Maldevelopment: Anatomy of a Global Failure

If the 1960s was characterised by hope of seeing real development in the Third World that transformed people's lives, the current period is increasingly one of disillusionment. Development has failed, its theory is in crisis, its ideological foundations and the failures brought about by neo-liberalism now being widely challenged. With the collapse of so-called socialism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and the growth of capitalism in China, there is a desperate need for establishing an alternative. In this newly updated analysis by Samir Amin, renowned economist and one of the best-known thinkers of his generation, the failure of development is examined from a political stand-point. He calls for an 'alternative development' that is neither statist nor liberalisation, but rather national, popular and based on South-South cooperation. This could lead to a genuinely polycentric world that provides Asia, Africa and Latin America with real scope for development. This book deals with the problems specific to the Third World, with particular emphasis on the crisis of the African continent. The capitalist state in the peripheries is unable to provide a basis for further development, it can only exacerbate inequalities. This means, says Amin, that the world needs to be remade on the basis of an alternative social system, one that delinks the South from the North, and builds on South-South solidarity.