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The Rise & Fall of Development Theory
Book reviews
good, the maps, diagrams and colour plates helpful; and the Editors' introductory chapter thought-provoking. The introductory chapter, drawing on and synthesising the case studies, briefly raises the major factors determining the success or otherwise of SWC systems (whether 'indigenous' or 'modern', or a combination of both). Population density is shown to be an important and complex issue - both a pre-condition and motivating factor for investment and maintenance, and a potential cause of Malthusian disaster. Access to credit is not a ma.jor constraint, but rapid and visible returns to the farmer are. Markets and the infrastructure to gain access to them are critical, as is security of land tenure, whether under customary rights or title. Bringing about sustainable SWC is seen to be a participatory process. which respects but does not deify farmer knowledge and experience; it does, however, present a major challenge to conventional technical professionals. This book will add to the literature on indigenous technical knowledge and practices, and do something to dispel pessimism about Africa's agricultural future. If it informs policy makers and project planners too, then it will have served its intended and valuable purpose. Richard Carter July 1997
The Rise & Fall of Development Theory Ed~tedby C o l ~ nLeys Or\t Afrrtcz Educatconal P r e ~ c lndlana , U~I L'ercrtL Pre\s and Jcrrnec Currev, Nurrobr. Rloonirngton & Indlancrpol15, L I ~ I Oxford, ~ 205 pp ( 1 996) This is an important book. It questions the assumptions on which development theory has rested for the past fifty years. This 'stocktaking' of development theory at the end of
the twentieth century will undoubtedly raise controversy, not least among the practitioners of past conventional wisdom, especially the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The author is Professor of Political Studies at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He has been a major contributor to the international debate on development theory over the past thirty years, mainly from an African perspective, and was a member of the epistemic community at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, England, in its formative years in the 1960s. Two major forces are identified that have attacked the edifice on which development theory was founded. First, the ex-colonial 'third world' for which development theory was largely developed 'has fractured into increasingly diverse regions'. Second, the end of the post-world war regime of regulated international trade and capital movements has considerably reduced the scope for state economic interventions. The book therefore calls for nothing less than 'a much broader-based, more historical and more explicitly political theoretical effort'. Much of the material contained in the book is not new. A number of the seminal contributions that the author has made in the past, focused on Africa. have been brought together but reset within a broader framework that challenges the conventional wisdom of development theory. In the first and last essays of this nine chapter volume, the author argues that one of the main reasons for the failure of development theory as formulated fifty years ago, and the 'tragedy' of Africa. has been 'the -end of the regulated system of national economies formalized at Bretton Woods, which underlay the whole idea of "development" as it was conceived from the 1950s onward', and adds: 'If this is correct, a major challenge for development theory is to confront the problem of how we can now resubordinate "the market" to a new system of international and
Book review.,
national regulations, and, as a necessary corollary of this. to clarify the political assumptions and commitments on which the theory rests'. The main theme of the book is that the world has never been as fully exposed to the operation of 'market forces' as it is today. A first task must therefore be to understand these forces, and their social and political consequences, better than we have in the past. Two sub-themes are identified within the chapters of the book. The first that permeates through Part I on 'Development Theory' is what the author calls 'the politics of American political science' and especially the influence of Samuel Huntington. Huntington has written '. . . the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among mankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural' (Huntington 1993). More recently, he has said 'Culture and cultural identities . . . are shaping the patterns of cohesion, disintegration and conflict in the post-cold war world . . . Global politics is being reconfigured along cultural lines' (Huntington 1996). Not surprisingly, a contrary view is that ' . . . while culture will continue to exercise an important influence on both countries and individuals . . . (its) role may well be declining rather than rising. squeezed between the greedy expansion of the government on the one side. and globalisation on the other' (The Economist 1996). The second sub-theme, which runs through Part I1 on 'Development Theory & Africa', is the role of domestic capitalists in African development. They need not constitute a 'ruling class', but the function they perfor~n 'is indispensable and needs to be much better understood'. The question is raised whether 'development studies' can be a substitute for 'development theory'. The author's conclusion, based on his profound experience in Africa. is whether closer and more rigorous studies will change development theory, and if so how,
and that development theory can no longer confine itself to the Third World or treat the developed world as a 'given'. Development studies should not be conceived as 'a kind of area studies'. Ultimately, the politics of development theory and development studies must become more explicit than ever before. This book raises fundamental issues that need to be addressed systematically and constructively. The critics will no doubt accuse the author of failing to recognize the emerging consensus shift in development theory and practice, and of not providing an enabling framework by which to face the issues he poses. Some might state that his views would be different if his experience had been in Asia. Latin America or the Middle East rather than in sub-Saharan Africa. Others might note that he says little about the misdirected role played by model-building development economists, and how they expected their models to reveal the 'truths' about the right paths to development. Similarly, the monetarists of the Chicago school are let off free. The author might have felt that they were 'damned by silence'. Whatever the criticism, there can be no question that fundamental problems remain that should be addressed as the world enters the twenty-first century. This book should play an important role in stimulating the international debate that must now take place concerning 'the meaning of development' (Seers 1977).
References Huntington, S. (1993). The clash of civ~lizations?Foreign .;Iff'rs 72 (Summer). 10-20. Huntington, S (1996). The Clrlsh of Cil'ili;tztio~uand the Remrrkirzg of World Order. Simon & Schuster, New Yorh. Seers. 1). (1977). The meaning of development. Inrevt~trtior~cll t ) ~ ~ ~ r ~ l o p rR~~r~e~i ~, irXIX(2). eiz. 2-7. Thr Ecot~ornist (1966) C u l t ~ ~ r aexplanations. l 9 November. 25-30.
