ASIAN DRAMA An, Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations. Gunnar Myrdal

The title of this article is based on that of the monumental three‐volume study by the Swedish social scientist, Gunnar Myrdal, Asian Drama – An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations. Published in 19...

Inspired by Gunnar Myrdal's core concepts discussed in his seminal work, Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations, published in 1968, this paper analyses the opening-up experiences of three Asian countries (China, India, and Malaysia) by triangulating between the following: (i) the orientation of selected policy tools in trade, technology, investment, and finance in shaping a country's degree of economic openness; (ii) the rational coordination of operational controls of these policy tools to achieve stated objectives; and (iii) the overall development trends observed in the Asia region. The 'rational coordination of operational controls' is interpreted with reference to the strategic use of selected policy tools in the historically successful cases of earlier East Asian industrialization. Under this framework, the paper contends that divergence in Asian growth experiences can be understood by variations in institutional capabilities to address market and firm-level (and government) failures in the catch-up process, and the pragmatic experimentation by policymakers in search of more effective institutional mechanism - carrots, sticks, and competitive pressures - in pursuit of desired development outcomes.

Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations Get access Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations. By Gunnar Myrdal. An Abridgement by Seth S. King of the Twentieth Century Fund Study. London: Allen Lane The Penguin Press. 1972. 388 pp. Index. £3.50. International Affairs, Volume 48, Issue 4, October 1972, Page 707, https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/48.4.707 Published: 01 October 1972

Every once in a long while the flood of new publications will wash a book onto the market that manages a particularly astute grasp of our present situation with a combination of originality and sharp analytical under standing. We may then be provided with an entirely new basis for the discussion of some of our traditional problems. Such is the case with Gunnar Myrdal's new epic An Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations. Myrdal's inquiry into the economic problems of the countries of South Asia lasted nearly ten years. The result is a three-volume study of monu mental proportions covering 2,284 pages. Prologue and introduction alone run to 70 pages and are, strictly speaking, already a small, self-contained book on problems of applied methodology. A search for a handy con cluding chapter turns out to be in vain. A course in speed-reading, then, appears to be a prerequisite. This book has been received in the West with decided discomfort, not to say horror, while in the underdeveloped countries of Asia it has caused consternation and pain: horror in the West for fear that Myrdal is saying the billions spent on development aid over the last 20 years have been wasted; pain in Asia for fear that he is saying the whole economic and social mess is really the fault of the Asians themselves. v Myrdal is saying both. Indeed, his analysis bears some superficial re semblance to the rhetoric that comes out of Peking, Algiers and Havana. But he has scrupulously avoided the doctrinaire muddle that has paralyzed development in China, Algeria and Cuba. Instead he opts for a new pragmatism that is neither pure capitalism nor pure Marxism but incor porates elements of both. His emphasis is on clarity of expression and thought, his search for true scientific freedom from bias and prejudice. This was no easy task. The difficulties started with the available statis tics that have been quoted in professional journals and elsewhere for a long time and with surprising confidence. Myrdal found, however, that in 118

This chapter attempts to understand Asian Drama in the context of the development debates of its time, and in terms of the sensibilities that Gunnar Myrdal—the brilliant economic theorist and philosopher of knowledge, and Swedish politician—brought to the conceptualization of the problems and prospects of development. The chapter covers: (i) what Myrdal brought to the analysis of development from his long, varied, and distinguished academic and practitioner career; (ii) the development terrain in the mid-twentieth century; and (iii) how Asian Drama lay on that terrain and in the remaining years of Myrdal’s continued eventful life. There are two central questions posed in the chapter. How did Myrdal’s broad experience and perspective influence Asian Drama? How did Asian Drama influence the development debate?

This paper attempts to understand Asian Drama in the context of the development debates of its time, and in terms of the sensibilities that Gunnar Myrdal-the brilliant economic theorist and philosopher of knowledge, and the Swedish politician-brought to the conceptualization of the problems and prospects of development. The paper covers: (i) what Gunnar Myrdal brought to the analysis of development from his long, varied and distinguished academic and practitioner career; (ii) the development terrain in the mid-twentieth century; and (iii) how Asian Drama lay on that terrain and in the remaining years of Gunnar Myrdal's continued eventful life. The two central questions posed in the paper are: (i) How did Gunnar Myrdal's broad experience and perspective influence Asian Drama? (ii) How did Asian Drama influence the development debate?

Gunnar Myrdal published his magnum opus, Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations, in 1968. At the time, I was a graduate student in economics at Oxford. It was a subject of conversation among students outside the classroom. It was brought up in questions at seminars about development. It led to animated discussion in the lively common room at Balliol College. It was also written about. The book made a splash. I walked across to Blackwell’s next door and bought the three volumes, at twenty-five shillings (GB£1.25) each, for what was then a princely sum. And I read it, all 2300 pages, over the next six months. The primary motivation was that so much of the book was about India. But, in late 1968, after a tumultuous summer in Europe, it was also fashionable to be unfashionable in economics. Myrdal was critical of mainstream economics. It also coincided with the beginnings of change in my own thinking about development. Orthodox trade theory, which I had been immersed in, was no longer an exciting prospect. I had decided to work on India for my doctoral dissertation. Paul Streeten, who had had just returned to Oxford, agreed to supervise my research. Streeten and Myrdal were good friends who had worked closely with each other. It was sheer coincidence that I met Gunnar Myrdal at dinner in Paul Streeten’s home. To be honest, I was overawed, for Myrdal had a reputation of being totally absorbed in his work, which was his life. But he was relaxed while chatting over dinner, to my relief not about India. He propounded a counter-intuitive thesis that one should expect young people to be conservative and to become more radical as they grow older. My intuitive belief, then, was the exact opposite. It was difficult to resist the temptation of getting into an argument. Fortunately, the wit and charm of Thomas Balogh, among the guests at dinner, came to my rescue....

