The Evolution of Development Thinking

This book assesses the trends in development theories, doctrines, and practices for developing countries since World War II (WWII). Development thinking and practice span a wide range of areas. The broadest are development economics and economic management, and governance and development administration. No less important are the foreign assistance theories and approaches and the roles of key institutions within and beyond conventional government entities, particularly the armed forces and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).

We have seen that economic policy doctrines often do not correspond with the latest theories of development economics. Yet, to an even greater extent, economic policy practice has departed from theories and doctrines. Examining how and why these departures have occurred will build our understanding of the challenges that policymakers continue to face. We shall see that the decision-aiding methods derived from economic theory do not provide the guidance required to select optimal economic policies, programs, or projects. We shall also see the faltering progress of the major policy reform designed to further both equity and efficiency. These include liberalizing the economy to reduce rent-seeking, reforming or privatizing state-owned enterprises, enhancing tax collection, creating propoor social safety nets, extending social services, stimulating propoor regional development without provoking violence, managing natural resources soundly, redressing the bias against agriculture, developing sound physical infrastructure, and decentralizing economic decision making. While poverty alleviation has made progress in most developing countries, the full potential to redress poverty has been hampered by the failure to translate these propoor doctrines into practice. Finally, the inability to specify technically which sectors to promote for greatest societal gain leaves the field open to organized interest groups, often at the expense of the most vulnerable families.

This chapter examines the evolution of theories and doctrines of governance and development administration, especially over the post-WWII period. Because sound governance is the bedrock of responsive and effective policy, no other aspect of development, whether economic, political, or social, can escape the ravages of poor governance. As mentioned in chapter 2, economists have joined other social scientists and all shrewd practitioners—that institutions matter. This is certainly the province of governance.

The feasibility of applying abstract theories and doctrines of governance and administration to the complex realities, limited resources, and political polarization of many developing countries has generated various approaches and strategies that are frequently at variance with the classic conceptions and aspirations of the theories. Democratic rhetoric has often been accompanied by autocratic rule. Principles based on idealized conceptions of development management have been replaced by more pragmatic approaches to cope with the messiness of bureaucratic politics, local power structures, and administrative shortcomings.

This chapter traces out how foreign assistance has been conceived and rethought throughout the post-WWII period. Whether in the hands of the US government, the Soviet Union, Western European nations, the East Asian Tigers, or international organizations, foreign assistance has served—but also disserved—both donors and recipients.

As seen in chapter 9, the roles of the armed forces within developing countries are often heavily influenced by their interactions with governments and with the armed forces of other countries. Chapters 7 and 8 demonstrate that these relationships are even more complicated when foreign assistance is entwined with security initiatives. This chapter examines these complications through US assistance in three of its most difficult development and security challenges: Korea, Vietnam, and Chile. We also explore the aftermath of these and the more nuanced security development balance applied to today’s Venezuela as the closest Latin American parallel to Chile in the 1960s and 1970s. Thus, combined with the governance progress made in Korea and Chile, in part attributable to development policy, this chapter demonstrates that the tensions between security and development imperatives can be mitigated in the current, less ideological context.