ABSTRACT
Today, with regard to the so-called “less developed” societies of the world, we hear terms bandied about such as “sustainable development,” “human development,” “just development,” “popular development,” “post-development,” “anti-development,”1 but rarely, if ever, do we find that seemingly nasty Sword – “socialist development” – applied.Why this is the case, in my view, is at bottom bound up with widespread and longstanding misconceptions among proponents of socialism of what constitutes socialism and socialist development. It is precisely the persistence of such misconceptions that, despite the best intentions of socialists, has empowered opponents of socialism of all stripes to too readily dismiss socialism as a viable and progressive form of society for the less developed world (and, for that matter, for the so-called “developed” world).
