Barriers to Development

Abstract

Barriers to development are of two kinds: those that can be attributed to factors within the countries concerned, and those that might be traced to their external environment. Low levels of productivity to begin with, poverty of natural resources (such as limited availability of land for agriculture), and high rates of growth of population can all be serious impediments to development, and explain no doubt to a large extent the predicament of many parts of the world that remain economically backward. But there have been instances enough of such impediments being successfully overcome, partly by institutional adaptation or innovation within and partly by resort to solutions which depend on the external environment. The interaction between the internal and the external has a profound effect on the processes of development as well as on their outcome. It is therefore with reference to this interaction that we shall consider the barriers to development experienced earlier and those now in evidence.