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The best two sentences I read last night
The key obstacle to reforming aid is public opinion. The constituency for aid is suspicious of growth, and the constituency for growth is suspicious of aid.
That is from Paul Collier's very worthwhile The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on June 7, 2007 at 07:24 AM in Economics | Permalink
Comments
The problem is that it's not 'our' problem, as William Easterly has tried to point out. Unless we want to reassert colonialism, these countries are responsible for themselves, and blaming rich countries for their problems is unhelpful.
Posted by: eric at Jun 7, 2007 1:03:16 PM
That sounds about right to me.
Posted by: Mr. Noah at Jun 7, 2007 3:56:38 PM
There are at least two different constituencies for aid. One is the "official" constituency, including all government officials involved in managing aid in developed countries and international organizations. They are not suspicious of growth; they don't care about growth. They want power--the power of the bureaucrat--and they want money in the form of good salaries and good bribes (Paul Collier should know well about this constituency because of his many years of association with the World Bank). The other one is the "preaching" constituency, the new missionaries that attempt to teach secular principles by providing people with (or should I say bribe them?) with good and services. This second group is not different from old missionaries (look at "Missionary" in Wikipedia) and as the old one is suspicious of growth to the extent that growth is associated with aid recipients' freedom to choose their own morals and laws. As shown in the article that Tyler linked yesterday about J. Sachs, some of the new missionaries may play to both constituencies.
Posted by: Edgardo at Jun 7, 2007 4:35:58 PM
