Development Aid Confronts Politics: The Almost Revolution
Author(s): Thomas Carothers (Author), Diane de Gramont (Author)
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Publication Date: 27 Aug. 2013
Language: English
Print length: 300 pages
ISBN-10: 0870034014
ISBN-13: 9780870034015
Book Description
After decades of denial, the development community now acknowledges that effective assistance requires grappling with the domestic politics of recipient countries. Development agencies are openly promoting political goals alongside traditional socioeconomic ones and trying to apply politically smart methods. Yet considerable controversy and confusion accompany this potential revolution in development aid. In The Almost Revolution, Thomas Carothers and Diane de Gramont ask whether aid can achieve a productive synthesis of political and socioeconomic concerns. Their thought-provoking study illuminates the multiple meanings of “working politically” in development assistance.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“A hugely insightful book on how the international development community has failed to take politics into account in its efforts to help poor countries, with sometimes disastrous results. Carothers and de Gramont incisively chronicle the evolution of thinking on this critical topic and set out a practical agenda for how aid practitioners can do better.” Francis Fukuyama, author, The Origins of Political Order
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“The assertion that development aid is, or should be, political, sparks widely diverging reactions, from outrage at crude Western interference to recognition that aid must understand domestic politics. The authors have done us all a service by rigorously dissecting the different meanings of politics in aid and providing a clear understanding of what smarter aid practice requires.” Mark Malloch-Brown, former minister of state, UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office
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“The story of how aid agencies have finally accepted that ‘politics matter’ in shaping development outcomes and what it means in practice is brilliantly told in this penetrating book. The sweep of the authors’ research and the power of their insights will stir scholars and practitioners alike.” Adrian Leftwich, research director, Developmental Leadership Program
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“The authors bring a great amount of experience, common sense, and clarity to explain what ‘taking politics into account’ means in foreign aid, encompassing goals such as democracy promotion as well as addressing the political economy of economic reform.” Dani Rodrik, professor, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
About the Author
Thomas Carothers is vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is the founder and director of the Democracy and Rule of Law Program, which analyzes the state of democracy in the world and efforts by the United States and other countries to promote democracy. Carothers is the author or editor of eight critically acclaimed books on democracy promotion. Diane de Gramont, a Clarendon Scholar at Oxford University, was previously a junior fellow in the Democracy and Rule of Law Program of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Her research specialties include international support for democracy and governance, political party development, and comparative democratization.
Development Aid Confronts Politics: The Almost Revolution
by: Thomas Carothers – Diane de Gramont
ISBN-10: 0870034006
ISBN-13: 9780870034008
Publication date: April 11, 2013
Paperback: 360 pages
List Price
Book Description
A new lens on development is changing the world of inteational aid. The overdue recognition that development in all sectors is an inherently political process is driving aid providers to try to lea how to think and act politically. Major donors are pursuing explicitly political goals alongside their traditional socioeconomic aims and introducing more politically informed methods throughout their work. Yet these changes face an array of exteal and inteal obstacles, from heightened sensitivity on the part of many aid-receiving govements about foreign political interventionism to inflexible aid delivery mechanisms and entrenched technocratic preferences within many aid organizations. This pathbreaking book assesses the progress and pitfalls of the attempted politics revolution in development aid and charts a constructive way forward. Contents: Introduction 1. The New Politics Agenda The Original Framework: 1960s-1980s 2. Apolitical Roots Breaking the Political Taboo: 1990s-2000s 3. The Door Opens to Politics 4. Advancing Political Goals 5. Toward Politically Informed Methods The Way Forward 6. Politically Smart Development Aid 7. The Unresolved Debate on Political Goals 8. The Integration Frontier Conclusion 9. The Long Road to Politics
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