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The Tyranny of Experts
- Economists, Dictators, and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor
- Narrated by: Chris Ciulla
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
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Publisher's summary
In this "bracingly iconoclastic” book (New York Times Book Review), a renowned economics scholar breaks down the fight to end global poverty and the rights that poor individuals have had taken away for generations.
In The Tyranny of Experts, renowned economist William Easterly examines our failing efforts to fight global poverty, and argues that the "expert approved" top-down approach to development has not only made little lasting progress, but has proven a convenient rationale for decades of human rights violations perpetrated by colonialists, postcolonial dictators, and US and UK foreign policymakers seeking autocratic allies. Demonstrating how our traditional antipoverty tactics have both trampled the freedom of the world's poor and suppressed a vital debate about alternative approaches to solving poverty, Easterly presents a devastating critique of the blighted record of authoritarian development. In this masterful work, Easterly reveals the fundamental errors inherent in our traditional approach and offers new principles for Western agencies and developing countries alike: principles that, because they are predicated on respect for the rights of poor people, have the power to end global poverty once and for all.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
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"A provocative book that will rile the development world.... A timely blast against the complacency of those who think progress and prosperity can be detached from politics." (Guardian [UK])
"Easterly's message is simple: Before you offer a helping hand, look hard at the core beliefs that brought you good fortune." (Washington Post)
"Thought provoking." (Economist)
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The world is in turmoil. From India to Turkey and from Poland to the United States, authoritarian populists have seized power. As a result democracy itself may now be at risk. Two core components of liberal democracy - individual rights and the popular will - are at war with each other. As the role of money in politics soared and important issues were taken out of public contestation, a system of "rights without democracy" took hold. Populists who rail against this say they want to return power to the people. But in practice they create a system of "democracy without rights."
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Not worth it
- By DailyShopper on 06-07-18
By: Yascha Mounk
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The Fourth Revolution
- The Global Race to Reinvent the State
- By: John Micklethwait, Adrian Wooldridge
- Narrated by: Chris Sorensen
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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From the best-selling authors of The Right Nation, a visionary argument that our current crisis in government is nothing less than the fourth radical transition in the history of the nation-state. Dysfunctional government: It' s become a cliché, and most of us are resigned to the fact that nothing is ever going to change. As John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge show us, that is a seriously limited view of things. In fact, there have been three great revolutions in government in the history of the modern world.
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A must read for everyone wondering whats going?
- By Truth-be-told on 03-30-15
By: John Micklethwait, and others
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Decline and Fall
- The End of Empire and the Future of Democracy in 21st Century America
- By: John Michael Greer
- Narrated by: Kristoffer Tabori
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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The decline and fall of America's global empire is the central feature of today's geopolitical landscape, and the nature of our response to it will determine much of our future trajectory, with implications that reach far beyond the limits of one nation's borders. Decline and Fall: The End of Empire and the Future of Democracy in 21st Century America challenges the conventional wisdom of empire, using a wealth of historical examples combined with groundbreaking original analysis.
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Will insist friends & family read this book
- By Paul on 05-14-16
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The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution
- Why Economic Inequality Threatens Our Republic
- By: Ganesh Sitaraman
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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For most of Western history, Sitaraman argues, constitutional thinkers assumed economic inequality was inevitable and inescapable - and they designed governments to prevent class divisions from spilling over into class warfare. The American Constitution is different. Compared to Europe and the ancient world, America was a society of almost unprecedented economic equality, and the founding generation saw this equality as essential for the preservation of America's republic.
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Very well done
- By JLyman on 08-27-17
By: Ganesh Sitaraman
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The Precipice
- Neoliberalism, the Pandemic and the Urgent Need for Social Change
- By: Noam Chomsky, C.J. Polychroniou
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Precipice, Noam Chomsky sheds light into the phenomenon of Trumpism, exposes the catastrophic nature and impact of Trump's policies on people, the environment, and the planet as a whole, and captures the dynamics of the brutal class warfare launched by the masters of capital to maintain and even enhance the features of a dog-eat-dog society to the unprecedented mobilization of millions of people against neoliberal capitalism, racism, and police violence.
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Of Incalculable Importance
- By Anonymous User on 12-15-21
By: Noam Chomsky, and others
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Brazil
- The Troubled Rise of a Global Power
- By: Michael Reid
- Narrated by: Michael Healy
- Length: 16 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Experts believe that Brazil, the world's fifth largest country and its seventh largest economy, will be one of the most important global powers by the year 2030. Yet far more attention has been paid to the other rising behemoths: Russia, India, and China. Often ignored and underappreciated, Brazil, according to renowned, award-winning journalist Michael Reid, has finally begun to live up to its potential but faces important challenges before it becomes a nation of substantial global significance.
