7 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
Founding Prime Minister of Singapore (1959–1990) — who transformed a resource-poor city-state from a Third World backwater into one of the world's richest nations in a single generation — through authoritarian but effective governance, meritocracy, anti-corruption, and strategic thinking.
James C. Scott's 1998 argument that high-modernist state planning (Soviet collectivization, Le Corbusier urban planning, scientific forestry) systematically fails because it imposes legible, simplified order on the complex, tacit knowledge of local practice — and that the combination of authoritarian states, modernist ideology, and weak civil society is catastrophic.
David Landes's 1998 account of global economic development — arguing that cultural factors (curiosity, work ethic, property rights, rule of law) rather than geography explain why some nations are rich and others poor — the most prominent counter to Diamond's geographic determinism.
United Nations agency and world's largest humanitarian organization — delivering food assistance to 120+ million people annually in 80 countries — which won the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to combat hunger and improve conditions for peace.
Indian geneticist and agricultural scientist who led the introduction of Borlaug's high-yield wheat varieties into India — the central architect of India's Green Revolution that averted mass famine.
Joe Studwell's analysis of why some Asian economies (Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China) succeeded dramatically while others (Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand) stagnated — identifying the three policies that explain the difference.
British journalist and author who has written the most accessible and rigorous accounts of East Asian economic development — particularly How Asia Works (2013) and Asian Godfathers (2007).