DOCSLIB.ORG

WORLD URBAN FORUM 6 Prosperity for Sustainable Cities: Balancing Ecology, Economy and Equity Version 3.0

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
WORLD URBAN FORUM 6 Prosperity for Sustainable Cities: Balancing Ecology, Economy and Equity Version 3.0 WORLD URBAN FORUM 6 Prosperity for Sustainable Cities: Balancing Ecology, Economy and Equity Version 3.0 BACKGROUND DOCUMENT Urbanization: a Truly Global Experience Urbanization is inevitable. It makes countries change from a rural to an urban experience. Yet more than a transitional process, urbanization is a transformative process. As countries urbanize they become more advanced, developed and richer, in most cases. Urbanization is part of an old ‘recent’ history. Narratives of urban biographies tell us of human preference to get together to exchange, learn, produce and protect each other in an environment that was rather hostile. As towns and cities grew bigger more and more people came to them in search of jobs, opportunities and different forms of prosperity. Moving to a city is an objective desire to have a better life. The search of prosperity is therefore one of the main causes of the existence of cities. They are the places where humanity realizes needs, ideas, ambitions and aspirations. Cities over time and throughout the world have developed in unique ways, and no single history can account for them all. Yet, it is clear that places where human beings can flourish, feel happy and healthy, and where business, trade and different forms of productivity can thrive, develop and generate wealth are prosperous places. Prosperity is the essence of progress and the way development materializes. In 2008, the world reached an invisible but momentous milestone: for the first time in history, more than half of its human population, 3.3 billion people, was living in urban areas. By 2030, this number is expected to increase to 5 billion, when 6 out of every 10 people in the world will be urbanites.1 Urbanization has become, to a large extent, synonymous with modernization, industrialization and development. No one can deny that economic growth, social and political change, technical and scientific advances and progress are direct results of the urbanization process. Levels of income and performance in human development indicators are also strongly linked to urbanization. Norway and Denmark, two countries with around 80 percent of their population living in urban areas, have infant mortality indicators that are 30 or 20 times lower than the same indicators of Malawi and Yemen, where urban population represents 17 and 27 percent, respectively.2 1 UNFPA (2007), State of the World Population, New York. 2 Harmonized estimates WHO, UNICEF and the World Bank, Statistics Database, 2004, website. 1 Even if urbanization is not happening at the same pace and form in different regions, it is becoming a truly global experience. Despite clear growth disparities, reversals and problems, the associated benefits of urbanization speak for themselves: life expectancy, infant mortality, absolute poverty and deprivation, and other development indicators, show general improvements almost everywhere. People in both developed and developing countries live longer, healthier and more productive lives than anyone could conceive to be possible 200 hundred years ago, when the human existence was overwhelmingly rural, with less than 3 per cent of the total population living in urban areas. Cities and human beings are both the agents of progress and the beneficiaries of it. They are the means and the ends in achieving prosperity. As they contribute to prosperity they prosper in turn. Of course, prosperity means different things for different people. For some it may be eating a cooked meal every evening; for others it may be to own a business worth millions; for some it may be expanding choices in every aspect of life, or having decent property in an adequate environment.3 Unfortunately progress has not been evenly spread and prosperity has not been given for every one. The process of urbanization and its intended benefits has not been without its share of problems: poverty, child labor, human exploitation, poor access to education and healthcare, environmental pollution are rampant in many parts of the world. Yet, it is not right for any human being to live in such circumstances. The inequality that urbanization fosters is the Achilles’ heel of prosperity. The World Urban Forum seeks to discuss and find ways to make it easier for everyone to share the improvement in living standards, overall economic welfare and personal fulfillment that urbanization offers. The pursuit of prosperity is not a luxury; it is neither a waste nor a new form of consumption per se; it is a form of justice and a search for equality. The World Urban Forum The previous sessions of the World Urban Forum (WUF) made it clear that managing rapid urbanization will be one of the most pressing problems confronting humanity in the 21st century. The Third session of the WUF in Vancouver in 2006 (UN-HABITAT’s 30th anniversary) focused on Sustainable Urbanization and Inclusive Cities. One of the Forum’s messages was that the urban population of developing countries is set to double from two to four billion in the next 30 years. This will require the equivalent planning, financing, and servicing facilities as for a new city of one million people to be built every week for the next 30 years. The Theme of the Fourth session of WUF held in Nanjing in 2008 was Harmonious Urbanization. This session made it clear that a society can not be harmonious if large sections of its population are deprived from basic needs while other sections live in opulence. An important message from this Forum was that harmony in cities can not be achieved if the price of the urban living is paid by the environment. The concept of harmony entails the synchronization and integration of all the Earth’s assets: physical, environmental, cultural, historical, social or human. 