Читать книгу Global Issues - Kristen A. Hite - Страница 33

Now that we have made a brief examination of poverty and international efforts to help alleviate it, let’s focus on another question: why are some countries rich and some poor? There is no agreement on the answer to that question, but various views have been presented over the years. Although vast differences among the nations of the world make generalizations hazardous, it can be useful to consider some of the most widely accepted approaches or views of economic development: the first is a relatively purely market‐driven approach, in which the primary function of the state (if any) is to enable and govern the physical, infrastructural, social, and political conditions which allow free market transactions to occur. These conditions may range from transportation networks (though there are some who argue that even these should be privatized) to legal systems enabling enforcement by the state of private property contract rights that facilitate commercial transactions between relative strangers. The second approach envisions a more active role for the state, which has historically ranged from direct central control of production and labor by the state as described by Karl Marx and his intellectual descendants, to more indirect means of guiding or influencing market forces through direct government purchase and expenditure, regulation, subsidies, and/or incentives, as described in part by John Maynard Keynes and implemented in the US in the form of an economic stimulus package in response to the “Great Recession” in the first decade of the twenty‐first century.³⁶ In both cases, it is important to consider inclusive governance in order to help address inequality and enable civil society to meaningfully participate in economic activities and benefit from development.³⁷ The third approach we describe is a blended approach.