Re~ponse . Réplique

Development Studies as Part of Political Process

Bonnie Campbell

It is an honour and a pleasure to have been asked to make some brief comments in re­sponse to ML Rist's address. As did our speaker, 1shall speak in both ofour languages.

Je dois dire d'entrée de jeu que j'ai une admiration inconditionnelle pour le travail de M. Rist. Ses analyses décapantes, outils d'éveil pour combien d'entre nOliS, ensei­

gnants et étudiants, sont une contribution inestimable pOlir interroger et déconstruire les discours et les pratiques mises de l'avant au nom du « développement ». Des dis­cours et des pratiques qui servent si souvent à justifier l'extension du système que nous connaissons et qui tentent de faire, comme le soulignait notre conférencier, de l'intérêt individuel la source du bonheur collectif.

En tant qu'analyse critique de l'existant, la contribution de M. Rist définit le « dé­veloppement » tel qu'il est: la « transformation (et la destruction) de la nature et des relations sociales en biens et services marchands afin de stimuler la croissance écono­mique,) .

La démonstration de ce que « coûte» notre système est méticuleusement menée, et la présentation des trois catégories obsolètes qui viennent d'être exposées constitue un enrichissement à la rét1exion critique que nous devons collectivement poursuivre. Ces catégories, rappelons-le, sont d'abord la confusion entretenue par le marché entre les stocks et les fonds qui entraîne la dilapidation des ressources non renouvelables. En­suite, le modèle mécaniste, sur lequel s'est fondée l'économie, qui est devenu obsolète et ne permet pas de comprendre les problèmes écologiques. Enfin, le marché qui exclut par hypothèse ce qui est socialement le plus précieux: le lien social et les biens imma­tériels. Pour cette contribution, nous vous sommes très reconnaissants.

Là où je voudrais m'arrêter c'est sur cette notion de « développement » tel qu'il est, une notion bien précise de croissance et une notion éminemment idéologique, pour souligner l'importance de savoir comment nous en sommes arrivés là. Ceci me pa­rait central et tout à fait complémentaire à l'apport de M. Rist, pour savoir pourquoi d'autres chemins ne semblent pas possibles, ou ont été clairement écartés, et à quelles conditions ils pourraient devenir envisageables.

Comme l'écrivait 1heotonio dos Santos en 1969 dans son article « La crise de la théo­rie du développement et les relations de dépendance en Amérique latine» :

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356 CAMPBELL

Nous rejetons [... ]Ia possibilité d'une idéologie générale de développement. Les idéologies diverses correspondent à divers intérêts sociaux et [... ) à di­verses classes sociales [... j. Les classes intéressées par le développement sont différentes et cherchent différents chemins de développement. Il y a donc né­cessairement des façons non seulement distinctes mais aussi opposées de dé­finir ce qu'est le développement et quelles sont les mesures pour l'atteindre.'

Où sont passés ces « différents chemins de développement» qui semblaient exister il y a 40 ans?

To understand the historical processes that explain how we have come to where we are, we need to understand "development" as it is. 1'0 do so, we a1so need to explore why other paths that appeared to exist 40 years ago no longer seem conceivable and appear to have been excluded, particularly if we are interested in understanding the conditions under which other paths might emerge.

Let me illustrate by an analogy. Our work over quite sorne years on mining in Africa and mining regimes led us back to Canada and to the principle of free mining. ,

The development of the mining sector in Canada was largely influenced by the white settler colonial context and, in particular, by the interests of the mining entrepreneurs themselves. How? In large part, this happened through the principle of free mining. introduced into our Canadian regulatory and legislative frameworks under the colonial regime of the 19th century. It resulted from the political objective to generate wealth "within the framework of the ideology ofeconomic Iiberalism" (our translation), as weil as from the situation ofdependence of the State vis-à-vis the capital, the technologies. and the expertise of the private mining entrepreneurs.' Consequently, it attributed to them a privileged political status and considerable influence. This principle, also called "free entry," has in fact characterized the development of the mining sector in various Canadian provinces to the present day. Several implications are of note, of which the following four:

1. The principles inherent in free mining suggest that the development of the mining sector is not only desirable but also a priority with regard to alternative uses of a particular territory.

