The Development Context Essay -- Politics Political Economics Essays

The Development Context This study falls at the convergence of several key themes or passs in International Development. These include the debate about the role and effectiveness of official international assistance agencies, the remains of thought on the micropolitical forces which shape the development assistance process, and the debate oer the ecological limits to and sustainabiltiy of economic growth. The following sections will review the most important concepts and some of the authors associated with those themes.1) What do international donor agencies do, and do they do it well(p)? Somediscussion has been given in the literature to approach taken by international donor agencies to development assistance. For the most part, this discussion has cogitate on the fact that large governmental and bureaucratic agencies lack the flexibleness to adapt to changing conditions and be effective at grassroots-level implementation. In a scathing condemnation of official internatio nal development assistance, Korten (1990) asserts that such efforts are defined by the bounds of bureaucratic convenience, and that there has been a self-coloured preference in international assistance for short-term, narrowly-focused, and self-interested efforts. Hellinger et al. (1988), in an assessment of the U.S. government agency for International Development, suggest that even when more farsighted and well-designed approaches emerge, they face sexual structures, operational procedures, and reward systems geared to promote objectives related primarily to expansionary David C. Korten, acquiring to the twenty-first Century, West Hartford, CT Kumarian Press, 1990, pp. 36-137. and survival interests of the AID bureaucracyiIn the context of this criticism and dom... ...r Lynne Rienner. 1988.Hirschmann, David. Women and policy-making Participation in Africa. Public Domain. 1990.Kasfir, Nelson. Explaining Ethnic Political Participation. (in State of Development in the Third Wo rld. Princeton Princeton University Press. 1986.)Kolenda, Pauline. Caste in Contemporary India Beyond Organic Solidarity. Prospect Heights, IL Waveland Press. 1985.Korten, David C. Getting to the 21st Century. West Hartford, CT Kumarian Press. 1990.Lipsky, Michael. The Rationing of Services in Street-Level Bureaucracies. Street-Level Bureaucracy. New York judicious Foundation. 1980.Meadows, Donella et al. Beyond the Limits. Post Mills, VT Chelsea Green. 1992.Robertson, C. and I. Berger. Women and Class in Africa. New York Holmes & Meier. 1986. Ibid, p. 24. Samarasinghe, Vidya. Hangin in at the Margin. Public Domain. 1992.