ABSTRACT
By the 1960s and early 70s it was becoming apparent that policies informed by the orthodox understanding of development and modernisation had failed to bring about any significant improvement in social conditions in much of the Third World. Inequalities within the Third World and also on an international scale were growing rather than reducing. The post-war economic boom was reaching exhaustion by the end of the 1960s, to be followed by global economic recession, falling world prices and demand especially of primary commodities, the 1970s oil price rises and onset of the Third World debt crisis. In Latin America the post-war policies of national state-directed development had failed to bring about significant economic growth or improved living conditions for the majority. In Africa the euphoria of the 1960s wave of independence was replaced in the 1970s by signs of economic crisis. On independence many African economies were heavily dependent on export of a few agricultural commodities. Export agricultural sectors declined in the context of falling prices on the world market, while the little industrialisation that did occur was heavily reliant on expensive imported machinery, spare parts and raw materials. Political independence had not brought economic independence. The socio-economic crisis in many Third World societies provoked a crisis in orthodox ideas about poverty and development.
