Over the last century, global poverty has largely been viewed as a technical problem that merely requires the right expert" solutions. Yet all too often, experts recommend solutions that fix immediate problems without addressing the systemic political factors that created them in the first place. Further, they produce an accidental collusion with benevolent autocrats," leaving dictators with yet more power to violate the rights of the poor.In The Tyranny of Experts , economist William Easterly, bestselling author of The White Man's Burden , traces the history of the fight against global poverty, showing not only how these tactics have trampled the individual freedom of the world's poor, but how in doing so have suppressed a vital debate about an alternative approach to solving poverty: freedom. Presenting a wealth of cutting-edge economic research, Easterly argues that only a new model of development,one predicated on respect for the individual rights of people in developing countries, that understands that unchecked state power is the problem and not the solution ,will be capable of ending global poverty once and for all.

Author Biography

William Easterly is a professor of economics at New York University and a senior fellow at the centre for Global Development. He was a senior research economist at the World Bank for more than sixteen years. In addition to his academic work, he has written widely in recent years for the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Forbes, and Foreign Policy, among other prominent publications. He is the author of The White Man's Burden and The Elusive Quest for Growth and has worked in many areas of the developing world, most extensively in Africa, Latin America, and Russia.