The Process of Economic Development- Book Review

James M. Cyper and James L. Dietz authors of the book The Process of Economic Development in its various editions. James is a Research Scholar at the Institute for Sustainable Prosperity and a Research Professor in the Doctoral Program in Development Studies (UAED) at the Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas (Mexico).  Dr. Cypher is an economist and specialist in Latin American Development. He is the co-author of Mexico’s Economic Dilemma (Rowman and Littlefield, 2010), and the author of State and Capital in Mexico (Westview, 1990). James Lowell Dietz is an American economics educator, and author. Recipient Outstanding Professor Award California State University School Business Administration and Economics, 1987. Member Association for Evolutionary Economics (board directors 1988-1991), Latin American Studies Association, Mystery Writers American.

From the book title, one could conclude that the author’s target audience and readers are interested in Economic systems development and studies. After reading the book carefully I believe that the book is not targeted to people higher than university students. In the various chapters, you find what economic development is about in general and how countries deal with allocating resources. Statistical math about measuring economic growth and person income. Colonialism’s power and its effect on the country in terms of developing political and economic policy and how the UK specifically exploited countries’ resources for its development and occupation plans for other countries. How colonialism power developed massive methods and techniques in economic policy by trial and error on occupied nations. The authors go through the economic theories with examples of applications coming from articles or organizational studies like the UN, World Bank, and academic publications. Theories include but are not limited to classical and neoclassical theories, heterodox theories, capitalism and neoliberalism, and many researcher’s publications on various theories of economics and studies. The role of the state in transformation and its required intervention. The stages of industrialization, as authors assume as per the research on Asian and non-European countries, and its characteristics and examples of applying some ideas of economic concepts in these countries. They jump into agriculture and its development in non-developed nations which has no connection to previous information. The authors of this book describe from research publications what is the role of population growth, education, and technology development in economic development. Finally, problems and issues in economics like foreign exchange regimes and its problems and how developing nations solved these problems. There is no specific audience for this book other than undergraduate students of economy, geography, and politics, and may be planners who want to obtain a full picture about countries economic system.

The book theme as the authors present is about the themes, concepts, and ideas of the economic process. The authors jump from idea to concept throughout this book to introduce in general how non-developed nations have applied them in the course of development if any. Most of the authors focus on Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America with no mention of the applications of these ideas in Western world countries. I did not read any specific integrated and linked process of economic development in this book and who applied it to reach the status of a developed nation.

The following quote is from chapter one and shows the contradiction of the presented ideas and quotes.

“The challenge is to try to discover how those nations that have been successful at fostering and sustaining economic growth and development have been able to do so by overcoming successive barriers to change and what might be learned from their experience”

There is no process of economic development and how the developed nations applied these theories and concepts in an integrated process. The authors presented this quote just to prove the supremacy of the Western world and developed nations in Europe, the UK, and the USA and did not want to present any data and information for the developing countries to benefit from.  

Another quote from this book in chapter 10

“No nation can or should attempt to duplicate the success story of any other. Nations have been able to build on the accomplishment of other nations …. etc.”

In chapter 10 the authors present a graph of two comparative flows and stages of industrialization between Asia the Middle East and Latin America and stressed that this is not a blueprint to follow for industrialization.

Poverty, Income, barriers to development, and country wealth are all economic themes related to funds. Colonialism’s goal is extracting funds for its various purposes, and theories of the economy are related to solving economic defects related to the first themes and they are solved through obtaining funds. Industrialization stages cannot be achieved only by proper use of funds. State intervention to correct market failure is about funds to do so. Economic growth by improving education, technology, human capital, and controlling population growth is through funds. Developing agriculture, cultivation methods, and crop production amount through research is through funds. How to use FDI, and TNC to bring continuous benefit to the country is about generating funds. Foreign exchange regimes and stabilizing a country’s economy are the effective use of funds. How to borrow from abroad and when from funding organizations like IMF and World Bank, forging aid is about where to locate funds to generate benefit continuously. So the book’s theme as a reader is not as the authors mentioned but it’s centered on the state control to bring funds and direct and locate funds with the private sector to achieve continuous economic growth.

The book’s preface does not give a clear picture of the content of the book. The authors jumped from idea to idea related to an economy without any connection between them. The preface is not connected to the book content by any means. The preface talks about world publication and the author’s reanalysis of the process of economic development. The use of Washington consense and the problem of poverty. The absence of several materials in the book themes was one of the major book publications. The authors included in the preface that the book is designed around understanding how that “process” of economic development took place and how other economies might follow suit (where the economic process does not exist within the pages of the book). They stress again that there is hope, and building on hope and moving forward is what this book is all about. The preface includes various concepts and ideas that contradict each other and are not relevant to the book’s content.

The Process of Economic Development is a book about practice and provides themes, concepts, and ideas to students with undergraduate degrees in geography, economy, and politics. The book presents overwhelming information on economic ideas chopped from other countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America applied successfully to improve country economic defects. These ideas are presented for educational purposes, and the related person might use them in practice if it fits the country context.

The preface does not give a brief on the book’s content and in reading this book carefully I found that the book chapters do not present the process of economic development. The authors did not present where the process of economic development existed or who planned it or achieved it. Since the process of economic development is not presented in the book the chapters may appear to be highly relevant and connected. Here I present the book chapter’s concept in sequence first authors talk about geographic data such as income per capita, population growth, poverty, and so on. They have gone into detail on the subject of colonialism and its role in exploiting occupied countries’ resources to develop their policies and economic techniques for future use. Theories, methods, economic models, and their roles in solving economic defects in countries of applications. Industrialization stages and characteristics where it was operating and countries who succeeded in achieving economic progress. The key factors that affect economic growth such as human and physical capital and R&D. The role of state and intervention in economic development. Developing agriculture and developing methods of production and funding agricultural research. How to improve the key factors that affect economic growth. How countries use FDI, and TNC to improve the country economy. Foreign exchange regime, problems, and resolutions. Borrowing from international financial organizations like the IMF, and World Bank, forging aid, and where to locate these funds to generate economic benefit and progress. As mentioned earlier ideas are scattered and not connected.

The authors indicated they have reanalyzed the economic process based on updated and modern research and studies presented by world organizations such as the IMF, and the World Bank. Adding to that latest scientific research in the field of economic development and book publications. The authors have put massive efforts into collecting information and data from various places and every chapter is supplied with a large amount of articles, books, references, and many illustrative figures and tables prepared by the World Bank. Every chapter includes notes describing specific matters in the book at the end and questions for practice.

The book content does not reflect the book title though many themes and ideas are directly linked to the subject of the book. The authors designed the book content table to fit all chapter’s concepts and ideas.

Many readers ask why you read this book. And what are you looking for?

Since I graduated with a post-graduate degree in urban planning, I am looking for development opportunities. Do various professions affect the way they look for development opportunities? Yes, development does not mean the urban design and architecture of mega projects but might be locating training courses in Six Sigma to managerial professions in the car industry professionals. So, every geographer, economist, politician, architect, urban designer, and historian looks into opportunities for development from his perspective. Not all development projects lead to the construction of buildings or homes. The process of economic development makes architects and urban designers the role of funds in moving the economy forward and when the funds might have a direct link to an urban development project of housing, commercial, industrial, or recreational project. Architects and urban designers need to look at the country’s wealth, the country’s needs for specific urban development projects, and the government’s political direction and plans for development.

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