Lauchlin Currie and Albert O. Hirschman worked together as advisers to the National Planning Council in Colombia in the 1950's. Both had little experience in development economics when they arrived, and did not see eye to eye about the functioning and policy recommendations of the Council....

This work analyzes the contributions of L. Currie and A. O. Hirschman to development theories. We show that traditional approaches to the divergence between these authors have overlooked some common views in their development strategies. For both, the catalyst role played by the experts —...