Reviews are listed alphabetically by authors.
Book Reviews
This volume consists of a collection of Professor
Bauer's papers, almost all of which have been published in substantially the same form during the
past two decades. The collection is organized into
three subdivisions of which the first is by far the
longest. Part I ("Ideology and Experience") surveys
Bauer's approach to a number of standard themes.
The doctrines of a "vicious circle of poverty" and of
"a widening gap" between rich and poor countries
are dismissed as lacking empirical foundation.
Foreign aid is treated as more likely to have a negative than a positive impact on legitimate development
efforts on the principal ground that international
transfers of resources should be undertaken on commercial terms if their utilization is to be effective.
But the harshest judgments are reserved for those
who hold that comprehensive planning has a useful
role to play in promoting economic improvement in
poor countries. Within Bauer's frame of reference,
significant intervention by the state in the allocation
of resources necessarily implies an unfortunate distortion in economic performance and invites socially
iniquitous coercion. These themes are further elaborated in Part II ("Case Studies") in which Bauer
resurrects some of his discussions of marketing
boards in West Africa and of India's balance of
payments. Part III ("Review Articles") is a compilation of Bauer's criticisms of the development literature of the 1950s and 1960s.
Those already familiar with Bauer's work will
find no surprises here. But there is one element of
novelty-or at least of heightened explicitness. In
the author's introductory gloss on these materials,
the reader is enlightened on some of the basic presuppositions which inform the approach. Why, Bauer
asks, are the standards of development economics so
"unduly low"? Part of the answer, he suggests, is to
be found in a "systematic bias" which "probably reflects the pursuit of unacknowledged objectives which
often have political or emotional bases" (p. 20). In
particular, he maintains, many of the opinion-makers
in the developed countries are people who "have
come so to dislike major institutions of western
society, especially the market economy and its corollaries such as private property, that they regard the
radical weakening of these institutions as a major
objective of policy" (p. 20). Such attitudes, in turn,
are allegedly re-enforced by the "operation of widespread feelings of guilt in contemporary western
society" (p. 21). It is further suggested that a factor
underlying the "emergence of these feelings of guilt
could well be the erosion of a sense of personal sin,
which in turn reflects both the de-emphasis of the
individual compared to the collectivity and of personal responsibility compared to environmental influences" (p. 22). Moreover, it appears that this
sense of guilt is necessarily the enemy of detached
analysis of the development process. Bauer writes:
"The obstacles to the adoption of technical reasoning
and the attitudes appropriate to it are accentuated
in this sphere by an overwhelming concern with
policy, even more intense and pervasive than in other
branches of economics. This concern is so intense that
it has lent a missionary and almost messianic tenor
to much of the discussion, which is inappropriate to
a technical subject" (p. 289).
While others may have faltered, Bauer makes
clear that his own faith is unshaken. Under his
stewardship, the doctrines of classical liberalism are
alive and well-at least as instruments for passing
judgment on the modem world and on other commentators on development economics. Bauer's writing has both the strengths and the weaknesses of
uncompromising consistency.
A venerable tradition, to be sure, underpins this
perspective in political economy. Nevertheless, the
form in which it is articulated in this volume is not
fully satisfying. The study of economic development
has moved some distance during the period in which
these essays were written. A number of the approaches which dominated discussion in the 1950s
have been recognized to be less than fully adequate
by some of the analysts who first recommended
them. Unfortunately, these shifts in the contours of
debate get little recognition from Bauer. Doggedness
runs the risks of being both repetitive and out-oftouch with the living reality.
845
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Bauer, P. T., Dissent on Development: Studies
and Debates in Development Economics,
Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1972,
550 pp. ($15.00)
846
/
Am. J. Agr. Econ.
BOOK REVIEWS
It is disappointing too that Bauer does not respond
more directly to the doubts of many economists
who do not share his faith. The position of those
who lack complete confidence in the alleged optimizing effects of uninhibited market forces in poor countries cannot be explained fully by the political and
emotional biases to which Bauer attaches such
weight. The concerns expressed in much of the recent
discussion about the significance of agrarian structures (in which production for exchange is far from
ubiquitous) and about the implications of the
post-war demographic explosion for poor countries largely escape his notice. Unhappily, the term
"debates" in the sub-title of this work is a misnomer.
