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Books and resources to help you navigate the 2024 UK general election 

Refuge by Alexander Betts and Paul Collier

Refuge-snippet.jpg

Extracts

Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System

Politics After Individualism

Greed Is Dead

Two of the UK's leading economists call for an end to extreme individualism as the engine of prosperity 
 
'provocative but thought-provoking and nuanced' Telegraph 
 
Throughout history, successful societies have created institutions which channel both competition and co-operation to achieve complex goals of general benefit. These institutions make the difference between societies that thrive and those paralyzed by discord, the difference between prosperous and poor economies. Such societies are pluralist but their pluralism is disciplined. 
 
Successful societies are also rare and fragile. We could not have built modernity without the exceptional competitive and co-operative instincts of humans, but in recent decades the balance between these instincts has become dangerously skewed: mutuality has been undermined by an extreme individualism which has weakened co-operation and polarized our politics. 
 
Collier and Kay show how a reaffirmation of the values of mutuality could refresh and restore politics, business and the environments in which people live. Politics could reverse the moves to extremism and tribalism; businesses could replace the greed that has degraded corporate culture; the communities and decaying places that are home to many could overcome despondency and again be prosperous and purposeful. As the world emerges from an unprecedented crisis we have the chance to examine society afresh and build a politics beyond individualism.

this thoughtful polemic... is clear, punchy and... convincing... their breezy, no-nonsense guide is packed with excellent advice - a plea for expertise rather than feeling, for pragmatism rather than ideology and for listening rather than shouting.

Two of the most thoughtful economists writing today ... Collier and Kay are interesting on almost every subject they alight upon.

Written by two of the UK's best economists, the book attacks the solipsistic individualism that permeates modern economics and far too much of modern society. The book's animating idea is that humans are first and foremost social animals. Our successes always depend on co-operation. The authors apply this concept to our economic, social and political institutions, which can, they argue, only be revived by being seen as self-sustaining communities.

Their analysis is pitiless and compelling. This is a fine, incisive polemic.

In a provocative but thought-provoking and nuanced argument, Collier and Kay argue that our culture of hyper-centralisation is choking us.

The idea that people are basically driven by individualism and economic incentives, and that prosperity and good societies come from top-down leadership, has dominated politics for the last thirty years (from some perspectives, much longer). This book shows that the age of homo economicus and centralisation is coming to an end. Instead, Collier and Kay argue that community and mutuality will be the drivers of successful societies in the future - as they are already in some parts of the world. They show how politics can reverse the move to extremes of right and left in recent years, that the centre can hold, and that if we think differently we can find common ground to the benefit of all.

Facing the New Anxieties

The Future of Capitalism

*FEATURED IN BILL GATES'S 2019 SUMMER READING RECOMMENDATIONS* 
 
'This is a beautifully written and important book. Read it' Martin Wolf, Financial Times 
 
From world-renowned economist Paul Collier, a candid diagnosis of the failures of capitalism and a pragmatic and realistic vision for how we can repair it 
 
Deep new rifts are tearing apart the fabric of Britain and other Western societies: thriving cities versus the provinces, the highly skilled elite versus the less educated, wealthy versus developing countries. As these divides deepen, we have lost the sense of ethical obligation to others that was crucial to the rise of post-war social democracy. So far these rifts have been answered only by the revivalist ideologies of populism and socialism, leading to the seismic upheavals of Trump, Brexit and the return of the far right in Germany. We have heard many critiques of capitalism but no one has laid out a realistic way to fix it, until now. 
 
In a passionate and polemical book, celebrated economist Paul Collier outlines brilliantly original and ethical ways of healing these rifts - economic, social and cultural - with the cool head of pragmatism, rather than the fervour of ideological revivalism. He reveals how he has personally lived across these three divides, moving from working-class Sheffield to hyper-competitive Oxford, and working between Britain and Africa, and acknowledges some of the failings of his profession. 
 
Drawing on his own solutions as well as ideas from some of the world's most distinguished social scientists, he shows us how to save capitalism from itself - and free ourselves from the intellectual baggage of the 20th century. 
 
