Publisher's Synopsis
'After the fall of the Berlin wall, a consensus emerged that the magical combination of free markets and democracy would transform the world into a community of modernized, peace-loving nations, and individuals into civic-minded citizens and consumers. Ethnic hatred, religious zealotry, and other "backward" aspects of underdevelopment would be swept away.'In World on Fire, Amy Chua shows that just the opposite has happened. As global markets open, ethnic conflict worsens and democracy in developing nations turns ugly and violent. Examining the actual impact of economic globalisation across the world, Chua shows how free markets have concentrated disproportionate, often spectacular wealth in the hands of resented ethnic minorities. These 'market-dominant minorities' - from Chinese in Southeast Asia to Jews in post-Communist Russia, to, on a global scale, the US itself - invariably become targets of resentment and violence. Chua is not an anti-globalist. But she warns that, far from making the world a better place, democracy and capitalism - at least in the raw form in which they are currently being exported - are intensifying ethnic resentment and global violence, with potentially catastrophic results.
