From Poverty to Power: How Active Citizens and Effective States Can Change the World

by Duncan Green

The twenty-first century will be defined by the fight against the scourges of poverty, inequality, and the threat of environmental collapse–as the fight against slavery or for universal suffrage defined earlier eras.

From Poverty to Power argues that to break the cycle of poverty and inequality and to give poor people power over their own destinies a radical redistribution of power, opportunities, and assets is required. The two driving forces behind such a transformation are active citizens and effective states.

Why active citizenship? Because people living in poverty must have a voice in deciding their own destiny, fighting for rights and justice in their own society, and holding states and the private sector to account.

Why effective states? Because history shows that no country has prospered without a state structure than can actively manage the development process.

There is now an added urgency beyond the moral case for tackling poverty and inequality, we need to build a secure, fair, and sustainable world before climate change makes it impossible. This book argues that there is still time, provided leaders, organizations, and individuals act. Starting today…

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Economics, International Development

522 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Nathalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, I wanted to read this book already having thrown a glimpse on the first version a couple of years ago, but from which I found an updated version of 2012-'13 on the Oxfam website now. I got rather interested in it although the content was really vast. I wonder now what I grasped from it as a non-expert outsider but interested Belgian Oxfam volunteer. Green's insights deliver quite some information on poverty and power issues, and how these could be overcome by shared efforts from the international community as a whole, national governments, TNCs, the vast aid sector and above all the effected citizens or 'beneficiaries' themselves. For instance, a good comparison is given on three major analyses on aid by Jeffrey Sachs (End of Poverty), William Easterly (White Man's burden), and Paul Collier (Bottom billion). A lot of facts are given and in-depth analyzed. Green leaves open the question on how the world will go forward not without giving several plausible options but backs down from giving his own forecast. Maybe for the best, his updated version contains a reflection on the financial and food crises from 2008-2010 but it ends there without having had a clue of the several crises from the last years: from the vast immigration/asylum crises from these days in Europe, via the Greek situation to an analysis on health systems with regard to the Ebola crisis of last summer.I wonder if he will publish an update until 2015 to have some lessons learned from this period. I would still be interested although it was quite hard to wrestle myself through the different chapters. A good read but it might have been somewhat easier and shorter perhaps...

[Shabaana · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're looking for a book that will lay out the facts and tell you (most) of what you need to know about global poverty, then this is probably it. The author presents the problem of poverty of the reader in a clear and simple manner and covers a range of topics (the focus is range, rather than depth.

If you're looking for something a little more analytical, that offers some more tangible solutions, then perhaps go for a different book.

The book is quite chunky and could possibly have been condensed into a much smaller text.

[Oche-Malik · Rating 2 out of 5]

A catchy title that seduces the reader into expecting something inspiring. Instead, what you have is a collage of references to vast amounts of information which in lieu of buttressing points ends up distracting the mind. That said, there were still some interesting things to learn from the book about how the world works especially in trying to effect change but this is nothing you won't find out for yourself if you are curious about such subjects.

[Tim Budge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good primer for lots of development issues and presents lots of ideas and issues that I agree with. But I am not sure it actually achieves the aim of the sub-title to show how active citizens and effective states CAN change the world, this is presented more as a statement. Perhaps this will be in his next book.