Puncturing the world map

This narrative, how­ever, overlooks the forces that were at play already when these nations emer­ged and that would 50 years later end up draw­ing hard limits on what states could do

Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy

Author: Quinn Slobodian

Publisher: Metropolitan Books

Price: Rs 1,631

Pages: 337

The standard history of decolonisation runs something like this: In the middle of the last century, colonies emerged as sov­ereign nation-states, followed a “socialist” model of import substitution, recklessly mishandled the economy by relying on social welfare measures that bloated them up, and had to be disciplined by benevolent multilateral organisations through a package of reforms.
 

This narrative, how­ever, overlooks the forces that were at play already when these nations emer­ged and that would 50 years later end up draw­ing hard limits