Doing Bad by Doing Good
Christopher J. Coyne has two positions: Associate Director of the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center and F. A. Harper Professor of Economics at George Mason University. He is the author of After War: The Political Economy of Exporting Democracy, the coeditor of The Handbook on the Political Economy of War, and the coauthor of Media, Development, and Institutional Change.
Millions of people's lives were impacted by the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010. All throughout the world, people heeded the call to help those in need. However, two years later, government- and NGO-led humanitarian operations have largely failed. Due to bureaucratic red tape, resources are not getting to the needy, and many resources have been wasted. How can initiatives to alleviate suffering so utterly fail? Christopher J. Coyne uses the economic way of thinking to explain why this and other humanitarian attempts that have the best of intentions ultimately fail or have negative effects in this topical and thought-provoking book.
Coyne takes into account a wide variety of actions in addition to Haiti. He explains why the U.S. government was ineffective in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, why the international humanitarian push to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi in Libya might end up creating more issues than prosperity, and why decades of attempts to address crises and promote development around the world have repeatedly failed.
Doing Bad by Doing Good presents a daring alternative to the prevalent strategy for state-led humanitarian action, one that is concentrated on creating an atmosphere of economic freedom. We expand the variety of options for aid and give people more power to make improvements to their communities if we are willing to experiment with it. For example, we might ask questions about how to foster development as a process of societal discovery or how else we might engage the private sector. This book offers a smart and innovative reinterpretation of humanitarian action for anybody interested in and committed to reducing human suffering in the short or long term, from policymakers and activists to academics.
Author: Christopher J. Coyne
Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Doing-Bad-Good-Humanitarian-Action/dp/0804772282/
Ratings: 4.6 out of 5 stars (from 26 reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #288,198 in Books
#146 in Economic Policy
#154 in International Economics (Books)
#189 in Economic Policy & Development (Books)
