The Politics of 'Participation': Civil Society, the State and Development Assistance
Publication date: Monday 14 March 2005
Posing hard questions about aid for "civil society building", this paper is a must-read.
Written by James Putzel, London School of Economics, originally for a DfID seminar, it reaches some sobering conclusions, such as: "By supporting the endless proliferation of NGOs as a site for both employment and organisational opportunities of the middle classes, donors may well be contributing to weaking the potential for consolidation of democracy."
The starting point for this paper are some of the key texts relating to the question of promoting ‘pro-poor’ political participation and organisation, which were written or circulated within the British government’s Department for International Development (DFID) in preparation for a retreat organised to discuss the issue in October 2002. I incorporate into this some of the concerns I believe we are addressing within the Crisis States Programme. In this paper I demonstrate how paying attention to politics challenges some of the assumptions within programmes pursued by donors involved in the promotion of ‘good governance’ and economic reform.
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http://www.crisisstates.com/Publications/dp/dp01.htm
