ABSTRACT
Most of the developing countries are a composite world of two contrasting realities. There is on the one hand, the so-called urban elite, civil servants, politicians, military officers, and teachers, and on the other, the rural poor who have no participation whatsoever in the planning or managing of development strategies that supposedly would help them. The Argentines sometimes refer to people from similar systems as verticalista who believe in dedocracia, meaning that the finger of the leader points and his will moves vertically down through the structures. Furthermore, in developing countries, the bulk of the population does not understand the process of public administration and economic development. If a serious attempt has to be made to institutionalize participative planning and management in developing countries in order to contribute to efficient and effective orientation of the development process, some new approaches, might be necessary.
