A modern classic that should be obligatory reading - Rated 
The discussion on economic political systems has all too often been between neo-liberals and marxists, with the former completely carrying the day over the last 20 years, and narrowmindedly dismissing any criticism of any neo-liberal model as "Marxist" and subjective (like a previous reviewer has done here as well). This has been problematic for people like myself, who has no "Marxist" sympathies, but is convinced that the solution for economic development (based on the market!) for poor countries lies not in the uncritical adoption of the market, but in regulating the market for the maximum social benefit. As the world has now entered a global financial crisis, this book is even more relevant, as well as underlining Mr. Ha-Joon Chang's great analytical skills.
The book attacks all the pillars of neo-liberal economic ideology, from privatization, trade liberalisation to IPR. He does not do this advocating that the free market should be destroyed, but mainly advocates against the neo-liberal assumptions that the market alone can create economic weight. Pointing to experience rather than the theory, he outlines all the hypocrisies of (western) neo-liberal economists (the so-called "bad samaritans"), whose advice to developing countries runs counter to the experience of the rich countries, who are rich exactly by NOT following any of the neo-liberal principles!
This book is truly a modern classic, not only because of the strength of its message (it is not the first book written on the subject), but also because it is written in a simple and clear language, with outstanding use of examples and allegories. You don't need to be an economics major to understand the book, something that is very imporant, as Mr. Ha-Joon Chang with this book makes economic common sense accessible to everyone, beyond the neo-liberal economic high priests of our time!
Must-read book on economics - Rated
In this brilliant book, Ha-Joon Chang, Assistant Director of Development Studies at Cambridge University, asks how rich countries became rich, whether free trade is the answer, whether countries should regulate foreign investment, whether private enterprise is always good and public enterprise always bad, whether it is wrong to borrow ideas, whether financial prudence can go too far, whether we should shun corrupt and undemocratic countries, whether some cultures are incapable of economic development, and whether things can get better.
Neo-liberal globalisation - de-regulation, privatisation and liberalised finance, trade and investment - has cut growth, equality and stability. In the 1960s and 1970s, the developing countries grew 3% per head, twice as much as in the years since 1980. In the period 1945-71, before the global financial market was liberalised, the developing countries had no banking crises and just 16 currency crises. In the period 1971-97, after liberalisation, they had 17 banking crises and 57 currency crises.
Some claim South Korea's growth proves the free market's virtues. Its income per head multiplied by 14 between 1963 and 2007; it took the USA 150 years to do this. Yet South Korea's government nurtured new industries through tariff protection and subsidies; it discriminated against foreign investors; and, since it owned the banks, it directed credit into promising firms. The resulting improved industrial production, not the market, was the key to its development.
The policies that the USA used to develop its economy are what we all need now to beat the slump: to direct investment into strategic industries, impose selective protective tariffs and import bans, provide prizes and patents for inventions, impose export bans on key industrial inputs, allow tariff rebates on imports of key industrial inputs, regulate product standards, develop transport infrastructure (especially railways), subsidise innovations, control foreign investment, relax intellectual property rights, adopt good technologies from abroad, impose local content requirements, and insist that foreign investors transfer their technologies.
Chang sums up, "History has repeatedly shown that the single most important thing that distinguishes rich countries from poor ones is basically their higher capabilities in manufacturing, where productivity is generally higher, and, more importantly, where productivity tends to (although does not always) grow faster than in agriculture or services."
Extremely interesting and useful volume, with one doubt - Rated 
I much enjoyed reading this highly informative book. The 'Bad Samaritans' are those neo-liberals who are apparently promoting and sometimes forcing poor and middle-income economies to adopt policies which, argues the author, have not been successful in stimulating growth and development. Instead, such countries should follow the examples from the past of the current crop of rich countries and use protectionism, subsidies, regulation and other government interventions, at least until they become richer and maybe beyond.
Occasionally I wonder if Chang has set up straw men as his Bad Samaritans, and ideologues who don't exist in reality. But in general he makes a good case, with a deep understanding of history and shows how some current rich world policymakers are either hypocrits, or are deceiving themselves with their own misreading of history. He makes clear that the Bad Samaritans have a tendency to rewrite history to suit their own current ideologies.
Recommended for all students of economic development, economic history and policy.
Brilliant - Rated
Bad Samaritans is a more personal and more polemical book than Ha-Joon Chang's earlier Kicking Away the Ladder, but it is still very restrained compared to most "anti-globalisation" books, and far more effective. Chang is not properly opposed to trade and markets as such, but merely argues that the current economic policies supported by the IMF and wealthy countries are hindering development and creating poverty. He bases this view not only on his very rigorous research into comparative development over his years as an economics professor, but also on his direct experience of his native South Korea's development.
Chang's brilliant riposte to Thomas L. Friedman, in the chapter "The Lexus and the Olive Tree Revisited" is worth more than the very modest cost of the book on its own. While the economics is spot-on, and very well informed, the style is easy to read, and just right for the general reader.
Another excellent economics book by Chang - Rated
Bad Samaritans is a more personal and more polemical book than Ha-Joon Chang's earlier Kicking Away the Ladder, but it is still very restrained compared to most "anti-globalisation" books, and far more effective. Chang is not properly opposed to trade and markets as such, but merely argues that the current economic policies supported by the IMF and wealthy countries are hindering development and creating poverty. He bases this view not only on his very rigorous research into comparative development over his years as an economics professor, but also on his direct experience of his native South Korea's development.
Chang's brilliant riposte to Thomas L. Friedman, in the chapter "The Lexus and the Olive Tree Revisited" is worth more than the very modest cost of the book on its own. While the economics is spot-on, and very well informed, the style is easy to read, and just right for the general reader.
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