Development Policies: Do They Really Fight Against Global Inequalities and Injustice? An Alternative and Critical Analysis

Ander Arredondo Chopitea

doi:10.22151/politikon.46.2

Authors

Ander Arredondo Chopitea Complutense University of Madrid

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22151/politikon.46.2

Keywords:

Capitalism, Critical Studies, Development, Development Policies, Ideology, Inequalities, Justice

Abstract

This article examines development policies in the fight against inequalities and global justice using alternative and critical theories, establishing connections between the capitalist system and development policies as a social phenomenon inherent to it and analysing if these policies can address their abstract motivations and goals of justice and equality. The general findings of the article suggest that development policies contribute to the intensive and extensive expansion of capitalism as an instrument to impose and never confront Western economic interests. Moreover, the concepts of charity discourse and development imperative are introduced as the ideological foundations of development policies, which serve both to extend the idea that the struggle against inequalities and injustice generated by the capitalist system can and must be resolved within the framework of this system and as a device of social control and hegemony production from Western societies to the rest of the world.

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Author Biography

Ander Arredondo Chopitea, Complutense University of Madrid

Ander Arredondo Chopitea, from Madrid (Spain), is a PhD student in Political Science at Complutense University of Madrid (UCM). He received his bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Public Administration at UCM, a master’s degree in International Development Cooperation (with a focus on Latin America) at Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid (UJRC), and a master’s degree in Public Policy at National Distance Education University (UNED). With several years of experience in the non-profit sector, he is currently the project manager at a Spanish NGO. His interests include development studies, public policy, Marxism, decolonial studies and feminisms.