Do participatory development projects make local politics more democratic? A new paper by Humphreys, Sanchez de la Sierra, and Van der Windt:
Since the 1990s, participatory development has become a favored model for delivering international aid. The huge growth of the model reflects two broad trends. First, a conviction that participatory approaches to development yield better results than traditional top-down approaches. Second, that international aid can have a transformative effect and yield not just stronger welfare gains but also alter the way political decisions are made at the most local level, rendering local decision making processes more inclusive and more democratic.
Community Driven Reconstruction (CDR) projects are quintessential of this approach, representing a model for delivering post-conflict reconstruction aid in a way that not only builds infrastructure but also recreates communities and refashions governance structures.
This paper exploits exogenous variation from a large CDR project, in which development aid was made available to 1,250 randomly selected villages in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), to learn whether international actors are indeed able to use aid to transform societies in this way.
Short answer: it does not. Here is a freely downloadable book by Mansuri and Rao finding much the same thing across many, many similar programs financed by the World Bank.
One takeaway: social engineering usually fails.
A better takeaway: social engineering sometimes works and sometimes fails, and most of the time we have no idea what to expect. I remain amazed that a local justice and dispute resolution program I evaluated did so well.
Social engineering is quite complicated, governments and NGOs try it all the time, and they’re basically fumbling about in the dark. I would suggest an agenda for pushing knowledge ahead, but I’m rather worried what would happen if states got better at this.
30 Responses
new research showing that the international development community is fairly bad at social engineering: http://t.co/saSOmGuUyu
RT @segerfeldt: Biståndsledd social ingenjörskonst fungerar inte. Surprise! http://t.co/VhWHSoPB6n
RT @segerfeldt: Biståndsledd social ingenjörskonst fungerar inte. Surprise! http://t.co/VhWHSoPB6n
Biståndsledd social ingenjörskonst fungerar inte. Surprise! http://t.co/VhWHSoPB6n
Do participatory development projects make local politics more democratic? No, social engineering usually fails. http://t.co/K79OJv1ZBp
RT @cblatts: Social engineering in the tropics http://t.co/enBfzr1FJH
RT @cblatts: Social engineering in the tropics http://t.co/enBfzr1FJH
RT @cblatts: Social engineering in the tropics http://t.co/enBfzr1FJH
A new paper, summarized by @cblatts, argues that social engineering has highly unpredictable results. http://t.co/I45ProzFdO
.@cblatts on social eng:“governments and NGOs try it all the time, and they’re basically fumbling about in the dark.” http://t.co/9IeVIFw1wo
RT @PantheaLee: DRC study: Governance reforms fail b/c they bypass existing institutions + relevant powers in local social structure http:/…
RT @PantheaLee: DRC study: Governance reforms fail b/c they bypass existing institutions + relevant powers in local social structure http:/…
RT @PantheaLee: DRC study: Governance reforms fail b/c they bypass existing institutions + relevant powers in local social structure http:/…
DRC study: Governance reforms fail b/c they bypass existing institutions + relevant powers in local social structure http://t.co/yWG8FVSnkS
Social engineering in the Congo: Do participatory development projects make local politics more democratic? A … http://t.co/qTtyGfG456
“A better takeaway: social engineering sometimes works and sometimes fails, and most of the time we have no idea what to expect.” Probably because nobody quite knows what social engineering actually is.
RT @desibility: “social engineering sometimes works and sometimes fails, & most of the time we have no idea what to expect”- @cblatts http:…
.@cblatts on new study suggesting development projects intended to promote democracy are not reliably effective http://t.co/HolNQtf25R
via @cblatts: social engineering sometimes works & sometimes fails, & most of the time we have no idea what to expect http://t.co/BaMIsPCtqx
Social engineering in the Congo: doesn’t work too well http://t.co/Yx6dJutkx8 via @chrisblattman
This is so sad in its utter predictability: @cblatts “social engineering usually fails” http://t.co/niQLmG6T8G
RT @cblatts: Social engineering in the tropics http://t.co/enBfzr1FJH
On my reading list.
Social engineering in the Congo
http://t.co/sPvBOMPibG via @cblatts
Social engineering in the Congo http://t.co/rzm3vA4YOX
RT @cblatts: Social engineering in the tropics http://t.co/enBfzr1FJH
“Social engineering in the Congo” via @digg http://t.co/UfbgMEwqdj
@cblatts Does theory behind CDR leave out institutional models that focus on social conflict? Would this be relevant? http://t.co/jK8DtQA4mw
“@cblatts: Social engineering in the tropics http://t.co/dps3w0g7YE”
“social engineering sometimes works and sometimes fails, & most of the time we have no idea what to expect”- @cblatts http://t.co/C2hbGyd6U5
The complications of social engineering http://t.co/JoBq7S3HZy