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International development assistance--what Arjan de Haan calls the aid industry--continues to be critical for overcoming the world's development challenges, perhaps more so than ever given the global realities of climate change and the Covid pandemic. But how does this industry actually work? What practices does it follow, and to what effect? De Haan addresses these questions, providing a concise introduction to the business of development. This new edition reflects fifteen years of increasing complexity in the aid industry: heightened polarized debates about appropriate approaches; the involvement of new donors, such as China; adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals; the blending of public- and private-sector investment; tensions among charitable, political, and commercial considerations. The list goes on. De Haan incorporates these factors in a succinct overview that is an ideal introduction for students encountering the subject of development for the first time, as well as a handy overview for development practitioners.

This book re-evaluates the importance of social policies in shaping well-being and combating exclusion, and enhances understanding of how these policies are formed in a globalizing world. It emphasises the context- and path-dependence of patterns and policies of inclusion and exclusion, and provides a framework for supporting social policy making.

Social policies play a critical role in the transformation of emerging economies. This paper discusses this with reference to China and India, with their very distinctive public policy approaches. Much of the economics literature either does not pay much attention to social policy or regards it as secondary at best or as a market enemy at worst. Views on social policy in emerging economies see this as either lagging or threatening growth. Instead, this paper argues, social policy is congruent and constitutive, and sustainable social policies are those that are formulated as part of economic policies and transformation, and, in turn, shape the conditions of enhancing markets and productivity. The paper describes how the 'great transformation' of both countries shapes social policy responses, the institutions and ideas that give very different shapes to the two countries' policies and the way policies vis-à-vis minorities are situated in both countries' social policies. The conclusion argues for the distinct research agenda that follows from this conceptualisation of social policy.

AbstractThis article explores the role of international development cooperation — or aid — in foreign policy and diplomacy. Based on his experience as a practitioner, Arjan de Haan makes the observation that the development debate, and in particular the search for effective aid, has neglected the political role of aid. Moreover, the high political symbolism that aid has obtained, particularly in the last decade, has received relatively little attention. A political perspective on aid is now rapidly becoming more important, especially because of the enhanced importance of global security in setting an aid agenda, and because the old ways of working are — or seem to be — challenged by the rise of China and other countries that were recently (and still are) recipients of aid. An understanding of the diverse political motives behind aid should inform the way that aid effectiveness is measured. The changing politics in which aid is embedded are illustrated with reference to the Netherlands, which used to have one of the most respected aid programmes because of its multilateral emphasis and 'untying' of aid, and because Dutch strategic interests have now been made one of the cornerstones of the Netherlands' new policy. The article hypothesizes that reinforcing progressive principles around international development can be a supportive element of a strengthened diplomacy in the globalized world beyond 2010.

The global financial crisis has had a large negative impact on China's economy, particularly on employment, but the government responses appear to have been effective. This article focuses on the social policy responses after the crisis, and how these are situated in the austere social policies that have come about since the economic reforms started in 1978, and the recent aims to create a "harmonious society" and the challenges and contradictions these contain.

AbstractThis paper discusses whether China's response to the 2008–2009 financial crisis is a 'defining moment', whether it is leading to a departure of China's export‐driven development model and whether the large stimulus package is strengthening its social policies and leading towards a more egalitarian structure. Two years after the crisis, it seems China has been very successful in managing the crisis, reaffirming political legitimacy, monitoring potential social unrest and introducing a wide range of promotive measures, even though this did not imply the sudden shift to promotion of household consumption some observers were arguing for. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.