BOOKS IN BRIEF
Reviews by David Trawinski
How Nations Escape Poverty
by Rainer Zitelmann, copyright 2024
Encounter Books
212 Pages
Every so often, a title to be reviewed crosses the desk of the Polish American Journal that is different from all others and is a quick, innovative, and gripping read. Such is the case with this work of nonfiction and, given the current political season, we find ourselves in the middle of, it could not be timelier.
This is a truly international offering. It is a treatise written by a German Doctor of Philosophy (Zitelmann) based on the historical economic iconic work of a great Scotsman (Adam Smith and his “Wealth of Nations”) as validated by two of the most dramatic recoveries of the modern era in the countries of Vietnam and Poland.
Vietnam and Poland? One might wonder, What could these two economies from entirely different continents possibly have in common? The answer is much more than one might surmise on the surface.
The book is only 182 pages sans references and appendices, and even this truncated page count includes many graphs and bar charts of the economist’s findings. This makes it not only a quick read, but also an engrossing and engaging one. The four chapters (yes only four, although the two on the topic countries are expansive) are first a refresher of Adam Smith’s writings and beliefs on Economic Freedom, followed by the chapter entitled “Vietnam: Rise of the Dragon.” This, in turn, is followed by a chapter entitled “Poland: Rise of the White Eagle.” A brief chapter, “Conclusion,” closes out the work.
So, to answer our earlier question, what do Vietnam and Poland have in common that led to their dramatic economic recoveries? Zitelmann prefaces the answer to this with his documented evidence that the long history of Western Economic Aid to developing countries is not the way out of poverty, and indeed was not central to either of these two economic miracles. Western Economic Aid, he argues, only creates a further dependency on the contributing countries, and often comes with bureaucratic infrastructures that consumes most of the aid intended to help the needy, who generally remain in that same state of poverty.
Instead, Zitelmann looks at the common conditions under which Vietnam and Poland found themselves following devastating wars: The Indochina Wars against the French and later the U.S. and their allies from 1946 to the mid-seventies for Vietnam, and the massive conflict of World War II for Poland. Vietnam and Poland each emerged from these conflicts with tremendous loss of life and a crippling destruction of the battleground nations’ critical infrastructure. In both countries during these conflicts (and earlier in their long vaunted cultures’ histories) underground resistances were formed, and these legacies of resistance later served each country by evolving into burgeoning black markets as the economic ruination of socialist/communist planned economic policies decimated the lives of their peoples. The only real difference between the two recoveries is that Vietnam implemented their pro-capitalist policies within the structure of the ruling Communist state, while Poland implemented their “Miracle” by throwing off the shackles of Communism altogether.
Vietnam implemented their reforms of “Doi Moi” or “Innovation” that unchained capitalist tenets of freedom of business within the country in about the same period as the Russian experiment with Perestroika (Restructuring) and Glasnost (Openness) under Mikhail Gorbachev. Of course, the latter two Soviet initiatives led to the unraveling of Russian Communism just as political and economic freedom were being introduced in Poland after the Solidarity Movement gained power there. In both Poland and Vietnam, radical “shock” implementations of both agricultural and economic liberties soon fueled recoveries that quickly reversed the failures of failed Socialist Planned Economies.
Most interesting, the two countries, perhaps through their expansive networks of necessitated black markets, quickly embraced the re-introduction of capitalism. Unlike in much of the West, the author’s research shows “Capitalism” does not possess the negative connotations in either country. In fact, his research shows that even the word “Rich” pertains more to a goal to be attained, rather than being an insult attached to greed or insensitivity as it is often viewed in the west. The major conclusion is that despite the inequities that it admittedly creates, the implementation of Free Market Capitalism is the fastest method to raise nations from the plague of poverty.
This book is recent enough that it references the fall of the leadership of the PiS party in Poland to Donald Tusk’ coalition, so the reader will find it most interesting, especially given the choice our own country faces in the upcoming election. I recommend this read most highly.
