I månedens utgave av Foreign Policy skriver NYU-professor og tidligere Verdensbankøkonom William Easterly:
A dark ideological specter is haunting the world. It is almost as deadly as the tired ideologies of the last century — communism, fascism, and socialism — that failed so miserably. It feeds some of the most dangerous trends of our time, including religious fundamentalism. It is the halfcenturyold ideology of Developmentalism. And it is thriving.
Like all ideologies, Development promises a comprehensive final answer to all of society’s problems, from poverty and illiteracy to violence and despotic rulers. It shares the common ideological characteristic of suggesting there is only one correct answer, and it tolerates little dissent. It deduces this unique answer for everyone from a general theory that purports to apply to everyone, everywhere. There’s no need to involve local actors who reap its costs and benefits. Development even has its own intelligentsia, made up of experts at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and United Nations.
The power of Developmentalism is disheartening, because the failure of all the previous ideologies might have laid the groundwork for the opposite of ideology—the freedom of individuals and societies to choose their destinies. Yet, since the fall of communism, the West has managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, and with disastrous results. Development ideology is sparking a dangerous counterreaction. The “one correct answer” came to mean “free markets,” and, for the poor world, it was defined as doing whatever the IMF and the World Bank tell you to do. But the reaction in Africa, Central Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Russia has been to fight against free markets. So, one of the best economic ideas of our time, the genius of free markets, was presented in one of the worst possible ways, with unelected outsiders imposing rigid doctrines on the xenophobic unwilling.
Artikkelen er ikke tilgjengelig i sin helhet hos Foreign Policy. Men Easterly, the cheeky bastard, har lagt ut artikkelen på sine egne NYU nettsider.
3 Kommentarer
juni 28, 2007 at 4:45 pm
[...] Pave Benedikt XVI første bok i hans pontifikat. Leste jeg en tekst av Paven eller av William Easterly? The aid offered by the West to developing countries has been purely technically and materially [...]
juni 28, 2007 at 5:23 pm
[...] utviklingsideologi, illustrert Jump to Comments Foreign Policy har nå lagt ut den tidligere nevnte artikkelen til Verdensbank-dödaren William Easterly. Til artikkelen følger tre imponerende [...]
juli 10, 2007 at 3:28 am
[...] Latin-Amerika har sittet fast i venstrepopulistisk kvikksand i så mange tiår. Den supplerer William Easterlys forklaring, som er at det er IMF og Verdensbankens paternalistiske innsalg av markedsliberale reformer som [...]