Some developing countries, including Chile, Costa Rica, Singapore, and South Korea, have succeeded in improving the human development level of their population. But many others are still struggling with widespread illiteracy, poor health care, and low incomes. To understand why such wide differences in human development exist, Marc Lindenberg examines the countries with the best human development performance to see what the ingredients have been. Have they been characterized by high or low state spending on social services? Have they been the lucky beneficiaries of beneficial world economic cycles and well-endowed with natural resources, or have policies been more important? He looks not only at economic factors, but also at political factors. Have democracies or authoritarian systems been more successful at stimulating human development? In attempting to answer these questions, Lindenberg focuses his attention on six Central American countries. The most successful countries, Lindenberg discovers, are those that have used their policy tools wisely over long periods of time to invest in the well-being of their people. Such policy commitments have been possible only in countries that enjoy some measure of political stability. His conclusions offer sobering lessons to the many countries now attempting to pursue both economic and political liberalization. (Author abstract, modified)
