Wars, Guns, and Votes by Paul Collier

Title: Wars, Guns, and Votes Democracy in Dangerous Places
Author: Paul Collier
Type: Non-Fiction
Genre: Economic and Political Development
Series: No
Copyright: 2009
Publisher: Harper
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Summary: from Good Reads. 
Wars, Guns, and Votes, Paul Collier investigates the violence and poverty in the small, remote countries at the lowest level of the world economy. An esteemed economist and a foremost authority on developing countries, Collier argues that the spread of elections and peace settlements in the world's most dangerous countries may lead to a brave new democratic world. In the meantime, though, nasty and long civil wars, military coups, and failing economies are the order of the day--for now and into the foreseeable future.

Through innovative research and astute analysis, Collier gives an eye-opening assessment of the ethnic divisions and insecurites in the developing countries of Africa, Latin America, and Asia, where corruption is often firmly rooted in the body politic. There have been many policy failures by the United States and other developed countries since the end of the Cold War, especially the reliance on preemptive military intervention. But Collier insists that these problems can and will be rectified. He persuasively outlines what must be done to bring peace and stability: the international community must intervene through aid, democracy building, and a very limited amount of force.

Groundbreaking and provocative, Wars, Guns, and Votes is a passionate and convincing argument for the peaceful development of the most volatile places on earth.

Feelings: 

Paul Collier does very interesting research and what he puts forward in this book as well as The Bottom Billion are very good ideas for moving forward and trying to help those that are suck in the bottom in a cycle of poverty and living in a very poor country. 

This book took me a very long time to read for a couple of reasons: 1. His writing style seems to tell a lot about how he went about organizing his research assistants and getting the information he needed which I just don't find all that interesting. If I was the research assistant mentioned I would be honored but it seems to take up space in the book. 2. While he has ideas worth putting into action it is hard to find these ideas as they are often burred in other text.

This book addresses what we as developed countries can do to help those countries in the bottom billion and what countries in the bottom billion can do to help themselves. We have to look at power and how it effects those who have it. Is there anything that can be done to limit power and have checks and balances? What can we in the developed countries to to help the bottom billion countries not have corrupt leadership that drains the budgets?

The fundamental mistake of our approach to state building has been to forget that well-functioning states are built not just on shared interests but on shared identity. Shared identity does not grow out of the soil; it is politically constructed. It is the task of political leadership to forge it. (p.9)

 In the west we need to think about where aid dollars are going and if there is a way we can get them were they are needed without having it free up budget dollars that end up going to the military. How can we help create security in countries of the bottom billion? 

In fact, democracy had the opposite effect in poor countries to that in rich countries. ... We found that in countries that were at least at middle-income levels, democracy systematically reduced the risk of political violence. ... But in low-income countries, democracy made the society more dangerous. ... Democracies get safer as income rises, whereas autocracies get more dangerous. (p.20-21)

To offset the dangerous effects of democracy a country must have a per capita income of about $2,700 a year or $7 a day (p.21). This is a very interesting finding and one that should tell us a great deal about our efforts to use elections as a solve all for problems in the third world. 

This is just a small sample of what is included in the book. It is full of such insights. Without summarizing the entire book and having a very long list of what Paul Collier suggest it is hard to cover everything. My suggestion is slog through the extras and get to the points they are important for the successful development of the bottom billion.

If you could just read the meat of this book and skip the other parts this would be a very good book. I recommend this book to those that have read The Bottom Billion and enjoyed that. In many ways this book carries on the ideas started in there. If you have not read The Bottom Billion I would recommend starting there.