3 Adapted from http://www.living-prosperity.com/definition-of-prosperity.html 2 The Fifth session of the WUF was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s second largest city, and it built upon the technical and substantive lessons of the previous four sessions. It focused on the Right to the City: Bridging the Urban Divide. The Forum shared perspectives and view points on the relevance on this right, identifying what is needed to bridge the urban divide, and to facilitate a prompt and sustainable transition from a city that is partially inclusive to one that is fully inclusive. The Fifth session started at an earlier stage through a world-wide E-Debate on different aspects of the Right to the City. The on-line discussions generated important contributions in the form of ideas and messages that were used for the preparation of the WUF. They were also incorporated in the preparation of the final report of the Forum, which was delivered to local authorities, national governments, international organizations, research centers, universities, NGOs and other stakeholders. The Sixth Session of the WUF will be held in the Kingdom of Bahrain. This Forum is conceived as a privileged space where various segments of society concerned with building a better future for our cities can discuss, learn, practice, agree and disagree on different ways to build prosperity. They can identify initiatives and commitments that can be effectively implemented to create cities that are more democratic, just, sustainable and humane, based on principles of solidarity, freedom, equality, dignity and social justice. The Forum is also intended to reaffirm the manner in which UN-HABITAT and its partners contribute to guiding and enriching the policy work on sustainable urbanization through an open dialogue. Conceptualizing the Prosperity of Cities The word prosperity implies success, wealth, thriving conditions, wellbeing or good fortune. When applied to cities or urban areas, a key question that arises is: what are the essential conditions and elements that are required for a city to thrive or for urban areas to be described as successful, or for the wellbeing of its citizens? Put differently, what are the manifestations of a prosperous city? Several elements come to mind. First, a prosperous city should have an economy capable of contributing to (national) growth and providing employment in order to allow its own citizens to earn a decent income and to enjoy a certain standard of living and to meet their basic needs. Second, a thriving city should also have the necessary infrastructure and physical assets– in terms of adequate water, sanitation, power supply, roads, telecommunication including digital technology etc– to sustain urban living and productivity. A third component of a prosperous city relates to the extent to which poverty is reduced. No city can claim to be prosperous when large segments of its population live in abject poverty. Similarly, prosperous cities should seek to reduce the incidence of existing slums and decayed areas to provide alternatives to the emergence of new slums and poor neighborhoods. There are several ways to achieve these, including the provision of affordable low-income housing, facilitating access to land and finance, and enacting realistic and enforceable planning regulations. Fourth, prosperous cities should provide the necessary social services such as education, health, recreation, etc. in order to enable their citizens to attain their full potential by developing their intellectual capacity and ability to live full, productive, healthy, and fulfilling lives. Fifth, a prosperous city should seek to be socially inclusive. This in part can be done by enhancing gender equality, protecting the rights of minority and vulnerable groups, as well as 3 ensuring civic participation by all in the social, political and cultural spheres. The failure of cities to fully integrate all groups, particularly the excluded into their decision-making process creates and reinforces poverty and reduces overall wellbeing. Sixth, the benefits and opportunities associated with a prosperous city should be distributed or redistributed in a fairly equitable manner; this means that the level of inequality within a city should not be high.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Consumerism in the 1920S: Collected Commentary
    BECOMING MODERN: AMERICA IN THE 1920S PRIMARY SOURCE COLLECTION ONTEMPORAR Y HE WENTIES IN OMMENTARY T T C * Leonard Dove, The New Yorker, October 26, 1929 — CONSUMERISM — Mass-produced consumer goods like automobiles and ready-to-wear clothes were not new to the 1920s, nor were advertising or mail- order catalogues. But something was new about Americans’ relationship with manufactured products, and it was accelerating faster than it could be defined. Not only did the latest goods become necessities, consumption itself became a necessity, it seemed to observers. Was that good for America? Yes, said some—people can live in unprecedented comfort and material security. Not so fast, said others—can we predict where consumerism is taking us before we’re inextricably there? Something new has come to confront American democracy. Samuel Strauss The Fathers of the Nation did not foresee it. History had opened “Things Are in the Saddle” to their foresight most of the obstacles which might be expected The Atlantic Monthly to get in the way of the Republic—political corruption, extreme November 1924 wealth, foreign domination, faction, class rule; . That which has stolen across the path of American democracy and is already altering Americanism was not in their calculations. History gave them no hint of it. What is happening today is without precedent, at least so far as historical research has discovered. No reformer, no utopian, no physiocrat, no poet, no writer of fantastic romances saw in his dreams the particular development which is with us here and now. This is our proudest boast: “The American citizen has more comforts and conveniences than kings had two hundred years ago.” It is a fact, and this fact is the outward evidence of the new force which has crossed the path of American democracy.
