History, Historians and Development Policy
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
History…pb_BAYL000 05/08/2011 09:28 Page 1 What a wonderful book! This long-needed, impressive, and sophisticated volume is a must read for development analysts, who should know their economic history, and for economic historians, who should be motivated by modern development debates. POLICY DEVELOPMENT HISTORIANS HISTORY, Jeffrey G. Williamson, Harvard and Wisconsin, author of ‘Trade and Poverty: When the Third World Fell Behind’ HISTORY, History, historians and development policy: A necessary dialogue points to the clear fact that while the institutions necessary for development have complex histories, the development community's use of history has been selective, narrowly-focused, and often superficial. This book will hopefully open up new pathways to a serious interdisciplinary study of institutions. Francis Fukuyama, Stanford University, author of ‘The Origins of Political Order’ HISTORIANS This is a hugely important and valuable book. Historical experience, especially of successes both large and small, whether in (now) rich countries or poor, represents a rich seam of 'new' ideas on development, and yet it is all too often ignored by the mainstream. DEVELOPMENT Duncan Green, Head of Research, Oxfam UK History matters for development. This book is a thoughtful and long overdue exploration of the ways in which history – understood both as the past and methods for its interpretation – and historians can and should contribute to development. A set of engaging dialogues between practitioners of the two fields of POLICY A necessary study provide insights on how changing interpretations of history can upset assumptions held by those seeking to change the present. Development practitioners and donors should read this book. One hopes dialogue also that it will encourage historians to engage more actively in contemporary debates on development. Sarah Cook, Director, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development If history matters for understanding key development outcomes then surely historians should be active contributors to the debates informing these understandings. This volume integrates, for the first time, contributions from ten leading historians and seven policy advisors around the central development & issues of social protection, public health, public education and natural resource management. Where did the policy ideas underpinning these sectors come from? How did certain ideas, and not others, gain traction in shaping particular policy responses? How did the content and effectiveness of these responses vary across different countries, and indeed within them? Answering these questions requires incorporating historical sensibilities into development policy deliberations in ways that take seriously the Woolcock (eds) Woolcock Rao, Szreter, Bayly, importance of context, process, and contestation. Achieving this is not merely a matter of seeking to ‘know more’ about specific times, places and issues, but recognizing the distinctive ways in which historians rigorously assemble, analyze and interpret diverse forms of evidence. Doing so gives rise to policy conclusions rather different to those emerging from prevailing analytical approaches. This book will appeal to students and scholars in Development Studies, History, International Relations, Politics and Geography as well as policy makers and those working for or studying NGO’s. C.A. Bayly is Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History, and Fellow of St Catharine’s College, University of Cambridge. Vijayendra Rao is Lead Economist in the Development Research Group, World Bank. Simon Szreter is Professor of History and Public Policy, and Fellow of St John’s College, University of Cambridge. Michael Woolcock is Lead Social Development Specialist in the Development Research Group, World Bank. Map of the Kingdom of Bengal divided into its Provinces, (1764-65) by James Rennell. © Royal Geographical Society ISBN 978-0-7190-8577-2 C.A. Bayly, Vijayendra Rao, Simon Szreter, Michael Woolcock (eds) www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk Bayly 00_Tonra 01 21/06/2011 10:14 Page i History, historians and development policy Bayly 00_Tonra 01 21/06/2011 10:14 Page ii Bayly 00_Tonra 01 21/06/2011 10:14 Page iii History, historians and development policy A necessary dialogue Edited by C.A. Bayly, Vijayendra Rao, Simon Szreter and Michael Woolcock A joint product of Brooks World Poverty Institute, University of Manchester, Development Research Group, World Bank, and History & Policy, www.historyandpolicy.org Manchester University Press Manchester Bayly 00_Tonra 01 21/06/2011 10:14 Page iv Copyright © Manchester