User:RedHead102/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Rural development

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
The main reason I selected this article is because I have a strong background in China, including Chinese domestic politics. Over the last decade or so, improving rural development has been a major agenda item of the Chinese Communist Party. It should be noted that this article does not address rural development in China in any significant way, and thus I hope to be able to incorporate this as part of the article revision.

Aside from my own interest in China, I chose this article because rural development is highly relevant to governance, which is one of the main themes of our course.

Evaluate the article
This article demands improvement in a number of areas, starting with the lead section. The lead section is arguably the strongest part of the article, as it provides a fairly concise definition of rural development. It additionally provides an overview of how conceptions of rural development have evolved from a narrow focus on agriculture-based economic considerations to building physical infrastructure and improving education access. But that is where the section ends. It does not provide a brief description of the major sections of the article as would be expected.

The first major section of the article, "Approaches to Development", primarily addresses the emergence of a decentralized approach to rural development and the opportunities this in turn has provided for non-governmental organizations (NGOs). However, the problem is that this section draws almost exclusively from sources which convey a critical attitude toward the role of NGOs in facilitating rural development. No counter-point highlighting the positive work of NGOs is provided, thereby giving the article an appearance of bias. This section certainly warrants correction and expansion.

The second section effectively serves as a case-study of rural development efforts in Uganda in the post-Cold War era. This section is extremely detailed and draws from a number of credible sources. However, supplementing the Uganda study with another study of a different country would perhaps strengthen the article.