Book Reviews : Foreign Aid Re-examined. A Critical Appraisal. Edited by JAMES W. WIGGINS and HELMUT SCHOECK. (Washington: Public Affairs Press, 1958. Pp. ix, 250. $5.00.)
| Author | J. Leo Cefkin |
| Published date | 01 June 1960 |
| Date | 01 June 1960 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/106591296001300254 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
563
Foreign
Aid
Re-examined.
A
Critical
Appraisal.
Edited
by
JAMES
W.
WIGGINS
and
HELMUT
SCHOECK.
(Washington:
Public
Affairs
Press,
1958.
Pp.
ix,
250.
$5.00.)
This
volume
is
a
collection
of
fourteen
papers
originally
prepared
for
a
symposium
held
at
Emory
University,
Atlanta,
Georgia,
during
1957,
on
culture
contact
in
technically
underdeveloped
lands.
The
participants
in
those
meetings
and
hence
the
contributors
to
this
volume
are
specialists
in
the
several
social
sciences,
anthropology,
economics,
history,
political
science,
and
sociology.
The
book
should
have
had
the
benefits
of
the
insights
of
these
several
disciplines.
The
first
impression
one
gets
on
reading
this
volume
is
that
the
contributions
might
have
been
speeches
denouncing
foreign
aid
at
a
rally
convened
to
defeat
such
aid.
They
provide
a
plethora
of
criticism
but
very
little
appraisal.
They
lack
balance
and
do
not
point
out
that
which
is
good
as
well
as
that
which
should
be
criticized.
Only
two
of
the
contributors
can
find
any
values
in
foreign
economic
and
technical
aid.
H.
G.
Barnett,
professor
of
anthropology
at
the
University
of
Oregon
argues
for
&dquo;aided
self-help
...
as
one
effective
means
of
accomplishing
progress...
,&dquo;
and
David
N.
Rowe,
professor
of
political
science
at
Yale
supports
military
and
economic
assistance
for
Nationalist
China.
The
book
is
further
weakened
by
the
inclusion
of
papers
that
are
essentially
irrelevant
to
the
question
of
foreign
aid.
Thus,
Professor
Van
der
Kroef’s
dis-
cussion
of
centrifugal
forces
in
the
Indonesian
economy
deals
with
socio-economic
development
and
agricultural
production
in
Java
which
is
different
from
that
of
the
other
Indonesian
islands;
but
the
significance
of
this
circumstance
in
rela-
tion
to
an
aid
program
for
Indonesia
is
never
made
clear.
Then,
again,
Professor
Warren
S.
Thompson’s
paper
on
population,
significant
as
it
is,
never
goes
beyond
the
self-evident
allegation
that
it is
urgent
to
consider
reduction
of
population
growth
in
all
planning
for
underdeveloped
lands.
Further,
the
burden
of
this
study
is
not
significantly
advanced
in
Professor
Rowe’s
discussion
of
the
Chinese
case
which
is,
in
the
main,
devoted
to
the
proposition
that
the
fall
of
China
to
the
Communists
would
have
been
avoided
had
the
United
States’
policy
been
better
adapted
to
the
realities
of
that
situation.
The
most
serious
weakness
of
this
book
is
that
it
fails
to
come
to
grips
with
the
role
of
foreign
aid
under
conditions
of
the
cold
war
and
&dquo;the
rising
tide
of
expectations&dquo;
in
the
technologically
underdeveloped
countries
of
the
world.
There
is
no
answer
to
the
question
&dquo;has
foreign
aid
served
to
preserve
countries
against
a
communist
aggressor?&dquo;
There
is
no
attention
to
the
effect
of
foreign
aid
on
the
economies
of
underdeveloped
lands.
Authors
are
given
to
gross
allega-
tions
which
they
fail
to
support
or
poorly
support.
Professor
Rippey
castigates
aid
as
&dquo;global
charity
thrust
upon
the
[American]
taxpayer&dquo;
in
&dquo;apparent
viola-
tion
of
a
fundamental
principle
of
our
system
of
government.&dquo;
Or
in
the
same
vein,
Elgin
Groseclose
takes
the
view
that
foreign
aid
involves
our
government
in
charity
abroad
which
&dquo;is
not
only
unconstitutional
but
is
self-defeating....&dquo;
Hardly
borne
out
by
the
facts
are
statements
by
other
writers.
Perhaps
a
position
of
utter
nonsense
is
the
best
way
one
can
characterize
the
hypothesis
that
foreign
aid
can’t
work
because
the
values
of
Hispanic
culture
stand
in
the
way
of
success-
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