A Critique of the Ideological and Political Position of the Brandt Report and the Alma Ata Declaration

Abstract

This article analyzes the Willy Brandt Commission Report and the WHO Alma Ata Declaration within the socioeconomic and political context that determined them, and makes a critique of the ideological and political assumptions that both documents make. Through an assumedly apolitical and technological-administrative discourse, both documents reproduce the major positions upheld by the hegemonic development establishments of the Western world. Through a study of what is being said and not said, the article analyzes how these positions appear in the documents. It is indicated that 1) their understanding of the causes of underdevelopment and its major health and disease problems, and 2) their suggestions for change based on “moral calls for social justice” and “enlightened self-interest” are faulty and insufficient. Alternative explanations and solutions are presented.