The gap between developed and underdeveloped is evident in today’s world. In naïve effort to bridge this gap a host of aid projects and development schemes are plotted onto less developed countries. But what is development really? James Ferguson attempts to explore this concept in his book “The Anti-Politics Machine: ‘Development’, Depoliticization and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho”. The book is an extension of Ferguson’s PhD dissertation and was published in 1990 by Cambridge University Press. The book is interesting in that it seeks to give the reader a critical understanding and insight of the actual processes that take place when development projects are implemented. Using the small African country of Lesotho as his setting, Ferguson’s book is centre around the Thaba-Tseka Development Project. This book is likely interest a variety of audience, namely anthropologists, sociologists, economists, development practitioners or any lay person interested in the field of development.
In this book Ferguson aims to create an understanding of the workings of the concept of development through the case study of the Thaba-Tseka Development Project. To achieve this he gives detailed accounts of the setting and conditions of the project, as well as emphasize where and how development practitioners went wrong in this particular case.
To present his argument, Ferguson uses the first three chapters to define and analyse the concept of development. In this analysis he implicitly implies that there is a gap between what is planned and what is implemented in development schemes, that development is a gross injustice. This theme is continued throughout the book and can be seen over and again other examples that Ferguson uses. The next two chapters ...
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...suasive. At the end of the book the thesis is unanswered and he favours to discuss the spread of bureaucratic power into the Thaba-Tseka region and development is merely a “tool” for bureaucrats instead. Ferguson’s anti-politics machine is only but one of the workings of ‘development’ leaving his thesis largely unanswered. Personally we don’t find the book useful despite its excellent detail and capture of concept. Instead we find it considerably outdated as a lot has changed since the early 1980s. Both Lesotho and the approach of development programmes have changed since and are completely different. Nonetheless we do see the book’s value as fundamental read and it was revolutionary at its time and how it possibly impacted the field of development to what we see today.
Works Cited
Ferguson, J. 1990. "The Anti-Politics Machine." Cambridge University Press. London
Works Cited: Ferguson, James. (1990) The Anti-politics Machine: ‘Development’, Depoliticisation, and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho, Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Cambridge. University Press McMichael, Philip. The. (2000) “Development and social change: a global perspective.”
Against this bleak landscape, it is unsurprising that realising sustainable development continues to date to be a key priority in policy making processes these cases. In Africa, like elsewhere across the global south for instance, economic drivers of development have shaped constitutional reform processes as policy makers ...
This book was a good read for me, but I also read book reviews to help me keep track on what I am reading. These book reviews just made a better understanding of what I was reading.
Robinson, J. A., Torvik, R. & Verdier T. (2006). Political Foundations of the Resource Curse. Journal of Development Economics, 79, 447-468.
African governments have given in to the whim’s of international organisations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) in social and health policies, and with this, has come a shift away from former emphasis on social justice and equitable market efficiency to public health services for all now being perceived as a major threat ...
Fonchingong, Tangie Nsoh, and John Bobuin. Gemandze. Cameroon: The Stakes and Challenges of Governance and Development. Mankon, Bamenda: Langaa RPCIG, 2009. Print.
Dr. Noah Zerbe is a professor and chair of the department of politics at Humboldt State University in California and someone who has spent time in both South Africa and Zimbabwe. Dr. Zerbe goes in depth into the factors that surrounded the 2002 famine in Africa, where 14 million Africans were on the brink of starvation. The Malawi president, just a season before the famine, sold off all of Mal...
Roger, O (2008). The Apartheid Handbook (2nd ed.). Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books. pp. 102–109. ISBN 0-14-022749-0.
In international parlance, development encompasses the need and the means by which to provide better life for people in poor countries and it includes not only economic growth, although that is crucial, but also human development like...
How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney, was one of the most controversial books in the world at the time of its release. The book seeks to argue that European exploitation and involvement in Africa throughout history. This is the cause of current African underdevelopment, and the true path to the development is for Africa to completely sever her ties with the international capitalist economy. Rodney describes his goal in writing the book in the preface: “this book derives from a concern with the contemporary African situation. It delves into the past only because otherwise it would be impossible to understand how the present came into being and what the trends are for the near future” (vii). Rodney writes from a distinctly Marxist perspective by arguing that the inequalities inherent in European capitalism and required exploitation of certain countries in order to sustain capitalism.
Thomas Sankara was a revolutionary and progressive thinker who was the president of Burkina Faso wanted to create a fairer state where before him there was a lack of organization and high corruption (Week 5, Video). Sankara, saw food aid assistance as counterproductive since the country already had more than enough food to feed everyone without aid (Week 5, Video). Causing a push to use locally produced goods and local labour to build infrastructure to give the country more autonomy by becoming self-sufficient (Week 5, Video). He created an awareness in the country of not needing to rely on aid and promoting women’s right to allow them to earn an honest and decent living can be connected to Samar Mezghanni thoughts on development (Week 5, Video).
...ellent policies, 5) the Constitution had come into existence through the working together of various groups that had composed South Africa, 6) South Africa's political and economic institutions are well established, 7) and that South Africa is by far the most developed country in Africa. However, there are still avenues that can impede further progress, more so economically then politically. Primarily the lack of foreign investment, especially when South Africa's gold and diamond reserves are emptied as other parts of economy are not as developed. Secondly, the economic gap between whites and blacks that was stretched during the time of apartheid needs to be tightened or else it could become dangerous to the stability of the political system. However, due to the leadership of Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s current government structure exists to solve these issues.
Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2003. Print. Assié-Lumumba, N'Dri, Ali A. Mazrui, and Martial Dembélé. " Critical Perspectives On Half A Century Of Post-Colonial Education For Development In Africa." African & Asian Studies 12.1/2 (2013): 1-12.
McMichael, Philip, ed 2012. Development and Social Change: A Global Perspective, 5th ed. London: Sage Publications, Inc.