The Two Poverty Enlightenments: Historical Insights from Digitized Books Spanning Three Centuries

Word searches of Google's library of digitized books suggest that there have been two "Poverty Enlightenments" since 1700, one near the end of the 18th century and the second near the end of the 20th. The historical literature suggests that only the second came with a widespread belie...

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Main Author: Ravallion, Martin
Format: Journal Article
Language:EN
Published: 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4874
id okr-10986-4874
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-48742021-04-23T14:02:20Z The Two Poverty Enlightenments: Historical Insights from Digitized Books Spanning Three Centuries Ravallion, Martin Measurement and Analysis of Poverty I320 Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: General, International, or Comparative N300 Economic Development: Human Resources Human Development Income Distribution Migration O150 Word searches of Google's library of digitized books suggest that there have been two "Poverty Enlightenments" since 1700, one near the end of the 18th century and the second near the end of the 20th. The historical literature suggests that only the second came with a widespread belief that poverty could and should be eliminated. After the first Poverty Enlightenment, references to "poverty" (as a percentage of all words) were on a trend decline until 1960, after which there was a striking resurgence of interest, which came with rising attention to economics and more frequent references to both general and specific policies relevant to poverty. Developing countries also became more prominent in the literature. Both Enlightenments came with greater attention to human rights. The written record reflects the push-back against government intervention and the retreat from leftist economics and politics since the late 1970s. Although many debates from 200 years ago continue today, there is little sign that the modern revival of the classical 19th century views on the limitations of government has come with a revival of the complacency about poverty that was common early in that century. 2012-03-30T07:30:09Z 2012-03-30T07:30:09Z 2011 Journal Article Poverty and Public Policy 19442858 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4874 EN http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Journal Article
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language EN
topic Measurement and Analysis of Poverty I320
Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: General, International, or Comparative N300
Economic Development: Human Resources
Human Development
Income Distribution
Migration O150
spellingShingle Measurement and Analysis of Poverty I320
Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: General, International, or Comparative N300
Economic Development: Human Resources
Human Development
Income Distribution
Migration O150
Ravallion, Martin
The Two Poverty Enlightenments: Historical Insights from Digitized Books Spanning Three Centuries
relation http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo
description Word searches of Google's library of digitized books suggest that there have been two "Poverty Enlightenments" since 1700, one near the end of the 18th century and the second near the end of the 20th. The historical literature suggests that only the second came with a widespread belief that poverty could and should be eliminated. After the first Poverty Enlightenment, references to "poverty" (as a percentage of all words) were on a trend decline until 1960, after which there was a striking resurgence of interest, which came with rising attention to economics and more frequent references to both general and specific policies relevant to poverty. Developing countries also became more prominent in the literature. Both Enlightenments came with greater attention to human rights. The written record reflects the push-back against government intervention and the retreat from leftist economics and politics since the late 1970s. Although many debates from 200 years ago continue today, there is little sign that the modern revival of the classical 19th century views on the limitations of government has come with a revival of the complacency about poverty that was common early in that century.
format Journal Article
author Ravallion, Martin
author_facet Ravallion, Martin
author_sort Ravallion, Martin
title The Two Poverty Enlightenments: Historical Insights from Digitized Books Spanning Three Centuries
title_short The Two Poverty Enlightenments: Historical Insights from Digitized Books Spanning Three Centuries
title_full The Two Poverty Enlightenments: Historical Insights from Digitized Books Spanning Three Centuries
title_fullStr The Two Poverty Enlightenments: Historical Insights from Digitized Books Spanning Three Centuries
title_full_unstemmed The Two Poverty Enlightenments: Historical Insights from Digitized Books Spanning Three Centuries
title_sort two poverty enlightenments: historical insights from digitized books spanning three centuries
publishDate 2012
url http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4874
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