The United States and Community Development: A "Low-Modernist" Approach to Foreign Aid in the Years of Modernization Theory

Historians typically approach the topic of post-World War II U.S. overseas development schemes by referring to modernization theory, an animating set of principles, generated by social scientists, that shaped U.S. relations with the Third World and particularly U.S. foreign aid programs. In such studies, the political scientists, economists, and area studies experts who advised policymakers are given much attention. But another important group of policy intellectuals played an important role within the foreign policy apparatus: rural sociologists and anthropologists. Often serving in foreign countries rather than in Washington, and serving foreign governments as well as their own government, they helped to start and oversee rural development programs throughout the Third World. Unlike the classical modernization theorists, however, these rural intellectuals emphasized local knowledge, communal solidarity, the adaptation of traditions, village democracy, and grassroots participation. And although, from the perspective of Washington, such ideas were often subordinated to heavy-industry and capital-intensive modernization projects, from the perspective of the countries receiving foreign aid, this “low-modernist” approach to development was of great significance, and led to the creation of major, enduring community development programs in a number of Third World countries. This paper, then, will (1) argue for the historical significance of the rural intellectuals’ vision of development, (2) explain its differences from modernization theory, and (3) suggest some of its limits via an examination of its history within India and the Philippines.