ABSTRACT
Development is one of the most compelling concepts of our time. It provokes painful questions about values, techniques, and choices. It raises anew the classical query about the nature of the “good society,” as well as the problem of who is to decide on society’s content and course. Development is a normative concept; it implies choices about goals for achieving what Gandhi called the “realization of the human potential.” In the meantime, developmental choices are being made throughout the world by peasants, farm families, nations, and international organizations. Industrial nations have far to go to “realize the human potential”; they have much to learn about inequality and the alleviation of poverty. Additionally, they are part of the reason why the third world finds development so difficult. The study of development can be traced to the concerns of eighteenth-century philosophy, political economy, and the fledgling social sciences.
