The Other Path: The Economic Answer to Terrorism (Paperback)

~ Hernando De Soto (Author) "In the period since the Second World War, Peru has undergone the most far-reaching change in its history as a republic..." (more)
Key Phrases: informal transport operators, formal business people, redistributive combines, City Council, Legislative Decree, Central Market (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Of all the terrorist movements since World War II that had any realistic potential to form a national government, only one was decisively defeated on the battleground of ideas. Sendero Luminoso, the Shining Path, arose in Peru in 1980. It was distinguished by both the radicalism of its Maoist ideology and the viciousness of its tactics. An American diplomat, Bernard Aronson, called the Shining Path the most murderous guerilla group ever to operate in the Western Hemisphere and compared them to the Khmer Rouge. At one point this group commanded eighty thousand followers--two-thirds the size of Great Britain's standing army--and was the single largest political organization in the country.

The task of making the Shining Path politically irrelevant was accomplished primarily by ideological means. Hernando de Soto offered an alternative vision of Peru's poor. Rather than see them as the proletariat, he showed that they were in fact budding entrepreneurs whose greatest desire was not to bring down the market economy but to join it.

Language Notes

Text: English, Spanish (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; 1st edition (September 3, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465016103
• ISBN-13: 978-0465016105
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #72,845 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Where de Soto started - a brave statement, August 21, 2004

By	Andy Orrock (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

I love the little jibe provided within the title of Hernando de Soto's "The Other Path." It's a poke at "The Shining Path" (Sendero Luminoso), the Maoist Peruvian terrorist organization that wreaked havoc on de Soto's homeland beginning in 1980. de Soto's attempt in this book is to show that the more effective struggle is to make capitalism more efficient. To those who know de Soto's work, the solutions are well known: build a system of laws that allow one's residents to buy, sell and value property rights; and reduce the complexities and banalities of starting a business.

If you've read de Soto's master work "The Mystery of Capitalism," then there is no new news here. In fact, "The Other Path" will look out-of-date with its yellowing statistics. So why the five stars? As a testament to de Soto's bravery. Think about the guts it took for him to research and publish this book in Peru during the tumultuous and frightening period there. What a statement.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Devastating Critique of Centrally Planned Economies, September 30, 2003

By	Robert Huffstedtler (Cary, NC United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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The original version of this book was written in the mid-80's to offer the people and government of Peru specific suggestions to combat Sendero Luminoso by making it possible for ordinary people to have a productive and meaningful participation in the nation's economy. This new printing includes a preface written in 2002 that provides the context and history for non-Peruvian readers and gives some analysis of the successes of the suggested reforms under the Fujimori government.

The first part of the book is a detailed analysis of three sectors of the Peruvian economy: housing, transport, and trade (small manufacturing and retail primarily). In each of these, De Soto demonstrates how the barriers raised by regulation and legal process from both right and left wing governments in Peru have forced the majority of persons participating to do so in informal/illegal ways. The result is that formal activity bears the brunt of taxation and informals have little protection in terms of property rights, contractual instruments, and so on. The net result is that everyone is impoverished. This section of the book can be tough reading because of the amount of detail, but its necessary in order to understand the importance of the second half.

The second half suggests that the Peruvian situation is really the reemergence of mercantilism, not a market economy. De Soto then provides some suggestions to peacefully transitiont to a market economy, and convincing warnings that failure to do so will almost certainly result in a violent transition.

The points that De Soto makes are increasingly significant to non-Peruvians as societies like America have increasingly centralised economies. Ironically, the cover includes blurbs from both Presidents Bush and Clinton. One suspects that netiher of them actually read the book.

28 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars De Soto as a modern day Adam Smith?, June 6, 2003

By	Nathaniel Woods (Cambridge, MA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In many ways, I am disappointed that I read this book after reading de Soto's other book, "The Mystery Of Capital". Both this and his other book largely contain the same ideas, but "The Other Path" focuses more intently on de Soto's experiences in Peru rather attempting to answer a very broad question. Because "The Other Path" focuses on squarely on Peru, it can more completely chronicle how his ideas have been used to better the lot of poor Peruvians, and have contributed to the defeat of Sendero Luminoso.

I would have preferred it if the book did not purport to be a general answer to terrorism. While his ideas are very applicable with respect to Maoist revolutionaries attempting to (in theory) uplift the poor, they seem less relevant to "non-economic" terrorists, such as certain rich scions of Saudi families that fly airplanes into buildings, for example. But that is a minor point.