Final answer:
Kottak's study on development projects showed no systematic impact on local communities or national development, contested by other methods showing increased conservation support. It reflected the complexity of development impact analysis in developing countries.
Step-by-step explanation:
In a comparative study of sixty-eight development projects by Kottak, it was found that projects did not systematically impact local communities or have a sustained effect on national development. The study utilized methodologies like propensity score matching to account for covariates that affect outcomes, such as deforestation rates in a case study around Kerinci Seblat National Park, and concluded that project participation had no effect on conservation support when compared with non-project villages. This is contrasted with questionnaire surveys that indicated stronger conservation support in project villages. The findings suggest the complexities of measuring success in development schemes, highlighting the factors like economic growth, import substitution development, and modernization's role in democracy, as proposed by scholars like Przeworski and Limongi.
Universal Generalizations indicate that developing countries encounter numerous obstacles that greatly challenge their economic development. Unfortunately, disparities continue to grow between those who have and those who have not, further complicating the relationship between development projects and their actual impact on targeted societies.