These times are in desperate need of Paul Collier's insights. The Future of Capitalism restores common sense to our views of morality, as it also describes their critical role in what makes families, organizations, and nations work. It is the most revolutionary work of social science since Keynes. Let's hope it will also be the most influential - George Akerlof, Nobel Laureate in Economics, 2001 
 
In this bold work of intellectual trespass, Paul Collier, a distinguished economist, ventures onto the terrain of ethics to explain what's gone wrong with capitalism, and how to fix it. To heal the divide between metropolitan elites and the left-behind, he argues, we need to rediscover an ethic of belonging, patriotism, and reciprocity. Offering inventive solutions to our current impasse, Collier shows how economics at its best is inseparable from moral and political philosophy' - Michael Sandel, author of What Money Can't Buy and Justice 
 
For thirty years, the centre left of politics has been searching for a narrative that makes sense of the market economy. This book provides it - John Kay, Fellow of St John's College, Oxford and the author of Obliquity and Other People's Money 
 
For well-to-do metropolitans, capitalism is the gift that goes on giving. For others, capitalism is not working. Paul Collier deploys passion, pragmatism and good economics in equal measure to chart an alternative to the divisions tearing apart so many western countries. -Mervyn King, former Governor of the Bank of England

Collier is one of the UK's most distinguished economists. In this important book, he analyses what has gone wrong with contemporary capitalism, focusing on the growing divide between the educated and the less educated and between booming metropolis and the declining provinces. Rejecting the illusions of the ideologues and the populists, he puts forward pragmatic, provocative and perceptive ways to deliver widely shared prosperity, by restoring an ethical basis to our national politics, companies and families.

I'm a big fan of Paul Collier. When I saw that The Future of Capitalism was about the polarization we're seeing in the U.S., Europe, and other places, I was eager to see what he had to say. I'm glad I did. The Future of Capitalism is an ambitious and thought-provoking book. . . . I think he is right more often than not. Ultimately, I agree with him that 'capitalism needs to be managed, not defeated.'

Bill Gates, Summer Reading Recommendations 2019

These times are in desperate need of Paul Collier's insights. The Future of Capitalism restores common sense to our views of morality, as it also describes their critical role in what makes families, organizations, and nations work. It is the most revolutionary work of social science since Keynes. Let's hope it will also be the most influential

George Akerlof, Nobel Laureate in Economics, 2001

For me the most gripping [2018 book on capitalism] was Paul Collier's The Future of Capitalism: a deep exploration of the ethical institutions underlying our market society -- and an impassioned argument about how to restore them.

Collier has set for himself [the task] to re-establish the ethical character of social democracy. This is an important book for anyone concerned at the state of modern politics and our liberal democracies.

This book is not an easy read but it is an important one - the revenge of the clever provincial biting the metropolitan hand that has fed him so generously.

In this bold work of intellectual trespass, Paul Collier, a distinguished economist, ventures onto the terrain of ethics to explain what's gone wrong with capitalism, and how to fix it.  To heal the divide between metropolitan elites and the left-behind, he argues, we need to rediscover an ethic of belonging, patriotism, and reciprocity.  Offering inventive solutions to our current impasse, Collier shows how economics at its best is inseparable from moral and political philosophy'

Michael Sandel, author of What Money Can’t Buy and Justice

For thirty years, the centre left of politics has been searching for a narrative that makes sense of the market economy. This book provides it

John Kay, Fellow of St John's College, Oxford and the author of Obliquity and Other People's Money

For well-to-do metropolitans, capitalism is the gift that goes on giving. For others, capitalism is not working. Paul Collier deploys passion, pragmatism and good economics in equal measure to chart an alternative to the divisions tearing apart so many western countries.

Mervyn King, former Governor of the Bank of England

Paul Collier is the Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Oxford Blavatnik School of Government. He is the author of The Bottom Billion, which won the Lionel Gelber Prize and the Arthur Ross Prize awarded by the Council on Foreign Relations, The Plundered Planet, Exodus and Refuge (with Alexander Betts). Collier has served as Director of the Research Department of the World Bank, and consults with the German and many other governments around the world.

