Dependent Development *

Abstract

The paper is a critique of the development philosophy underlying the United Nations Declaration on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order. The author examines its postulates, including the proposed goal and the strategy, and comes to the conclusion, on general grounds as well as on the basis of experience, that ‘underdeveloped’ (or ‘developing’, to use the current euphemism) countries would be accepting them at the cost of their autonomy and the real welfare of their peoples; they would be deflected from pursuing goals which, even if modest in comparison, are both realizable and in their best interests. Developing countries, the author argues, would be ill-advised to be lured into a race with the West (in the name of ‘eliminating the gap’) which, even if worthwhile, they will inevitably lose. He advocates the strategy of self-reliance, and the concomitant temporary detachment from the international economic system, so that the developing countries may freely decide their destiny and work it out with their own efforts.