United States Development Assistance Policy
Domestic Politics of Foreign Economic Aide
Published on 1. December 1995
Book
Hardback
568 pages
978-0-8018-5051-6 (ISBN)
Description
Economist Vernon Ruttan offers a review of US development assistance policy from the end of World War II to 1995. His emphasis is on the structures and programmes that proliferated in this period and were designed to provide underdeveloped countries with technical and economic assistance. Ruttan follows the development of the US Agency for International Development, quasigovernmental agencies, and private voluntary organizations. He also examines US policy toward the World Bank, United Nations agencies and other international development assistance organizations. Ruttan's interest is not to measure the impact of US assistance programmes, but to examine the domestic political forces that have directed US development assistance policy. By means of this review, he shows how political interests often detrimentally influenced development efforts. Ruttan concludes that the US development assistance programme is in disarray and that there is a real need for its deep re-evaluation and restructuring. The last two chapters of the book review past reform efforts and outline Ruttan's own recommendations.
This book should serve as a reference both for specialists and for those wanting a deeper understanding of development issues.
This book should serve as a reference both for specialists and for those wanting a deeper understanding of development issues.
Reviews / Votes
"Vernon Ruttan, an agricultural economics professor at the University of Minnesota, has undertaken a daunting task: a panorama of the politics and history of America's development program. He addresses important questions in this vast (657p.) work about the domestic origins of foreign policy: questions which explore the familiar shorthand that American development policy mirrors politics at home rather than events abroad."--Alison Van Rooy, 'Canadian Journal of Development Studies' 'Winner of the American Agricultural Economics Association Quality of Communications Award' "Ruttan's scope is enormous and his insights refreshing. This book merits a place in every university library and on the shelf of every serious student of the U.S. foreign assistance program."--Rick Travis, 'The Journal of Developing Areas' "Worthy books are recommended to libraries to put on their extensive shelves. Excellent books are recommended to (even impoverished) students to purchase for their far smaller bookshelves. Ruttan's new book on US aid is one of those rarer volumes which provides such a rich breadth of information that not only does it deserve a place on both sets of shelves but its purchase will enable one to throw away perhaps a dozen or more older texts."--Roger Riddell, 'Development Policy Review'More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Baltimore, MD
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
1090 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8018-5051-6 (9780801850516)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Vernon W. Ruttan is Regents Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics and in the Department of Economics at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of 'Why Food Aid' and co-author of 'Agricultural Development: An International Perspective' and 'Induced Innovation: Technology, Institutions, and Development.'