    [Show full text]
  • Prosperity Economics Building an Economy for All
    ProsPerity economics Building an economy for All Jacob S. Hacker and Nate Loewentheil ProsPerity economics Building an economy for All Jacob S. Hacker and Nate Loewentheil Creative Commons (cc) 2012 by Jacob S. Hacker and Nate Loewentheil Notice of rights: This book has been published under a Creative Commons license (Attribution-NonCom- mercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported; to view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc-sa/3.0/). This work may be copied, redistributed, or displayed by anyone, provided that proper at- tribution is given. ii / prosperity economics About the authors Jacob S. Hacker, Ph.D., is the Director of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies (ISPS), the Stanley B. Resor Professor of Political Science, and Senior Research Fellow in International and Area Studies at the MacMil- lan Center at Yale University. An expert on the politics of U.S. health and social policy, he is author of Winner-Take-All Politics: How Wash- ington Made the Rich Richer—And Turned Its Back on the Middle Class, with Paul Pierson (September 2010, paperback March 2011); The Great Risk Shift: The New Economic Insecurity and the Decline of the American Dream (2006, paperback 2008); The Divided Welfare State: The Battle Over Public and Private Social Benefits in the United States (2002); and The Road to Nowhere: The Genesis of President Clinton’s Plan for Health Security (1997), co-winner of the Brownlow Book Award of the National Academy of Public Administration. He is also co-author, with Paul Pierson, of Off Center: The Republican Revolution and the Erosion of American Democracy (2005), and has edited three volumes, most recently, Shared Responsibility, Shared Risk: Government, Markets and Social Policy in the Twenty-First Century, with Ann O'Leary (2012).
    [Show full text]
  • A Consumers' Republic: the Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar
    A Consumers’ Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Cohen, Lizabeth. 2004. A consumers’ republic: The politics of mass consumption in postwar America. Journal of Consumer Research 31(1): 236-239. Published Version doi:10.1086/383439 Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:4699747 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA Reflections and Reviews A Consumers’ Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America LIZABETH COHEN* istorians and social scientists analyzing the contem- sumer market. A wide range of economic interests and play- H porary world unfortunately have too little contact and ers all came to endorse the centrality of mass consumption hence miss some of the ways that their interests overlap and to a successful reconversion from war to peace. Factory the research of one field might benefit another. I am, there- assembly lines newly renovated with Uncle Sam’s dollars fore, extremely grateful that the Journal of Consumer Re- stood awaiting conversion from building tanks and muni- search has invited me to share with its readers an overview tions for battle to producing cars and appliances for sale to of my recent research on the political and social impact of consumers. the flourishing of mass consumption on twentieth-century If encouraging a mass consumer economy seemed to America.
