商品簡介
The Western free-market model has been an environmental and social disaster for the developing world, says businessman and think-tank founder Chandran Nair. He makes the controversial case that only a strong central state can provide truly sustainable and equitable development.
For decades, the Western argument has been that the unfettered free market is the best vehicle for economic development and social progress. Instead, this sure-to-be-controversial book argues that a strong state with a willingness to manage the economy within resource constraints is central to the challenge of sustainable development. Only a state that can and will exert effective governance can place fair and reasonable limits on resource consumption (which is completely unrestrained in the free-market model), manage the expectations of its population, preserve ecological integrity, and ensure universal access to basic needs. This will mean rethinking the meaning of concepts like "prosperity," "freedom," and "rights," and whether Western-style democracy is the optimal form of government. This may make some in the developed world uncomfortable, but what Nair offers is a model suited to the realities of the developing world.
作者簡介
Chandran Nair is the founder and CEO of the Global Institute For Tomorrow, an independent pan-Asian think tank providing content-rich and intellectually challenging executive education from an Asian worldview. He was chairman of Environmental Resources Management in Asia Pacific until 2004, establishing the company as Asia's leading environmental consultancy. He is a regular speaker at global forums including the World Economic Forum, where he is a member of the Global Agenda Council on Governance for Sustainability, APEC Summits and OECD events. He has served as an adjunct professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore.
