ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the institutional history of the Journal itself as one aspect of the establishment of an academic discipline in close relation to policy debates. Modern development studies can be traced back to the founders of classical political economy. Industrial development was seen as central to economic growth, to overcoming poverty and to economic sovereignty and was held to require considerable state involvement. In consequence, development economics had a different conception of optimality from the neo-classical tradition. On the one hand, the causes and consequences of domestic phenomena such as poverty, under employment, agricultural and industrial enterprise organisation, migration, tax reform, and infrastructure bottlenecks were discussed. On the other hand, the empirical analysis of rural problems undermined the 'dualist model'. Barbara Castle was appointed Minister of Overseas Development with cabinet rank and the erstwhile Department of Technical Cooperation (DTC) was integrated into the Overseas Development Ministry (ODM).
