Theorizing the Managerialism-Neoliberalism-Development Nexus: Changing Donor Landscapes and Persistence of Practices in Kyrgyzstan

Abstract

This chapter deals with understanding the relationship between managerialism and neoliberalism in the development cooperation sector, looking beyond the common view of managerialism as the organizing hand of neoliberalism. Rudzite draws on case studies of the ‘traditional’ Western and (re)emerging non-Western development assistance donors’ projects in the aid-responsive Kyrgyzstan to show how the managerial approaches in aid delivery enable a simultaneous saturation and absence of development actors. The facilitation of this ambivalent presence, rather than the delivery of the neoliberal agenda, thus ensures the prevalence of managerialism in aid delivery despite the widespread criticism of it.