The Rise of Postcolonial States as Donors: a challenge to the development paradigm?

Abstract

The idea of development co-operation—the ‘development paradigm’—took shape during the decades of global decolonisation and growing political autonomy of the former colonies. It can be understood as a historic reconfiguration of the centre–periphery relationship originally established through colonisation. The rise of new state donors such as China or India questions not only the established modes of development co-operation but also the development paradigm as a whole. Themselves historical products of anti-colonialism and political autonomy understood as non-alignment as well as absolute sovereignty, these new ‘Southern’ donors question the very idea of development (co-operation) as a Western, postcolonial concept. This paper, first, attempts to characterise the ‘development paradigm’, providing a historical contextualisation of the development discourse in its continuities and ruptures. Second, it asks what the rise of new state donors such as China and India looks like at the political–normative level as well as at the level of Realpolitik. Lastly, some future consequences of these trends are discussed illustrating the far-reaching (normative) consequences and the necessity to reconsider the established political discourse on development.

Notes

This article is a result of my work for the Austrian Research Foundation for International Development (öfse). I would like to thank my former colleagues at öfse for the inspiring time we had.

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