The Anti-Politics Machine: Development, Depoliticization, and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho

by James Ferguson

Book Overview

Development, it is generally assumed, is good and necessary, and in its name the West has intervened, implementing all manner of projects in the impoverished regions of the world. When these projects... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0816624372
• Release Date: February 1994
• Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.02 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.2" x 5.9"

Customer Reviews

Anti-Politics Machine

Ferguson's book is a powerful analysis of the epistemological bottlenecks that plague development policy and the World Bank's approach in Africa. World Bank's economists usually put a discount upon rigorous social research requirements in the way they explain cause-effect relationships of the African economic deficits. With commanding persuasive force Ferguson shows how the peculiarities of the African context are dissolved in a (anti-contextual) cut-and-ready, illogical analytical framework, rendered 'logical' to best accommodate World Bank's internal bureaucratic rationality. One should not wonder why the policies born out of such an 'Anti-Politics Machine' by and large remain in de-phase with the very notion of development. By Cyril FEGUE

Great!

The book is in excellent condition and the delivery time was quite brief. Great service and great product!

A deep insight into the politics of foreign aid and economic

I was referred to this book by my lecturer in applied athropology. Reading it caused me to rethink and rewrite my assignment. Fergusson can be a bit irritating but he certainly has researched his field well and shows a great insight into the politics of foreign aid and economic development in the 3rd World.

A dose of realism

Ferguson's study of development projects in Lesotho brings a much needed dose of reality to the subject of modernization and aid. While others might stress the need for appropriate technology or bog the reader down in economic formulae, Ferguson examines the ways in which local and global politics influence the success of even the most carefully planned and well-meaning of projects. A must-read for anyone interested in the development business.