Amy Chua, "A World on the Edge"

Will democracy and the free market succeed in all parts of the world? Should they always be pursued? Do they always go together? Amy Chua poses these provocative questions in "AWorld on the Edge," an investigation into the relations, in many different countries, between economics, politics, and ethnic identity. A law professor who spent the early part of her career working in international business, Chua sees patterns of poverty, resentment, and violence emerging everywhere in the wake of globalization. Most observers hail the spread of democracy and capitalism as the start of a "new world order," but Chua offers a darker and more guarded view of such changes. Rather than usher in an era of greater wealth, opportunity, and freedom, the shift to open markets and popular elections has deepened long-standing conflicts among ethnic groups and nations. The results, Chua argues, are less stable and more volatile societies.

When Chua's aunt, a wealthy Chinese businesswoman living in the Philippines, was murdered by her Filipino chauffeur, the only motive listed on the police report was "revenge." In an effort to learn why her aunt was murdered and why "revenge" was identified as the official cause, Chua forced herself to look beyond her personal feelings about the brutal event. Her research led her to see the Philippines in a new light as a nation with a destitute majority of native Filipinos and a small minority of economically privileged ethnic Chinese. Then Chua began to recognize the parallels between the Philippines and other developing countries, where poor majorities live apart from the "market-dominant minorities."  

Ultimately Chua's investigation led her to conclude that globalization creates an economic system that may actually make things worse for almost everyone outside the prosperous, developed First World. In the face of this possibility, she has called for the market-dominant minorities-including the United States-to play a more active role in assisting those who have been left behind by the march of progress.  

In a revised form, the essay reprinted here was incorporated into Chua's book World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability (2003), which was a New York Times bestseller and was also named a Best Book of 2003 by The Economist. She is currently a professor at the Yale Law School.  

Chua, Amy. "A World on the Edge." Wilson Quarterly 26(4) (Autumn 2002): 62-78. Biographical information is drawn from Chua's Berkeley home page and from Saint Joseph College.
Digital image drawn from Amy Chua's home page at Yale Law School .

Link to Explore:

http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people4/Chua/chua-con0.html: An interview of Amy Chua entitled "The Myths of Globalization: Markets, Democracy and Ethnic Hatred." This interview is part of the "Conversations with History" series produced by UC Berkeley's Institute of International Studies.

Question for Learning:

• In this interview, Chua discusses her upbringing in a Chinese family from the Philippines and her subsequent experiences working in international law. Initially an advocate of free markets and privatization, she became sensitized, through her work in developing countries, to what she calls "the ethnic dimensions of capitalism." What effect does the "ethnic dimension" of capitalism tend to have on developing nations that are newly introduced to both free markets and democracy? How do Chua's own experiences factor into her analysis of globalization?

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Question for Connecting:

• In "Second Proms and Second Primaries: The Limits of Majority Rule," Lani Guinier writes about disadvantaged minorities in the United States, whereas Chua's focus in "AWorld on the Edge" is on minorities across the globe who enjoy enormous power and privilege. In spite of these differences, however, Guinier's critique of majority rule might help Chua to imagine another way to break the cycle of violence she describes in "A World on the Edge." Would the legislative changes of the kind Guinier proposes contribute to the protection of groups like the Chinese in the Philippines and Malaysia? How might these changes also benefit the native majorities?

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