Chris Blattman

Chris Blattman

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International development, the anti-politics machine

As Gloria Steinem explained 30 years ago: “Power can be taken, but not given. The process of the taking is empowerment itself.” By washing our hands of politics, we also wash our hands of the fact that while political change is not necessarily violent, it is always predicated on pressure and an implicit threat.

That is Michael Kleinman writing in SSIR on the perils of the political blinders many have in international development.

What I find remarkable is that humans expect policy reform in other countries to happen in ways they would find laughable if they scratched out the name of the foreign country and wrote in their own. The political blinders fall off unnoticed.

If you sympathize, or if you need to be convinced, you will enjoy book number 1 on my list of books development scholars/workers seldom read but should.

And here is Michael writing less seriously on the absurdities of ex-patriates.

33 Responses

  2. According to amazon those who bought the ex-patriates book also bought the Tyranny of experts by Easterly amongst others some with acacia tree covers. I wonder if the range of books at Nairobi International is different from ORT. Probably is and I am sure it is because of the presence of more developers in Kenya than South Africa. Beaches and wildebeest and no winter.

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