Pants on Fire

Amy Chua got a lot of ink earlier this year for her essay about motherhood, but since I'm perpetually behind the times, I'm just getting to her 2004 book about globalization, democracy, and market-dominant minorities. Chua asks here how it came to be that in many places around the globe small ethnic minorities came to have a disproportionally large share of the wealth--and to her credit, she mostly answers this question without sounding like a huge racist. She points to market liberalization and democratization as two major forces that can cause these disparities, but also as forces that allow for indigenous backlashes against their beneficiaries. In short, market liberalization can create huge sums of wealth for those in a position to take advantage of it, while simultaneous democratization can give the general population the tools to harshly punish market-dominant minorities (the rather unwieldy term she uses throughout the book). These forces can lead to persecution--and in extreme cases, even genocide--of those minorities with disproportionally large economic presence.

The first half of the book is Chua's description of market-dominant minorities in various cultures: the Chinese in southeast Asia, lighter skinned people in Latin America, Jews in Russia, and the market dominent ethnic groups of Africa, including those still benefitting from colonialist histories. In the second half of the book, she describes some of the atrocities that have arisen in combination with free markets and democratization.

What I thought was missing was a cogent analysis of how market-dominant ethnic minorities became so prevalent beyond some vague notions about cultural work-ethic. I would have liked to hear Chua talk more about relative educational opportunity, access to resources and capital, and to see more of an emphasis on colonialist heritage. In addition, while the problems that Chua identifies are certainly real, I'm not sure what alternative to democratization there is to believe in. Clearly, a rapidly democratizing society with extreme wealth imbalance does pose risks, but it's not palatable to suggest that the status quo is acceptable either. Surely we must be able to somehow encourage democratization while also mitigating the resentment that can be directed at market-dominant minorities.

It's a complex topic, and I think Chua's book would be stronger if it were about 100 pages longer, giving her appropriate space to reflect on some of the issues she raises in greater detail.