The Sustainable State: The Future of Government, Economy, and Society
Written by Chandran Nair
Narrated by Peter Noble
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
The free-market, limited-government development model has been an ecological and social disaster for the developing world. Sustainable and equitable development is only possible with the active involvement of a strong central state that can guide the economy, protect the environment, and prioritize meeting their people’s basic needs.
In this sure-to-be-controversial audiobook, Chandran Nair shows that the market-dominated model followed by the industrialized West is simply not scalable. The US alone, with less than five percent of the world’s population, consumes nearly a quarter of its resources. If countries in Asia, where 60 percent of the world’s population lives, try to follow the Western lead, the results will be calamitous....
Instead, Nair argues that development must be directed by a state that is willing and able to intervene in the economy. Corporations, which by design demand ever-expanding consumption, need to be directed toward meeting societal needs or otherwise restrained, not unleashed. Development has to be oriented toward the greatest good — clean drinking water for the many has to take precedence over swimming pools for the few. He provides three compelling case studies demonstrating the benefits of such strong state governance and the findings of weak state governance.
This will mean rethinking the meaning of concepts like “prosperity”, “freedom”, “rights”, and whether democracy is always the best way to ensure responsive government — as Nair writes, “A democracy that cannot work to improve the life of its citizens is not better than a non-democracy that can actually improve quality of life.” Many people will find these to be challenging ideas, but what Nair offers is a model suited to the realities of the developing world, not the assumptions of the dominant culture.
Chandran Nair
Chandran Nair is the founder of the Global Institute for Tomorrow, an independent social venture think tank dedicated to advancing understanding of the impacts of globalisation. He was chairman of Environmental Resources Management in Asia Pacific until 2004, establishing the company as Asia’s leading environmental consultancy. In addition to his work for GIFT and ERM, Chandran continues to provide strategic management advice and coaching to business leaders.
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