Rural Projects Through Urban Eyes: An Interpretation of the World Bank's New-Style Rural Development Projects

摘要

This paper is a suggested political economy of the Bank's new-style rural development projects. It attempts to describe some of the things that happen in the political environment of a project when governments, assisted by the Bank, redirect their public-sector services and subsidies to the rural poor. The nature of implementing agencies as political actors is also explored, including how their particular tasks contribute to the formation of their political character--infrastructure vs. agricultural extension vs. social services like health and education. The purpose of this exploration is to broaden our understanding of how the new rural projects have fared--to help explain successes as well as problems. The paper also suggests how the features of the political environment might be taken into account in the selection and design of future rural projects. (Copyright (c) 1982 The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank 1818 H Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20433, U.S.A.)