Wars, Guns, and Votes - by Paul Collier (Paperback)

About the Book

The author of "The Bottom Billion" investigates the violence and poverty that plague the countries at the bottom of the world economy. Collier argues that the spread of elections and peace settlements in the world's most volatile countries may lead to a brave new democratic world.

Book Synopsis

"Collier has made a substantial contribution to current discussions. His evidence-based approach is a worthwhile corrective to the assumptions about democracy that too often tend to dominate when Western policy makers talk about the bottom billion." --The New York Times Book Review

"Before President Obama makes a move he would do well to read Professor Paul Collier's Wars, Guns, and Votes. . . Unlike many academics Collier comes up with very concrete proposals and some ingenious solutions." -- The Times (London)

In Wars, Guns, and Votes, esteemed author Paul Collier offers a groundbreaking, radical look at the world's most violent, corrupt societies, how they got that way, and what can be done to break the cycle. George Soros calls Paul Collier "one of the most original minds in the world today," and Wars, Guns, and Votes, like Collier's previous award-winning book The Bottom Billion, is essential reading for anyone interested in current events, war, poverty, economics, or international business.

From the Back Cover

In Wars, Guns, and Votes, Paul Collier investigates the violence and poverty in the small, remote countries at the lowest level of the global economy and argues that the spread of elections and peace settlements may lead to a brave new democratic world. For now and into the foreseeable future, however, nasty and long civil wars, military coups, and failing economies are the order of the day.

An esteemed economist and a foremost authority on developing countries, Collier gives an eye-opening assessment of the ethnic divisions and insecurities in the developing countries of Africa, Latin America, and Asia, where corruption is often firmly rooted in the body politic, and persuasively outlines what must be done to bring peace and stability. Groundbreaking and provocative, Wars, Guns, and Votes is a passionate and convincing argument for the peaceful development of the most volatile places on earth.

Review Quotes

"In Wars, Guns, and Votes, Paul Collier has set out to bring empirical rigor to our intuitions. . . . Collier has made a substantial contribution to current discussions. His evidence-based approach is a worthwhile corrective to the assumptions about democracy that too often tend to dominate when Western policy makers talk about the bottom billion." - Kenneth Roth, The New York Times Book Review
"Innovative. . . . Clear-eyed analysis. . . . There is cause for hope, or pessimism, depending on how you look at it, in one of the most interesting parts of Wars, Guns, and Votes. Collier describes the historical processes that brought legitimate government to Europe, under conditions at least as abject as those facing the Bottom Billion today." - The Christian Science Monitor
"Timely. . . . Collier challenges a lot of lazy Western thinking about the trajectory that poor countries should take to improve their lot. . . . Mr Collier is thinking about these urgent and very difficult issues, something not many people are willing to tackle head-on. He has kicked off a debate that should be raging inside the development agencies and chancelleries of every Western capital, and in Africa and Asia too. The effort is surely worth it." - The Economist