WILLIAM
J.
BARBER
Wesleyan University
This book, a product of the Harvard Law School
International Tax Program, is a study which goes
well beyond law or even the bounds of conventional
public finance. It can best be described as the developmental political economy of land taxation. Its
geographic scope embraces all major regions in which
developing nations predominate, plus some historical
studies of land taxation in presently developed nations. In addition to this broad empirical base, the
book covers a broad frontage of theoretical analyses
and integrates the empirical and theoretical materials into a well-defined, yet comprehensive examination of tax policy issues.
Initially Bird identifies general issues related to
tax policy which are drawn from contemporary
economic development literature. He also demonstrates empirically the widening divergencies between
the tax policies recommended by development analysts, especially those of the two-sector model inclination, and what governments of developing
countries are actually doing. This sets the stage for
analysis of the varied structures of tax systems and
the reasons for administrative successes and failures
in meeting the objectives assigned to them. The
book then analyzes conceptually the incidence of
various types of taxes, their allocative and developmental effects, and the social and power relations
which are likely to affect land tax administration
systems under varying sets of assumed conditions.
In the concluding chapters the various aspects of the
analysis are brought to a focus in a general appraisal
of the strategies and possibilities of land taxation as
an instrument of economic development policy in
the social, political, and administrative context of
developing countries. This appraisal emphasizes the
potentials of land taxes as means to improve local
government services.
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Bird, Richard M., Taxing Agricultural Land in
Developing Countries, Cambridge, Harvard
University Press, 1914, xvi + 361 pp. ($14.50)
The thoroughness and scope of this study is remarkable in a volume of only 295 text pages. Its
thoroughness is indicated by the bibliography of
about 360 separate items. While only rudimentary
formal statistical material is presented to test specific hypotheses, an impressive quantity of evidence,
especially case analyses, is provided to show (a) that,
in general, agricultural taxes, and specifically land
taxes have declined in importance over time, (b) that
they have been ineffective substitutes for land tenure
reforms and other programs designed to redistribute
incomes and wealth, and (c) that with minor exceptions sophisticated systems based on an imperative
of extreme equitability and designed to serve multiple functions have generally failed.
The strength of this book is its success in isolating
and analyzing policy alternatives in this much neglected area of subject matter. It is made possible
because the author recognizes that meaningful policy
analysis must isolate and address itself to the strategic characteristics of the political, social, bureaucratic, and economic matrix of the problem situation.
The issue is the isolation of the best of severely restricted alternatives, not the development of theoretically ideal but unworkable programs. For example,
he opts for crude but workable systems based on
gross land classifications and land measurements
based on aerial photographs in cases where cadastral
surveys are expensive and time-consuming, revenues
in short supply, and administrative personnel overloaded. He leans heavily toward earmarking land
taxes for use in services needed by agriculture and
rural people especially at a local level to make them
politically more acceptable and administratively more
enforceable. But most of all he pleads for careful
analysis of the unique facets of each situation including the historical antecedents of politics, public administration, and tax policy which determine
available options.
The multifaceted analysis provided in this book
will provide opportunities for criticism by disciplinary specialists, especially economic theorists. Scope
in analysis has its price; but in this case the net
value of the study is immensely enhanced by its
broad problem-focused approach.
A format feature which virtually destroys the
value of extensive documentation and footnoted
qualifications of the author's arguments is the placement of all footnotes at the end of the entire text
where all but the most dedicated readers will pass
them by.
This reviewer has no reservation in recommending
the book for inclusion in personal libraries of agricultural development specialists and academic institutions, especially those with programs in public
finance, public administration, and economic development But it would be especially valuable to technical assistance agencies and indigenous agencies of
developing countries with responsibility for fiscal,
land, and agricultural development policy, an etIec-
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