You Can’t Develop What You Don’t Know: The Realities and Limitations of Foreign Aid Missions

Mariana Mazzucato argues that capitalism needs to be rebuilt around private-public partnered “missions.” To facilitate these missions, Mazzucato provides seven pillars to serve as guidelines. Using Mazzucato’s pillars, we critically review US government efforts to develop the local economy and establish new political institutions through foreign aid. We analyze the successfulness of these “missions” by assessing government officials’ ability to overcome the “knowledge problem” and “political economy problems.” We conclude that Mazzucato’s pillars are unlikely to be satisfied due to these dual problems.