Economic Miracles and Their Hypes

Abstract This essay argues that economic miracles are the result of particular processes and procedures to establish a regime of truth. Taking the example of Ivory Coast from the 1950s through the early 1980s as core evidence, the author shows the role of public relations in creating a particular perception of economic achievements. Using the emergence of both West Germany and Japan as early examples in the wake of postwar reconstruction, it is further underlined that the larger context of the Cold War facilitated the construction of economic miracles.