ABSTRACT
Economic development—as an ideal Third World countries are supposed to be striving toward—must depend on something broader. Almost all modern thought about development is egalitarian in the sense that there is concern with the breadth of human development rather than the depth. Income approaches to development can make the connection only insofar as income is taken to be a reliable indicator of basic needs satisfaction, and this, of course, is a highly questionable assumption. Periodically certain subcultures attempt to free themselves from material attachments—to develop an alternative shared understanding of the bases of personal and social esteem. This chapter argues that a basic needs conception of development is a central part of the notion. Basic needs can be satisfied at relatively low levels of income, but only if a society deliberately seeks a development path that will do so.