Deep new rifts are tearing apart the fabric of Britain and other Western societies: thriving cities versus the provinces, the highly skilled elite versus the less educated, wealthy versus developing countries. As these divides deepen, we have lost the sense of ethical obligation to others that was crucial to the rise of post-war social democracy. So far these rifts have been answered only by the revivalist ideologies of populism and socialism, leading to the seismic upheavals of Trump, Brexit and the return of the far right in Germany. We have heard many critiques of capitalism but no one has laid out a realistic way to fix it, until now. 
 
In a passionate and polemical book, celebrated economist Paul Collier outlines brilliantly original and ethical ways of healing these rifts - economic, social and cultural - with the cool head of pragmatism, rather than the fervour of ideological revivalism. He reveals how he has personally lived across these three divides, moving from working-class Sheffield to hyper-competitive Oxford, and working between Britain and Africa, and acknowledges some of the failings of his profession. 
 
Drawing on his own solutions as well as ideas from some of the world's most distinguished social scientists, he shows us how to save capitalism from itself - and free ourselves from the intellectual baggage of the 20th century.

Transforming a Broken Refugee System

Refuge

Refuge is the first comprehensive attempt in years to rethink from first principles a system hidebound by old thinking and hand-wringing. Its ideas demand a hearing

[A] brilliant polemic ... [Refuge] is very strong on diagnosis ... [Betts and Collier] come up with a number of ingenious remedies

Brilliant ... Instead of making the usual hand-wringing humanitarian gestures, Betts and Collier have come up with some mind-blowingly simple, practical solutions, particularly for refugees from fragile or war-torn states

This book is a rare and wonderful thing: a work of politically engaged scholarship with a trenchant analysis and original solutions ... Betts and Collier can look at the bigger picture. They may thereby have helped to improve millions of lives

A brilliantly argued book... It's a call to action and it's absolutely needed

Based on careful historical and economic analysis, Refuge proposes win-win-win improvements for the world's 20 million international refugees. The integration of refugees encamped across the borders of their homelands into the economies of their hosts will contribute to their hosts' development; dispel the refugees' loss of hope; and further allow them to contribute to their homelands, if it is ever safe for their return. Refuge is the seminal work on one of the world's most important problems

George Akerlof, Nobel Laureate in Economics 2001

This book is both timely and radical. But is also down to earth and practical. It is time to stop spouting the same old mantras about the existing refugee conventions and look at how we can best genuinely help refugees both now and in the future. Collier and Betts point the way

David Cameron, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (2010-2016)

Refugees and policy makers need practical answers to what is now a global crisis. This valuable book represents the kind of can-do thinking that we need to see

David Miliband, International Rescue Committee

This book is a must-read on one of the defining issues of our time. As the number of refugees reaches record highs, Refuge takes us beyond the simple emotional versus political split of the migration debate, by offering smart, practical solutions to address the global crisis. As such, every policymaker, and concerned citizen should read it!

Dambisa Moyo, author of 'Dead Aid' and 'Winner Takes All'

Superb, accessible and riveting... Their book is a manifesto for caring for the uprooted in the twenty-first century... Their argument is thorough and seductive... A bolder and brighter vision

At once compassionate and dispassionate, and full of bold and innovative thinking

Alexander Betts (Author) Alexander Betts is the Leopold W. Muller Professor of Forced Migration and International Affairs at the University of Oxford, where he is also Director of the Refugee Studies Centre. He has written for the Guardian, New York Times and Foreign Affairs and appears regularly on news channels including CNN, Al Jazeera, and the BBC. He has also given two TED talks, which have garnered over a million views. Paul Collier (Author) Paul Collier is the Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government. He is the author of The Bottom Billion, which won the Lionel Gelber Prize and the Arthur Ross Prize awarded by the Council on Foreign Relations, The Plundered Planet, Exodus and Refuge (with Alexander Betts). Collier has served as Director of the Research Department of the World Bank, and consults with the German and many other governments around the world.

Europe is facing its greatest refugee crisis since the Second World War, yet the institutions responding to it remain virtually unchanged from those created in the post-war era. Going beyond the scenes of desperation which have become all-too-familiar in the past few years, Alexander Betts and Paul Collier show that this crisis offers an opportunity for reform if international policy-makers focus on delivering humane, effective and sustainable outcomes - both for Europe and for countries that border conflict zones. Refugees need more than simply food, tents and blankets, and research demonstrates that they can offer tangible economic benefits to their adopted countries if given the right to work and education. Refuge sets out an alternative vision that can empower refugees to help themselves, contribute to their host societies, and even rebuild their countries of origin.

