The Western Way of Development: A Critical Review

Abstract

With the rise of the emerging powers of the South as providers of and participants in development assistance, the landscape of what is conventionally understood to be development is changing. The dominant Western paradigm arose in the context of late colonialism and the Cold War, and reached its zenith with the triumphalism of the neo-liberal consensus. Now, however, the Western way is confronted with challenges on multiple fronts. South-South cooperation, ranging from technical assistance and knowledge exchange to more commercial practices like “tied aid”, offers a vision of development based on the recognized success and experiences of countries like China (Fornes & Mendez, 2018). Coupled to this vision are new institutional sources of development finance like the New Development Bank (NDB) and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which are to provide alternatives to established Western-dominated sources (Reisen, 2015).