Why Development Becomes Harder: The Political Economy of the Possible

Why Development Feels Harder When Growth Continues

Join CID as we welcome Muhammad Basri, Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Center for International Development and former Minister of Finance of Indonesia. Drawing on Indonesia’s development experience and broader trends across middle-income economies, Basri examines why development has become more politically and economically difficult even in the absence of crisis. He explores how growth that has plateaued—while still positive—no longer delivers economic mobility and security as reliably as before, even as education, aspirations, and social expectations continue to rise.

The talk will consider how these shifting economic conditions translate into tighter political constraints, limiting reform space despite continued progress. Basri will discuss the weakening of traditional development engines, the rise of economic insecurity within an aspirational middle class, and why policymaking today is increasingly shaped by feasibility rather than optimality. The session emphasizes the importance of sequencing reforms, managing expectations, and governing under constraint in a world where growth alone no longer guarantees legitimacy or broad-based security.

Following the event, there will be a one-hour career chat open only to in-person attendees in Perkins R-429.

This event is part of CID’s Road to GEM programming, which convenes global leaders in the months leading up to GEM26: Reimagining International Development. Through these conversations, CID is exploring how shifting geopolitics, constrained resources, and evolving development models are redefining what effective, inclusive international development can look like in the decades ahead.

This event is hosted by the Harvard Center for International Development and will be held in a hybrid format. All are welcome. Harvard ID holders are encouraged to attend in person, while non-HUID guests are invited to join via livestream or access the event recording afterward.