debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
At its best, the G8 can provide the coordinated action that helps the poorest countries to catch up. Historically, the main focus of such action was on aid, but the fiscal context is now profoundly different. While G8 governments have no spare money, many poor countries have the prospects of serious money from recent natural [...]
The world used to be divided into the ‘developed’ and the ‘developing’. During the past decade the concept of the developing world has been successfully challenged: the countries that used to be so described have now been disaggregated. Countries such as China and India have diverged quite fundamentally from those like Chad and Afghanistan. Viewed [...]
Once again an African government is unable to secure its territory. Once again the only country willing to come to its timely rescue is the former colonial power: as Britain in Sierra Leone and France in Cote d’Ivoire, now it is France in Mali. So, once again Europe is engaged militarily in Africa. Given the [...]
Around the world right now, one billion people are trapped in poor or failing countries. How can we help them? Economist and SEJ columnist Paul Collier lays out a bold, compassionate plan for closing the gap between rich and poor.
Forty years ago a British Conservative Prime Minister coined the phrase ‘the unacceptable face of capitalism’ to describe the practices of some companies. This month David Cameron, the current British Conservative Prime Minister, honourably returned to the same theme. Like any Conservative, Cameron recognizes that good companies are essential for mass prosperity. Their core attribute [...]
The ECB has now committed to purchasing unlimited amounts of sovereign debt from Southern Europe. The structure of conditionality proposed by the ECB in return for this new entitlement to unlimited borrowing is, however, unusual. While the ECB will provide the funds that underpin continued membership of the Euro by Southern Europe, the ECB itself [...]
During my lifetime two class wars have been fought to resolution across Europe: one economic the other cultural. The outcomes of the economic class wars are uncontroversial. In Britain the middle class won the economic war: social protection is relatively poor (most notably for pre-school and the elderly), labour markets are only lightly regulated, and [...]
The Euro is a noble political project that was mis-designed. If it falls apart it will inflict massive economic dislocation and destroy the political vision of five decades. It cannot be allowed to fail, but its flaws are too severe for it to persist in its present form. The consequences of mis-design are manifest in [...]
In March Kenya discovered oil. Even before it has proved to be commercial, and years before the money will flow, oil has already had an impact: by April public servants were demanding a large wage increase. Oil discoveries are psychological earthquakes: people imagine that good times have arrived. Such a narrative is the default option for [...]
During the nineteenth century London grew from a city of one million people to six million, a rate of expansion commensurate with the rapid urbanization currently underway in Africa. Further, per capita income in London in the mid-nineteenth century was roughly comparable with that in Africa today. But unlike modern Africa, nineteenth century London and [...]
Social progress is, fundamentally, about policies that promote convergence towards the top: ‘convergence’, because otherwise it isn’t social; ‘towards the top’ because otherwise it isn’t progress. Global social progress extends outcomes to convergence between countries and policies to those that benefit from international coordination. Potentially, it thus has three components: greater equity between countries, coordinated [...]
In the past month I have visited South Sudan, Sierra Leone and Rwanda. Although radically different in many important respects, these three low-income countries face the common problem that their economies are all small and isolated. The remarkable success of Rwanda in achieving the hat trick of rapid growth, rapid poverty reduction and increased equity [...]
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