ABSTRACT
In the early decades of development economics, mainly in the fifties and sixties, economic development was analysed and planned in terms of economic growth. The central development objective was the growth of GDP, and sometimes GDP per capita. Empirical data on the actual performances in most developing countries gave a different picture, showing increasing income inequalities, more population groups falling behind poverty lines, increasing underemployment and unemployment, and deteriorating food and other living conditions. The new picture brought a revision in interests and insights by economists and planners dealing with development problems. One of the reactions that emerged was the social economic development perspective, which saw the misplaced focus on GDP as the fault in the planning framework, and they went for reformulating development models and plans in terms of broader social economic development goals.
