In Paul Collier’s book The Bottom Billion Collier, lays out a very easy to understand argument for why the poorest countries are poor. Collier states that there are a multiplicity of different variables that help explain why some countries are less developed and why other countries are not. Collier refers to many countries as falling into “four traps” of poverty. Collier then offers solutions on how to get out of these traps. Collier’s goal was to write a readable book for anyone that is interested in development and I think that he was s successful in doing that. Where he falls short is in his solutions. He wrote a book that largely follows the “Washington consensus” line of economic thinking and development. The Washington Consensus is what is known as Neoliberalism. Collier doesn’t necessarily advocate free trade but he is more precise in saying that it needs to be the right kind of trade. Ultimately his major point is that aid will not help the bottom billion. He champions aid but wants that aid to be focused on private capital as too encourage manufacturing growth. The major problems in his book lie in how he measures poverty and growth and the way he omits any concepts of sustainability.
Collier starts out by stating his argument stating the differences between the developed countries and the under developed countries. The under developed countries are ravaged with disease, hunger, and war. These countries have coexisted with the developed countries. There are 5 billion people that are prospering or on the track to prosperity but there are still a billion people that are decreasing in prosperity or stagnant. Collier states that the countries that are underdeveloped are mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia and despite the “Golden Age” of prosperity between 1990 and 9/11, incomes among the bottom billion declined by 5 percent. Coiler states that poverty is not intrinsically a trap but rather something that is characteristic of all developing countries and that many countries pulled themselves out of poverty.
Collier’s focus is on these countries that have fallen prey to what he refers to as the four developmental traps that keep countries in poverty. Some countries experience one trap at a time and some countries experience multiple traps at the same time. These developmental traps are the conflict trap, the natural resources trap, the trap of being landlocked with bad neighbors, and the trap of bad governance.
The conflict trap is seen with countries that are worn torn and make up over 70 percent of the bottom billion countries. These countries have high poverty rates and due to these poverty rates there are many young men out of work that can be easily swayed to join armies. Slow growth, stagnation, and decline make a country more prone to civil war. Collier also states that because a country is going through economic hardship does not mean it will have a civil war. He does state the prospects of war can be perceived as unstable and investors and potential investor might flee which puts the country in worse economic position. Another propensity toward civil war is when a country is dependent primarily on commodity exports like oil, diamonds, or other natural resources. Sometimes these export commodities help fund rebel groups and give incentives for rebellions or civil wars.
The natural resources trap is sometimes can lift countries out of poverty but Collier contents that it is a rarity. A surplus in natural resources often exacerbates poverty and can often add to a conflict trap. With a surplus of natural resources a country can afford to dismiss other economic problems in the country. Collier refers to these situations as the society being “rentiers” and he cites Saudi Arabia and Kuwait as the exception to the natural resources trap most likely because they have a large amount of natural resources. Most countries don’t get to be so lucky when it comes to a resource-rich country. Collier refers to the other countries in a state of resource-rich poverty. These countries have many problems with corruption due to the excess of revenue coming in from the natural resources. The democratic model is hard-pressed to survive and authoritarian regimes prove far more prosperous. The basic foundation for democracy to survive is not upheld. The erosion of the checks and balances to ensure fair electoral campaigns are subject to risk and failure. Ultimately the government becomes corrupt and an autocratic regime controls the polity of the country in favor of profits.
The trap of being landlocked with bad neighbors is a geographical problem that is not the fault of the country but nevertheless can attribute to high levels of poverty in a country. Collier cites countries that are landlocked are not necessarily going to have the attributes of poverty or slow growth but he does state that 38 percent of the bottom billion countries are landlocked. Another issue that contributes to this trap is the neighbors or the surrounding countries. Cities that are landlocked have higher costs of transfer rates. This is due to the surrounding countries spending more on transport infrastructure. Collier also states that neighboring countries are not just accesses to markets they are the landlocked countries markets. To prove this Collier gives a contrast between Switzerland and Uganda. Switzerland’s neighbors are France, Italy, and Germany and Uganda’s neighbors are Sudan, Rwanda, and Somalia. Switzerland’s neighbors are democratic countries while Uganda’s neighbors are countries that have been marred with violence, civil war, genocide, and poverty. Collier concludes that the prosperity of one nation relies on the prosperity of their neighbors.
The last trap Collier mentions is simply bad governance in a small country. Governance is a very important factor in regard to an effective economy. Collier states that the people in power are sometimes the supper-rich and they stand to gain from having an extremely poor country. There are many problems of people wanting reform but lack the ability and knowledge to properly affect change. This is where Collier starts using the term “failing states.” He mentions there is a criterion for what he considers a failed state that is a result of bad policies. Among what he considers failed states are Angola, the Central African Republic, Haiti, Liberia, Sudan, the Solomon Is- lands, Somalia, and Zimbabwe. Collier goes into the concepts of failing states and uses the term turnaround to explain reformers that can achieve a possible reformed state. Usually these turnarounds are rare because reformers are usually repressed, killed, or imprisoned very quickly. Collier’s findings for a turnaround are very slim and don’t show promise due to the swift repression.
Collier now switches from what he perceives as the traps that countries can fall into to what can be done about it. Collier argues that globalization is the reason why some countries are rising out of poverty but leaving the bottom billion stagnant or slowly rising. He states that trade and aid will not be enough for these countries to escape the traps they are in. Collier does states that the aid that is going to the bottom billion countries is to public capital and not private capital. The public capital can supply many of these countries with infrastructure but it cannot offer equipment that workers would need in order to be productive that private investors can offer. Because there is the lack of private capital there is a lack of equipment for a effective labor force to be productive which leads to low wages. He cites capital flight and migration as major reasons for the bottom billion’s reasons for poverty as well.
