Given that the developing countries today present a highly differentiated picture, is it appropriate to continue to speak of a "Third World"? If so, how does this group of countries appear to the present-day observer? What is their position within the world economy? What problems and challenges...

An increasing number of voices have recently been claiming that an economic system based more strongly on the market should be introduced in Third World countries for reasons of efficiency. What conditions need to be met in the developing countries for this to be possible? What specific measures...

The growth strategies pursued by the vast majority of developing countries considerably neglect the agricultural sector. The following article discusses the main determinant factors for this discrimination, namely the shortcomings of macroeconomic as well as sectoral and project policies.

A decisive change now seems to be occurring in the development practices of the major OECD donor countries. Their own economic objectives are being moved distinctly closer to centre stage. Changes in the instruments of development policy are reputed to generate direct benefits for their own...

Plans and proposals for stimulating the world economy and thus aiding economic recovery in the developing countries have been many and varied, ranging from massive transfer of resources, whether automatic or discretionary, through the immediate programme of the Brandt Commission to a...

It is often maintained, with reference to the increasing competition from newly industrialising countries, that Western support for the development of LDCs' economies would only amount to supplying the rope with which one will later be hanged. Our author argues that, contrary to that opinion,...

The effects of direct investments and multinational corporations remain a highly contentious issue. The author traces here the reasons for the large number of diverging statements and comments on this issue and considers what political conclusions should be drawn from this wide variety of views.

Although there is general agreement on the fact that the new protectionism of the industrialised countries is damaging to developing countries, the majority of the latter show hardly any interest in a return to the classical GATT system. Prof. Körner provides an explanation for this apparently...