The Struggle for Development and Democracy: A General Theory

In The Struggle for Development and Democracy Alessandro Olsaretti argues that we need significantly new theories of development and democracy to answer the problem posed by neoliberalism and the populist backlash, namely, uneven development and divisive politics heightened by the 9/11 attacks. This volume proposes a general theory of development and democracy, as part of a unified theory of power, emphasizing that development needs markets, civil society, and the state, and also the proper networks and interactions amongst markets, civil society, and the state. Imperialism undermines these interactions, and turns countries into providers of cheap land or labour. This book begins to sketch the mechanisms at work, and to answer one question: how did imperialist elites build their power?

All royalties from sales of this volume will go to GiveWell.org in honour of Alessandro Olsaretti's memory.

Alessandro Olsaretti, Ph.D. (2013), McGill University, was an independent researcher with expertise in sociology and databases. He has published in Critical Sociology, Historical Materialism, and the Journal of Classical Sociology. He also published a novel titled The Caravaggio Code. He died suddenly in Montreal in November 2023.