ABSTRACT
Western leaders, following their own training, have considered economic problems as discrete entities, and Third World leaders have deliberately avoided bringing their political problems onto the agenda. Because of this, negotiators find that they are frequently unable to obtain precise definitions of future economic needs in developing countries. This chapter contends that such imprecision derives from readily observable political problems that will never be addressed by narrowly construed economic discussions. By using the political bases of the "New International Economic Order" (NIEO), the new generations of political leadership are searching for economic tools to assure stability of their fragile political orders. To a large degree, the NIEO is simply a reinvention of the wheel to carry the burden of social change. NIEOs, in various forms, have been carried through at historical points in many societies, generally as a response to unbearable social tensions. The NIEO is an international attack on the middle-class entrepreneur.
