The purpose of this book has been to identify the impasse in development studies and to suggest some of the ways that it might be transcended. In this respect the book can be seen as part of a growing body of "post-impasse" literature (see the collections edited by Schuurman 1993 and Booth 1994). Although I share the view that the impasse has arisen because of a commitment to theory that is too deterministic and dogmatic, I have taken issue with a number of writers (Booth 1985, 1994) who place the blame for the impasse on a commitment to Marxism.