D. J. Shaw I 12 Kenwood Drive Beckenham Kent BR3 6RB
good, the maps, diagrams and colour plates helpful; and the Editors' introductory chapter thought-provoking. The introductory chapter, drawing on and synthesising the case studies, briefly raises the major factors determining the success or otherwise of SWC systems (whether 'indigenous' or 'modern', or a combination of both). Population density is shown to be an important and complex issue - both a pre-condition and motivating factor for investment and maintenance, and a potential cause of Malthusian disaster. Access to credit is not a ma.jor constraint, but rapid and visible returns to the farmer are. Markets and the infrastructure to gain access to them are critical, as is security of land tenure, whether under customary rights or title. Bringing about sustainable SWC is seen to be a participatory process. which respects but does not deify farmer knowledge and experience; it does, however, present a major challenge to conventional technical professionals. This book will add to the literature on indigenous technical knowledge and practices, and do something to dispel pessimism about Africa's agricultural future. If it informs policy makers and project planners too, then it will have served its intended and valuable purpose. Richard Carter July 1997
The Rise & Fall of Development Theory Ed~tedby C o l ~ nLeys Or\t Afrrtcz Educatconal P r e ~ c lndlana , U~I L'ercrtL Pre\s and Jcrrnec Currev, Nurrobr. Rloonirngton & Indlancrpol15, L I ~ I Oxford, ~ 205 pp ( 1 996) This is an important book. It questions the assumptions on which development theory has rested for the past fifty years. This 'stocktaking' of development theory at the end of
the twentieth century will undoubtedly raise controversy, not least among the practitioners of past conventional wisdom, especially the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The author is Professor of Political Studies at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He has been a major contributor to the international debate on development theory over the past thirty years, mainly from an African perspective, and was a member of the epistemic community at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, England, in its formative years in the 1960s. Two major forces are identified that have attacked the edifice on which development theory was founded. First, the ex-colonial 'third world' for which development theory was largely developed 'has fractured into increasingly diverse regions'. Second, the end of the post-world war regime of regulated international trade and capital movements has considerably reduced the scope for state economic interventions. The book therefore calls for nothing less than 'a much broader-based, more historical and more explicitly political theoretical effort'. Much of the material contained in the book is not new. A number of the seminal contributions that the author has made in the past, focused on Africa. have been brought together but reset within a broader framework that challenges the conventional wisdom of development theory. In the first and last essays of this nine chapter volume, the author argues that one of the main reasons for the failure of development theory as formulated fifty years ago, and the 'tragedy' of Africa. has been 'the -end of the regulated system of national economies formalized at Bretton Woods, which underlay the whole idea of "development" as it was conceived from the 1950s onward', and adds: 'If this is correct, a major challenge for development theory is to confront the problem of how we can now resubordinate "the market" to a new system of international and
Book review.,
national regulations, and, as a necessary corollary of this. to clarify the political assumptions and commitments on which the theory rests'. The main theme of the book is that the world has never been as fully exposed to the operation of 'market forces' as it is today. A first task must therefore be to understand these forces, and their social and political consequences, better than we have in the past. Two sub-themes are identified within the chapters of the book. The first that permeates through Part I on 'Development Theory' is what the author calls 'the politics of American political science' and especially the influence of Samuel Huntington. Huntington has written '. . . the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among mankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural' (Huntington 1993). More recently, he has said 'Culture and cultural identities . . . are shaping the patterns of cohesion, disintegration and conflict in the post-cold war world . . . Global politics is being reconfigured along cultural lines' (Huntington 1996). Not surprisingly, a contrary view is that ' . . . while culture will continue to exercise an important influence on both countries and individuals . . . (its) role may well be declining rather than rising. squeezed between the greedy expansion of the government on the one side. and globalisation on the other' (The Economist 1996). The second sub-theme, which runs through Part I1 on 'Development Theory & Africa', is the role of domestic capitalists in African development. They need not constitute a 'ruling class', but the function they perfor~n 'is indispensable and needs to be much better understood'. The question is raised whether 'development studies' can be a substitute for 'development theory'. The author's conclusion, based on his profound experience in Africa. is whether closer and more rigorous studies will change development theory, and if so how,
and that development theory can no longer confine itself to the Third World or treat the developed world as a 'given'. Development studies should not be conceived as 'a kind of area studies'. Ultimately, the politics of development theory and development studies must become more explicit than ever before. This book raises fundamental issues that need to be addressed systematically and constructively. The critics will no doubt accuse the author of failing to recognize the emerging consensus shift in development theory and practice, and of not providing an enabling framework by which to face the issues he poses. Some might state that his views would be different if his experience had been in Asia. Latin America or the Middle East rather than in sub-Saharan Africa. Others might note that he says little about the misdirected role played by model-building development economists, and how they expected their models to reveal the 'truths' about the right paths to development. Similarly, the monetarists of the Chicago school are let off free. The author might have felt that they were 'damned by silence'. Whatever the criticism, there can be no question that fundamental problems remain that should be addressed as the world enters the twenty-first century. This book should play an important role in stimulating the international debate that must now take place concerning 'the meaning of development' (Seers 1977).
References Huntington, S. (1993). The clash of civ~lizations?Foreign .;Iff'rs 72 (Summer). 10-20. Huntington, S (1996). The Clrlsh of Cil'ili;tztio~uand the Remrrkirzg of World Order. Simon & Schuster, New Yorh. Seers. 1). (1977). The meaning of development. Inrevt~trtior~cll t ) ~ ~ ~ r ~ l o p rR~~r~e~i ~, irXIX(2). eiz. 2-7. Thr Ecot~ornist (1966) C u l t ~ ~ r aexplanations. l 9 November. 25-30.
D. J. Shaw I 12 Kenwood Drive Beckenham Kent BR3 6RB