ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF A SMALL PLANET

by Benjamin & Jean Downing Higgins Higgins ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 26, 1979

In the post-World War II period, the end of colonialism brought with it concerted efforts to ""develop"" the new nations of the Third World economically--which in practice boiled down to making ""them"" more like ""us"": measuring development in terms of extent of industrialization and growth in GNP. For the most part, this program has been a failure, and the Higginses have compiled a list of the many reasons why it failed, including the use of inappropriate technology exported by the West (with a negative impact on traditional cultures) and the reliance of developers on imperfect market forces to do the work of resource allocation within a developing country. They work through explanations for developmental failure which rely on socio-cultural or environmental factors--pointing out, for example, that a diversity of resources is more important than a large quantity of a single resource, or that tropical soil, though rich, is unsuitable for large-scale agriculture due to the erosive effects of jungle clearing; and they assess the impact of colonial rule, which tended to over-develop a single economic sector and to employ Europeans in management positions, thus leaving these economies in fragile condition upon independence. But when the authors turn to alternative development plans, they retain basic presuppositions of the various schemes they have criticized, two of which are paramount; first, the presumption that ""development"" is a positive goal in all situations, and second, that this development depends on the transfer of labor from agriculture to industry. This last presumption is hard to square with their call for appropriate, labor-intensive agricultural technology as the means to obtain the food surplus which they see as the prerequisite for further development. In pursuing this line, they also ignore world market structures which maintain the Third World in food dependency. Their attempt to construct a ""programming"" strategy based on an eclectic combination of many economic perspectives never comes together because of these oversights. The critique, however, is a positive contribution.

Pub Date: March 26, 1979

ISBN: 0393090841

Page Count: -

Publisher: Norton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1979

Categories: NONFICTION