Immigration and Multiculturalism in the 21st Century

Exodus

Exodus is an insightful, expert foray into the explosive issue of immigration, from Paul Collier, award-winning economist and author of The Bottom Billion 
 
Mass international migration is a response to extreme global inequality, and immigration has a profound impact on the way we live. Yet our views - and those of our politicians - remain caught between two extremes: popular hostility to migrants, tinged by xenophobia and racism; and the view of business and liberal elites that 'open doors' are both economically and ethically imperative. With migration set to accelerate, few issues are so urgently in need of dispassionate analysis - and few are more incendiary. 
 
Here, world-renowned economist Paul Collier seeks to defuse this explosive subject. Exodus looks at how people from the world's poorest societies struggle to migrate to the rich West: the effects on those left behind and on the host societies, and explores the impulses and thinking that inform Western immigration policy. Migration, he concludes, is a fact, and we urgently need to think clearly about its possibilities and challenges: it is not a question of whether migration is good or bad, but how much is best? 
 
'Exodus is an important book and one I have been waiting to read for many years ... [it is] a work that is humane and hard-headed about one of the greatest issues of our times' - David Goodhart, Sunday Times 
 
'Paul Collier is one of the world's most thoughtful economists. His books consistently illuminate and provoke. Exodus is no exception' - Economist 
 
'Tinged with poignancy ... a humane and sensible voice in a highly toxic debate' - Colin Kidd, Guardian 
 
Paul Collier is Professor of Economics and Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies at Oxford University and a former director of Development Research at the World Bank. He is the author of, among others, the award-winning The Bottom Billion and The Plundered Planet.

Exodus is an important book and one I have been waiting to read for many years ... [it is] a work that is humane and hard-headed about one of the greatest issues of our times

Paul Collier is one of the world's most thoughtful economists. His books consistently illuminate and provoke. Exodus is no exception

Tinged with poignancy ... a humane and sensible voice in a highly toxic debate

Paul Collier's new book on international migration is magisterial. It offers a sophisticated, comprehensive, incisive, multidisciplinary, well-written balance sheet of the pros and cons of immigration for receiving societies, sending societies, and migrants themselves. For everyone on all sides of this contentious issue, Exodus is a "must-read"

Robert D. Putnam, Professor of Public Policy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

[Praise for Paul Collier's The Plundered Planet]: A must-read

Paul Collier is Professor of Economics and Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies at Oxford University and a former director of Development Research at the World Bank. He is the author of, among others, the award-winning The Bottom Billion and The Plundered Planet.

How to Reconcile Prosperity With Nature

The Plundered Planet

In The Plundered Planet: How to Reconcile Prosperity with Nature Paul Collier proposes a radical and often counter-intuitive rethink of international policy in order to combat global poverty and environmental devastation. 
 
 How can we help poorer countries become richer without harming the planet? Is there a way of reconciling prosperity with nature? 
 
 World-renowned economist Paul Collier offers smart, surprising and above all realistic answers to this dilemma. Steering a path between the desires of unchecked profiteering and the romantic views of environmentalists, he explores creative ways to deal with poverty, overpopulation and climate change - showing that the solutions needn't cost the earth. 
 
 'A practical handbook for ending world poverty. He wants us to read the evidence, not wear slogans on our T-shirts' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Sunday Times 
 
 'Collier and his team have researched the detail ... If you want to help the world, stem your bleeding heart and tell your broker to switch your funds to Emerging Markets (Africa)' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Sunday Telegraph 
 
 'An intriguing take on how western nations can stop poor countries rich in resources from being exploited' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Observer 
 
 'Anyone looking for a primer on how best to exploit the riches of nature could do worse than reading this introduction to the problem' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Economist 
 
 'Paul Collier must be read if one is to begin to understand the most vital contemporary arguments' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Bob Geldof 
 
 Paul Collier is Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for the Study of African Economies at Oxford University and a former director of Development Research at the World Bank. In addition to the award-winning The Bottom Billion, he is the author of Wars, Guns, and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places.

