MAZEN EJLAH, Sanawāt al-Tanmiyya al-Ḍāʾiʿa fī Qiṭāʿ Ghazza (2007-2018) [Gaza: The Lost Years of Development (2007-2018)] (Ramallah: Palestine Research Center, 2020), pp. 210.
Mazen Ejlah’s Gaza: The Lost Years of Development (2007-2018) explores the theme of development in the daily lives of Palestinians in Gaza. Development in the Gaza Strip has been undermined by the Fatah-Hama divide, the Israeli siege of the Strip, and the international community’s boycott of Hamas and its government. The impact of these factors on the loss or stagnation of development has not been thoroughly studied or analysed, often leading to superficial conclusions about the socioeconomic situation in the Gaza Strip.
The author addresses classical and modern theories of economic development extensively, with a specific focus on those that analyse development under crisis. Among the most prominent classical theories is Paul Rosenstein-Rodan’s Big Push Model, which posits that incremental development will not overcome economic stagnation; Ragnar Nurkse’s Balanced Growth Theory, which advocates for balanced growth across all sectors of the economy to break the vicious circle of poverty; and Albert Otto Hirschman’ theory, which suggests that stimulating economic growth in developing countries requires implementing unbalanced growth by concentrating investments in key industries.
The book also addresses modern development theories, categorizing them into two main types: structural change models, which focus on the shift of underdeveloped economies from traditional agricultural production to more advanced industrial economies; and new neoclassical syntheses, which argue that economic underdevelopment results from the misallocation of resources due to misguided government policies.
The author explores Arab perspectives on development, with particular attention to Samir Amin’ contributions to the Dependency and Unequal Exchange theory. Amin posits that economic development is only achieved when it is supported by political determination. The author also refers to the Egyptian economist Ismael Sabri Abdullah who argues that developmental theories attributing underdevelopment solely to economic reasons lack a historical explanation that substantiates their validity.
*** This study was published in the 15th issue of AlMuntaqa, a peer-reviewed academic journal for the social sciences and humanities. You can read the full paper here.
