Alternative development strategies

Abstract

It is necessary at the outset to examine what development means, and the scope it covers. During the past two decades considerable research and publication have been carried out on the subject. Despite that, there has been not much agreement on either the interpretation of what development is, for the indices for measuring it. Views among scholars, not to mention politicians, have been diverse, some showing greater tendency to diverge rather than converge. Such diversity of views is perhaps to be expected, since scholars are also influenced by differences in philosophical outlooks or ideological stand points. So, their conceptions regarding society and the direction along which it ought to develop or progress will also differ. One of the common views shared by many is that development involves the process of change or transformation for society as a whole. From the days of Comte it has been asserted that society changes naturally in the manner not unlike the way organisms grow. While Comte seems to view change as a peaceful evolutionary process moving towards the industrial or scientific model of the West, Marx, in a later development after Comte, viewed that the transformation from stage to stage incurs the painful process of revolution. Ideas on the 'natural' development of society have been further strengthened with the rise of Social Darwinism.