The EC’s association and preference policy has again and again given rise to criticism by those developing countries who are not favoured as well as by the other industrial states. Sometimes, however, it seems that preferences have been overestimated. It cannot be overlooked that the...

In view of the urgency and size of the problem how to feed the world’s population, the framework given to the recent World Food Conference did not seem to be over-extended. The poor results, however, give again rise to the general question whether international mammoth meetings like the one in...

The emphasis of development policies has for many years been placed on primarily growth-oriented development strategies. Although the latter have indeed induced an astounding increase in real GNP levels in Third World countries, they have not been able to decisively reduce existing social...

Government intervention in developing countries has often been biased towards the support of urban industries and the urban population. The resulting distortions in exchange rates and in the prices of the factors of production have had serious detrimental effects on rural areas. A gradual...

Regional disequilibria in the distribution of population lead in many developing countries to migration flows which cannot always be equated with flight from the land or drift to the cities. In diverse countries rural-rural migration is even supported by the state. This rural migration leaves a...

Long before the socialist industrialized nations began to call their centrally planned, or government controlled, economies into question, policymakers in many developing countries with dirigistic, interventionist systems, including capitalist oriented ones, had started to rethink their economic...

The priority previously given to urban areas by development programmes was replaced in the 1980s by efforts to implement deliberately targeted rural development. These often relatively complex projects showed less sustainable success than had been expected, however. What are the requirements for...