Until the mid seventies the dependency theory could be relied upon to stimulate lively debate, but nowadays it seems to arouse little interest. There are several reasons for this, a fundamental one being the fact that many of the central tenets of dependency theory have since had to be...

Criticism within the Catholic churches of Latin America of the IMF and its approach to the development problems of the sub-continent has been persistently increasing in recent years. The measures imposed by the IMF, especially those following the payments crisis of 1982 have met with growing...

The frequent lamentation that the brain drain is one of the most serious obstacles to progress in the developing countries shows clearly that elites are accorded an important role in the development process. Nonetheless, all there is at present on the function of elites in economic development...

The salient feature of the theoretical discussion of development problems is still the rivalry between two approaches. An outline and critique of the dependencia school and the modernization theory is provided in the following article which also points out possibilities of combining both these...

The following article outlines the theories of development strategy which approach the subject from the theory of growth and discusses their practical applicability to planning activities in developing countries.

"Good governance" has become a central term in the international discussion on development co-operation. What is actually meant by "good governance"? By which yardstick can it be measured? How is governance related to development, political participation and democracy? What implications does...

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 debate on development theory and changes in planning theory have led, in the last decade, to extensive changes in project evaluation methodology. Hans Lembke outlines these changes and discusses their relevance for the decision-making process.