The Res Gestae Divi Augusti, also known as Deeds of the divine Augustus in Latin, is a funeral writing describing the lifetime and accomplishments of the initial Roman Emperor, known as Augustus. In his old age Augustus left his will with the Vestal Virgins in which he instructed his accomplishments to be inscribed on two bronze pillars outside his tomb. Caligula was a great-grandson of Augustus. Gaius Caesar, nicknamed Caligula or Little Boot, succeeded Tiberius as Roman emperor in 37 A.D., and adopted the name Gaius Caesar Germanicus. Augustus and Caligula were quite different in the sense that the latter was more extravagant than the former. Whereas Caligula was a childish, perverted ruler, Augustus was more sound during his time as ruler of Rome.
development. One cannot argue that after a certain amount of growth, the industrial growth will come to a standstill. At this point, the country must open its arms to ‘limited’ liberalization and globalization. Getting Foreign Direct Investments, creating Special Economic Zones as the Chinese government did, and joining hands for ‘co-financing’ would keep the graph of industrial growth stable.
Alliance between the State and the free market, once the domestic industries are up to par, would introduce competition amongst manufacturers. Competition, is the best road to discovery, and also to the production of good quality goods- which can be used to for domestic consumption as well as ‘export’. Building up export means building a good GDP for the country. And one may argue that GDP is not the best measure of the welfare of humanity, yet one cannot disagree from the fact that unless the country has a good GDP i.e. finances at it’s disposal, they cannot make any investment in the country for human welfare. A high GDP would mean the State could invest in social overhead capital i.e. Education, Hospitals, Infrastructure (roads, railways, telecommunication)- which irrefutably amounts to human welfare (Pritchett et al, 1996)
CONCLUSION
In conculsion, the belief that either laissez faire industrial policies or total state directed industrial policies would create industrial growth and sustain it in late developing countries, is not ideal. Ideal would be a balance of the two- with state directed industrial policies implemented at the beginning of the era of industial development in LDCs, but eventually partially opening up to the ‘free market’ idea to sustain the growth that has been set forth by the state earlier. Gerschenkron himself derided Rostow’s five-stage ‘blue-print’ for late industrialization, saying that each country is different, and industrialization has to take it’s course according to the history, culture and geography of each individual country. (Hirchman, 1982) One cannot deride these important components of every country’s history by imposing a ‘plan’. But we can point the direction and provide the compass, which each country can follow as per the