University Press 2011 This electronic version has been made freely available under a Creative Commons (CC-BY-NC- ND) licence, which permits non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction provided the author(s) and Manchester University Press are fully cited and no modifications or adaptations are made. Details of the licence can be viewed at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc- nd/4.0/ Published by Manchester University Press Altrincham Street, Manchester M1 7JA, UK www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for ISBN 978 07190 8576 5 hardback ISBN 978 07190 8577 2 paperback First published 2011 The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or any third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not gurantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Typeset by Helen Skelton, Brighton, UK Bayly 00_Tonra 01 21/06/2011 10:14 Page v Contents List of tables and figures page vii List of contributors ix Preface and acknowledgements xi Part I: Overview of key issues 1 How and why history matters for development policy 3 Michael Woolcock, Simon Szreter and Vijayendra Rao 2 Indigenous and colonial origins of comparative economic development: the case of colonial India and Africa 39 C. A. Bayly Commentary: History, time and temporality in development discourse 65 Uma Kothari Part II: Historical contributions to contemporary development policy issues Social protection 3 Social security as a developmental institution? The relative efficacy of poor relief provisions under the English Old Poor Law 75 Richard Smith 4 Historical lessons about contemporary social welfare: Chinese puzzles and global challenges 103 R. Bin Wong Commentary: Why might history matter for development policy? 117 Ravi Kanbur Bayly 00_Tonra 01 21/06/2011 10:14 Page vi Public health 5 Health in India since independence 125 Sunil S. Amrith 6 Health care policy for American Indians since the early 20th century 146 Stephen J. Kunitz Commentary: Can historians assist development policy-making, or just highlight its faults? 169 David Hall-Mathews Public education 7 The end of literacy: the growth and measurement of British public education since the early nineteenth century 177 David Vincent 8 The tools of transition: education and development in modern Southeast Asian history 193 Tim Harper Commentary: Remembering the forgetting in schooling 213 Lant Pritchett Natural resource management 9 Energy and natural resource dependency in Europe, 1600–1900 221 Paul Warde 10 Special rights in property: why modern African economies are dependent on mineral resources 243 Keith Breckenridge Commentary: Natural resources and development – which histories matter? 261 Mick Moore Index 269 Bayly 00_Tonra 01 21/06/2011 10:14 Page vii List of tables and figures Tables 3.1 The English share of European urban growth, 1600–1800 page 76 3.2 Howlet’s evidence on the urban-rural differential in the Poor Law’s financial incidence 84 Figures 9.1 Energy carrier share in total consumption, England and Wales, 1560–2000 230 9.2 Relative price of coal and firewood, London, 1560–1730 231 9.3 Labour and energy prices, southern England, 1560–1860 234 9.4 Per capita energy consumption, England and Wales, 1560–2000 235 Bayly 00_Tonra 01 21/06/2011 10:14 Page viii Bayly 00_Tonra 01 21/06/2011 10:14 Page ix List of contributors Sunil S. Amrith is Lecturer in History in the Department of History, Classics and Archeology at Birkbeck College, University of London. C. A. Bayly is Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History, and Fellow of St Catharine’s College, University of Cambridge. Keith Breckenridge is Associate Professor of History in the Department of History at the Howard College Campus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. David Hall-Mathews is Senior Lecturer in International Development in the School of Politics and International Studies at the University of Leeds. Tim Harper is Reader in History, and Fellow of Magdalene College, University of Cambridge. Ravi Kanbur is T. H. Lee Professor of World Affairs, International Professor of Applied Economics and Management, and Professor of Economics, Cornell University. Uma Kothari is Professor of Development Studies at the Institute of Development Policy and Management, University of Manchester. Stephen J. Kunitz is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Community & Preventive Medicine, University of Rochester School of Medicine. Mick Moore is Professorial Research Fellow at the Institute for Development Studies, Sussex. Lant Pritchett is Professor of the Practice of Economic Development at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Bayly 00_Tonra 01 21/06/2011 10:14 Page x x List of contributors