Global Development Goals: The Folly of Technocratic Pretensions

Authors: Reddy, Sanjay¹; Heuty, Antoine²

Source: Development Policy Review, Volume 26, Number 1, January 2008 , pp. 5-28(24)

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Abstract:

This article argues that, although effective strategic choices for achieving global development goals need to be based on assessments of the costs and benefits of alternative approaches, existing methods of arriving at such assessments are highly unreliable, in particular deriving from implausible and restrictive assumptions and often depending on data of poor quality, and on the pretence that the future can be adequately known. Such weaknesses can be mitigated, but not easily overcome, without abandoning deeply held technocratic presumptions.

Keywords: Poverty; development; global development goals; Millennium Development Goals; technocracy

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7679.2008.00396.x

Affiliations: 1: Department of Economics, Barnard College, Columbia University, 3009 Broadway Avenue, New York 10027 ( ), Email: sr793@columbia.edu 2: Senior Economist at Revenue Watch Institute, New York.

Publication date: 2008-01-01