2. The liberty of action attributed to the mining entrepreneurs has conditioned the manner in which most Canadian jurisdictions foresee or take account of participa­tion or consultation on the part of communities, notably First nation communities, affected at the time of the issuing of mining rights. The formaI process of consul­tation and participation of affected communities-often Aboriginal-is generally deferred to a more advanced stage of mining projects.

1. 'Ihcolonio Jos Santos, « La crise de la lhéorie Ju développement et les relations uc dépendance en Amériquc laline Il, L'Homme et la Société, no 11,1969, p. 47.

2. Pierre Paquette, L'extraction de matières premières et la politique minière de l'État; une analyse de leur évolution et cie leur contribution au développement économique du Québec, 1867-1975, Doctoral lhesis, Departmclll of Economies, McGill University. 1981, pp. 110; 546-547.

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DEVELOPMENT STUDIES AS PART OF POLITICAL PROCESS 357

3. The delegation of authority to mining companies through the principle of free min­ing often takes place as weil to the detriment of the authority of the public adminis­tration.

4. Free access to the resource and the guarantee of the right to exploit constitute, ac­cording to Karen Campbell, "a key structuml issue that contributes to the preferen­tial treatment enjoyed by the mining industry. ".1 This explains why regimes based on free mining appear characterised by an asymmetrical power structure that has had, and continues to have as a consequence, a constraining and even restricting effect on the negotiating space oflocal actors with regard to the choice of the development strategy of their territory.

Why this detour, you may be asking? Rescarch we have carried out rcgarding the impact of the reforms introduced to

open up the African mining sector to foreign investment through the liberalization process of the 80S and 90S points to key consequences, notably social and environmen­tal impacts, but also far-reaching political consequences with regard to limiting state authority, sovereign~y, and political space. This process is accompanied by the intro­duction and shaping of asymmetrical power relations and institutional arrangements that contribute to the perpetuation of these consequences.

Ifanalyzed through the lens of the Canadian experience, in many ways the process of reform of the mining sector in Africa over the last two decades, which began with struc­turai adjustment policies, has produced what might be seen as a simulation of what was accomplished through the principle of free mining in the white settler colonies. Interestingly, the role that multi- and bilateral actors, as weil as international NGOs, assume in conditioning the structural relations of power that help determine values, nonns, and practices that enter into the revision of mining regimes has been largely overlooked. This significant oversight can pèrhaps be explained at [east in part by the apparent concordance between the values that have shaped mining regimes in North America and thase that have been introduced into African regulatory frameworks.

However, the consequences of the manner in which African mining sectors have been opened to foreign investment have been critical. Four implications are worth noting:

1. The strong retrenchment of the state from the sector has also been accompanied by parallel processes of the redefinition of its role and a reduction of state authority and sovereignty. A study prepared in 2001 for the World Bank recommended in this regard:

.J. Karen Camphcll, Undermitling Qur Future: How Mining's Privileged Access to Land Harms People and the Envirotlment, Discussion Paper Otl the Need to Reform Mineral Tenure Law itl Camula, West Coast Environmcnla! Law Staff Coullsd, January 2004.

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358 CAMPBELL

(ii) Allowing or expanding private access to resources previously reserved to the state, which involves a major change in the concept ofsovereigntyfor many developing countries§. (our italics).

