ABSTRACT
Even political independence was often demanded partly in the belief that colonialism perpetuated economic backwardness, and today the political ambitions of the tiers monde are intimately connected with economic development: the realization of their nationalist aspirations depends on it. The problem of inheritance is a serious difficulty in the way of ensuring that farms will remain of economic size in the Middle East and there is need for research on the optimum sizes of farm in the light of expected changes in the rural population. Land reform may well have been required in Iraq for social, political, or even economic reasons, but the economists who examined the matter failed in their professional duty to bring out clearly the economic implication of various courses of action; indeed, they confused the issues and gave a false confidence to the politicians. Even non-communist observers sometimes consider the communist model the more efficient means of promoting economic development.
