Peter Noble

The Sustainable State Peter Noble

The free-market, small-government model has been an ecological and social disaster for the developing world. In this thought-provoking audiobook, Chandran Nair reframes the potential of strong interventionist governments in shaping the future, highlighting that the laissez-faire, industrialized Western model is not sustainable. The United States alone, with less than 5 percent of the world's population, consumes nearly a quarter of its resources. If countries in Asia, where 60 percent of the world's population lives, try to follow the Western lead, the results will be calamitous. To counter this juggernaut, Nair argues that equitable development is possible only with the involvement of an active and strong effective state that can guide the economy, protect the environment, and prioritize meeting its people's basic needs. This means rethinking the meaning of concepts like "prosperity," "freedom," and "rights," and whether democracy is a prerequisite to ensuring a responsive government. For Nair, the path toward a sustainable future, especially in the large developing nations of the world, in which everyone's basic needs--and thus rights--are met is achievable only if the institutions of the state are strong and not prone to capture by vested interests.