Review: International Economics: International Economic Disorder
| Published date | 01 December 1981 |
| Date | 01 December 1981 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070208103600411 |
| Author | George C. Abbott |
| Subject Matter | Review |
Reviews
INTERNATIONAL
ECONOMICS
INTERNATIONAL
ECONOMIC
DISORDER
Essays
in
North-South
relations
Gerald
K.
Helleiner
Toronto:
University
of
Toronto
Press,
1981,
Xii, 245PP,
$25.00
The
case
for
a
new
world
order
can
be
made
on
any
number
of
grounds.
This,
many argue,
is
precisely
the
problem.
What
it
lacks
in
bite
and
focus,
it
attempts
to
make
up
for
in
scatter.
Professor
Helleiner
adds
yet
another
dimension
to
the debate.
His
basic
premise
is
that
the
international
economy
is
in
disarray
and
disorder,
and
it
is
the
developing countries
which
stand
to
lose
most
from the
present
cha-
otic
state
of
affairs.
While
he
starts
from
a
different
perspective
he
ends
up
making
the
case,
rather
strongly one
should
add, for
a
new
order.
He
identifies
the
principal
causes
of
the
disorder
as
deriving
from
world
market
imperfections,
the
rise of
the
new
protectionism
in
the
developed countries, the
debt
problem, monetary reform,
transfer
of
technology, the
special
problems
of
the
poorest
countries,
and
the
aid
relationship.
Each of
these
issues
is
analysed
in
a
separate
chapter
and
held
together
somewhat uneasily
by
an
introductory chapter bearing
the
same
title
as
that
of
the book.
The
reason
for this
peculiar
ar-
rangement
is
simply
that
apart
from this
introductory
chapter
all
the
other
essays
in
this
collection
have already
appeared
elsewhere.
There
is
therefore
a
certain
unevenness which
on
balance detracts
from
the
coherence
and
totality
of
the
book.
The
essays
in
this
collection
are
written
with vigour
and
a
forth-
right
assessment
of
the
nature
of
international
economic
relations
and
power
politics.
Some
of
them
are
however
marred
by
an
inordinate
number
of
asides
and
parenthetical
statements
which
do
not
really
advance
the
central arguments.
The
theme
of
power
and/or
the
mis-
use
of
it
keeps
recurring, and
Professor
Helleiner
leaves
the
reader
in
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