Economic Development, Social Order, and World Politics

Based on methodological individualism and a public-choice approach to social theory—and sure to stimulate considerable debate—this book analyzes the interdependence of economic development, social order, and interstate conflict. Weede contrasts the rise of the West over the past 500 years with the stagnation in the great Asian civilizations, arguing that political constraints on Western rulers allowed the conditions of prosperity, i.e., law and liberty, to develop. Now, however, the West suffers a slow erosion of individual liberty and enterprise caused by an expansion of collective decisionmaking, rent seeking, and the welfare state, while the dynamic, growing East Asian societies increasingly hold individuals responsible for the consequences of their actions. Capitalism, Weede avows, is a prerequisite of democracy; and free trade promotes the global diffusion of capitalism and, ultimately, of democracy and democratic peace. Nevertheless, special interest groups within Western society enforce misguided policies—policies that simultaneously undermine democracy, Western economic primacy, and a "peace by trade" strategy that would be promising if only the West were capable of executing it.