The Tyranny of Experts

In his work of political nonfiction The Tyranny of Experts: Economists, Dictators, and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor (2014), William Easterly proposes that developed countries should leave third-world countries to develop at their own pace because otherwise, they risk supporting corrupt governments and continued poverty. Critics praise the book for exploring global poverty from a new angle. A professor of economics and the author of various acclaimed non-fiction books, Easterly’s work typically focuses on the effectiveness of foreign aid and the political economy of development. His experience working in developing countries has informed his research.

In The Tyranny of Experts, Easterly argues that the developed world approaches global poverty all wrong. He says that, typically, first-world countries see poverty in developing countries as a technical problem requiring expert oversight. We believe that, with the right expert assistance, developing countries can quickly fix their economic problems. The problem is that the solutions on offer are short-term and ineffective. They don’t empower third-world countries to develop themselves. In other words, the strategy for stimulating economic growth in developing countries leaves them entirely reliant on the developed world.

Easterly asserts that there is another problem with our first-world approach to solving global poverty, although it is probably more of an accidental oversight than a deliberate tactic. Our efforts in developing countries inadvertently give more power to the dictators and autocrats who control them. The first world empowers these people to exploit the poor under the guise of economic development because we do not promote responsibility and human rights.



What the developed world must do, Easterly says, is to promote the rights of the individual in these countries. Rather than focusing so much on large-scale economic development and infrastructural changes, we should empower the world’s poor to help themselves. Our developed world should promote democracy and the rights of the people to hold their governments to account. Otherwise, we are only allowing dictators to control their people—albeit with more money than before.

Easterly traces the history of international development and the fight against global poverty. He argues that the developed world is full of grand ideas and outcries for human rights, but none are implemented. He uses the example of impoverished Ugandan farmers thrown off their farmland by a British company financed by the World Bank. The real irony, Easterly says, is that the World Bank is designed to combat global poverty. What is worse is that the World Bank, and organizations like it, refuse to take responsibility for the injustices they’re causing.

Easterly then argues that the international development project exhibited fatal flaws from the outset. The main flaw stems from racism. When the white developed world first conceived international development, it did not believe in the rights of people of color to govern themselves. It clung to the idea that communities of color required Western oversight. International development, then, is based on a weak and broken foundation. It is no surprise that it is not working.



Worryingly, we do not learn from history. We have not devised a new solution to the international development problem. Instead, we rely on the same tactics used in an earlier racist era and expect them to somehow deliver fairer results. The developing world is not the problem. The first world is. Until we alter our approach, we are only compounding the same racist, autocratic failures that have flourished for centuries.

Easterly asserts that the developed world has a flawed sense of its own success in third-world countries. For example, in the introduction to Chapter Three, Easterly lays out the case for projects aimed at reducing child mortality rates in Ethiopia. He claims that project funders, including Bill Gates, believe that their healthcare initiatives single-handedly reduced child mortality rates over a five-year period. The reality is that we have no idea how effective these projects are because births, deaths, and causes of death aren’t recorded properly in Ethiopia. While the projects may do some good, it is inaccurate to say that they are entirely effective. This, Easterly argues, is the problem with the developed world—it likes good headlines, but these headlines often lack substance.

Easterly dedicates the final few chapters of the book to considering what the developed world can do to promote individual rights and true economic growth in the developing world. First, the developed world must empower poor countries to succeed. It must stop promoting autocracy, instead, allowing the people to shape their own future. Democracy must always be promoted.



Second, we must appreciate that ending material suffering is only part of the solution to ending global poverty. Although material suffering, such as hunger and homelessness, is painful to watch, we must remember that real progress takes time. We are all equal, which means that everyone deserves the right to promote his or her own wellbeing.

Finally, we should not allow ourselves to be misled by autocratic governments that essentially tell us anything to pretend they are doing a good job so they can remain in power. We should not ignore the evidence showing that life in these countries will never improve with autocrats in control.