Growth against Democracy - by H L T Quan (Hardcover)

About the Book

Growth against Democracy: Savage Developmentalism in the Modern World, by H.L.T. Quan, is a radical critique of development as a modern project. Using three historical cases (Brazil-Japan, China-Africa, and US-Iraq), Quan probes the discursive practices of modern development, ...

Book Synopsis

Growth against Democracy: Savage Developmentalism in the Modern World, by H.L.T. Quan, is a radical critique of development as a modern project. Using three historical cases (Brazil-Japan, China-Africa, and US-Iraq), Quan probes the discursive practices of modern development, exploring the coercive and juridical dimensions of trade, diplomacy and war and their impact. This study builds on the critical works of neoliberalism, capitalist development, and empire to lay the groundwork for an honest assessment of neoliberal economics and foreign conducts and their impact on human life.

Review Quotes

Growth Against Democracy isan outstanding contribution to the scholarly literature on global capitalism and its effects. I don't know of any other work that shows in such a thorough way the connections between the larger processes and practices of globalized capitalism and the increased tendency in U.S. law to privilege corporate over what Quan calls bio-personhood. The practical and political significance of this contemporary debate about corporations' legal rights is demonstrated with careful attention to the important legal details.

This excellent book is a radical critique of unfettered neoliberal developmentalism and its devastating impact on hundreds of millions of people in the Global South living in absolute poverty. It argues that "savage developmentalism" involves a commitment to three priorities: expansionism (including wars), "social stability," and anti-democracy. Quan (Arizona State Univ.) does a superb job of unpacking the "basic mythologies" of capitalism, including the belief in the self-regulating market. Quan argues that the mainstream debate on development neglects the issue of whether capitalist development is desirable or undesirable. He criticizes both modernization theory and neo-Marxist dependency theory, suggesting that they share a similar epistemological commitment to "progress" and "modernity." However, he does not explain why genuinely democratic and substantively fair development as modernization and progress would be undesirable for the Global South. The book illustrates the way "savage development" operates in the modern world with three excellent case studies: Brazilian-Japanese trade and financial relations in Brazil (1964-85), China's expansionist strategy in Africa, and the neoliberal economic order imposed on Iraq after the 2003 US invasion and occupation. This well-researched book would have benefited from a glossar. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate, graduate, and research collections.

About the Author

H. L. T. Quan is a political theorist, award-winning documentary filmmaker, and assistant professor in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University.