The Governance of the Third World: A Foucauldian Perspective on Power Relations in Development

Abstract

The many different meanings assigned to development in the Third World are a source of much discussion. Some of this debate concerns development as a process and some the end or goal of that process. The most important side of development, however, is neither debated nor discussed because it is taken for granted, and thus remains unidentified. Development itself - the state that certain countries find themselves struggling to attain - remains a nebulous (and somewhat elusive) objective. Development theories with teleological orientations have been discredited for quite some time now, but one still finds that at whatever level of development, from individual to international, there is something out there - something other - that is the target. It is my contention that whatever it is that is out there, this final resting place or Holy Grail called development might ultimately prove to be more of a false idol than a savior. I suspect that there are hidden costs and consequences that render development strategies and goals problematic. The

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