World on Fire

1. How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability World on Fire Amy Chua Presentation by: Meredith Adams-Blaze Anti-Americanism 4/20/10

2. Main Focus • Thesis:“The global spread of markets and democracy is a principal, aggravating cause of group hatred and ethnic violence throughout the non-Western world.” (pg. 9) • Taboo Phenomenon: Market-dominant Minorities • Anti-Americanism: How it relates

3. Thesis • Amy Chua’s thesis suggests an “explosive” relationship between: • Free Markets • Democratization • Anti-Ethnic Backlash Within developing nations, the sudden introduction of free markets and democracy can have disastrous consequences…

4. Why? • Instead of closing wealth gaps, unregulated free markets tend to enlarge them. • Market Liberalization can exacerbate minority control over the economy, which can lead to resentment from the “indigenous” majority . • Democratization provides incentives for demagogues to target minority groups.

5. Taboo Phenomenon • Market-dominant Minorities • Chua defines as: “ethnic minorities who, for widely varying reasons, tend under market conditions to dominate economically, often to a startling extent, the “indigenous” majorities around them.” (pg. 6) An example of MDM from Chua: “Chinese minority in Indonesia make up 3% of the population, but control roughly 70% of Indonesia’s private economy.” (pg. 28) *Chua writes “Market-dominant minorities are the Achilles heel of free market democracy. In societies with a market-dominant minority, markets and democracy favor not just different people, or different classes, but different ethnic groups.” (pg.6)

6. America as a Market-dominant Minority? • Chua suggests that America has become the world’s market-dominant minority: • “Just 4% of the world’s population, America dominates every aspect --- financial, cultural, technological --- of the global free markets we have come to symbolize.” (pg. 230)

7. 3 Forms of Market-dominant Minority Backlash (mostly from impoverished majority) 1. Backlash against markets, targeting MDM’s wealth. (ex. Zimbabwe Pres. Mugabe; white-farmers’ land seizures) 2. Backlash against democracy, resentment and (sometimes) violent attacks on political officials who support MDM. (ex.“Crony capitalism”) 3. Violence, sometimes genocidal against MDM. (ex. Croatians in Yugoslavia & Tutsis in Rwanda) * Chua suggests that the attacks on Sept. 11,2001 were a “backlash” to America as a MDM.

8. Globalization & Anti-Americanism • Globalization has a political dimension, usually American-led worldwide promotion of free elections & democratization. • Chua touches on the benefits of globalization and the spread of democracy, but seems to disagree that the “spread of open markets and democracy would rid the world of the “backward” aspects of underdevelopment (e.g. ethnic hatred, extremist fundamentalism).” (pg. 123) • Chua writes: “Since 1989, the world has seen the proliferation of ethnic conflict, the rise of militant Islam, and the intensification of group hatred.”

9. Cont’d • American market dominance provokes intense resentment in many countries around the world, particularly in developing nations where our form of democracy is exported. • Americans are often accused of being “greedy,” “selfish," and ungenerous, esp. due to our great wealth.

10. Export a Different Version • Chua emphasizes that there are other forms of free market democracy… and the U.S. has been exporting the wrong kind. • No Western nation has a true laissez-faire system like the one that has been pushed on developing nations. • Democracy is not just about elections; it must also include human, minority, and constitutional rights.

11. Final Thought • Amy Chua claims she is not an anti-globalist, and she recognizes globalization is a force that cannot be stopped. But we do have to be careful on how we export our values; our democracy and free markets does not work for everyone. If we pay attention to this, anti-American sentiment could be minimized.