ABSTRACT
Third world countries have attempted increasingly to deal with staggering economic problems through policy changes. In this they have been strongly encouraged by the international aid and lending community. The major purposes of the policy changes have been economic stabilization and the promotion of growth through structural adjustments. Many critics have focused on the need to find ways to promote and sustain policy dialogues among the major participants in development programs, including the poor. Alternative critiques of development theory and development policy have come from students and advocates of voluntary organizations for, and of, the poorest members of societies. They have expressed doubts about policies for national economic planning and modernization, and about the increased attention to governance and institutions. Since the late 1970s, the stress in international development assistance programs has been on macroeconomic policy reform within developing nations.
