Vita. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 62-65).

Vita. / Bibliography: p. 62-65.

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

The focus of this dissertation is a distinctive post-fascist ideology that emerged during the Cold War era. Developed and first put to practice in Francisco Franco’s Spain during the 1950s and 1960s, this model for a market-oriented dictatorship, which I label Hispanic technocratic-authoritarianism, became a key ideological reference for the dictatorships of Juan Carlos Onganía in Argentina (1966-1970) and Augusto Pinochet in Chile (1973-1988). For its chief designers, this theory of state represented a noble dream of a “post-ideological” society marked by neoliberal economic development, firm social hierarchies, and most importantly, a project of spiritual “perfection.” Rather than a simple mimesis, this study points to a dynamic of constant transatlantic intellectual dialogue between what were, in essence, three attempts to foster an alternative “Hispanic” modernity, within three dissimilar historical settings. The venture to constitute a reactionary modernity, as a spiritual “third position” that would transcend the antagonistic “materialist” ideologies born at the time of the French Revolution, is as old as modernity itself. The present study explores a prominent case study of these ideological projects, in the Spanish speaking world. My point of departure is that there is a certain lacuna in the historical analysis on Latin America’s far-right ideology during the Cold War. Whereas historiography has fully scrutinized extreme neo-fascist revolutionary movements, military counterrevolutionary states, and populist authoritarianism in the region, there is a dearth of analytic work on the post-fascist technocratic ideologies of the 1960s. My analysis therefore underscores the role of the international Catholic Society Opus Dei as one conspicuous arena for the formulation of the technocratic-authoritarian ideology. Thus, my work accounts for the rise of the “technocrats” as a contingent historical phenomenon that mirrored the economic and cultural contexts of the Cold War era. Consciously setting out to replace what they thought was the failed fascist revolution of the 1930s, the ideologues I analyze formulated what they believed was a more sophisticated method of Catholic modernization - one comprising of a consumerist society protected from the harms of either parliamentarism or rationalism. Chapter 1 of the dissertation explores how, during the 1950s, Franco’s regime propagated a distinct post-fascist ideology of “Hispanism” via a transnational organization by the name of Instituto de Cultura Hispánica, and how this traditionalist ideology founds if most zealous interlocutors in Argentina and Chile. Chapter 2 hones in on Spain’s novel technocratic-authoritarian ideologies of the 1960s. Designed and implemented by members of the Secular Catholic Organization Opus Dei, this ideology soon became identified with Spain’s 1960s “economic miracle.” Chapter 3 explains how the Francoist ideologies made their way into the Argentine public sphere through two Argentine intellectual affiliations: the Ateneo de la República and the Cuadernos del Sur journal. These groups, I explain, began designing Argentina’s “post-ideological” society during the early 1960s. Chapter 4 explores how the regime of Juan Carlos Onganía (1966-1970) utilized the ideologies of the aforementioned affiliations, as well as several Francoist “development” tactics such as “poles of growth.” Chapter 5 depicts the impact of the Instituto de Cultura Hispánica and the Opus Dei on the Chilean far-right during the late-1960s leading to the regime of Augusto Pinochet. Like Onganía, Pinochet and his ideologues borrowed Francoist political myths for their purposes. Last, Chapter 6 analyzes the decline of the technocratic-authoritarian model. The circumstances of the late 1970s, I suggest, propelled the authoritarian ideologues to abandon the technocratic-authoritarian schemes and seek new forms of civic participation, thereby leading them to initiate unique “protected” democratic transitions.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Harvard University, 1987. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 224-231).

D.Litt. et Phil. (Philosophy) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Most African states today are facing the serious challenge of socio-economic development. This is a problem not generated by the paucity of material and natural resources, but rather by challenges arising from mismanagement of these resources. Nigeria is in fact, a good example of a country in Africa facing socio-economic development challenges not as a result of lack of resources, but rather the mismanagement of abundant resources at its disposal. This mismanagement is associated with the culture of prebendal, clientelist and neo-patrimonial politics which have made it extremely difficult for technocrats and bureaucrats to contribute adequately to the development of the country. In fact, as will be demonstrated in this thesis, technocrats in Nigeria are not allowed to occupy sensitive economic development positions for a sustained period of time and are never the driving forces in the formulation of socio-economic development policies and initiatives. In this country bureaucrats and technocrats have not been a stable force for development- given the constant changes of these groups by the political leadership and the splitting of sensitive ministerial portfolios for political reasons. Instead, political offices are captured and used for the benefits of office holders and those of their associated factions, class and ethnic groups. This negatively affects the insulation of appointed technocrats and bureaucrats from vested political interests. Therefore, instead of appointing or employing technocrats and seasoned bureaucrats to occupy relevant positions, appointments and employments are done in order for people to share from what is commonly referred to as ‘national cake’ in the parlance of Nigerian politics. Central to the argument of this thesis is that one-party dominance and authoritarianism does not necessarily undermines techno-bureaucratic governance, as the cases of countries like Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore in Asia as well as Botswana and South Africa in Africa suggest, but when such system is associated with politics of prebendalism, clientelism and neo-patrimonialism techno-bureaucratic governance becomes difficult and the achievement of state’s led development becomes more daunting. This work therefore investigates why attempts at promoting prebendalism, clientelism and neo-patrimonialism under Nigeria’s one-party dominant system undermines techno-bureaucratic governance. It also unravels how these have impacted negatively on socio-economic development of the country from 1999 to 2014. This study will contribute to the understanding of how the insulation of technocrats and bureaucrats from vested political interests can contribute to the development of the underdeveloped countries, using the developmental state argument as a basis of analysis.

Approximately 2.5 billion people in the world currently lack access to adequate sanitation facilities. Improving sanitation access in the developing world is vitally important to public health, economies, and the environment. Non-governmental organizations and the private sector have played a significant role in increasing sanitation access through the construction of sanitation and hygiene systems. However, these projects have been plagued with sustainability problems with the rate of non-functional systems remaining consistently at 30 to 40 percent since the 1980s. Studies have found that meaningful community engagement and the consideration of community capacity during project development are vitally important to long-term project sustainability. However, development practitioners frequently undervalue the importance of these factors and fail to adequately employ them when developing sanitation projects. This thesis examines the dominance and impact of one key influence that leads development practitioners to overlook community context and engagement – the prioritization and overvaluation of technological solutions to development problems. Through a case study of the Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) Latrine built by three University of Massachusetts Amherst engineers in Nyakrom Ghana I demonstrate an example of the impact that a technocratic focus can have on the operation and maintenance sustainability of a sanitation project. In this thesis I maintain that the technocratic focus of this project is not unique but is part of a larger trend toward technocracy among water, sanitation, and hygiene development donors and practitioners. These technological approaches can neglect the important role that political, social, economic, and cultural factors play in increasing sanitation access. This thesis reviews three frameworks that the MFC Latrine engineers and other practitioners could use to better understand and incorporate community capacity and participation into sanitation projects – Asset Based Community Development, the appropriate technology framework by the World Health Organization and IRC Water and Sanitation Centre, and the WASHTech Technology Applicability Framework.

No description available.

No description available.