Gunnar Myrdal. Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations. Abridged by Seth S. King. Pp. vii, 450. New York: Pantheon Books, 1972. $2.45

This study takes as its starting point what Gunnar Myrdal had to say about Vietnam in the context of his seminal work, Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations, published in 1968. Myrdal pointed to the decisive nature of the Vietnamese people; and subsequent developments, which are explained in detail in this paper, demonstrate that amply. Vietnam adopted a dogged and, in retrospect, very costly position on economic policy and management from 1976. At the same time, when the approach taken did not produce the hoped-for results, an effective course correction was initiated in 1986 in the context of a comprehensive, domestically owned reform programme known as Doi Moi. Since then, Vietnam has come a very long way; the last three decades have witnessed one of the best performances in the world in terms of both economic growth and poverty reduction. People’s living standards have improved significantly, and the country’s socio-economic achievements are impressive from a human development perspective. Wide-ranging institutional reform has been introduced, including a greater reliance on market forces in the allocation of resources and the determination of prices. The shift from an economy completely dominated by the state and cooperative sectors, to one where the private sector and foreign investment both play key and dynamic roles. Significant strides have been made to further the transition from a centrally planned to a market economy, without giving up strategic leadership and influence by the state.

Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations, by Gunnar Myrdal. Pelican Books, 1968. 2,284 pp. 75s.

The publication by one of Europe's greatest scholars about the world's most important problem area is an event of the first order. The scholar I mean is Myrdal and the area South-Asia. I am happy to offer some comments on this book, called "Asian Drama", with the well-chosen subtitle "An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations" [1], both because of its merits and because of the challenges it contains to somebody so sympathetic to the author's view and at the same time so full of doubt with regard to a number of methodological issues raised. The book covers an impressive multitude of subjects and is fascinating in many respects. It brings a good deal of history of the area, from before its political independence obtained after World War II, to to-day and gives a lot of interesting background information in Chapters 4 and 5 on how the frontiers of the countries were established. It gives pictures of the great leaders of in¬dependence, Gandhi (pp.92, 754-55 for some striking elements), Nehru and Jinnah. It deals extensively with the backgrounds and consequences of Parti¬tion (Chapter 6) and with the not-too-good role the French and the Dutch played (p. 226) in their colonies.

This article hypothesizes that economic reforms become sustainable when the discursive conditions prevailing in society tip against the existing paradigm under exceptional circumstances. Thus, unless the pro-liberalization constituencies dominate the development discourse, economic reforms, initiated under the exigencies of crisis and conditionalities, or carried out by a convinced executive with or without the stimulus of a crisis, will be reversed. The discursive conditions are determined based on eight factors: the dominant view of international intellectuals, illustrative country cases, executive orientations, political will, the degree and the perceived causes of economic crisis, attitudes on the part of donor agencies, and the perceived outcomes of economic reforms. The paper seeks to prove this “discursive dominance” hypothesis for the Indian case through a cross-temporal, comparative review of the evolution of economic policy in India over six different phases.

Gunnar Myrdal published his magnum opus, Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations, in 1968. He was deeply pessimistic about development prospects in Asia. The fifty years since then have witnessed a remarkable social and economic transformation in Asia – even if it has been uneven across countries and unequal between people – that would have been difficult to imagine, let alone predict at the time. This book analyses the fascinating story of economic development in Asia spanning half a century. The study is divided into three parts. The first part sets the stage by discussing the contribution of Gunnar Myrdal, the author, and Asian Drama, the book, to the debate on development then and now, and by providing a long-term historical perspective on Asia in the world. The second part comprises cross-country thematic studies on governments, economic openness, agricultural transformation, industrialization, macroeconomics, poverty and inequality, education and health, employment and unemployment, institutions and nationalisms, analysing processes of change while recognizing the diversity in paths and outcomes. The third part is constituted by country-studies on China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam, and sub-region studies on East Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia, highlighting turning points in economic performance and analysing factors underlying success or failure. This book, with in-depth studies by eminent economists and social scientists, is the first to examine the phenomenal changes which are transforming economies in Asia and shifting the balance of economic power in the world, while reflecting on the future prospects in Asia over the next twenty-five years. It is a must-read.

For social scientists it is a sobering and useful exercise in self-understanding to attempt to see clearly how the direction of our scientific exertions, particularly in economics, is conditioned by the society in which we live, and most directly by the political climate (which, in turn, is related to all other changes in society)….Responding to that cue [from the sphere of politics], students turn to research on issues that have attained political importance….So it has always been. The major recastings of economic thought…were all responses to changing political conditions and opportunities.—Gunnar Myrdal in Asian Drama

The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it. —Karl Marx, Theses on Feurbach. The mark of an important contribution, whether in the hard or the social sciences, is not that it reveals some eternal truth. It is, rather, that existing knowledge and analysis are put together in new ways, raising questions and offering conclusions which allow and force friends and enemies alike to push their own research and analysis into different areas. —Doug Dowd, refering to C. Wright Mills. For social scientist it is a sobering and useful exercise in self-understanding to attempt to see clearly how the direction of our scientific exertions, particularly in economics, is conditioned by the society in which we live, and most directly by the political climate (which, in turn, is related to all other changes in society). Rarely if ever, has the development of economics by its own force blazed the way to new perspectives. The cue to the continual reorientation of our work has normally come from the sphere of politics. Responding to the cue, students turn to research on issues that have attained political importance … So it has always been. The major recasting of economic thought .... were all responses to changing political conditions and opportunities. —Gunnar Myrdal, in Asian Drama.