ABSTRACT
The foreign aid agenda is dominated by a globalised neoliberal economic growth paradigm. This chapter analyses in brief the shortcomings of this Western-led development orthodoxy in a political and economic context that is challenging these foundations. As it stands, the neoliberal paradigm is being rendered increasingly incongruous with the existing politics and economics of foreign aid, with Chinese-led development initiatives emerging from a very diverse set of theoretical and conceptual underpinnings. In conjunction with the rise of populism and emerging narratives of de-globalisation, this chapter argues that there is a need for a paradigm shift in aid and development as a foundational critique. This chapter therefore addresses ‘why’ and ‘how’ PEA should be recast through a paradigm shift and introduces the rationale for International Political Economy as a theoretical framework for PEA. A high-level argument is put forward for a critical revision to PEA, recasting PEA from its current conceptualisation, limited in most cases to analysing the politics of economics, to a tool that can provide a critical analysis of politics as central, not just to development interventions but to the entire notion of human development.
