UC Riverside

Development policy and practice is often criticized for being both ineffective and unethical. This dissertation focuses on the latter. Given that so many atrocities were committed in the past in the name of “developing” poor countries and people, how can we justify development aid today? What sort of normative principles should underline development policy and practice to avoid ethnocentrism and to preserve local culture and self-determination? I argue that the capabilities approach (as articulated by Amartya Sen (1992, 1999) and Martha Nussbaum (1999, 2000. 2011)), supplemented by communicative freedom (developed by Jürgen Habermas (1990) and Seyla Benhabib (2011)), is the answer. Together, the capabilities approach and communicative freedom form an iterative process and work to reinforce one another. Communicative freedom (voice) is a set of ideal deliberative procedures for legitimizing development agendas, policy, and practice. The capabilities approach (capabilities), alternatively, give a pragmatic account of what material and non-material resources individuals need to exercise voice. Throughout this dissertation, I draw upon the experiences of people and development organizations in West and East Africa to make my case.