ABSTRACT
The kind of “process” thinking does not always correspond to the conventional wisdom in American development circles. Most often, these groups insist that full democracy is a “must,” from the very beginning of a nation’s life. All had built-in programs and policies to distribute wealth in egalitarian ways. All of the regimes, if not traditionally democratic, were perceived by the people as satisfactorily representative and had built-in ways of steadily becoming even more representative. This discussion constitutes far more than the parlor talk of Western developmentalists. Indeed, it is a crucial and central discussion in a world where virtually everyone believes that development is his birthright—and is quite apt to revolt or rebel when it doesn’t come fast enough.
