sociology

assess the view that developing countries would be better off without aid from the west.

does anyone have any ideas of what i need to include in this 40mark essay??
thanks

Reply 1

Peacey

I'm in the middle of writing a handout on this at the moment

1. Intro - define aid; it takes lots of forms - bilateral, multilateral, loans and gifts, development and relief, money, resources, expertise, lalala

2. Aid is Great
- Modernisation theory, injection of capital breaks cycle of poverty, overcomes economic and cultural barriers. etc.
- People centred development. Macro-scale aid projects bad, microscale good. Intermediate Technologies. Microcredit

3. Challenge the usefulness of aid
- Neoliberalism. Bauer; aid prevents structural changes needed for development (prevents entreprenurialism, props up corrupt regimes and inefficient industries)
- Dependency Theory. Aid is a tool of control - politically motivated (link to war on terror?), actually benefits donor more than recipient (tied aid). SAPs attached to aid facilitate exploitation. Much aid is loans - debt burden

4. Conclude. Should we stop giving aid?