Rural Development : capitalist and socialist paths vol.1

vol.1 : an overview

This set of volumes is based on a UNCRD study of the impact of national policies and programmes on rural development in eight developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Rural development no longer means agri cultural development alone. It is also not a social welfare case of pumping money into rural areas to provide for basic human needs. The challenge is bigger and wider and its implications are politically and socially far-reaching. It means new ways of looking at the development process and at times the reversal of the past approaches and policies. It calls for a comprehensive yet strategic orientation in policies, rejec tion of fundamentalism and a two directio nal thrust from above and below. The sectoral, area-specific and target group approaches must inform each other to create a new people-oriented rural develop ment policy.

This volume analyses the nature and extent of rural development problems, evaluates the development strategies of the past and present, and identifies the emerging issues and challenges. After a quick review of the findings of eight country reports, it reaches the conclusion that assorted and incoherent policies and programmes do not help achieve the ultimate goal of rural develop ment which, in essence, is the creation and evolution of a new economy and new social order. The main findings and recommenda tions based on case studies point to a new pragmatic path devoid of fundamentalism of the classical capitalist and socialist paths, for, in the ultimate analysis, what matters is the welfare of the people, especially the poor. Ideology is only a means, not the end, although without a central ideology of a dynamic nature, development loses not only direction but also content.