external influence in the making of development ... - FES Ethiopia

Introduction
Nations rise and fall. Empires emerge and vanish. Development spreads in one part of
the world whereas underdevelopment persists in another. Yet, revolutionary changes that
have occurred in some parts shift places to other parts of the world. The hot spots of
power change places accordingly.
There are some discernable shared patterns in how countries evolve over time. Each
period exhibits, however, unique features and characteristics. The current epoch is
characterized by information driven economic dynamism as opposed to physical capital,
i.e., information technology rather than motor technology drives economic progress.
What uniquely distinguishes current age from past is the force of globalization that is
unleashed by certain economic forces and new types of technologies. Although each
economic period in history has its own unique features, the current stage is probably most
distinguished in the sense that what happens in one part of the world affects events in
different parts of the world where no one seems to have absolute control over events in its
domain. So, this time around, not only the nature of technology but also the conditions
under which human beings and nations interact with each other have changed.
As a result, the current poor nations are doubly disadvantaged. Those at the power end
have the lead not only in terms of resources and technology, but also have powerful
channel at their disposal to shape and guide global trends to their advantage. The weak
points of poor countries are no more restricted to resources and technology but to lack of
sovereign control over their internal matters.
New global initiatives and structures are taking place at rapid rate driven by both
objective economic forces and deliberate policy actions. These in tern are influencing
bilateral and multilateral relations. The new forces of change that drive development
cooperation include the drive to establish global free trade system, promote democratic
systems, peace and stability (counterattack, therefore, terrorism and religious extremism),
and attain international development goals and environmental protection. It is not
surprising, therefore, the developing world is engulfed more and more with proposals of
policy and institutional ideas/measures than the rate of technology and resource transfers
it gets. The two types of transfers are also increasingly becoming intertwined. Transfer
of resources is mostly conditioned on acceptance and implementation of certain policies/
programs (with implications to adoption of specific technologies) by the recipient
countries. One can assert that development aid is being highly influenced by the
globalization process and as such bears now unique ‘globlateral’ dimension.
To the extent that there is some shared patterns on how countries evolve in development,
some lessons could be drawn from relatively more advanced economies. However,
sustainable development is likely to occur only if measures are grounded on objective
local conditions and historical traditions that take into account social, cultural and natural
factors. Unfortunately, the developing countries are increasingly loosing capacity to
shape and govern their own course of development.
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