The Case of Mister Balram Halwai 
The Case of Mister Balram Halwai
by Yale / Douglas W. Rae
Video Lecture 17 of 24
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Date Added: June 13, 2011

Lecture Description

Professor Rae discusses Aravind Adiga's novel The White Tiger. The novel reveals the difficulties developing countries face dismantling entrenched inequalities. Corruption and chronic rent-seeking behavior can be major obstacles. Other aspects of the novel, including India's religious history, the role of caste structure, and entrepreneurialism, are also explored. Links are made between themes from the novel and previous class discussions on the nature of capitalism.

Reading assignment:
Adiga, White Tiger, pp. 95-321.

Course Index

Course Description

In this course, we will seek to interpret capitalism using ideas from biological evolution: firms pursuing varied strategies and facing extinction when those strategies fail are analogous to organisms struggling for survival in nature. For this reason, it is less concerned with ultimate judgment of capitalism than with the ways it can be shaped to fit our more specific objectives – for the natural environment, public health, alleviation of poverty, and development of human potential in every child. Each book we read will be explicitly or implicitly an argument about good and bad consequences of capitalism.

Course Structure:
This Yale College course, taught on campus twice per week for 50 minutes, was videotaped for Open Yale Courses in Fall 2009.

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