Book Review Sung-Hee Jwa, A General Theory of Economic Development: Towards a Capitalist Manifesto – A Critical Review Reviewed by Yong-Shik Lee, The Law and Development Institute, Atlanta, GA, USA, E-mail: yslee@lawanddevelopment.net https://doi.org/10.1515/ldr-2017-0036 1 Introduction The recent book by Professor Sung-Hee Jwa (hereinafter “the author”), “A General Theory of Economic Development: Toward a Capitalist Manifesto” 1 is an ambitious undertaking to present a “general theory of law and development” that explains the elusive mechanisms leading to economic development. The author presents three key institutions: corporations, mar- kets, and government for economic development (as he calls “the holy trinity of economic development”). In this theory, economic development is gener- ated from synergetic coordination among these three institutions. The author also introduces the term, “economic discrimination,” which refers to provid- ing selective incentives for superior economic performers (in the author’s expression, “treating differences differently”) to describe the main idea of this book. He argues that economic discrimination is essential for economic development, which is to be adopted by the three institutions, and warns against economic “egalitarianism” as a cause of economic stagnation. This essay offers a critical review of the book, starting with a summary of its content in the next section. 2 General theory of economic development The book is comprised of nine chapters, the main points of which are summar- ized herein. The author begins the book by explaining how conventional main- stream economics has failed to produce effective development policies due to unrealistic modeling and absence of a consensus on the theory for policy- 1 Sung-Hee Jwa, A General Theory of Economic Development: Towards a Capitalist Manifesto (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2017). Law Dev Rev 2017; 10(2): 643–657 Brought to you by | University of Florida Authenticated Download Date | 12/24/17 4:04 PM