U.S. Foreign Aid Doctrine Riddled With Moralizing, Banfield Declares

"After more than ten years of practice, the theory of non-military foreign aid to underdeveloped countries is hardly more than a string of cliches, slogans, and moralizing," Edward C. Banfield, professor of Government, declared last night.

Speaking to the Graduate Economics Club, Banfield asserted that "there is no defensible or coherent foreign aid doctrine in the United States." Stating that "United States interest is the ultimate criterion for the success of our foreign aid," the speaker attacked current ways of thinking about the usefulness of aid in prompting economic development, and challenged the idea that U.S. spurred economic growth necessarily engenders "friendship" with American.

"Economic Development," he said, "has cultural prerequisites." To be in a position to profit from economic aid, a country must have a widespread interest in economic development, a feeling that economic activity is worthy of respect. It must process a core of talented people willing to accept risks of innovation, and the government must have the power to carry out economic reform even when it involves temporary hardship.

Banfield suggested that these qualities do not exist in any underdeveloped nation; in some countries, none of them exist, nor is there anything inevitable about them attaining them in the future. It is too easy for the U.S. to expect its aid to fulfill impossible goals, he said, adding that "it is not surprising that the giver overvalues his gift."

Three methods of raising economic standards among the masses in a country are possible: 1) Widespread distribution of income; 2) Production of a very large total national income through huge aid grants; and 3) Population control so there are fewer to share in the national economy. But particularly population control presents massive problems of its own, Banfield said. "Just what does Kennedy do with those birth control pills? It's one thing for Congress to appropriate money for the pills, but quite another to get the people in India to swallow them."

Concerning methods of distributing foreign aid, Banfield attacked the concepts of Aid for Prestige, Aid for Good Will, and Aid as a Moral Force for Democracy, as an immoral attempt to manipulate other nations into supporting the U.S. ideology through their conscience.