Where is the Developmental Mentality?

When we speak of the challenges of economic development, we almost always deal with the material aspect of the problem. We talk about money, capital, investment, economic policy, strategy and so on.

We seldom, or never, speak of the ethics, mentality and the values of economic development. And when we try to learn from the experiences of developed countries, we look at their enterprises, their roads, hydropower plants, their banks and insurance companies, their stock exchanges and investments.

We never try to look at the mentality, psychology or the value systems and institutions that facilitated their economic development.

Economic development is not only a matter of putting two plus two together to make four. It is much more complex than that and includes a host of factors among which, what we may call the values of development or developmental mentality must take primordial importance.

Every nation or country has a set of values by which its societies operate and produce the material resources necessary to lead a normal and decent life. The economic history of the countries that are now developed is also the history of the evolution of their values and mentalities.

History tells us that Japan, under imperial rule, known as the Meiji period (1868-1912), developed modern political, military, economic, and social institutions. This period also brought advances in education, science and technology, commerce, and industry.

Ethiopian emperors from Menelik to Haile Sellassie were legitimately considered modernizers in their own right. Menelik, for one, was fond of introducing Western material civilization to the country, although he was not given the opportunity to do so. He was under constant pressure from foreign invasions and internal wars that left him little time to concentrate on developing local economic institutions.

Although modest modernizers, our emperors largely failed to push for modernization as aggressively as Peter the Great did in Russia. Again the history books tell us that Russia under him was another example of successful inspiration from the West.

Peter's war endeavours provided a strong stimulus to the Russian economy, from mining and metallurgy, which supplied armaments and ships for the army and navy, to the new textile industry.

In the early years of the Meiji period, Japanese intellectuals effectively dealt with the challenges of introducing new political and social values. They worked hard to understand the scientific, technological, and economic systems of the West.

Here in Ethiopia, intellectuals have always played marginal roles in the political and economic life of their country. Under Emperor Haile Sellassie, there was some intellectual movement to grapple with the issues of Western-style development. Some of were inspired by the Japanese success and tried to imitate it here. Their efforts were, however, short-lived, as the political system did not encourage debates or initiatives along this line.

Intellectuals, therefore, failed to apply the vital lessons of economic development to their own conditions. Instead, they concentrated on political disputes that failed to produce the consensus on economic development down to this very day.

Not only have we failed to develop autonomous values and institutions conducive to a faster pace of economic development, we have also failed to learn from the outside world in terms modernization.

For much of the 20th century, our relationship with the West was defined by the donor and recipient roles of financial aid. This has largely lulled us into a long sleep from which we are just waking up.

Ethiopian leadership, in search of another model, is now trying to learn some lessons from the Chinese. But, like the Japanese or the Russians under Peter the Great, Chinese economic success is based on autonomous values and institutions.

China remains basically a Confucian society even after more than half a century of communist rule. Confucianism deals with the principles of good conduct, practical wisdom, and proper social relationships. Confucianism has influenced the Chinese attitude toward life, set the patterns of living and standards of social values, and provided the background for Chinese political theories and institutions.

What the Chinese are doing now is to open up the system so that it can absorb useful economic lessons and principles from the West. And one of the most useful lessons is trade with the outside world.

What we fail to see here in Ethiopia is that any attempt to imitate the West should be based on autonomous values and institutions that we have so far failed to develop. Our relationship with the West is still that of donor and recipient of financial assistance and remains one of the major causes of our continued underdevelopment.

As long as our leaders and intellectuals fail to grasp the need to create a developmental mentality from our own historical raw material or from our own traditional values and institutions, our aspiration for economic development is likely to remain a pipe dream well into the 21st century.
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