ABSTRACT
The origins of ‘development’ as a post-1945 project designed to ensure that the capitalist path of development was followed in a world unsettled by decolonisation and riven by Cold War rivalry provides the starting point for this chapter. The contributions of critical development economists are discussed and the failings of the mainstream orthodoxy examined. The rise of globalisation in the final decades of the 20th century and financialisation at the beginning of the 21st century as forces shaping the global political economy and the prospects for developing countries within it are analysed. It is argued that out of crisis comes the opportunity to search for diverse ways of organising society for the better.