Paul Collier has written with great insight about the prospects of the bottom billion. In The Plundered Planet, he addresses himself to the complex opportunities, challenges and risks in managing the planet's natural resources. The bottom billion have a huge stake and an important role in the outcomes. Collier helps us see these issues through their eyes

Michael Spence, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics

Sir Nicholas Stern, author of The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change

Original, important and always thought-provoking. I learned a lot

Tim Harford, author of The Undercover Economist and The Logic of Life

Collier's arguments are compassionate and convincing, and his straightforward explanations of economic principles are leavened with humor and impressively accessible

Paul Collier must be read if one is to begin to understand the most vital contemporary arguments.

Collier and his team have researched the detail ... If you want to help the world, stem your bleeding heart and tell your broker to switch your funds to Emerging Markets (Africa)

Paul Collier is Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for the Study of African Economies at Oxford University and a former director of Development Research at the World Bank. In addition to the award-winning The Bottom Billion, he is the author of Wars, Guns, and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places.

How can we help poorer countries become richer without harming the planet? Is there a way of reconciling prosperity with nature? World-renowned economist Paul Collier offers smart, surprising and above all realistic answers to this dilemma. Steering a path between the desires of unchecked profiteering and the romantic views of environmentalists, he explores creative ways to deal with poverty, overpopulation and climate change -showing that the solutions needn't cost the earth. The book proposes a radical rethinking of international policies and uniquely, offers real solutions backed up by real data from research Collier has spearheaded

Democracy in Dangerous Places

Wars, Guns and Votes

A timely, powerful and provocative study of the tensions between democracy and violence in the world's poorest countries, by one of the world's leading development economists.

Very important ideas based on extremely thorough empirical research...put him in the same camp as real heavyweights such as the Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz

Collier comes up with very concrete proposals and some ingenious solutions

Collier knows Africa intimately... It is hard to be unmoved by his anger about the world's blindness to realities, and his passion to do things better

With its verve, wit and lateral thinking, this is a book that changes its readers' horizons

It is always a pleasure to discover Paul Collier's latest thoughts...always illuminating and grounded in rigorous social science...it's gripping stuff

The author challenges a lot of lazy thinking about the trajectory that poor countries should take to improve their lot ... Mr Collier is thinking about these urgent and very difficult issues, something that not many people are willing to tackle head-on

Unlike many academics Collier comes up with very concrete proposals and some ingenious solutions.

Collier adopts an upbeat, indeed breezy style

His recent Book Wars, Guns and Votes, is all the more remarkable in that it is based on impeccable scholarship and statistical analysis but remains highly readable and accessible

furthering an understanding of the pragmatics of democracy's failures

Paul Collier is a professor of economics at Oxford University. The author of The Bottom Billion, which won the 2008 Lionel Gelber Prize for the world's best book on international affairs, he has lectured widely on the subjects of economics and international relations.

The world is in a mess. For more than a billion people, everyday life is played out against the backdrop of civil wars, military coups and failing economies. For them, the peaceful democracy taken for granted in the West seems an impossible pipe-dream. 
 
But solutions do exist - it is up to us to achieve them. Award-winning academic Paul Collier's vision for the future of the developing world is eye-opening, provocative and refreshingly unequivocal.

Paul Collier

A New Economics for Neglected Places

Left behind places can be found in prosperous countries—from South Yorkshire, integral to the industrial revolution and now England’s poorest county, to Barranquilla, once Colombia’s portal to the Caribbean and now struggling. More alarmingly, the poorest countries in the world are diverging further from the rest of humanity. Why have these places fallen further behind? And what can we do about it? 
 
World-renowned development economist Paul Collier has spent his life working in neglected communities. In this book he offers his candid diagnosis of why some regions and countries are falling further behind, and a new vision for how they can catch up. Collier lays the blame for widening inequality on stale economic orthodoxies that prioritize market forces and centralized bureaucracies like the UK Treasury. In contrast, a new wave of academic research has revealed the crucial role of collective learning, social capital and local agency in reversing decline and equalising life-chances. 
 
Drawing on insights from social psychology, moral philosophy and behavioural economics, as well as a range of illuminating case studies, Collier shares a galvanizing vision for a more inclusive, prosperous world.

Paul Collier

Left Behind

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