Doing Bad by Doing Good: Why Humanitarian Action Fails

Christopher J Coyne

May 2013 · Stanford University Press

About this ebook

An economics-focused analysis of why humanitarian relief efforts fail and how they can be remedied.

In 2010, Haiti was ravaged by a brutal earthquake that affected the lives of millions. The call to assist those in need was heard around the globe. Yet two years later humanitarian efforts led by governments and NGOs have largely failed. Resources are not reaching the needy due to bureaucratic red tape, and many assets have been squandered. How can efforts intended to help the suffering fail so badly? In this timely and provocative book, Christopher J. Coyne uses the economic way of thinking to explain why this and other humanitarian efforts that intend to do good end up doing nothing or causing harm.

In addition to Haiti, Coyne considers a wide range of interventions. He explains why the US government was ineffective following Hurricane Katrina, why the international humanitarian push to remove Muammar Gaddafi in Libya may very well end up causing more problems than prosperity, and why decades of efforts to respond to crises and foster development around the world have resulted in repeated failures.

In place of the dominant approach to state-led humanitarian action, this book offers a bold alternative, focused on establishing an environment of economic freedom. If we are willing to experiment with aid—asking questions about how to foster development as a process of societal discovery, or how else we might engage the private sector, for instance—we increase the range of alternatives to help people and empower them to improve their communities. Anyone concerned with and dedicated to alleviating human suffering in the short term or for the long haul, from policymakers and activists to scholars, will find this book to be an insightful and provocative reframing of humanitarian action.

Praise for Doing Bad by Doing Good

“Coyne is to be congratulated for a book that strongly calls into question the conventional wisdom that we must look first to government to accomplish humanitarian ends.” —George Leef, Regulation Magazine

“Coyne attempts to explain why conventional approaches to humanitarian aid and longer-term economic development have failed miserably . . . . Recommended.” —M. Q. Dao, Choice

“Coyne offers a classic neo-liberal economic analysis to explain why the humanitarian project in its current state is doomed.” —Zoe Cormack, Times Literary Supplement

Ratings and reviews

Utilizing the language of economics, Christopher Coyne makes a series of compelling arguments against humanitarianism's taken-for-granted assumptions. In particular, via some interesting examples, Coyne challenges the implicit (and sometimes explicit) assumption that top-down planning is an effective approach. Noting the many challenges (both direct and indirect) that top-down planning creates by removing the 'central role of individual discovery to economic progress'. Overall, this book is an empowering view of the challenges of the current status quo, and what we can do as a society to improve our apaches to development. This should be a must-read to any and every individual who is interested in humanitarianism; however, the astute reader will also note some valuable lessons in economics, leadership, and inclusion, regardless of their personal relationship with the 'development economy'.

About the author

Christopher J. Coyne is the F.A. Harper Professor of Economics at George Mason University and the Associate Director of the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center. He is the author of After War: The Political Economy of Exporting Democracy , coauthor of Media, Development, and Institutional Change, and coeditor of The Handbook on the Political Economy of War.