On the Legitimacy of the International Development Practice

This paper argues that there are two necessary conditions for the legitimacy of the international development practice – both of which tie the legitimacy of this practice to the fulfillment of basic standards of justice. One necessary condition for the legitimacy of the international development practice is that it does not cause harm. While the international development practice may still be legitimate even if it does not produce a lot of good relative to the costs that it requires, the practice is illegitimate if it is harmful. A second necessary condition for the international development practice is that it neither instantiates nor contributes to political domination. The international development practice may either instantiate international political domination by subjecting the governments of some countries to the arbitrary rule of the governments of other countries, or it may contribute to domestic political domination by bringing governments into a position where they can exercise arbitrary rule over the citizenry. After laying out these two conditions for the legitimacy of the international development practice, the paper also considers as to whether the actual international development practice fulfills these conditions. It argues that while it is very difficult to argue that the international development practice is causing harm, many forms of this practice indeed either instantiate or contribute to political domination.