Doing bad by doing good [electronic resource] : why humanitarian action fails / Christopher J. Coyne.

ISBN:

9780804786119

Title:

Author:

Coyne, Christopher J., author.

Personal Author:

Coyne, Christopher J., author.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiv, 258 pages)

Contents:

Introduction : a living example of the puzzle -- The man of the humanitarian system -- The evolution of humanitarian action -- Adaptability and the planner's problem -- Political competition replaces market competition -- The bureaucracy of humanitarianism -- Killing people with kindness -- Solving the puzzle -- Rethinking the man of the humanitarian system.

Local Note:

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Subject Term:

Humanitarian assistance -- Economic aspects.

Humanitarian intervention -- Economic aspects.

Economic assistance.

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

Click here to view

Publication Date:

2013

Publication Information:

Stanford, California :

Stanford Economics and Finance, an imprint of Stanford University Press,

2013.

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
361.2 23	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Using an economic toolkit, Doing Bad by Doing Good explains why humanitarian efforts that intend to alleviate human suffering fail to succeed, and often cause more harm than good.

Author Notes

Christopher J. Coyne is the F.A. Harper Professor of Economics at George Mason University and the Associate Director of the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center. He is the author of After War: The Political Economy of Exporting Democracy , coauthor of Media, Development, and Institutional Change , and coeditor of The Handbook on the Political Economy of War .

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

In his latest, Coyne, a professor of economics at George Mason University, advocates for humanitarian intervention grounded in economic theory. He argues, "greater access to markets, and not more aid and assistance targeted at development, is the best means of permanently lifting the poorest people from the lowest depths of poverty." Writing with dispassionate confidence, Coyne presents economics as a neutral science with superior capability to adapt to changing conditions, while harshly critiquing what's been tried. He uses sleight of hand rhetoric when describing free market principles as humbler, more manageable, less politicized and more effective at alleviating suffering than state-led humanitarianism. While quick to tear apart humanitarian efforts led by governments and NGOs, Coyne's fails to engage seriously with other, highly respected economists' ideas. To his credit, Coyne does nod to contentiousness of debates about his explicit topic of intervention, but doesn't acknowledge debates in political science about "wealth creation" and whether it advances economic conditions across the board. Beneath the veneer of wanting to prevent suffering more systematically, this is a highly political book using cherry-picked examples to fit a philosophy about the incentives that drive human behavior. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Choice Review

Coyne (George Mason Univ.) attempts to explain why conventional approaches to humanitarian aid and longer-term economic development have failed miserably. He offers an explanation based on public choice theory, which assumes that even managers of nonprofit organizations, while claiming to act in the public interest, are motivated by self-interests that are manifested in bureaus with expanding budgets and personnel. Using many real-world examples from both developing (e.g., Haiti and Afghanistan) and developed (e.g., US) countries, Coyne points out that government aid programs fail largely because they are based on faulty knowledge and perverse political incentives. While the book is nontechnical, it conveys a clear, loud message: economic freedom and the respect for endogenous rules are prerequisites for successful humanitarian action, and the "man-of-the-humanitarian-system mentality" is doomed for failure since it assumes that it knows what is best for countries that require aid. Humanitarian practitioners ought to give full consideration to Coyne's public choice approach to humanitarian action. The main theme throughout this book is not whether one should be engaged in humanitarian action, but to acknowledge that there are limits to what one can do in this area. Summing Up: Recommended. All collections and readership levels. M. Q. Dao Eastern Illinois University