Bill Easterly: social engineering skeptic

Bill Easterly comes out against social engineering:

…rigorous skepticism is a creative force because most of the damage is done by overconfident [aid industry folks] who thought they knew the answer when they didn’t.  And such skepticism doesn’t leave us empty-handed: it forces us back on what are our core values:  democracy, human rights, individual liberties, that we follow for moral rather than pragmatic reasons. Autocratic “pragmatic” claims to deliver development if you will just give up your rights don’t survive skeptical scrutiny.

I agree with Easterly whole-heatedly. Aid projects often do more harm than good because the people who implement them do not understand the social and political context in which the projects exist. Social engineering is not easy and if we are going to attempt it, we need to spend a lot more time thinking about context because one-size-fits-all, externally imposed projects are a recipe for disaster. Also, I love the dig that aid workers often act like autocrats (even while preaching democracy!). Too true, too true!