Gerard McCarthy, "Outsourcing the Polity: Non-State Welfare, Inequality, and Resistance in Myanmar" (Cornell UP, 2023)
New Books in Economics
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Non-State Welfare and the Preference for Direct Aid
This chapter explores the reasons behind the preference for non-state welfare in Myanmar, focusing on the practice of bypassing the state and directly providing aid to affected communities during natural disasters. It discusses concerns of inefficiency and resource loss, as well as the transformation of the volunteer and donor through human contact with the beneficiary. The chapter also delves into the collision between reliance on voluntary action and Buddhist concepts of detached giving, as well as the tension between the dominant ethical framework around charity and the need for public goods provision through taxation.
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