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Good short history of Brazil, lame pronunciation
- By Bubu Mungani on 07-21-19
By: Michael Reid
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World-Systems Analysis: An Introduction
- A John Hope Franklin Center Book
- By: Immanuel Wallerstein
- Narrated by: Fred Filbrich
- Length: 4 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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In World-Systems Analysis, Immanuel Wallerstein provides a concise and accessible introduction to the comprehensive approach that he pioneered 30 years ago to understanding the history and development of the modern world. Since Wallerstein first developed world-systems analysis, it has become a widely utilized methodology within the historical social sciences and a common point of reference in discussions of globalization.
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Uneven, but Ambitious
- By Logical Paradox on 08-27-14
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The Challenge for Africa
- By: Wangari Maathai
- Narrated by: Chinasa Ogbuagu
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Nobel Laureate and founder of the Green Belt Movement, Wangari Maathai has campaigned for environmental activism and democracy in Africa for more thanthree decades. In The Challenge for Africa, she delivers an insightful call to action, presenting a realistic look at the diverse problems facing Africans today.
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10 years later, this is still powerful.
- By Presence on 04-21-18
By: Wangari Maathai
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How Europe Underdeveloped Africa
- By: Walter Rodney, Angela Y. Davis - foreword
- Narrated by: Mirron Willis
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Guyanese intellectual Walter Rodney emerged as one of the leading thinkers and activists of the anticolonial revolution. In 1980, shortly after founding of the Working People's Alliance in Guyana, the 38-year-old Rodney would be assassinated. In his magnum opus, Rodney incisively argues that grasping "the great divergence" between the West and the rest can only be explained as the exploitation of the latter by the former. This meticulously researched analysis of the repercussions of European colonialism in Africa remains an indispensable study for grasping global inequality today.
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A Superb must read for everyone
- By Joy on 04-16-19
By: Walter Rodney, and others
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Right Here, Right Now
- Politics and Leadership in the Age of Disruption
- By: Stephen J. Harper
- Narrated by: Stephen J. Harper
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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The world is in flux. Disruptive technologies, ideas, and politicians are challenging business models, norms, and political conventions everywhere. How we, as leaders in business and politics, choose to respond matters greatly. Right Here, Right Now sets out a pragmatic, forward-looking vision for leaders in business and politics by analyzing how economic, social, and public policy trends - including globalized movements of capital, goods, and services, and labor - have affected our economies, communities, and governments.
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Excellent book on Politics for Canadians AND Americans
- By John Fernandes on 10-19-18
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Cuba Libre
- A 500-Year Quest for Independence
- By: Philip Brenner, Peter Eisner
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 15 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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This timely book provides a balanced, deeply knowledgeable introduction to Cuba since 1492. Tracing the island's history over 500 years, the authors provide an incisive overview for anyone interested in exploring beyond the enduring stereotypes.
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Lost Opportunity (and time)
- By Alexander Piquer on 05-04-18
By: Philip Brenner, and others
What listeners say about The Tyranny of Experts
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Carl Hammerdorfer
- 04-23-23
Making “Expert” a Bad Word
As a criticism of the arrogance, overreach, and ineffectiveness of the World Bank, IMF, and other development donors, this book is both damning and accurate. As almost every development practitioner knows, decisions made thousands of miles away in a conference room filled with a half dozen economists and MBA‘s at a whiteboard are more often than not doomed to failure. These are the experts whom Easterly seeks to excoriate, his former colleagues.
But he draws his target area -the category of experts and technocrats- too broadly. I have encountered and worked with hundreds of real experts in my 40 year development career: rice farmers, fruit dehydrators, dairymen, grain traders, lawyers, banker‘s, investors, poultry processors, university administrators, bovine embryo transplant experts, etc. The list goes on and on.
More often than not, these real experts have no part in or fealty for the bad expert behavior that Easterly outlines. They believe that the overpaid, highly-educated elites in Washington, Strasbourg, Rome, or Geneva should stop exercising control from thousands of miles away, and let them attempt to work with local partners at solving local problems.
If he had chosen a different title for this book, perhaps “the tyranny of of World Bank development economists“ I would have no quibble with him. Most of his criticisms hit the bullseye.
I also learned quite a lot about the early history of development. Overall, this is a very good listen. I wish Easterly had chosen someone more interesting to bring his material to life. The reader on this one had a very annoying, cadence and tone.
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- Andrew C
- 07-28-21
don't waste your money
As a detailed history of the evolution of the modern development theory, this book fits the bill, though rather drily. As anything else, it's terrible. A large chunk of the first portion of the book is centered on a debate that should have happened but didn't, presuming that things would be different if it had. The biggest failing of the author is that he studiously avoids realizing that proponents of authoritarian imperial economic development were arguing in bad faith. They are simply justifying taking more power for themselves, with no concern for whether they're plans work as argued. The bulk of the book is thus irrelevant because it accepts in good faith a claim that is clearly made in bad faith.
The narration is also terrible, comparable to a text to speech program, albeit one of the better ones. the cadence is odd and the inflection random, making this impossible to listen to for more than a few minutes at a time. granted, some of the awkwardness is due to the structure of the book, which is more like a fleshed out outline rather than a narrative, but the narrator does nothing to blunt that effect.
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