http://www.owen.org/blog/33 Thoughts from Owen Mon, 08 Sep 2008 10:19:30 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 http://www.owen.org/blog/33#comment-42 Pete Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:56:39 +0000 http://www.owen.org/blog/33#comment-42 There's an interesting, and slightly concerning, comment on this in The Chronic Poverty Report 2008-09, which noted that "...relatively authoritarian regimes such as Vietnam and Ethiopia have been able to demonstrate a commmitment to reaching the extremely poor. This is partly because there are fewer organised interests to be managed." [p.30] Books could be (and probably have) on the relationship between democracy and development, and maybe democracy is itself a characteristic of development (from a Development as Freedom point of view). But this trend towards authoritarianism, at least in some countries, does raise some big challenges for northern donors - trapped as I imagine they are between the practical arguments in favour of working through governments (e.g. through budget support) and the political arguments in terms of being seen to support authoritarian regimes. Quite a tricky balancing act. There’s an interesting, and slightly concerning, comment on this in The Chronic Poverty Report 2008-09, which noted that “…relatively authoritarian regimes such as Vietnam and Ethiopia have been able to demonstrate a commmitment to reaching the extremely poor. This is partly because there are fewer organised interests to be managed.” [p.30] Books could be (and probably have) on the relationship between democracy and development, and maybe democracy is itself a characteristic of development (from a Development as Freedom point of view). But this trend towards authoritarianism, at least in some countries, does raise some big challenges for northern donors - trapped as I imagine they are between the practical arguments in favour of working through governments (e.g. through budget support) and the political arguments in terms of being seen to support authoritarian regimes. Quite a tricky balancing act.

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