Bardhan P.: Awakening Giants, Feet of Clay: Assessing the Economic Rise of China and India Princeton University Press, Princeton, Oxford 2010, VII, 172 p., Hardback $24,95

摘要

Over the recent years a series of scientific works on China's and India's economic rise has been published. While a number of them focuses on the consequences of this phenomenon on the global economy, others analyzed its characteristics on the inside.Among the latter, Bardhan's book is certainly one of the most worth being reviewed. The author carries out an exercise of comparative political economy analyzing the long-term development issues of the two giants with the feet of clay, covering the lastthirty years. In particular, each chapter deals with a different issue. In the first chapter the path of growth and the characteristics of the economic reforms are analyzed. The second chapter focuses on small-scale agriculture, which represents a stillimportant and crowded sector in both countries. The third chapter sheds light on the differences in the quality and spread of infrastructure, underlying the progress of China and the delay of India, especially in power, highways, and railways. Even if China presents an advantage in terms of infrastructure, India has a more balanced and regulated financial system, as described in the fifth chapter. The next chapter depicts the extent of capitalism in the two countries; on the whole, the private sector prevails in the most part of both economies, but it is more powerful and autonomous in India. Finally, the last three chapters before final remarks pay attention to the sustainability of development in terms of poverty, economic and social inequality, and environment.