How Reforms Should Be Passed: Albert Hirschman's Legacy

Well-known as a pioneer of economic development, Albert O. Hirschman has been the flag-bearer of possibilism and reform-mongering in political science. How Reforms Should Be Passed is an anthology of texts chosen personally by Hirschman on the latter production line--as he was to call it informally--that is rooted in his long and quasi-exclusive concern for development and Latin America. Key essays on the formation and the evolution of Hirschman's point of view on the subject are collected: from Ideologies of Economic Development in Latin America to Journeys (and later A Return Journey) on policy-making; from Obstacles to the Perception of Change to The Search for Paradigms as a Hindrance to Understanding. They show an extraordinary turn of the mind in the making that will be very useful for the United States and the developed world as well--as the final texts of the book on democracy and Europe (Italy, Germany and France) bear out. This book represents a unique opportunity for becoming familiar with many original and perceptive lenses provided by Hirschman to look at the world we live in, and especially to favor social change--focusing (first of all) on the cultural and political side of the matter.