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Thursday, January 19, 2006

What is wrong with Bolivia? 

What is wrong with Bolivia?: "James Surowiecki writes: Neoliberalism failed in Bolivia because a macroeconomic checklist is not enough to make an economy work. Incorporating a new business in Bolivia, for instance, takes fifty-nine days, entails fifteen separate procedures, and costs twice as much as the average person earns in a year. So, according to a recent World Bank study, most of Bolivia’s businesses remain “informal,” which means that they have no legal protection, and limited access to credit markets. Corruption is rampant—a survey in 2000 found that it was a greater problem in Bolivia than in about ninety-five per cent of other countries surveyed. And the state bureaucracy has been more interested in patronage and clientelism than in good policy. Even if Bolivia got the big picture right, it got the details all wrong. And it’s increasingly clear that when it comes to development God really is in the details. A country’s history, institutions, and power structures have a profound impact on whether reform can work. "

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