2. The process of the redefinition of the role of the state in the mining sector and its sovereignty more generally, in many ways echoes the observations of Susan Strange with regard to the reduced autonomy and authority of states, as weil as their reduced capacity tû influence the evolution of their own structures. As a counterpart, the distribution of structural power has clearly been shifted to the advantage of private actors and notably transnational mining companies. In the volume published in 1991

by Susan Strange with John Stopford and John S. Henley, the consequences of the growth of foreign direct investments on the structural power of states is described as follows: "states' positive power to harness internai resources is decidedly constrained when they try to influence where and how international production takes place. They find tl\ey cannot direct; they can only bargain."s

3. The narrowing of the margin of manoeuvre of mineral-rieh states and of their poliey space as a result of having to respond to an externally driven reform process have in certain circumstances been accompanied by the institutionalizing of a partieu­lar mode of the reproduction of power relations. The "polities of mining" that has emerged and been perpetuated, notably in countries very weil endowed with minerai resources, is often severely lacking in transparency and accountability.

4. The fourth dimension concerns the emergence and prolonging of partieular domes­tic structural power relations linking Afriean decision makers to powerful foreign actors, whether corporate, financial, or diplomatie. The possibility ofmoving beyond. the current situation to one ensuring the introduction of regulatory frameworks likely to promote alternative developmental and environmental objectives and the protection ofhuman rights appears constrained in many situations, however, by the asymmetrieal structural relations of power inherited from the past and the hierarchy of values that these relations perpetuate.

My point in raising this analogy is to underline the importance of understanding how available options and strategies have been and are continually being conditioned and at times, narrowed down. It is particularly salient in this regard, to examine the way in whieh specific institutional arrangements have been put in place and are being put in place, how they work and how they are perpetuated, ifbetter understanding is to be gained as to the conditions needed for them to be transformed.

However, the politieal dimensions of these processes, as our work on mining re­minds us repeatedly, are increasingly being dissimulated and obscured by the tendency to technieize social and politieal issues that are increasingly treated above ail as proced­

4. Koh Naito, Felix Remy and John P. Williams, Review ofLegal and Fiscal Frameworks for Explo­ration and Mining, produccd fur the Wurld Bank, Vul. 1, London: Mining Journal Books. 2001, p. 6.

5. John M. Stopford, Susan Strange, and John S. Henley, Rival States. Rival Firms: Competition for World Market Shares, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. 14.

DEVELOPMENT STUDIES AS PART Of l'OLlTlCAL l'ROCESS 359

ural issues, ta be resolved through the introduction of the right set of administrative measures. Ta this must be added the introduction of refonns, the signing of trade and investment agreements that constrain political space and that often narrow options, strategies, and policies ta those that ollr countries and the financial institutions propose and quite often impose.

Ainsi, en abordant le terrain politique, en analysant les dimensions politiques des réformes, en réintroduisant les jeux des acteurs et les enjeux de responsabilité, la re­cherche en « développement » peut fournir des éléments clés non seulement pour com­prendre comment nous en sommes arrivés où nous sommes, mais surtout, sous quelles conditions il devient possible d'ouvrir des espaces politiques et de concevoir des arran­gements institutionnels permettant de penser le devenir social et collectif autrement.

S'il y a lIne spécificité à la recherche pour le développement, c'est que la recherche dans ce domaine, en tant que telle et par delà ses objets singuliers, non seulement participe de la problématique du développement, mais intervient comme instrument soit de prolongation, soit de transformation des relations passées caractérisées par les asymétries et l'insolltenabilité que nous connaissons.

S'il y a un rôle pour les études en développement - et donc une réponse à la question de savoir comment penser hors de catégories devenues obsolètes -, c'est (tout comme les théories critiques de l'écoféminisme le suggèrent, par exemple) en reconnaissant qu'il est nécessaire de retracer les origines des exploitations, afin non seulement de s'y opposer, mais aussi, afin de revaloriser les connaissances, les valeurs et les pratiques indûment rejetées au sein de nos sociétés dites « modernes ». Mais c'est surtout en reconnaissant ce domaine d'études comme partie intégrante de processus politiques

. (deve/opment studies as part DIa po/itica/ process) , et en reconnaissant au chercheur le rôle de révélateur, de décapeur de ces processus, comme vous le faites si admirablement bien, M. Rist.

Merci.