The Brandt Report as a Development Strategy

Abstract

Søgaard Pedersen, V. and Gebert, P. The Brandt Report as a Development Strategy. Cooperation and Conflict, XX, 1985, 41-57.

This article deals with the proposal by the first Brandt Report for a development strategy for the Third World. Emphasis is laid on the analysis of the Brandt Com mission's recommendations for international and national reforms on the statement about interdependence and mutual interests.

The analysis of the development strategy has been carried out in order to examine whether the recommendations of the Brandt Report are sufficient to fulfil its goals. One point is that interdependence as a conception is inadequate for understanding the complex international relations and the underlying dynamics. The statement about the existence of mutual interests is partly too inaccurate and partly exaggerated. The central element in the development model of the Brandt Report is an export-oriented industrialization, which has to be combined with a strategy for solving the Basic Needs of the populations. From our point of view, which is based on a Marxist analysis, it is not likely that this model could solve the development problems of most developing countries. One of the major problems is that the Brandt Report does not deal with the problem of political power.