    [Show full text]
  • Economic Prosperity Element
    ECONOMIC PROSPERITY LIVE GOALS, OBJECTIVES, AND POLICIES GOAL ECP 1 TALENT & HUMAN CAPITAL GOAL ECP 2 INCLUSIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP WORK GOAL ECP 3 INDUSTRY CLUSTERS GOAL ECP 4 BUSINESS CLIMATE & COMPETITIVENESS GOAL ECP 5 EQUITY AND ECONOMIC INCLUSION PLAY GOAL ECP 6 ECONOMIC PLACEMAKING GOAL ECP 7 ECONOMIC LEADERSHIP & PARTNERSHIP GOAL ECP 8 COMMUNITY LIFE GROW Comprehensive Plan | 2019 ECONOMIC PROSPERITY ELEMENT WHAT IS THE ECONOMIC PROSPERITY ELEMENT? The Economic Prosperity Element is new to the City’s Comprehensive Plan and provides context for policy, resource allocation and guidance as to how the City will seek to promote prosperity as the Delray Beach’s economy develops and evolves. The International Economic Development Council defines economic development as “a process that influences growth and restructuring of an economy to enhance the economic well-being of a community.” Community benefits from a successful economic development approach and strategy including: 1) new business activity; 2) higher incomes; 3) wealth-building; and 4) tax revenues to fund public services and community life investments. Effective economic development involves a coordinated cross-disciplinary approach to business attraction, business development, business retention, workforce capacity-building, tourism, and infrastructure investments, as drivers of economic growth. The City has focused on growing local businesses, business retention and expansion, redevelopment and revitalization, downtown development, tourism and sports, arts and culture, special events, and community development as economic development strategies. While this approach has been effective, investments in people, place, and industry development are necessary to fill gaps in the city industries and economic outcomes. Additionally, Delray Beach’s prior economic success does not yet mean prosperity for all.
    [Show full text]
  • Is Globalization a Source of Prosperity and Progress Or the Main Cause of Poverty? What Has to Be Done to Reduce Poverty?
    Journal of Social Sciences, 1(1):13-17,2012 ISSN:2233-3878 Is Globalization a Source of Prosperity and Progress or the Main Cause of Poverty? What has to be done to Reduce Poverty? Valeri MODEBADZE* Abstract This article analyses globalization process and its positive and negative sides. Globalization is a double-edged phenomenon. This research is based on comparative method. Two contradictory approaches to understanding globalization are compared with each other. On the one hand, advocates of globalization argue that globalization is a positive phenomenon which promotes greater prosperity and increases living standards of people. On the other hand, opponents of globalization see it as the main cause of impoverishment and economic crisis. The problem of describing the effects of globalization is closely linked with these two contradictory approaches to understanding globalization. Keywords: globalization, positive and negative sides of globalization, transnational institutions, environmental degradation, global warming Introduction – Definition of Globalization national trade and international business operations. Thus, economic life has been progressively globalized. National Before we start comparing two contradictory ap- economies have been integrated into global economy and proaches to globalization, we have to define it. Globali- they have become so interdependent that they cannot func- zation refers to the growing interconnectedness of differ- tion separately from each other. One of the consequences of ent parts of the world. It is a process which gives rise to globalization is the emergence of multinational companies a complex form of interaction and interdependency. The and transnational corporations. These are very powerful world is becoming a global village and interdependence organizations that produce output in more than one state.
    [Show full text]
  • Prosperity Without Growth?Transition the Prosperity to a Sustainable Economy 2009
    Prosperity without growth? The transition to a sustainable economy to a sustainable The transition www.sd-commission.org.uk Prosperity England 2009 (Main office) 55 Whitehall London SW1A 2HH without 020 7270 8498 [email protected] Scotland growth? Osborne House 1 Osbourne Terrace, Haymarket Edinburgh EH12 5HG 0131 625 1880 [email protected] www.sd-commission.org.uk/scotland Wales Room 1, University of Wales, University Registry, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3NS Commission Development Sustainable 029 2037 6956 [email protected] www.sd-commission.org.uk/wales Northern Ireland Room E5 11, OFMDFM The transition to a Castle Buildings, Stormont Estate, Belfast BT4 3SR sustainable economy 028 9052 0196 [email protected] www.sd-commission.org.uk/northern_ireland Prosperity without growth? The transition to a sustainable economy Professor Tim Jackson Economics Commissioner Sustainable Development Commission Acknowledgements This report was written in my capacity as Economics Commissioner for the Sustainable Development Commission at the invitation of the Chair, Jonathon Porritt, who provided the initial inspiration, contributed extensively throughout the study and has been unreservedly supportive of my own work in this area for many years. For all these things, my profound thanks. The work has also inevitably drawn on my role as Director of the Research group on Lifestyles, Values and Environment (RESOLVE) at the University of Surrey, where I am lucky enough to work with a committed, enthusiastic and talented team of people carrying out research in areas relevant to this report. Their research is evident in the evidence base on which this report draws and I’m as grateful for their continuing intellectual support as I am for the financial support of the Economic and Social Research Council (Grant No: RES-152-25-1004) which keeps RESOLVE going.
