Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism

In Bad Samaritans, economist Ha-Joon Chang challenges the dominant narrative that free markets and neoliberal globalization are the keys to economic success. Instead, he argues that the very nations promoting these policies—wealthy Western countries and global institutions like the IMF and World Bank—built their own economies through protectionism, industrial policy, and state intervention. Now, these same nations act as “Bad Samaritans” by forcing weaker countries to embrace policies that they themselves never followed when developing. Chang’s argument is bold: neoliberal free trade does not help developing nations—it traps them in dependency and underdevelopment. He provides historical evidence, case studies, and economic analysis to prove that successful economies like the U.S., Britain, Germany, Japan, and South Korea only industrialized through state-led economic planning, not free-market policies.

Coming from Turkey where all the illnesses and problems caused by the attitudes of the "Bad Samaritans" in this book are visible, I strongly recommend this valuable collection of arguments and examples to every developing country government official, especially to my own. The arguments in the book cleverly and clearly demonstrates how IMF, The World Bank and WTO trio pressures developing countries for strictly following free-trade practices while the country's citizens suffer under well developed tactics of rich multinational companies, freely moving hot money of the global funds and all sorts of international pressures on the developing governments and media. These tactics are at work in my country now and they are stronger than ever: All profit making SOE's have been sold, the Istanbul Stock Exchange is a little toy shop for the fast moving foreign money and there is hardly any bank left for Turkish owners. No rich country in the world became what it is, with free-trade, let them do methods. This is a fact the author very clearly demonstrates. As a matter of fact there is a former and more technical book on the same subject and this new book is in a way a laymen version of "Kicking Away the Ladder", Chang's 2002 book. I would like to invest my own spare time to translate this wonderfully eye opening book into Turkish. It is also interesting to note that the vivid personal accounts of the author in the first chapter, about his childhood times in South Korea closely resembles my own in the 1970's Turkey. It is sad for me to realize once again that Korean policy-makers have understood the lessons examined in this book early on, in the 1980's, and the Turkish politicians and business elders missed them. It is no coincidence that this book was written by a Korean economist. Excellent read, recommended to every developing country policy maker and citizen. And I don't think any reviewer from a developed country gets how terrible the situation caused by the neoliberal policies is, as far as I can tell from the reviews written here.

Naomi Klein's masterful work Shock Doctrine documents in exhaustive detail what is wrong with the free trade theory and practice that is being enforced around the globe. This work, though much smaller and simpler in scale, essentially confirms what Klein says, that the IMF and WTO and World Bank are not the helpers of the developing world, but their enslavers. Klein, however, personalizes her accusations, blaming the Chicago Boys (ie disciples of Milton Friedman's Chicago School of economics) and presents it as almost a grand conspiracy. Chang sees less bad intent and more misunderstanding behind the disastrously wrong prescription being given to the world for how to prosper. The writing style is clear and simple, and no one should have much trouble following Chang's line of reasoning. He makes good use of a few simple metaphors to prove his point. His image of his son, and his need for sheltering and support until he can get an education and grow up to be a productive member of society is memorable--the point being that urging under-developed countries to compete on a level playing field with mature manufacturing countries is just as silly as sending his 8 year old off to work would be. The comparison is telling because just as the non-productive years of a child's life is what enables him to become well-educated, so too there are children whose future is foreclosed by their need to work from childhood. Developing countries are in just that position. The main weakness that I see in this book is a certain thinness in the factual support. Very large conclusions are often apparently supported by a handful of examples. His native Korea was as poor as Mozambique just a generation ago, and look what it's done. Therefore, don't rule out Mozambique as a future world power. But are there other similar examples? European travelers thought Japanese were lazy 100 years ago. Ok, but the evidence is one or two small anecdotes. Was that really the general view? Was it really a widespread belief that Germans were inefficient and corrupt? Also, most who oppose things like NAFTA in this country do so because it is hurting our own economy. Is there really much concern in the US for the consequences for the poor countries? One can only assume that free trade must be beneficial for *someone* and if it isn't the poor countries, it would probably be...us. So the idea that we're doing this for our own benefit may not sit well with American protectionists. But an enlightening read, and very accessible.

開発経済学の専門家の面目躍如たる著作である。『世界経済を破綻させる23の嘘』は、いわば本書のQ&A版と言えるかもしれない。途上国の発展段階や歴史的様相により、かれらを繁栄に導くための処方箋もまた多様であることを明快に論証する一冊である。ブリリアントな研究者によるブリリアントな著作としてどのような読書人をも失望させない秀作である。

E' stato sicuramente un ottimo prodotto in relazione al prezzo! Consigliato; Spero di tornare a comprare da voi. Cordiali saluti

Leíble

Insightful, well arguemented and provocative

The discussion on economic political systems has all too often been between neo-liberals and marxists, with the former completely carrying the day over the last 20 years, and narrowmindedly dismissing any criticism of any neo-liberal model as "Marxist" and subjective (like a previous reviewer has done here as well). This has been problematic for people like myself, who has no "Marxist" sympathies, but is convinced that the solution for economic development (based on the market!) for poor countries lies not in the uncritical adoption of the market, but in regulating the market for the maximum social benefit. As the world has now entered a global financial crisis, this book is even more relevant, as well as underlining Mr. Ha-Joon Chang's great analytical skills. The book attacks all the pillars of neo-liberal economic ideology, from privatization, trade liberalisation to IPR. He does not do this advocating that the free market should be destroyed, but mainly advocates against the neo-liberal assumptions that the market alone can create economic weight. Pointing to experience rather than the theory, he outlines all the hypocrisies of (western) neo-liberal economists (the so-called "bad samaritans"), whose advice to developing countries runs counter to the experience of the rich countries, who are rich exactly by NOT following any of the neo-liberal principles! This book is truly a modern classic, not only because of the strength of its message (it is not the first book written on the subject), but also because it is written in a simple and clear language, with outstanding use of examples and allegories. You don't need to be an economics major to understand the book, something that is very imporant, as Mr. Ha-Joon Chang with this book makes economic common sense accessible to everyone, beyond the neo-liberal economic high priests of our time!