ABSTRACT
The educated and politically vocal citizens of the underdeveloped countries usually regard industrialisation and diversification as good in themselves, quite apart from the additions to the national income they may bring. Some of the underdeveloped countries envisage an economic future in which the role of the state is fairly strictly confined to the provision of what the French call the ‘infrastructure’. Prediction is made more difficult by the fact that the developmental process itself has political effects, which ‘reflect back’ on goverment plans and policies. A government which begins with planning of a certain type may find that, like the sorcerer’s apprentice, it has called forth political forces that refuse to be confined within the predetermined framework. Development programmes may be of almost infinite variety, and their characters are liable to change as they grow from youth to maturity.
