Introductory Questions

Abstract

This book and these introductory questions to it are an attempt to break out of the vicious circle of ‘development theory’. Most contemporary — that is neo-classical — development theorists are caught in a vicious circle of their own making in that they argue that the poor are poor because they are poor — and the rich are rich because they are rich (Myrdal 1957). For some economists the low level equilibrium trap’ (Leibenstein) manifests itself through a Keynesean demand or market exchange side: since the poor cannot pay, it does not pay the rich to invest, and the poor remain poor. Other economists and most social scientists (in sociology, anthropology, psychology, political science, human geography) are trapped in a vicious circle on the supply or productive side: their theory posits that the poor remain poor because they lack the capital, entrepreneurship and other social, cultural, psychological and political characteristics which these theorists suppose to characterise the industrial capitalist countries and which they therefore suppose to be necessary for investment and development.