ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the legitimizing effects of the development discourse. It shows that the idea of partnership is prominent in the understanding of development and that it may have legitimizing as well as delegitimizing effects on development cooperation. The chapter explains the critical perspective on “real” development and on development understood as Westernization. The most substantial form of legitimization is achieved through the positive connotation of the term development itself. One can infer from the Austrian Federal Act on Development Cooperation, amended in 2003, that development means, among other things, “sustainable economic activity and economic growth combined with structural institutional and social change”. An important element of development is economic enhancement or economic growth. The legitimization of the development discourse was achieved through the unquestioned positive connotation of the term development, which was found in most of the analyzed texts as well as in the interviews with most of the respondents.
