ABSTRACT
At a time when imperialism looks naked and pervasive, when ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’ are all but forced on people (e.g. in Iraq), any North-to-South exchange appears particularly suspicious. Thus, due at least in part to the growing influence of the Western-dominated Bretton Woods institutions, the field of international development struggles harder and harder to escape its reputation as Trojan horse. And now, so does one of its newest offspring — participatory development (PD), and this in spite of the latter’s ‘noble’ goals.
