Controversies around RCT in Development. Epistemology, Ethics, and Politics

The article questions the scope of application of RCTs in the field of development, what they can achieve, why they sometimes fail and why other methods are both useful and necessary. It sets out the points of disagreement between supporters and critics of RCTs, which are both epistemological (scientism versus pragmatism), political (is development an aggregate of micro-interventions or a structural, institutional and political change? Is poverty understood a matter of privation or as a process leading to unequal power relationships?), and ethical (should we at all costs privilege the advancement of science or protect populations?). The paper draws the lessons, while updating them, from a recent collective book edited by the authors. Given the constraints of the method, RCTs are usually limited to micro-interventions and private goods and to behavioural tests in response to varied types of interventions. The inability of RCTs to respond to the poverty challenges posed by the current pandemic largely confirms our analyses. The article argues for the need of a real scientific controversy and proposes ways of improving RCTs and methodological alternatives.