Helping People Help Themselves: From the World Bank to an Alternative Philosophy of Development Assistance

David Ellerman surveys the deep theoretical foundations for a philosophy of development - including the work of Albert Hirschman, Paolo Freire, John Dewey, and Soren Kierkegaard - and offers a clear, practical suggestion of how goals of development can be better set and met. He argues that the best strategy for development would reduce select forms of assistance and shift the locus of initiative from the would-be helpers to the doers.