Pourquoi faut-il aider les pauvres ? Une étude critique du discours de la Banque mondiale sur la pauvreté

Abstract

Bruno Lautier — Why should the poor be helped ? A critical study of the World Banks' stand on poverty. For about a decade now, the struggle against poverty has been heralded as the central objective of development institutions, especially the World Bank. (That is its « raison d'être » or the essence of its existence). This priority is evermore justified on the basis of moral reasons. This article seeks to expose some inherent contradictions to such moral appeal, the covert objectives thereto and the political effects of such a strategy : the creation of a new type of citizen and a new form of government. The moral appeal as such carries the underpinnings of a political Utopia.