Developing nations at the turn of millennium

There have been quite a few investigations in overall problems of development concerning Asia, Africa, and Latin America. A distinctive feature of this book is its integrated analysis of the inter-relationships and contradictions within the economic and social processes which either have no analogies in European history or are manifest in different forms and on a different scale. It is an important scientific and practical task to clarify the correlation between economic growth and social transformations, to what extent these transformations promoted growth and shaped adequate mechanisms for the economy. It is equally important to identify where these factors fall short of each other and to understand the nature of ensuing conflicts.
The authors did not aim at providing an exhaustive analysis of economic and social development as such. Out of the multitude of economic and social phenomena we have given priority to those which are mainly responsible for the present state of the society subject to study, which, as a rule, are more or less closely inter-related and interdependent, which either facilitate the imminent transformations or, on the contrary, prevent their realization.