Collier offers many solutions for countries to get out of the traps they are in. He mainly states that these countries have to be rescued from within, meaning they must do it themselves. He states that no longer should people be injecting money into these countries and hope for a positive result. Collier states that foreign aid is not very helpful. The aid given does speed up growth and is helpful but in the long run will give, what Collier calls, diminishing returns. Collier states that aid in the conflict trap can worsen the situation and the aide can be a “payoff to power.” To help with the natural resource trap aid does nothing because the country already has money and is rendered impotent. For the landlocked trap aid would have to be consistent for a long period of time in a welfare state scenario to be useful. Involving aid and the trap of bad governance is where Collier finds aid somewhat useful. He states there are three different potentialities for possible turnarounds and they are incentive, skills, and reinforcement. Collier does not discount aide all together but he does emphasis that it alone will not solve the issues in the bottom billion countries. He suggests that there should be complementary actions alongside aid.
Another recommendation Collier has for helping the bottom billion is military intervention. Collier states that military intervention has an important role in helping the bottom billion states. Military intervention can help restore order, maintain postconflict peace, and help prevent coups. In the case of restoring order Collier cites Kuwait and the need to maintain a collapsed state. The same thing was tried in Somalia and the military pulled out too soon and there were mass killings. Collier cites Sierra Leon as an example of a peacekeeping mission by the British military and he also cites Rwanda as an example of what happens when there is a failure to maintain peace through military intervention. As for preventing coups Collier expresses that with a strong external military presence coups could be eliminated.
There are many issues with Collier’s book and the rest of the paper will be dedicated to the critiques of the book. The first critique of the book has to do with the mechanics of the book. He does not cite much of the information he uses and talks very broadly about people stating certain arguments and statements. Collier states he did this for readability but it would not make the book complex to cite some of the information he uses.
A second critique of Collier is that he doesn’t mention education as an important aspect for getting the lower income countries out of poverty. He states that the educated people tend to immigrate out of the countries. Lester Brown diverges with Collier’s thinking and states that education is one of the key components of getting people out of poverty. Brown states that closing the gap between the rich and the poor is by educating everyone. Brown states that most people in poverty live in inherited poverty and that this cycle can be broken by having a mass scale of literacy programs that are partly funded by the lower developed countries themselves as well as aide from western countries. By Collier citing growth as a form of prosperity he is leaving out key components like sustainability. Ultimately Collier is not accounting for sustainability and he is focusing on short-term goals rather than the long-term goals for a sustainable environment.
A third critique of Collier is his explanation of what traps are and how they can keep certain countries in poverty, but there are fundamental faults with how he measure growth and how he measures poverty. The way Collier measures growth and poverty is based on the measurement of Gross Domestic Product. GDP is used to measure economic growth and entire economic output. The general consensus with the measurement of GDP is that the more it grows the better a country is doing. Many contest using GDP as a measurement for growth because it leaves out many different variables that are not accounted for. So many countries could be considered prosperous but would be considered less developed. The argument against GDP is that to measure a sustainable economy and a sustainable society the measurements used need to account for more than just economic prosperity. A different type of measurement system referred to as the Human Development Index would include GDP as well as many other indicators including human well-being. Collier claims that countries cannot grow by being turned into Cuba. Collier claims Cuba is a low-income, stagnant country. The problem with this statement is that if you judge Cuba by GDP, then yes it is low-income, stagnant country. However if Cuba is rated on the Human Development Index they are ranked 44 and in comparison to the United States who’s ranked 5 then Cuba is relatively developed. Cuba is a fairly well developed country by the standards of the HDI and not GDP.
The final critique of Collier is that he claims that the neoliberal policies have helped strengthen many of these countries. He refers the neoliberal policies as the “golden age.” Collier claims that the free trade is not the answer for helping these bottom countries but then he argues that lowering production subsidies in poor countries would push those countries to look for different avenues for agricultural needs. He is essentially say that the poor countries are too constrained by government subsidies so less money should be given to the countries as an incentive or to increase competition. The problem is with this theory is that he wants to do this in poverty stricken areas in a world with mass food shortage. Many factors contribute to the food shortage but the biggest contributor of food shortage is the mass amounts of grain that was previously used for export and now is used for ethanol production. Collier wants to effectively cut subsidies to these countries while at the same time curbing grain exports to these countries. Collier also calls for deregulation of the airlines for landlocked countries so they can have ultimately a freer system of trade.
Collier’s book is a good example of a neoliberal framework that encourages that countries giving aid to under developed countries are participating is the acts of a “headless heart.” Really what Collier’s solutions are neoliberal solutions that oppose aid expansion in favor of increased military spending and intervention. Collier’s solutions are basis for even measuring the bottom billion’s growth and poverty is based off of GDP and he leaves no room for possible implications of sustainability on a global scale.
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Join or create book clubs
Choose books together
Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
| Price | New from | Used from |
|
Audible Audiobook, Unabridged
"Please retry" |
$5.95
| $7.95 with discounted Audible membership | |
- Read with our Free App
-
Audiobook
$5.95 - 80 Used from $1.18 20 New from $17.74 1 Collectible from $13.42
- 138 Used from $1.23 35 New from $8.36
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Top reviews from other countries
Erik Cleves Kristensen
Must read for anyone interested in poverty reduction
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 30, 2008J. P. Sykes
Clear, concise, informative and evidence based
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 8, 2015Dr T
This book is worth buying, reading and acting on
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 24, 2007MYasin
One of the best books I've read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 16, 2019