    [Show full text]
  • Local Interpretations of Degrowth—Actors, Arenas and Attempts to Influence Policy
    sustainability Article Local Interpretations of Degrowth—Actors, Arenas and Attempts to Influence Policy Katarina Buhr 1, Karolina Isaksson 2,3,* ID and Pernilla Hagbert 3 1 IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, Climate and Sustainable Cities Unit, 10031 Stockholm, Sweden; [email protected] 2 VTI, the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute, Division of Mobility, Actors and Planning Processes, 10215 Stockholm, Sweden 3 KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Planning and Environment, 10044 Stockholm, Sweden; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +46-766-334-328 Received: 3 May 2018; Accepted: 4 June 2018; Published: 6 June 2018 Abstract: During the last decade, degrowth has developed into a central research theme within sustainability science. A significant proportion of previous works on degrowth has focused on macro-level units of analysis, such as global or national economies. Less is known about local interpretations of degrowth. This study explored interpretations of growth and degrowth in a local setting and attempts to integrate degrowth ideas into local policy. The work was carried out as a qualitative single-case study of the small town of Alingsås, Sweden. The results revealed two different, yet interrelated, local growth discourses in Alingsås: one relating to population growth and one relating to economic growth. Individuals participating in the degrowth discourse tend to have a sustainability-related profession and/or background in civil society. Arenas for local degrowth discussions are few and temporary and, despite some signs of influence, degrowth-related ideas have not had any significant overall impact on local policy and planning.
    [Show full text]
  • Neoliberal Metaphors in Presidential Discourse from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump
    Angles New Perspectives on the Anglophone World 8 | 2019 Neoliberalism in the Anglophone World Neoliberal Metaphors in Presidential Discourse from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump Jérôme Viala-Gaudefroy Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/angles/625 DOI: 10.4000/angles.625 ISSN: 2274-2042 Publisher Société des Anglicistes de l'Enseignement Supérieur Electronic reference Jérôme Viala-Gaudefroy, « Neoliberal Metaphors in Presidential Discourse from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump », Angles [Online], 8 | 2019, Online since 01 April 2019, connection on 28 July 2020. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/angles/625 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/angles.625 This text was automatically generated on 28 July 2020. Angles. New Perspectives on the Anglophone World is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Neoliberal Metaphors in Presidential Discourse from Ronald Reagan to Donald T... 1 Neoliberal Metaphors in Presidential Discourse from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump Jérôme Viala-Gaudefroy 1 Neoliberalism is an ambiguous and complex concept. Unlike Keynesianism, it is not a unified doctrine (Davies 2017: 19). It is sometimes employed without any clear definition, or its meaning reduced to laissez-faire economics. The difficulty in defining neoliberalism may come partly from the asymmetry of its usage. Today, it is used almost exclusively in the negative sense, and no one self-identifies as a “neoliberal” (Boas and Gan-Morse 2009: 138-40). Its meaning is also context-dependent and the result of a complicated historical development (Coles 2017: 21). 2 The word itself goes back to the 1890s (Oxford English Dictionary), but the idea of a new form of economic liberalism really emerged in the 1930s.
    [Show full text]
  • Sustainability and Economic De-Growth
    Brief for GSDR 2015 Sustainability and economic de-growth Maria Rita Guercio - University of São Paulo* A major problem that permeates human degradation of the environment happens development today are the limits that the only to meet the needs of the wealthier Earth's ecosystem imposes on efforts to half of the world population, while the persist in an increasing economic growth. poorest are suffering from environmental With the end of t the Cold War the degradation and are still priced out of environmental issue gained relevance but material blessings. The poorest countries the economic interests still speak louder. suffer from drought, soil desertification, The pattern of development based on the floods, dumping of toxic products and model of the Industrial Revolution still other environmental disasters. remains and is structured as unsustainable. Sustainability means, of course, social But this unbridled growth resulted in inclusion and rational use of natural speculative bubbles and crises which resources. further harm the ecosystem and do not cooperate in a sustainable and more Michael Renner says the Green Economy is equitable society. Michael Renner of World the tendency to ally development Watch Institute says: "In general, respecting the natural limits of the environmental governance was relegated ecosystem, creating social welfare reducing to the sidelines in search of economic environmental risks. Emerging countries globalization driven by corporate interests are somewhat resistant when carbon - a process that has been marked by emission containment measures are deregulation and privatization and the required, and may represent a limitation to relative weakening of political institutions their development. However, it is the task of the emerging countries, which have not national "(Renner, 2012).
