ABSTRACT
'The development ideas that were put forward in the forties and fifties — argues Hirschman — shared two basic ingredients in the area of economics'. The difficulties encountered on the path of development, the many failures and dramatic reversals in many countries, exposed the naivete of the idea that progress 'would be smoothly linear if only adopted the right kind of integrated development program'. The arguments in favour of a national industrial policy rest on the observation that the process of development is far from linear. The arguments in favour of a national industrial policy rest on the observation that the process of development is far from linear. The periphery needs to implement a policy that responds to its problems of reindustrialisation and growth. The arguments in favour of a national industrial policy rest on the observation that the process of development is far from linear.
