Obstacles to the Right Development

Paper Summary:

This paper traces the root of the obstacles blocking economic development of many underdeveloped countries back to the Bretton Woods agreement. The paper argues that as a result of this agreement, many of the war-torn countries that needed to rebuild themselves after World War II were, compared to the industrialized nations, at an automatic disadvantage because of their relatively lower productivity and sometimes non-existent infrastructures. The paper also suggests that this automatic disadvantage has had a lasting legacy and that the U.N. and the international bodies that came out of the Bretton Woods agreement still create obstacles to economic development for less developed nations. The paper also takes a look at the consequences of an imbalance in opportunities for economic development and concludes that in order to close the gap between wealthy and poor nations, a more sociologically and ethically based approach to global governance is required.

Introduction
The Bretton Woods Legacy
All Pigs are Not Equal
Current Contributions to the Rich-Poor Gap of Nations
Consequences of Inequality of Wealth for the "Right to Development"
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"Had it not been for the Great Depression (beginning in 1929) and World War II (1939-1945), there might have been no Bretton Woods Conference, no International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the World Bank) no International Monetary Fund. Nor would there have been, arguably, the current divergence between rich nations and poor, or at least, the gulf might not have been so deep and so well-defined. The "destruction caused by war and the money nations spent fighting it" harmed most of the European and Asian economies, leaving only the United States, among industrialized nations, not in need of rebuilding its infrastructure or its economy (Earth Explorer, 1995). Now, however, it seems there is economic destruction of another kind, founded in an imbalance of payments and opportunity that has resulted in virtual negation of the Right to Development that would appear to be a legitimate claim of any nation."

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