    [Show full text]
  • Economic Insecurity and the Institutional Prerequisites for Successful Capitalism Author(S): Hyman P
    Economic Insecurity and the Institutional Prerequisites for Successful Capitalism Author(s): Hyman P. Minsky and Charles J. Whalen Source: Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Winter, 1996-1997), pp. 155-170 Published by: M.E. Sharpe, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4538526 Accessed: 09/06/2010 11:36 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=mes. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. M.E. Sharpe, Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Post Keynesian Economics. http://www.jstor.org HYMAN P.
    [Show full text]
  • Hayek, Arrow, and the Problems of Democratic Decision-Making
    Working Paper 15 Hayek, Arrow, and the Problems of Democratic Decision-Making * PETER J. BOETTKE AND PETER T. LEESON Abstract Both Hayek and Arrow provide argume nts about the inability of the vote process to yield a coherent social choice. Hayek demonstrated that planning is incompatible with democracy; its c oherence requires dictatorship. Arrow demonstrated that voting fails to pr oduce rational social choices; social rationality can be assured only when there is a single will. In both, the substitution of a single will for the many wills is ruled as incompatible with a free society. Because market socialism relies upon either the existence of a meaningful, stable social welfare function or democratic decision-making to allocate resources, the complimentary arguments of Hayek and Arrow imply that market socialism requires dictatorship to achieve coherence. * Peter J. Boettke is Professor of Economics at George Mason University, Deputy Director of the James M. Buchanan Center for Political Economy, Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center, and Faculty Director of the Mercatus Center’s Global Prosperity Initiative. Peter T. Leeson is a Mercatus Center Social Change Graduate Fellow, and a PhD student in Economics at George Mason University. The ideas presented in this research are the authors' and do not represent official positions of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Hayek, Arrow, and the Problems of Democratic Decision-Making* Abstract: Both Hayek and Arrow provide arguments about the inability of the vote process to yield a coherent social choice. Hayek demonstrated that planning is incompatible with democracy; its coherence requires dictatorship. Arrow demonstrated that voting fails to produce rational social choices; social rationality can be assured only when there is a single will.
    [Show full text]
  • Post-War Reconstruction and Development in the Golden Age of Capitalism
    Chapter II Post-war reconstruction and development in the Golden Age of Capitalism Key messages • The World Economic and Social Survey was an early proponent of development as a process of large-scale struc- tural and institutional change for the promotion of high standards of living, full employment and social progress. Starting from the first edition, issued in January 1948, the Survey recognized the need for coordinated interna- tional action to accelerate economic growth, facilitate the cross-border flow of goods and services and support effective utilization of resources in the context of an expanding and integrated world economy. • The expansion of international trade and a functioning payments system were recognized as two critical factors for development in the post-Second World War period. However, large fluctuations in commodity prices and, cor- respondingly, in foreign exchange earnings were a source of economic instability for many developing countries back then and this has continued to be the case right up to the present. • In the 1950s, the flexibility that European countries were afforded in meeting their International Monetary Fund- related obligations enabled the successful creation of the multilateral international payments system. Six years after the initial commitment, most Western Europe countries had eliminated foreign exchange restrictions and established current account convertibility. A similar flexibility in debt negotiations was important for the facilita- tion of a rapid recovery in Europe in the post-Second World War period as well as in Latin America in the 1930s. • International solidarity has played an important role in development and reconstruction. Western European countries received resources equivalent to 1 per cent of the gross national product of the United States of Amer- ica in the period from 1948 to 1952 through the Marshall Plan.
    [Show full text]