Development 7

Fourth, we must embark on a bold new programme for making the benefits of our scientific advances and industrial progress available for the improvement and growth of undeveloped areas.

Harry S. Truman (20.01.1949), Inaugural Address.

Harry S. Truman (1884-1972) was an American politician (Democratic Party) and President of the United States from 1945 to 1953.

Truman's speech is often cited as marking the beginning of development policy. However, the idea is older. As early as 1929, Great Britain passed the Colonial Development Act. Ideas of human and social development can be traced back via the Enlightenment to ancient Greece. The concept became particularly powerful politically after the Second World War, in the context of the Cold War and decolonisation. The USA also used both the promise of “development” and the degradation of “underdevelopment” for its geopolitical and foreign policy interests.

*Aram Ziai (2010): Zur Kritik des Entwicklungsdiskurses. In: APuZ - Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte 10. *Arturo Escobar (1995): Encounterin Development. The Making and Unmaking of the Third World. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

1949