Book Review: International Politics and Economics: Hemispheres North and South
| Published date | 01 June 1967 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206702200214 |
| Date | 01 June 1967 |
| Author | Hugh L. Keenleyside |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
314
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
HEMISPHERES
NORTH
AND
SOUTH.
Economic
Disparity
Among
Nations.
By
David
Horowitz.
1966.
(Baltimore:
Johns
Hopkins
Press.
Toronto:
Copp
Clark,
vii,
118pp.
$4.95)
During
the
past
few
years
in
Canada
much
has
been
written
and
said
about
international
aid-most
of
it
with
rather
optimistic
over-
tones.
As
a
result,
the
majority
of
literate
Canadians have
a
rather
hazy
impression
that
a
great
deal
is
being
done
to
assist the
people
of
the
underdeveloped
areas, and
that
in
those
countries
substantial
progress
is
being made.
Unhappily
this
euphoria
is
unjustified.
A
realistic
examination
of
what
is
happening
reveals
the
following
facts:
(1)
the
gap
between
the
rich
and
the
poor
nations
is
steadily
and
rather
rapidly
widening;
(2)
in
some of
the
underdeveloped
countries
no
recognizable
social
or
economic
progress
is
being
made;
(3)
in
general,
the
rate
of
progress
that
has
been
recorded
in
the
more
fortunate,
or more determined,
of
the
developing
countries
is
slowing
down;
(4)
every
year
since
1960
population growth
has
outpaced
the
rise
in
food
production,
and
during
that
time
the
number
of
illiterates
in
the
world
has
risen
by
over
200
million.
These
things
have
been
happening
in
the
1960s,
which
the
United
Nations
optimistically
decided
would
be
the
"Development
Decade"
It is
against
this
background
that
David
Horowitz
has
written
this
little
book
summarizing
what
its
subtitle
describes
as
the
"economic
disparity
among
nations"
Few
people
have
a
better
right to
claim
atten-
tion
for
their
ideas
on
the
problems
of
the
underdeveloped
countries.
As
the
immensely capable Governor
of
the
Bank
of
Israel
he
has
played
an
effective
part
in
the
economic
progress
of
that
heavily handicapped
country
As
one
of
the outstanding
participants
in
the
1964
United
Nations
Conference
on
Trade
and
Development,
in
Geneva,
his
"Horo-
witz
Proposal"
attracted
serious
attention
among
both
those
who
sought
to
limit
and
those
who
sought
to expand
the
scope
and
authority
of
the
Conference. His
arguments
were
too
shrewdly
devised
and
too
vigorously
stated
to
be
disregarded.
The
present
book
is a
compact
summary
of
the
case
for
massive
injections
of
capital into the programmes
for
economic
development
in
the
backward
areas
of
the
world. The
author
believes
that
such
an
expansion
of
aid
is
required
if
any
real
progress
is
to
be
made
towards
solving
the
political,
economic
and
social
problems
of
the
contemporary
world.
He
permits
no
doubt
as
to
the
obvious
capacity
of
the
wealthy
nations
to supply
assistance
on
the
scale
he proposes. He
has written
the
best
brief
argument
in
support
of
an
unanswerable
case.
There
is no
doubt
that
eventually
something
approximating
what
is
here
advocated
will
have
to
be done.
Anything
less,
or any
prolonged
delay
will
be
an
invitation
to
international
chaos,
with
all
the
dangers
that
would
attend
such
a
contingency.
It is
of
interest
to
note
that
Horowitz
was
influenced
in
the
choice
of
his
title
by
the
fact,
made plain
at
the
Geneva
Conference
in
1964,
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