Politics Against Poverty?: Global Pessimism and National Optimism

Summaries Is it politically feasible for the governments of developing countries to redistribute significant assets or income to the poor? There is a great deal of scepticism within international development circles. This scepticism is fuelled by widespread ideas about the political impact of globalisation and by the economistic ways of thinking about politics that are increasingly influential in international development organisations and aid agencies. This scepticism is not justified. Arguments about the political impact of globalisation are exaggerated. Economistic models of politics provide a biased account of the real politics of anti?poverty and lead to undue pessimism about the scope for poor country governments to tackle poverty by redistributing resources.