The Anti-Politics Machine: Development, Depoliticization, and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho

I was more or less forced to read this book because of my Anthropology of Development requirements, but I ended up thoroughly enjoying it. He really studies the Lesotho situation up, down, and sideways in order to paint a more accurate picture of the situation and effects of development planning. Anyone involved in development planning or projects should read this.

incomplete,data but a basic source on a little known country

This book arrived in adequate time and had very little wear and tear that you would expect from a used book. It looked hardly used and I have been very pleased with it.

Limited highlighting, no tear.

The book is in excellent condition and the delivery time was quite brief. Great service and great product!

In The Anti-Politics Machine, James Ferguson examines the failure of the Thaba-Tseka rehabilitation project in the seventies to demonstrate that development institutions create their own discourse and perspectives that are counterproductive to their goal of aiding the country in question. Before detailing the evidence that shows what mistakes were made during the different phases of the Thaba-Tseka rehabilitation project, the author provides a very useful theoretical perspective that accounts for development failures in general. Specifically, Ferguson gives an excellent in-depth explanation of how neo-marxism and dependency theory can predict why development projects in Lesotho systematically fail. After being introduced to marxist theory in last week’s reading by Hoffman, Pieter, and Weiss, “Humanitarianism, War, and Politics”, I found this section to be very informative on how the theory applies to development aid. The author also includes Foucault’s theory of thoughts and actions being shaped by what is acceptable in the sphere in which they exist. This helped me in understanding the following chapters about the serious misrepresentations made about Lesotho and how this led to the failure of the Thaba-Tseka project.Another element that I appreciated was the author’s citation of leading institutions in his critique. For example, he cites the World Bank to demonstrate that mistakes are made in development projects because aid agencies feel obligated to adhere to many bureaucratic standards. In this way, he points out how even renowned organizations reflect distorted visions of reality in their reporting: “(...) precisely because it was produced under a different system for rating work”, (page 30).The author explains that the inaccurate representation of Lesotho in development discourse is not due to faulty scholarship, but rather that development agencies need to represent Lesotho in a certain way so that they will have a role to play in the nation’s development. He explains this with a tone of irony which highlights the paradox of development agencies misrepresenting Lesotho in order to have a reason to intervene within strict development framework, but failing to aid Lesotho precisely because of these restrictions: “it must be aboriginal, not yet incorporated into the modern world (...) it must be agricultural, so that it can be ‘developed’ through agricultural improvements.” (page 71). It is quite alarming that development agencies disregard reality and try to fit country profiles into their own criteria.Another strength of the book is the rich description of Lesotho that it provides, even though it is only focused on a single development project. For example, that “60 percent of the male labor force (in Lesotho) are working as wage laborers in South Africa” (page 35), which is representative of a pattern of poor countries whose populations migrate elsewhere in search of better wages. I was struck by the fact that many goods including “wool, mohair, diamonds” (page 39) that are exported from Lesotho to South Africa, are then re-exported to other countries, which provides useful insight into South Africa’s role in Lesotho’s struggling economy. The author dismisses this mechanism to be of lesser importance than the currency and customs arrangements agreed between Lesotho and South Africa, which I disagree with and can be argued to be a gap in his analysis. More evidence shedding light on the relationship between the two countries would improve the analysis.What makes The Anti-Politics Machine unique is the anthropological perspective through which the author approaches the puzzle of development failure. He brings up the idea that actors should be understood to have important roles in the development of Lesotho, rather than just simply referring to the state, including “the elite clique that rules Lesotho, the mineworkers, the aid agencies” etc. (page 62) This highlights the importance of identities associated with different priorities and goals. This perspective helps political scientists approach the theme of development with a different way of thinking, especially in terms of the actors involved, through the use of rich literary language, such as “When the project set itself down in Thaba-Tseka it quickly found itself in the position not of a craftsman approaching his raw materials, but more like that of a bread crumb thrown into an ants’ nest.” (page 225). However, complete interviews with Basotho government officials, residents of Thaba-Tseka and development workers would have made the book even more valuable. The absence of full interviews limits to some extent the reader’s understanding of the Thaba-Tseka project and its drawbacks.

Ferguson describes this book as "not principally a book about the Basotho people, or even about Lesotho; it is principally a book about the operation of the "international development" apparatus in a particular setting." His book is about the complex relation between the intentionality of planning in a development project in Lesotho and the strategic intelligibility of its outcomes, which turn out to be unintended, but instrumental in expanding state power and, at the same time, depoliticizing the power.Against the backdrop of the swarm of development agencies in Lesotho, Africa, he employs a Foucauldian notion of discourse being a practice (to engage in a discourse is to do something). In a fascinating analysis, he shows how World Bank's country report on Lesotho summarily labels Lesotho as a subsistence-based economy with high population growth untouched by capitalism. Ferguson argues that Lesotho was, in fact, affected by capitalism as early at 1910, that the World Bank is not just wrong, but systematically wrong in its portrayal of Lesotho. He describes the case of the World-bank funded Thaba-Tseka project (1975-84), which was originally designed to convert mountainous regions into commercial livestock ranges by providing road connections and low-cost production techniques. He then details why the project failed to live up to its original goals.To do so, Ferguson traverses back and forth between discourse analysis of development and ethnographic field work in his method. Such a lens provides an understanding of the reconfigurations, causalities, and particularities of each other. Furthermore, it helps me understand the processes, practices and phenomena as occurring within a larger context of discourse production, rather than appearing to act in isolation.He could have provided a less personal epilogue, though, which is rather disappointing in highly impressive book.A must for anyone engaging with development.

This is a interesting look into how development discourse is created, what purposes it serves, how it often differs from facts on the ground and what the consequences are. If you're interested in making s foray into the world of development this a great case study to take a look at.

Excellent book, as described.

Fantastic book, a must-read for anyone engaged in development work or research. Shipping was extremely fast. This was exactly what I was looking for and I am very pleased with my purchase.

Ich babe das Book an der versprochene Zeit erhalten. Es ist nicht eine Kopie von das echte Book und der Preis war gut.

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